At her Bonding Ceremony, Aurelia’s fiancé brings his pregnant serpent-shifter mistress to the altar and demands Aurelia’s Purifying Blood for their pup. Aurelia burns their blood pact and chooses Orion, the cursed eldest dragon prince who may not survive their Eternal Soul-Bond. When the bond awakens the seal that has tortured him for thirteen years, Aurelia cuts her palm and presses her blood against its deepest mark.
