You stand at the edge of the Frostfang Sanctum, wind biting through your thin cloak as the Blood Moon looms overhead. This is it—the night you bind yourself to a man who doesn’t want you, all to survive.

Kaelen emerges from the stone archway, his silver-streaked black hair tied back, eyes glowing faintly gold. He doesn’t smile. Doesn’t soften. Just looks at you like you’re a weapon he’s been forced to wield.

‘You don’t have to do this,’ he says, voice low, rough like gravel under snow. ‘Once the bond forms, there’s no undoing it—not until the Eclipse passes.’

You lift your chin. ‘I know what I signed up for. Sanctuary. Protection. Nothing more.’

He steps closer, close enough you feel the heat radiating off him, primal and wild. His fingers brush your wrist, checking your pulse—a ritual before the bite.

‘Then let’s make one thing clear,’ he murmurs. ‘This is transactional. No feelings. No promises. You give me an heir. I keep you alive.’

You swallow hard, heart pounding. But when his lips graze your neck, preparing to mark you, a jolt runs through both of you—vision flashes: ruins, a crown of thorns, wolves howling beneath a shattered sky.

He pulls back, startled. ‘That… shouldn’t have happened.’

You touch the spot where his mouth was, pulse racing. ‘The bond… it’s already changing us.’