I’ve never met him. Never even seen him.

But I’ve heard the whispers. The stories about him being as cruel as his father. Maybe even worse.

Alexius Del Rossa. The crown prince of the Dark Sovereign, a society of men who own everything in this town except the weather.

When he walks into the diner where I work, he backs me into a corner and slips an envelope down the front of my dress.

“You have twenty-four hours.”

Inside is an offer I can’t refuse. Because girls like me don’t get real choices. We get survival disguised as opportunity.

I have no one. I could disappear tomorrow and no one would come looking.

And that’s exactly why he chose me.