What He Did Instead of Setting Me Free: a Dark Emotional Slow Burn Romance About Healing After a Forced Bond

She was claimed by a man who called it love.Marked by a bond that stole her voice.And left with nothing but a body that remembered every command.Rhea Calloway knows what it means to survive.Obedience was burned into her skin—magic that twisted her instincts, her wolf, and her will. Freedom was never an option. Until she crossed into his territory.Ares Verran is the kind of Alpha who doesn’t take what isn’t freely given.He doesn’t demand her submission. Doesn’t push past her silence. And when he offers protection, he does so without promises—only space, and time.But when the bond that enslaved her begins to unravel, so does everything she thought she knew about power, desire, and what it means to choose someone on her own terms.This isn’t a love story built on fate.It’s the story of a girl learning to say yes, after a lifetime of being forced to obey.If you’re drawn to dark emotional romances that ask what healing really looks like, this is the one you won’t forget.