Fury Bound by Sable Sorensen

Here is a summary with spoilers for Fury Bound by Sable Sorensen

Meryn Cooper is frantically reaching for her sister Saela. After months of trying to find her missing sister, she has finally found her, only to have her ripped away again thanks to her ex, Killian. Her sister is now a Siphon, needing blood to survive, and Meryn wants nothing more than to go to her sister. Stark is there to grab Meryn and get her away from her frantic sister, and the two are eventually forced to make the tough call to put Saela back in the dungeons where she will not hurt anyone. Soon after, Killian, with the help of Alistair Brightbane, is able to get into their heads, both theirs and their bonded's, and project memories and lies. Unsure of where his power is coming from, but needing to do something, Meryn needs to project to her bonded and tell everyone her truth.

She and Anessa gather everyone, and she projects her memories and tells them all that she is the rightful Queen of Sturmfrost. That she did kill the king, but that Killian is now currently being overtaken by Alistair Brightbane, and that a war is coming soon. She wants her wolves to be beside her. It is silent after her admission, but eventually her friends start to kneel, accepting her as queen. But then a group comes out, led by a man named Jonah, saying they do not believe her, and all hell breaks loose. Thanks to the magic cuff on her hand, given by Killian as a wedding gift, her powers are still trying to grow. So when the fight breaks out and she is threatened, she accidentally kills 12 men with a flick of her wrist, immediately ending the fight. It panics her so much that, though the fight ended, she goes to a room and breaks down.

Stark, meanwhile, is handling the aftermath, that is until his wolf tells him he needs to go find Meryn. When he finds her all broken down from crying, he starts to comfort her and tell her that everything will be okay, and that they will work on her control soon. She agrees and then gets up. She then goes to Anessa, who she has been wanting to talk to for some time now. Though it has all worked out, she is upset that Anessa kept her in the dark for a long time and kept secrets. She asks for more trust as their partnership goes on. That night, Meryn goes to sleep only for Killian to get into her dreams and tell her that he is still in love with her. All of his actions as of recently are thanks to Alistair and that she should give him another chance. Stark wakes her up, knowing that something is wrong. Meryn is just confused as to how Killian is able to do that.

That morning, Saela finally wakes up, though she is worried that she will harm someone and does not want to be taken out of the prison. Meryn assures her that she has people looking into Siphons and that they will work on getting her fixed.

Stark then has a meeting with Siegrid Therion, his mom, who basically tells him that he needs to try and seduce Meryn, especially since their wolves are mated. Stark counters with the fact that she just got out of a relationship and that he does not think it is a good idea. Though on the inside, he just does not even want to think about it. After the meeting, he leaves his family in anger.

Meryn is now focused on her queenly duties. She needs to build a council. Her first meeting does not go well, as Siegrid Therion runs it as if she is queen. She mentions that she knows where Killian is and refuses to let Meryn go, as she is not yet coronated. But she does relent and says that they will bring back Killian so that Meryn can take the final kill. She then says that there will be three weeks until the coronation and that Noemi, a princess who is very cozy with Stark, will go from town to town inviting royals to the coronation. Siegrid then demands Stark go with Noemi as well. The whole Noemi and Stark interaction has Meryn on edge and very jealous, something she never thought she would feel toward Stark.

That night, Stark shows up to tattoo Meryn before he goes, the tattoos to signify the twelve deaths she caused the other day. There is a bit of a heated moment, but Stark leaves before anything can happen, and she believes that is the last she will see of him for a while. The next day, Meryn has a meeting with Siegrid about her schedule and expectations. For now, her training will continue with Siegrid, who also can control the shadows and work with mind powers just as much as Stark can. Though both of them need to figure out the bracelet and how Killian can get into their minds. She also mentions that now that she is a queen, she may need to let go of the position of Alpha. Now that she is queen, Anessa agrees, though she is sad about it. That night, as Meryn goes to visit Saela, Killian once again gets into her head, and quite possibly many of the pack's heads. She and Anessa have to shield them, and it takes a lot out of them, but they do it, and luckily Saela does not hear him either.

Days go by, and Stark and Noemi make it to her kingdom to invite her father to the coronation. It does not go well, especially when the king makes comments against Meryn and Stark gets angry. Thanks to their bond and connection, Meryn can feel the anger and wants to know what is going on. This makes Stark realize he needs to control his emotions a lot more.

Meryn, meanwhile, is still figuring out her role. The high priestess arrives for the coronation, and though Meryn has never had a role of religion in her childhood, she tries to be kind. Though the priestess sees right through that, and both Meryn and Anessa are intrigued and worried about her. Meryn finally has a bit of time to go back to her old city and home with her friends. Though she wants to go with them to see their families, they advise her not to. There are still many who do not believe her and are on the side of Killian, and many in the city are actually planning on leaving to go be with Killian. It is a realization for Meryn that many are not on her side, even with the memories that she has shown them.

