Centuries ago, two ageless and terrifying races—the aristocratic vampires and the feral lycans—were bound by a cruel, ancestral relationship of master and servant, and eternally separated by the ongoing, violent rivalry between their species. Unknown to nobility and enslaved alike, a clandestine—and forbidden—affair between the lycan servant Lucian and the vampire noblewoman Sonja burns with unbridled passion. Seeking to escape Sonja’s tyrannical father, Viktor, and a future in which their love is considered an abomination, Lucian risks the machinations of the court and his very life to free them both—a daring act that will eventually give all lycans the courage to rise up against their oppressive vampire overlords. New alliances are forged even as the chains of slavery are broken, and all that Lucian and Sonja hold dear is threatened with utter annihilation.