The Defective Bride's Expiration Date

"To earn her freedom, she must murder the imperial monster. The only problem? His touch is the only thing keeping her alive."

Hidden away for six years as her family's defective secret, Evangeline Eldridge is rotting on borrowed time. Doomed to burn out at twenty-one from the taboo Curse of Lust, she accepts a lethal trade: marry the cold Grand Marshal, slip poison into his cup, and fake her own death.

One dead prince. An erased identity. Total freedom.

But from suffocating court ballrooms to shadowed hunting estates, her quiet execution devolves into absolute chaos.

The Empire's favorite prince goes completely feral with dark obsession, desperate to snatch her for himself. And her target, the supreme Grand Marshal, disarms her with an unsettling, possessive warmth-binding her to his side because her bare skin is his only cure.

She came to poison his drink. He bound her just to survive.

When curses entwine and forbidden secrets burn... who is hunting whom?

✨ Tropes: Enemies-to-Lovers, Arranged Marriage, Hidden Motives/Assassins, Touch-Starved/Curfed Lead, Dangerous Royal Court, Slow-Burn Tension.