Raised in the gutter and forged by blood, Liora Ashenvale never asked for salvation—especially not from the creatures she’s spent her entire life resisting. But when she and her found-family are caught defying the vampire regime, they’re given two choices: die… or become weapons.

Conscripted into a brutal program run by the vampire military, Liora is injected with her handler’s blood—the First Bite. It makes her stronger. Faster. Deadlier. But it also ties her to him. Malric Vhaelor. The shadow-walker. The executioner of kings. The monster even other monsters fear.

He trains her like a soldier. Touches her like a stranger. Watches her like he’s calculating exactly how—and when—she’ll fail. And maybe she will, because every sparring match, every breathless mission into Lycan territory chips away at her humanity… and pulls her deeper into the orbit of a man whose heart is said to be long dead.

As the war between vampires and Lycans escalates, and a new breed of hybrid horror begins to emerge, Liora and her crew must learn to survive Malric’s world. But survival means obedience. And Liora has never followed well.

Because Malric may be her handler. He may even be her creator.
But he will never be her master.

Not if she has to kill him to prove it.