Everyone said Princess Seraphina Blackwell was blessed by the gods—beautiful, graceful, meant to unite two kingdoms through marriage to the fearsome Dragon King of the North. But the princess who took the carriage to the demon-infested wastelands wasn't Seraphina at all.
Elara Ashton, the illegitimate daughter hidden in the palace shadows, woke up drugged and dressed in royal silks, her world wrecked by a single command: "Pretend to be the princess, or your mother dies."
Now she's trapped in Thornegate—a country of nightmares made flesh, where demons prowl crystal forests and monsters bow to their king. Her husband, Dragon King Cadmus Vael, is everything the stories promised: cold as winter frost, deadly as dragonfire, with obsidian eyes that see through every lie. Almost every lie.
He knows she's hiding something. She knows he could incinerate her with a breath. But the marriage contract is clear—she must make him fall in love within one year, or the alliance crumbles and war consumes both countries.
As Elara learns that magic courses through her "common" blood and Cadmus finds that his bride's terrified heartbeat makes his dragon purr with possessive need, their forced proximity ignites into something neither expected. But in the North, secrets have teeth, and when the real princess comes to retake her throne, Elara must choose: run back to her human world, or fight for the monster who taught her she was never ordinary at all.
Because the Dragon King doesn't share. And he's already decided—fake princess or not, she's his to keep.

The word burst in my mind the second she walked through the doors.


I gripped my chair so hard the stone cracked beneath my fingers.


My dragon—silent for decades, sleeping like the dead inside my chest—suddenly roared to life. It clawed at my insides, demanding I go to her. Claim her. Keep her.


I pushed it down with every ounce of control I had.


The girl walked toward me on shaking legs. She was nothing like the princess I remembered. Two years ago, Princess Seraphina Blackwell visited for treaty talks. She'd been golden-haired and proud, her chin high, her eyes cold. She'd smelled like roses and dominance.


This girl had chestnut hair and violet eyes that looked too big for her scared face. She stumbled in her heavy dress, barely keeping the crown on her head. And her scent... Lavender. Fear. And something else. Something that made my dragon purr.


Chapter 6 - The Dragon King