In the hidden shifter estates of northern Montana, every heir is born with a bonded guardian beast. Aria Linwood was given one of the strongest—Kael Nightwind, a lethal black wolf-warrior meant to shield her fragile heart and share his life so she might live past twenty. She grew up believing he would one day become her husband, the way Linwood women have always married their bonded guardians. But Kael never hid his disappointment. He admired Aria’s fearless twin sister Celine, the future Head of House, while treating Aria like a burden he was forced to protect. When Aria overhears him planning to use the coming Rite of Ascension to break their bond and rise high enough to stand at Celine’s side instead, the perfect fairy tale she built around him shatters. Then the annual Great Hunt turns into an ambush. Betrayed by Kael and their power-hungry cousin Damon, stabbed and thrown from a cliff, Aria should have died. Instead, she wakes in a hidden valley, alive only because a wounded white “snake” she once nursed back to health has awakened as what he truly is—a rare dragon shifter. His name is Soren Thorne, and her blood is the only thing that can heal him. Trapped together while enemies tear her family’s estate apart, Aria and Soren form a dangerous bond of blood, magic, and something that feels a lot like love. When they finally return, Aria finds Kael forced into a mockery of a wedding with her memorial tablet, her parents imprisoned, and Celine poisoned. To save her House, Aria will have to sever the wolf bond that was supposed to keep her alive, trust the dragon who drinks her blood, and uncover the truth behind the lies that turned Kael against her in the first place. Forsaken by her wolf. Claimed by a dragon. This time, the sickly girl of the Linwood line is done being anyone’s weakness.