Two weeks have passed, and Stark comes back. He meets with his mom, Siegrid, who has now been working with Meryn for weeks. She has decided that Stark needs to marry and have a child with Meryn. It is the most logical decision, and he needs to start moving on that decision fast. Stark does not want to, but before he can say that, Meryn walks in, and he is shocked to see that she has lost weight and is not looking her best.

It is time for Meryn's coronation. Though the high priestess still has some odd moments, the ceremony goes well. Anessa is particularly moved when the wolves show up, including the young ones, to show their support. The high priestess continues to have odd moments, this time with Saela, when she sees the crown that she wears, the one just like Meryn's. This is when Meryn realizes that the priestess also has a diamond that is just like their diamonds. Meryn continues her celebrations with Tomilson and Isabel. Things go terribly wrong when Isabel takes a drink and drops dead. With horror, Meryn realizes it was a drink that was meant for herself. Someone in the room tried to kill her, and instead her best friend died. Meryn refuses to let anyone leave, finds the server girl, and is able to find the man who did it. She brutally kills him and, in her fury, also kills his family. She is shocked that she could not control herself enough and that she also killed the family. A funeral is held for Isabel, and Tomilson blames her death on Meryn. She is left with no choice but to release him from his duties. It breaks her. It feels like she has lost two friends in one week.

Completely exhausted, Meryn finally falls asleep and is met with Killian in the dream world. She still hates seeing him there, and after another terrible interaction, she wakes up in a panic. Stark is already in her room, waiting and wanting to know what is wrong. She is forced to tell him everything about Killian and the dream world. Stark offers to sleep in the same bed as her to see if that will work, and it works out perfectly. Meryn falls asleep and does not meet Killian again.

As days go by, they find that Killian is gaining more and more troops. They need to get more kingdoms on their side as well, and Alistair's brother might be their next best bet. They board a boat and start their journey. Saela comes with them, though they wish she did not, as she is almost taken captive, and later she is triggered and accidentally kills someone and succumbs to her bloodlust.

Once they land, a soldier named Ruby shows up and claims she wants to start negotiations, but it turns into a battle. The battle gives Stark and Meryn the opportunity to fight side by side with their powers, and it is perfection. They do not know what connection happened, but something happened to them that made their fighting skills click together and become even better. The fighting with Ruby stops when a figure emerges. Her father, Frederick, is alive. For years he was dead, or so she assumed, but now he is in front of her, alive but as a Siphon. He explains that he left, found Ruby, who turned him into a Siphon. Knowing he could never go back to his family, he stayed there and hoped for the best. Frederick is then introduced to Saela, whom he had no idea his wife was even pregnant with.

Stark sees that Meryn is stressed and offers an outlet for her, a chance to fight him and unleash some power. She agrees. Their fight then turns into a very heated moment where he is able to distract her in other ways. After that, Meryn is able to have a clear head and start negotiations with Ruby and start to figure out how to talk to her dad. Though after their heated moment, Stark starts to act very weird toward her, and she does not know why. Ruby offers to take them to her king's castle, and they once again all start traveling.

After days of traveling, and days of Stark being cold and distant, Meryn is finally able to get Stark alone and ask what his problem is. He says that they should not be together because he is not worthy of her, nor to be a king, especially because all he would do is pull her down into the dark, and he would be happy to see her there. Meryn is sad that he cannot see his own worth. The group makes it to the castle. They all share a space with Ruby and Frederick until their king is ready. Lucien is their king, Alistair's brother. The first thing Lucien has her do is put on his crown. When she does, she is shown a vision. It is a memory of Lucien being summoned to Alistair. It then turns into a bloodbath, where Lucien starts going for the crown and starts to kill Alistair. Alistair is forced to flee. During the memory, Meryn notices that Alistair was using bracelets on his thralls, the humans he was drinking blood from. They look just like the bracelets still on her hand that Killian put on her and that she still cannot get off. Lucien tells her that it is used by blood, which does not help Meryn's comfort. She tells them that Killian has lots of her blood because before she knew he was a king, he would always heal her in the fighting pits. They soon get back to negotiations. Lucien wants a permanent ceasefire and an alliance to go against Alistair and Killian. If she agrees, she also gets full access to his army. Meryn goes to clear her head, with Stark offering some help to do so. That is until they are interrupted by Noemi and Lucien. Noemi tried to kill Lucien, and now he wants to back out. Meryn has to plead and beg to get him back. Noemi and Meryn then have a heart-to-heart, where she reveals she has some trauma connected to Alistair and Siphons, and she wants them gone.

