M. J. ONYX

“One life saved. One soul claimed.” “You belong to me now, little bird. You saved my life, and now I will spend mine claiming yours.” Cardiovascular nurse Ava Moreles thought saving a dying stranger was just another day at the hospital. She had no idea that pulling Dario Santos back from death’s door would seal her own fate. Dario Santos doesn’t just rule the underworld—he owns it. And now, he’s decided he owns her too. When he crashes her wedding with blood on his hands and possession in his eyes, Ava realizes the man she saved isn’t just dangerous—he’s obsessed. With her. Torn between the safe love she’s always known and the consuming fire of a man who would burn the world down for her, Ava must navigate a treacherous path where every choice could be her last. In Dario’s dark empire, love isn’t just dangerous—it’s deadly. But as the line between captive and willing participant begins to blur, Ava discovers the most terrifying truth of all: the monster she’s supposed to fear might be the only one who truly sees her soul. Will she surrender to the darkness that calls to her? Or will fighting for her freedom cost more than she’s willing to pay? Some obsessions are worth dying for. Others are worth killing for.

She saved him in the dark without knowing who he was. He never saw her face. Mara has nothing left worth protecting — no husband, no child, no reason to exist beyond the cruel habit of waking up every morning. When she stumbles upon a dying man bleeding into the forest floor she doesn’t think. She just acts. She gives him the only thing her broken body still has to offer — her breast milk and disappears into the night before he can see her. She doesn’t know she just saved the most feared Alpha alive. He doesn’t know the woman he has been searching for weeks is about to walk through his castle doors. She comes for a hungry baby who needs what her body won’t stop producing. He sees her for the first time across a crowded room and feels something move in him that has no name yet. But Mara is carrying a secret that has nothing to do with milk or grief or a dead husband. Someone in that market knew her other name. And whoever they are — they found her first.