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Fourth Wing meets The Hunger Games in this spicy, page-turning romantasy where humans and direwolves forge unbreakable bonds and fight for survival at all costs.

Narrated in duet style by Romantasy Royalty, Avery Caris and Gabriel Michael.

Only the worthy survive the Bonding Trials. She’ll risk her life - and her heart - to be one of them.

Meryn Cooper has always hated the Bonded, elite warriors who form mental links with the massive, vicious direwolves they ride. While they live in luxury, Meryn struggles to keep her family out of poverty. When her little sister, Saela, is kidnapped - stolen across the border by the immortal monsters her country has spent centuries fighting - Meryn’s world falls apart.

Desperate to cross the front and save her sister, Meryn enlists in the army and is thrown into the deadly Bonding Trials, where any mistake will cost her life.

Now Meryn must survive four months of training at the castle. She is bound to a feral direwolf who refuses to communicate. The other trainees would love to spill her common blood. And her cold and beautiful instructor, Stark Therion, is eager to punish any weakness.

Everything is a competition, and everyone is out to get her - everyone except the dangerously handsome crown prince, whose attention adds another target to her back. In the castle, every smile hides a knife … and the halls hide dark secrets.

It’s bond or bleed. Duel or die. Failure is ruin.

*This audiobook includes a brand-new bonus chapter from Stark Therion’s perspective.*

'A God Tier Fantasy book!!! I just finished and still trying to mentally and emotionally recover to what just happened to me. You need to read it IMMEDIATELY.'

'What an incredible read!! … I am blown away … The romance, the anguish, the BANTER! I love a book with good banter and this was FULL OF IT!'

'I. Am. OBSESSED. … Left me spiraling in the best way possible. The morally grey anti-hero? Perfection. The slow-burn tension? Electric … I was completely immersed.'

TROPES:
Slow burn romance
Found family
Morally grey characters
One bed
Touch her and die
Who did this to you
Secret royals
Enemies to lovers
Forced proximity
Hidden powers
Fated mates
Vampires vs. wolves!

© Sable Sorensen 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Dire Bound written by Sable Sorenson and read by Avery Caris and Gabriel Michael

Penguin Books publishes blockbusting, prize-winning, celebrated, controversial, heart-warming, thought-provoking and inspiring books by a range of authors from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, Jeremy Clarkson to Jeremy Paxman and Jamie Oliver to Oliver Goldsmith.

Dire Bound written by Sable Sorenson and read by Avery Caris and Gabriel Michael

Penguin Books UK