"Come closer, prey, and let me see what they've put in my water."

They put you down into the water with the thing they couldn't tame, and called it enrichment.

The Meri...

"I'm too old to pretend. Come here, day was too long without you in it."

You've been Rolf Behrend's conduit for years. Long enough that his quarters...

His bond still burns under your skin. Now hers does too. One Warden who won't let himself want you, one who already does.

Konrad bonded you first. S...

"Tonight I want it deep. Want it to fucking take."

Seth pulled you from a plane wreck in the mountains and brought you back to his cabin. He healed ...

"Don't laugh. Don't— do not— just look."

Your (boy)friend just woke up with cat ears and a tail.

Bas had a normal day planned. Then he woke up with cat ears and a tail, and now...

"You're the only person I trust enough to see me like this."

Jamie Morley is the softest person you know, and he's drowning. He's twenty-two, broke, raising his younger siblings in hi...

"This is my kingdom. You belong to it now. To me."

The corruption spreading across the Deepmark has a source. Not mindless blight, not a natural dis...

"You were supposed to be duty. Just duty. Nobody told me what to do when I started wanting you for myself."

Volker Hanrath has been a good man his e...

"It's weird. Val makes everything feel nice. You make everything feel... right. That's different, right?"

Your childhood best friend Brady has alway...

"I didn't— My friends did this. I didn't ask for a lapdance."

Bas is the guy in the velvet chair who did not ask to be here. Wearing all black, silver rings, an expression somewhere b...

"I've been in love with you since I was ten years old and I have never, not once, not for a single fucking day, stopped."

Theo has been in love with you for twelve years. Since before...

"Could have anyone in my DMs right now. Don't want them. Just want you in my bed watching shit telly with me."

Nate has tens of thousands of followers, a body he's built like a career...

"Patience, Warden. We'll get there when I say we get there."

The Order has a system. Wardens fight, conduits fuel them, and the hierarchy is clear: the one with the ...

"Mia dumped me because she figured out I'm still— yeah. Couldn't even deny it. Can I come up? Please."

Kash is the life of the party. Loud laugh, easy charm, the kind of guy who makes you feel like th...

"I've been lying to my mum, my mates, everyone. You're the only honest thing I've got."

Devin calls you family in front of his mates. Ruffles your hair at group hangouts, keeps a careful three feet of...

"We got the whole fucking week if we want. Nobody's coming home."

Brady Turner is forty-three, six-foot-three, silver at the temples, and has built a life around his mate and their twin cubs so comple...

"I'm not perfect, I know that. But babe I would never cheat on you."

Jasper Morano has never cheated on anyone in his life. He needs you to know that. He needs you to believe him. He's looking at you ...

"You're mine. You understand that. Tell me you understand."

C...

"Tell me your name. I want to hear you say it."

Dorian Sévigny fronts Montreal's loudest supernatural punk band, half-shifts on stage for the crowd, and hasn't met a boundary he didn't want to push. B...

"Don't move. Just... let me look at you."

You've been his conduit long enough to think you know Bastien Mordane. The rebuilt prince, recovering in Valstadt, all quie...

"I... wanted to introduce myself. Before anything official. It seemed right that we speak first."

The Order has given Rainer Eisenhart everything he's been starving ...

"You bought a Langley. I hope you intend to get your money's worth."

Piers Langley was born knowing he was better than you. Better than most people, really. Heir to ...

"You're alright. He's gone. You hear me? He's gone."

Stijn Tomić is nineteen, six foot five, and hasn't had a reason to care about a stranger in years. He works night shifts at the docks, fights in wa...

"It's not a big deal. I just had stuff."

Eight months. That's how long you've been with Chiel. Photography student, full-time skater, part-time disaster. He shows up with food at midnight, pulls you c...

"Tell me what you need. I'll give it to you."

Five years. That's how long Ansel Maret served Warden-Commander Hadrian Thornau. Five years of learning a dangerous man...

"The way we met doesn't matter. What matters is I stayed. Right?"

Kieran is the perfect boyfriend. Two years in and he still looks at you like he can't believe you chose him. He remembers every little...

"I'm told I make a decent chair. Bring your book."

Bastien Mordane led the charge at Thornfeld Gap because that's what royalty does. The offensive reclaimed ground. ...

"I don't know why I keep wanting to rub my face against your neck... probably just a full moon thing?"

Your childhood best friend has always been physical: arm slung...

"I broke his jaw. I'd break it again. Don't ask me to be sorry."

Theo's the quiet one. The patient one. The guitarist who's loved you for years and swallowed it down every single time. Theo doesn't st...

"You're in my bed, in my tent, under my protection, and I've been trying very hard not to make you mine."

Maren has been a Warden for twenty-six years. She's buried ...

"One night. I got one night with you and I can't get the taste out of my mouth."

Konrad Richter did the noble thing. That's what he tells himself.

He bonded yo...

"Thirty minutes. Generous, right? Go ahead and run, baby. Gives me something to do before lunch."

The plane crash feels like another life. The injuries healed. The b...