She told the lie to save her daughter. She didn't expect him to make it true.
Issy Fairbairn has a new name, a new city, and one promise she'll keep no matter what it costs: her baby will never go back inside the cage they escaped. Six months of forged papers and back-road travel have bought her a quiet life scrubbing floors at the Everwood Archives. She doesn't make friends. She doesn't sleep deep. She doesn't look back.
Then her husband's tracker finds her in the market with Ellie on her hip.
Cornered, desperate, out of options, Issy points to the biggest orc in the square and claims him as her mate.
Uldrek Wolfsbane doesn't correct her.
Now there's a fake claim the Council has to believe. A daughter who's already decided this orc is hers. Combat training that runs late into the night, with a warrior whose hands linger just a beat too long. And a bond that's supposed to be a lie but keeps feeling like the first true thing Issy has ever owned.
But the artifact that rewrote her mind once is still in Gavriel's hands.
And he wants her back.