Meryn is in the library one morning training her new powers and decides to use her power of seeing into her pack's minds. That is when she sees Siegrid being killed by Jonah. On top of that, Nocturna has fallen. Stark feels the moment his mother dies and knows it. Though that is his mother, he does not have a very strong emotional reaction to her death. He just knows that he is now in charge of the pack. Meryn quickly goes to Lucien to tell him of the development. He now has a new requirement: marriage. She says no and decides to go find Stark and ask how he is doing with the death. While with him, she uses her foresight to see possible outcomes of marrying Lucien and not marrying him. Either way, it ends terribly and with the deaths of her friends. She wants a different way, and she does not know what to do. At a loss, she decides to go back into the shadow realm and confront Killian. When confronted with Killian, she decides to play dumb and pretend that Stark has taken her captive and that she is just trying to get back to him. Killian then starts to talk about tear stones, ones that are like the stones in her crown. It hits Meryn that he is on the hunt for stones, and she needs to be looking for them as well. She goes back to her mother's journals to find that there are seven of them. Lucien later confirms all of this. According to her mom's journals, she thinks the next one is in a tower.

The group, now along with Lucien and Ruby, starts to get ready for their new mission. Frederick, her father, comes out to talk to Meryn beforehand. He says that he knows Ruby is not family, but she is his family, and asks Meryn to watch out for her. Frederick is going to stay back with Saela and start to learn about her and teach her about being a Siphon. The travel is rough, and it takes days for them to get there. Once there, Meryn is reminded of one of the visions where she sees the lifeless body of one of her friends. She knows it is this moment and is willing to do anything to make sure it does not happen. So much so that she tells Anessa of her vision, and she agrees as well. So when the time comes, in the heat of a moment decision, Meryn is forced to stab herself to protect the group in a particular moment. Stark watches it all happen and panics. But Meryn miraculously comes right back to life, to a very angry Stark when he realizes she is okay. They do make it to the tower. When they cannot find it, Meryn cries, but her tears bring the tear stone from the ground. They grab it quickly and run from the tower. Meryn quickly gains some new power from it, and now Lucien wants it.

That night, though Stark is angry with her and has not talked with her, he does come to sleep in the same bed with her to make sure she sleeps well. Though that morning, they do make up.

Now that both Lucien and Meryn have a stone, they decide to switch stones to see if they both get different visions. Meryn touches the stone and sees a vision of a woman named Luma, who she believes is one of her ancestors. She is having issues with one of the gods, Nocturn. When Meryn hears the voice of Nocturn, she realizes that is the voice she occasionally hears in her head and the one who brought her back after she killed herself. Lucien reveals he had a memory of Luma as well, but Luma was involved with the god Astrin.

They return back only to receive news that there is an attack. They run to the city to find the high priestess there. She makes a grab for the tear stone, though when she touches it, some power is expelled and the city starts falling into more and more destruction. They believe that the high priestess is under Killian and Alistair's control. They knock her out and then start evacuating the city. Though once everything calms down, the high priestess wakes and they find out she is just on Killian's side, so they kill her. They get a warning that a second wave is coming, with Jonah at the front. They do not have the army for it, so they start running. One in their group, Venna, is shot by Jonah, and without any choices besides death, Lucien offers to turn her into a Siphon.

Once in safety, Lucien decides that Meryn is the best bet to beat Killian and Alistair and gives her his tear stones. She goes into the dream world that night to tell Killian that she killed Lucien and that she can come meet him with the tear stones.

The next day, she does just that, going to meet him. But now in person, she cannot keep up with the lie and have him touch her. She quickly turns on Killian, and it turns into a fight. Killian is able to get his hands on one of the stones and use some mind magic to distract Meryn for a moment, until Stark breaks into her head to remind her who she is. Meryn grabs her sword and beheads Killian. She sees a flash of Alistair as she does so.

Meryn then talks to all of those who are left in Killian's army, many of whom were under a spell. She tells them they are free, but in her kingdom there are steps to freedom and peace. But it will be better. Ruby is also there. They have a nice moment, and Meryn promises to try and have a relationship with her in the future. She and Stark grab a tent and go to sleep.

In a chapter from Stark's POV, he has access to the same shadow realm that Meryn has had with Killian, and he has not told her. He has been there a few times, but always meets the god Nocturn. This time is no different, though this time the god starts to torture him, then abruptly the dream ends, though Stark cannot move when he wakes. When he moves, it is not him in control. With horror, he realizes it is Nocturn. He watches himself collect the tear pieces and crowns and arrange them. All of a sudden, loud sounds and a flash of light happen, and Stark can move again. Meryn wakes up and wants to know what happened. Stark says that she and he are just the gods' playthings and that his family is not sworn to the Sturmfrosts, but rather to Nocturn. And the dark god has just returned.