For five years, Mara and Dorian have kept their arrangement simple. He is a billionaire CEO with a dangerous public life. She is the exclusive escort who understands exactly what he wants and never asks for promises he cannot give. Money changes hands. Doors close. Feelings stay out of it. At least that is what they tell themselves. Dorian is also a wolf shifter with a violent past tied to the Brotherhood, vampires, and enemies who know how to turn affection into leverage. When attacks begin closing in and Mara becomes part of the danger, the boundaries between business and protection collapse. Dorian can no longer pretend she is just someone he pays to leave in the morning. Mara has spent too much of her life depending on herself to trust easily, especially when the man offering safety comes with secrets, powerful enemies, and an instinct to control every threat around him. Their attraction has never been the problem. The problem is everything it would mean to admit they are more than an arrangement. As old conflicts resurface, fragile truces become possible, and people Mara cares about are pulled into supernatural politics, she must decide whether Dorian's world can ever offer the stability she wants. Dorian must choose whether protecting Mara means keeping her at a distance or finally letting her stand beside him. Five years of rules have kept them from asking the one question neither wants to answer. When danger strips those rules away, they may discover that refusing to name a bond does not make it any less real.
For five years, Mara and Dorian have kept their arrangement simple. He is a billionaire CEO with a dangerous public life. She is the exclusive escort who understands exactly what he wants and never asks for promises he cannot give. Money changes hands. Doors close. Feelings stay out of it. At lea...