Dire Bound (The Wolves of Ruin #1) by Sable Sorensen

Description

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 dire wolves 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 dire wolf 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.

Dire Bound contains mature content including depictions of graphic violence and is therefore recommended for readers 17+. For a full list of tropes and TWs, please visit the author’s website.