The Ashen Keep: A Possessive Dragon Shifter Dark Romance

I went into the haunted mountains to kill a monster... Instead, I walked into his fortress and let the dragon claim my soul.Bounty hunter Zora Finch has one chance to escape the starving slums of the capital: bring back the severed head of Ryker Thorne, the Warlord of Ash, a half-dragon traitor the King swears burned villages to glass. Ten thousand gold pieces means freedom, safety, and a life far from smoke-choked alleys and orphaned children.But the deeper Zora tracks him into the Whispering Woods, the more the stories stop adding up. The earth has been melted into black glass by dragonfire, yet the bodies she finds aren't innocents-they're soldiers and assassins sent to exterminate whatever still lives in the mountains.When a storm of wing and flame crashes down on her ambush, Zora's hunt ends in chains inside the Ashen Keep-Ryker's fortress carved into living rock, where a warlord with molten-gold eyes and onyx wings decides to keep the would-be executioner who dared stalk him.The King calls Ryker a monster. Up close, Zora finds something far more dangerous: a commander who turned on a corrupt crown rather than burn more innocents, a warlord whose dragon half is bound to ancient magic-and whose obsession with her burns hotter than his fire.Trapped behind draconic steel gates, surrounded by killers who kneel when Ryker speaks her name, Zora becomes his reluctant ally, his prisoner, and the only one ruthless enough to stand at his side when the rebellion finally marches on the capital. The more she uncovers of the King's lies and the genocide that created the Ashen Keep, the more her hatred twists into something savage and forbidden.As the bond between hunter and dragon warlord sinks claws into her soul, Zora must choose: cling to the righteous mission that brought her here...or embrace the war queen the Warlord of Ash sees in her and help him burn a rotten kingdom to the ground.In a realm where thrones are built on dragon bones and monsters wear crowns, salvation doesn't come in the light. It rises from ash and blood, with wings spread wide.THE ASHEN KEEP is a possessive dragon-shifter dark romance that blends brutal war, slow-burn obsession, and a fierce heroine who becomes just as terrifying as the warlord she was sent to kill.Expect: - Dark Dragon Shifter Romance with epic fantasy stakes and rebellion against a corrupt king- Possessive, morally grey warlord hero (half-dragon, half-man) obsessed with his would-be hunter- Enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, and "captive in the dragon's fortress" tension- Fated-mate-style bond, obsessive devotion, and a heroine who transforms from starving hunter to war queen- Battle scenes, political scheming, and a slow, delicious slide from fear into ruinous love

Pages: 208, Paperback, Independently published