Wakebound

In the Capital, desire is never just desire. A moment of vulnerability can leave behind an Echo—a bond another person can use to find you, control you, or claim everything tied to your name. Sera Vale has spent months making sure no one discovers the two Echoes hidden beneath her carefully ordered life. On Crown Hill, reputation is currency, privacy is temporary, and one mistake could cost her far more than her position. Then she meets Cassian Jessop, a reserved Ministry counsel whose spotless reputation hides pressures of his own. What begins as a carefully controlled arrangement becomes increasingly difficult to separate from trust, desire, and the dangerous possibility of wanting something neither of them can safely name. Around them, political influence moves through private rooms, charitable ledgers, old loyalties, and whispered debts. As Sera struggles to keep control of her future, she must navigate a city where intimacy can become leverage—and where the most dangerous thing she can give someone may be the part of herself she cannot take back. WAKEBOUND is a dark romantic fantasy of desire, power, secrets, and the terrifying cost of being truly known.