The Beast's Borrowed Face

On her deathbed, Runa Vaidis’s mother makes her promise one thing: survive. For a shameless con artist in the famine-stricken hinterlands of Velemir, survival means pulling the ultimate long con. But when the village elders choose her as the annual sacrifice to the monstrous ‘Vorkolak’ of the Ironwood, her time runs out. Dragged to a crumbling fortress, Runa prepares for a gruesome end, only to find a creature more tormented than terrifying. The Vorkolak is actually Lord Alvydas, the absent protector of the realm, trapped by a curse that makes him a mindless beast each night, forgetting his humanity. The true villain is his twin brother, an impostor who has usurped his identity at court, content to let the curse consume Alvydas forever. Runa, offered a chance to escape her fate, instead sees the con of a lifetime: save the true lord, expose the fake, and maybe find a life worth living. But can a woman who has only ever faked her way through life convince a man who forgets himself every night of a love that must be real?