Every generation, Hallowmere sends a bride to pay its debt to the dragon-lord who guards the border. He's never asked for a single one.Merren Oswin has watched the tribute lottery choose someone else's daughter for twenty-four years and always, quietly, wondered why no bride ever sends word home. When the council calls her name — not by chance, she suspects, but because her father argued against the tribute tax once, too loudly, three years ago — she expects to be walked to a monster's door and never seen again.
Instead, her escorts take a road that curves away from the dragon's border entirely. A purse of coin meant for "later." A near-confession, cut off by fear. And a decision, in the dark of a way-station, to run toward the one danger she was at least given an honest name for.
Rovan Ashgrave has kept his family's oath for two centuries: a season of honest hospitality, offered freely, to any envoy Hallowmere sends to test whether the old border bargain still serves them both. No one has arrived in two hundred years. He assumed, with the particular grief of a proud man who stopped expecting better, that the village had simply let the promise lapse.
He never assumed anyone was being sent — and quietly disappeared before she ever reached him.
What Rovan gets instead of the ghost he's mourned for two centuries is a woman who ran toward a dragon-lord's keep rather than accept whatever waited for her down the road she was actually meant to travel — and a vow she offers him on her own terms, one his own oath-broken heart was never built to refuse.
Perfect for readers who love morally-grey fae lords, dragon-guarded borders, and bargain-bride romance with a slow-burn HEA.
Instead, her escorts take a road that curves away from the dragon's border entirely. A purse of coin meant for "later." A near-confession, cut off by fear. And a decision, in the dark of a way-station, to run toward the one danger she was at least given an honest name for.
Rovan Ashgrave has kept his family's oath for two centuries: a season of honest hospitality, offered freely, to any envoy Hallowmere sends to test whether the old border bargain still serves them both. No one has arrived in two hundred years. He assumed, with the particular grief of a proud man who stopped expecting better, that the village had simply let the promise lapse.
He never assumed anyone was being sent — and quietly disappeared before she ever reached him.
What Rovan gets instead of the ghost he's mourned for two centuries is a woman who ran toward a dragon-lord's keep rather than accept whatever waited for her down the road she was actually meant to travel — and a vow she offers him on her own terms, one his own oath-broken heart was never built to refuse.
Perfect for readers who love morally-grey fae lords, dragon-guarded borders, and bargain-bride romance with a slow-burn HEA.
- 🐉 Bargain-bride romance with a devastating twist — he never wanted a bride at all
🔥 A centuries-scrupulous fae lord who can answer a vow but never begin one
⚖️ Oathbound magic where every broken promise exacts a real, specific price
🗝️ A six-generation fraud hiding behind a village's oldest fear
💍 Standalone romantasy with a full, satisfying HEA
Full-length romantasy (61,000+ words). Standalone love story with a satisfying HEA. Intended for readers 18+.
Genre: Paranormal Romance
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Used availability for Sasha Leone's Ashvow