Josephine Wyeth has only ever known the shadow of war. Sheltered by her father's secretive work, she exists as both prisoner and caretaker as the violence creeps ever-closer. Once powerless, now she is something else: a new being crafted by her father's cruel hands, proof of his genius and threat to all who meet her. She's desperate to escape, but with no friends and the horrors of war lurching toward them all, her future is bleak.

There's no hope - until the day she's thrown in a cell with her father's latest experiment.

Otto Beornson, a fierce shifter from the wilds of the Northern Territories, is the latest in a long line of victims captured from the front and shipped to her father's laboratory. He shouldn't be any different, but when they meet, their fates intertwine in a way no one could have expected. Standing on the brink of an abyss, their blazing connection is a lifeline.
He'll do anything to save her, even if that means giving up his soul. She'll do anything to free him, even if it means becoming the monster her father always hoped she'd be.

Vital is a standalone novella in the wider New Protectorate series and can be read without the context of the other books. Content warnings can be found in the backmatter of the book and on the author's website.