Dire Bound (The Wolves of Ruin, #1)

by Sable Sorensen

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my twenty-three years alive, it’s this: Women in pain give men confidence.

Confidence makes men sloppy. And sloppy men are easy targets.

Meryn Cooper, the infamous Alley Cat of the Eastern Quarter.

It takes a special man to tame a wild thing.

Who needs a coat, anyway, when panic is setting your blood on fire?

Southern is where you go when you want to do something illegal, illicit, or otherwise morally bankrupt.

If you can laugh at it, it doesn’t seem true—like the Nabbers are nothing more than a childhood legend. Unfortunately, their menace is all too real.

Siphons, our ancient, monstrous enemy from the neighboring country of Astreona.

The Bonded are the king’s most elite forces, soldiers who have mental bonds with massive, fearsome direwolves. They ride the wolves into battle and, rumor has it, the riders can even tap into the magic that the direwolves wield.

She’s obsessed with the idea of the Bonded. I can’t totally blame her—superhot warriors riding mystical beasts and wielding mysterious magic? It’s intriguing, if you can set aside the extreme and punishing classism.

there’s the other thing I’ve been hiding from him, the part that tortures me in my dreams. How my grandmother had this madness, too, and her mother before that. How the madness runs in my blood, lurking in the shadows, waiting to drag me down into its depths.

While I was out in the snow, making plans for a better future with Lee, my sister was stolen in the night.

Welcome to the King’s Royal Forces, Recruit Cooper.”

We’ve said the words to each other before, but today they sound different. Today, I love you sounds an awful lot like goodbye.

I hate that I’m using up all the coin that Lee has so carefully saved while we’ve been together, especially if it was supposed to go toward our future. But he’s right. If I die, we won’t have any future at all.

In and out. Slow, to trick my body into believing nothing’s wrong.

Strategos, Kryptos, Daemos, Phylax.

How many more times do we trainees have to face death and dismemberment?

who wouldn’t follow a brutal massacre with a fancy ball?

“Wait—” I’m not ready to let this go. “Rankings?! Like we’ll be assigned numbers or something based on how fuckable we look tonight?”

Crown Prince Killian descends to the balcony while I stand there frozen, my whole world crumbling around me. And then, seated at his father’s side, he lifts his head and looks right at me, dark blue eyes filled with regret. My heart cracks. Lee.

Sick fuck. He better not touch me. I’ll fucking gut him, king or not.

“Rawbonds!” King Cyril bellows. “Find and kill the weakest recruit!”

A darkness overtakes my mind as one thought crystallizes, the only thing that matters: This is not where I die.

It’s like my common sense has blacked out and my body has been taken over by rage personified.

“You fucked with the wrong woman,” a voice growls—mine, I realize belatedly—as I tear his jaw open and slam his own severed hand into it.

I’ve never killed a man before. I never dreamed myself capable of this type of violence;

But something has unlocked inside me, a monster I didn’t know existed.

Whatever goodwill I earned by committing bloody murder has vanished in this morning’s mist.

How many more of these will I get before training ends? Maybe enough to wrap around my throat and choke me silent.

Can’t imagine it would help things if I told everyone I’ve been fucking the crown prince for a year.

“Why do your gemstones look so murderous?”

“I’m sure that you’re used to these other Bonded bowing to you and tearing themselves apart for your approval, but as you’re so clearly aware, I am not one of them. Try kicking me again, and I’ll cut your foot off at the ankle and feed it to my wolf.”

Siegrid Therion. “The Sovereign Alpha, currently a fearsome woman named Siegrid who can communicate with all wolves across all packs. A feat of immense strength and control. She is the head of the Bonded, and she serves as the king’s second-in-command.”

He agreed so quickly to this I was sure he’d misheard my request and thought we were marching off to a mildly incestuous four-way.

Anassa’s voice fills my head, thick with wrath. “Some people deserve to die.”

“I’m sure I look frightful,” I say. “You’re the most beautiful you’ve ever been.”

Anassa’s eyes narrow, her voice sharp with warning. “If I were trying to kill you, you’d already be dead.”

“Stupid girl,” the wolf growls with razor-sharp amusement. “Do you truly think I need your help to find my mate? I have known him for years.”

“Kitten,” he murmurs, “give me permission to claim you in front of the whole world, and I will.”

Even if I survive the Purge, that won’t keep me from following my mother into madness.

you might want to read up on the history of that kind of opal before you start parading it around.”

“The Strategos direwolves have convened and chosen their next leader. Anassa. You are the new Strategos Alpha.”

I must, so I will.

shouldn’t think about Stark like he’s a person with a soul and normal human needs. He’s a killing machine.

And in case my implication is not crystal fucking clear: You touch her again and I’ll cull you myself.”

“The only thing I believe in with any certainty is death. It comes for us all.”

“I’m sorry, sir, I’ve only got one room left,

“You’re not going to get any sleep like that. Come on, the bed is big enough to fit both of us.”

“That’s their king.” Lucien Brightbane.