The Beast-Bound Heir
"You were never meant to be chosen." The words follow Ronan Virel out of the throne room, past the gates, into exile — spoken by the father who raised him to....
"You were never meant to be chosen." The words follow Ronan Virel out of the throne room, past the gates, into exile — spoken by the father who raised him to rule and the sacred beast that looked at him, on the one day it mattered most, and refused. Cast out for a rejection he doesn't understand, Ronan has nothing left. No crown. No name that opens doors. No family that will claim him. Then something ancient finds him in the wilderness — a beast older than his bloodline's sacred pact, powerful enough to burn empires, and it chooses him freely. No ritual. No permission. Just hunger, meeting hunger. Power like that always has a price. Every time Ronan wins by force, the bond feeds — and takes something back he doesn't notice missing until it's gone. Somewhere in his family's carefully buried history is the reason his own bloodline's beast was too afraid to bond with him. He's about to find out exactly what kind of monster his ancestors were terrified of raising again. The throne is still out there. So is the girl from the house sworn to destroy his. So is the war that's about to consume them both. He can win it all. He just has to survive becoming the thing that wins it.