"This is so wrong," I whispered as his lips touched my neck. He kissed me softly and sighed against my skin. His breath tickled me, causing me to shudder against him. He pressed his body into mine, backing me into the lockers. He slowly kissed up to the corner of my lips and smiled against my skin with his hands on my hips. "But it feels so right," he whispered against my lips. *TRIGGER WARNING for domestic violence *

Mara Averill has spent her life invisible by design: an icy, brilliant legal aid built on discipline, distance, and doors that never fully open. But the night a specific contract makes it to her desk for her to sign, her world tears wide enough for monsters to slip through. A single drop of her blood shatters the balance. Every vampire in the city can smell her: raw, intoxicating, impossible. And the first to find her is Lucien Vashkiel, an enforcer forged for obedience and violence... until he tastes her. What should have been a routine extraction becomes a catastrophe. Her scent unravels him. Her power burns through him. Her defiance only makes the hunger worse. Now Mara is hunted by creatures older than law and hungrier than death. Some who want to drink her dry, others who want to chain her, and one rumored king who might kill to claim her. But Mara is no lamb. And whatever sleeps inside her, whatever the scar in her palm was meant to cage, is waking. As the city descends into a silent war for her blood, Mara must decide which monster she'll gamble her life on: the enforcer losing himself to want... or the king whose throne is built on it. One thing is certain: Her blood won't just change their world. It will remake it. ⚠️CONTENT WARNING⚠️ This story contains: Violence, blood, and supernatural injury Abduction, restraint, and power imbalance Vampire feeding and blood-related themes Explicit sexual content Addiction-related themes Coercive situations and intense predator/prey dynamics Psychological distress and mature themes This work of fiction is very much intended for mature audiences. Reader discretion is advised.