She was sent to be a sacrifice. He was supposed to be a monster.Lady Elara de Varen has been traded like livestock-married to the fearsome Lord of Blackthorn Keep to seal her brother's political ambitions. She expects a brute. A warlord. A man whose name makes hardened soldiers cross themselves.What she finds is a fortress as cold as the coming winter, a household that watches her every move, and a husband whose violence serves protection rather than cruelty-a man who sleeps with a blade beneath his pillow and tenderness locked somewhere he's forgotten.Cormac of Blackthorn knows what he is. What whispers follow him. He needs a wife for alliance, nothing more. But this southern lady with her sharp mind and quiet competence is rewriting every expectation, earning loyalties he never could, making his cold keep feel like something dangerous.Like home.When enemies come for Blackthorn-with swords and with law and with a scheme that could tear their fragile bond apart-Elara and Cormac must choose: the safety of distance, or a vow spoken not in shadows but before every witness who would see them fall.Some marriages are made for duty.This one was made for war.And it will end in love-or ashes.