The Dark Forest does not forgive. It swallows the strong, breaks the weak, and buries its secrets beneath roots older than empires. Aconite was never meant to survive it. Mortal. Breakable. Reckless. Yet when she stumbles across a world carved of shadows and ruin, she refuses to bow. Her laughter rings where screams should echo, her defiance burns where others beg for mercy. And Azazel, the fallen king who rules these depths, cannot look away. Crowned in blood-shards and haunted by centuries of loss, Azazel is a husk of what he once was - until Aconite tears into his solitude with sharp teeth and sharper will. What begins as a clash between predator and prey twists into something far more dangerous: a bond that defies the forest itself. But shadows whisper. Old betrayals stir. And both king and shifter will learn that surviving each other is only the beginning.