The Dragon King’s Chosen Tribute
Every year, the Dragon King takes girls from their families. None ever come back. Lyra Walker was never supposed to matter — plain, unwanted, and sent to die in place of her stepsister. But on her first night in the palace, something impossible happens: the fearsome black dragon that has killed countless tributes before her curls up in her arms like a tame cat and falls asleep. She doesn't know yet that the dragon and the king are one and the same. Zarek Nightflame has ruled for centuries under a curse that is slowly stealing his mind. He needs an heir. He needs his true queen. And somehow, the most ordinary girl he has ever laid eyes on is the only one who has ever made the beast inside him go quiet. But Lyra didn't come here to be anyone's queen. She came to survive, to uncover the truth behind her mother's death, and to make the people who destroyed her family pay. Staying alive is just the first problem. Staying out of love with a dragon king might be the harder one.