The Stag King's Bride (Brides of the Bone Orchard #1)

I enter the Bone Orchard for one reason: to steal a blood apple and save my dying sister.

I do not expect the trees to mark me.

I do not expect the orchard to whisper mine.

And I definitely do not expect him.

Caedmon is the Stag King of Hartwood—ancient, antlered, half-god and half-beast, with gold burning beneath his bark-dark skin and a hunger he keeps leashed with terrifying control. He says the orchard has chosen me as his bride. I say no one asked me.

But the fruit I need can only be carried by a willing bride. The curse poisoning my village can only be broken by a bond freely given. And the more time I spend beneath those blood-red trees, the harder it becomes to pretend I do not want the monster watching me like I am salvation.

He is dangerous. Reverent. Starved for touch.

And when his rut rises beneath the apple tree, I learn exactly what it means to be claimed by a king who has waited three hundred years for me.

Now my sister is in danger, the duke wants the orchard’s power, and the dead queen beneath the roots is waking.

But I am no sacrifice.

I am the Stag King’s bride.

And I choose him.