The Burnt King wanted Cathleen, so he took her. Cathleen, a bear shifter, possesses the valuable and rare soul cipher gift, which means she can heal emotional wounds. Despite her brother’s and community’s best efforts, she ends up kidnapped by an unscrupulous pack of wolf shifters. Forced to spend her days healing people while the wolves holding her reap all the rewards, soon she finds herself worn out from the overuse of her gift. Getting weaker every day, she’s afraid if she doesn’t escape soon, she might never be able to get away. When she’s presented with a young dragon, traumatized and fearful, Cathleen’s instinct to shelter and protect rear up. The dragonlette is too traumatized to tell the wolves what they want to know. They push Cathleen to use her gift on the child who refuses to shift into her human form. Cathleen agrees to get the little girl to shift and talk but knows she needs to get this child away from these wolves. Now it’s not only about gaining her freedom but also saving an innocent child. A less-than-gentle rescue comes in the form of Laszlo Beithir, the Burnt King, alpha of all the dragons. Cathleen thinks they’re both saved, but soon she comes to realize she might have just traded one captivity for another. Alpha King is a novel with an HEA and adult themes for eighteen-plus readers only. This is a standalone novel although some characters from the first book in the series, Alpha Mage, feature in this one as well. (New cover, no new content)