Rebecca Vane puts herself between Lucas Dorsey and the retreating rival at the stone hoard gate at dawn. The dragon lord takes her wrist and she does not pull away. He means to turn her defiance into the prize of his territory and seal her as living hoard.

She has been cast out by her clan and carries that sharp independence like armor, refusing any bond that would mark her as property. Yet the dragon lord's hoarding instinct demands more than her body. It demands her choice, even as his fear of abandonment threatens to shatter the bond before it forms under the coming Blood Moon.

With the Blood Moon rising, Lucas must bind her to his hoard without losing the one mate who could choose to stay or condemn him to an empty vault forever.