Uncaged: Treading on the Lycan King's Tail

“I was the eldest daughter of the Thorne clan, yet treated worse than dirt because I was born a "Wolfless" outcast in an empire of powerful beast-shifters. My fiancé dumped me for my stepsister, and my father ruthlessly shipped me off to the frozen north to marry Kaelen Fenris. Kaelen was a crippled, half-mad Archon warlord locked in a dark dungeon, driven feral by poisoned spikes in his spine. My family expected the beast to tear my throat out on our wedding night. That way, my father could legally seize his rich northern mines as my grieving kin. Before I even left, my stepsister paraded in my stolen engagement gown and tried to force-feed me a caustic poison to rot my vocal cords. "A cold, Wolfless freak like you doesn't deserve to live, sister." They all thought I was just a fragile, useless lamb sent to the slaughterhouse, destined to rot in the mud while they celebrated their stolen wealth. I was supposed to be a quiet sacrifice, a bloody stepping stone for their endless greed. But they didn't know that beneath this weak, starved body was the soul of a veteran battlefield surgeon. I didn't die in that freezing dungeon. Instead, I pinned the feral Alpha down and pulled the twelve frost-silver spikes from his rotting spine. This time, I chose to be the one holding the scalpel, and the deadliest warlord in the empire is now my sharpest blade.”