The Beast of Thornwyck Manor: a Cursed Alpha King Werewolf Shifter Romance of Inkbound Oaths

A debt-marked scribe. A cursed alpha king. A manor built on ink and teeth.A dark fantasy romance of law-made magic, monstrous vows, and dangerous yearning.Dragged from the Greywick docks and paraded in the town square, Lark Hayes is sold like cargo to the highest bidder: Thornwyck Manor, the High King’s cliffside stronghold. Her name is swallowed by the Iron Book under Ledger Law, and she is shipped to a fortress carved into rock—a gothic manor setting of wind-scoured parapets and windows.Unmarked and literate in a realm that prefers its poor illiterate, Lark is too dangerous to waste in a scullery. Thornwyck assigns her to “special service”: Night Gallery duty, a task no one will explain and everyone fears. Each dusk she is escorted down candlelit halls to an oak door raked with claw marks and ordered to read confessions, testimonies, and inkbound oaths to the monster locked inside, her voice the only thread tethering him to reason. In the hush between her words and his growls, a fragile, forbidden beauty and the beast romance stirs—built not on kindness, but on the terrible relief of finally being seen.By daylight, that monster is Cassian Rook, the High King who wrote many of the laws that turned Lark into property—an alpha king cursed by his own law, who cannot afford to look weak before the court. To protect a realm that already fears him, he must keep his distance; to keep his mind from shattering in the dark, he needs Lark’s steady voice and clear memory. Their nightly encounters inside the gallery become a combustible forced proximity romance—two people bound together by the same magic that stands to unmake them both.Beyond the beast’s door, Thornwyck hums with secrets. Housekeeper Willa Crane hides razor-edged care beneath her rules. When whispers of a Pureblood wedding coil through the halls, Lark realizes the ceremony is more weapon than celebration, built to tighten the law around the necks of people like her.As guest lists are drawn and vows rehearsed, Lark is pulled deep into court intrigue and rebellion running under the marble floors and glitter of the palace. Each document she reads, each oath she witnesses in the Night Gallery, reveals a little more of the machinery keeping the kingdom in place—and a little more of how easily it could grind her, and everyone she cares about, to dust. One misread clause could shatter the fragile control Cassian keeps over the curse, or condemn every Unmarked body the crown already owns to a lifetime of sanctioned suffering. What if the only person who can steady the monster is the woman the law insists is an expendable asset? And when every promise you speak can be turned into a chain, how do you fight a system that records your every breath?The Beast of Thornwyck Manor is a werewolf shifter romance steeped in candlelight, courtroom tension, and the slow, aching courage of a heroine who has spent her whole life trying not to be noticed. Expect a story that lingers on monster-soft gestures as much as sharp-edged power plays, where survival is never guaranteed and tenderness feels as risky as treason. This dark fantasy romance leans into quiet longing, gothic dread, and the question of who gets to decide whose story is worth writing down.This Book Is For Readers Who…Want a heroine who fights with reading, memory, and compassionCrave castle tales where the house and servants have their own agendasPrefer fantasy romance that is dark but tenderLove magic rooted in contracts and witnessesEnjoy romance woven with power and survivalPerfect For Fans Of…Political fantasies about vows, law, and the weight of a crownParanormal court dramas full of ritual and rebellionGothic castle romances full of dangerous secrets