She was never meant to be chosen.

She was only meant to keep the dead quiet.

Linnet Sasse has spent her life tending the ancient barrows of Highmarch, taught to walk softly, want nothing, and leave no second track behind. As a grave-tender’s daughter, she knows her place is beneath the powerful wolves who rule the chalk hills.

Then Alpha Prince Aldric Vane looks across the Choosing fire and their fated bond wakes.

For one impossible night, Linnet believes she might finally be more than a road others walk through. More than a secret. More than a girl meant to serve kings she will never stand beside.

But Highmarch does not choose love without a price.

Aldric needs an heir whose pulse the sacred chalk will answer. Linnet carries a bloodline older and more dangerous than the crown itself. And when she discovers she is carrying his child, the truth becomes deadly.

To protect her baby, Linnet vanishes into exile, hiding the son Aldric never got to claim and the mate bond she never stopped feeling.

But secrets buried in Highmarch never stay buried.

Two years later, the Graveswards come hunting for the child who can save a throne, expose a buried betrayal, and force Aldric to choose between the crown he was born to carry and the mate he once let walk away.

Now Linnet must return to the land that cast her out, face the Alpha who still owns the broken half of her heart, and decide whether a second chance is worth the war it will bring.

Because her son is not just Aldric’s heir.

He is the beat the kingdom has been waiting for.

And this time, Linnet will burn the whole down before she lets anyone take him.