This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.
Selelin has learned one rule better than anyone in the lower city: count everything. Count the grain sacks, count the coins, count the days until hunger becomes unavoidable. But when she discovers that twenty sacks of grain have been recorded as twenty-four, speaking the truth costs her everything. Fired, homeless, and marked by the powerful Varr clan, Selelin cuts her hair and becomes Elom, a young man desperate enough to leave the city behind.

On the northern road, she is rescued by Koku, a wolf-clan prince facing a succession trial that requires him to present an acknowledged partner from outside his clan. Koku offers Elom food, shelter, protection, and a temporary arrangement with one important condition: no one will be forced to stay.

What begins as a practical bargain soon draws them into a dangerous struggle over stolen grain, forged seals, disputed water rights, and a succession system where a prince must prove he can feed, judge, and protect his people. As Selelin's ability to see what others overlook becomes essential to Koku's survival, keeping her true identity hidden becomes increasingly difficult.

But the greatest danger may not be the Varr clan or the trials ahead. It may be the moment Koku discovers that the person he chose as Elom is actually Selelin, and must decide whether he wants a political partner, a convenient ally, or the woman herself.

In a kingdom where power is measured in seals, grain, and bloodlines, Selelin and Koku will have to discover whether love can remain a choice when everyone else wants to make the decision for them.