The Demon and the Princess

Sophia can taste freedom in the air the moment the academy gates close behind her—sharp autumn wind, ink and parchment, roasting coffee from the student commons instead of sulfur from the demon court. Here, she isn’t supposed to be “Your Highness.” She’s just another first-year trying to juggle spellwork labs, midnight dorm gossip, and the wild hope of being ordinary.

The court has other ideas.

Lucas knows that the ink on his contract might as well be blood. Guard the demon princess in secret, keep her safe through her years at the academy, and his own future is secure. Fail, and he loses everything he’s worked for. It sounds simple enough—until Sophia walks into his life with her crooked smile, chipped black nail polish, and a stubborn refusal to let anyone else take a hit for her.

He’s supposed to be a shadow at her back. Instead, he finds himself learning the sound of her footsteps in the hallway, the way her magic flares when she laughs, the tiny crack in her composure whenever someone mentions the court she left behind.

Then the lies start to unravel. Hidden bargains. Old grudges. A mate bond neither of them asked for, humming under their skin every time their hands brush across a shared textbook.

At a university where monsters flirt over study guides and danger wears a polite smile, Sophia and Lucas have to decide how much of themselves they’re willing to put on the line—because once a mate bond is tested, it doesn’t neatly go back to what it was before.

The Demon and the Princess is a cozy m/f monster romance set in the Fated Mates and Monster Dates universe, complete with a demon princess, her secret bodyguard, plenty of steam, and a warm, hard-won happily ever after.