After surviving a trauma that fractured her sense of self, Kate Bennett is rebuilding her life quietly, on her own terms. She isn’t looking for danger. She isn’t looking for forever.

Then she meets Julien.

Julien is half-vampire, bound by ancient rules designed for survival. He’s spent centuries mastering control—feeding without attachment, living without ties, never letting anyone close enough to matter. Love, for someone like him, isn’t romantic. It’s reckless.

What begins as an unexpected connection deepens into something neither of them fully understands. A bond that amplifies emotion. Pleasure. Fear. Hunger.

And hunger, in Julien’s world, has consequences.

As Kate begins to reclaim her life, Julien discovers the rules that kept him alive no longer protect him. When forces from his past close in and the rigid laws that shaped him threaten to resurface, he must decide what matters more: the control that has defined him for centuries… or the woman who refuses to be ruled.