The Shadow Bride Contract

In Ravenport, a fictional port city on the East Coast of the United States, the Draven family is seen by ordinary people as nothing more than an ancient, mysterious, and extremely wealthy old-money clan; but in the hidden world, the Dravens control the “Shadow Pact”—an ancient power bound by marriage, bloodlines, and trusts. The female protagonist, Elara Wren, is the adopted daughter of the Vale family, who treated her from childhood as a servant, a scapegoat, and a tool of the family. Seraphina, the Vale family’s true heiress, was originally set to marry Kael Draven, the heir to the Draven family, to fulfill a marriage trust established a century ago. On the eve of the wedding, Seraphina suddenly ran away. To protect the family’s interests, the Vales forced Elara to don the wedding dress and marry Kael—who was rumored to be cold-blooded, dangerous, and responsible for the death of his previous fiancée—in Seraphina’s place. Everyone assumed Elara would be nothing more than a sacrificial pawn. But on the day of the wedding, the Draven family’s black wedding ring did not punish her; instead, it slipped automatically onto her finger. The Shadow Pact, dormant for many years, was activated, shocking everyone.