The Hostage Bride

When the Frost Pack surrenders to its oldest rival, Linnea's tyrant father seals the treaty by handing her over as a hostage—trading his daughter's life for his own safety. She arrives at the Marsh fortress braced for torture. Instead, Alpha Theo Marsh gives her a key to her own room, seats her at his right hand, and tells her the truth her father hid: the surrender terms are a slow magic draining her life, and Theo is the fated mate he won't name for fear of frightening her. As her father's dark magic turns on the pack that sheltered her, the locket at Linnea's throat begins to wake a frost-fire power that was never meant to stay caged.