A dystopian erotic tale of survival, secrets, and the price of desire. Outside the walls of Valgard City, survival is a brutal game—and Seth Camden is losing. Eighteen and desperate, Seth clings to two he’ll never escape the wasteland beyond the city’s walls, and he’ll never admit his hunger for his best friend, Matteo. After failing the military exam that was his only shot at a future, Seth lies to his mother—and to himself—while scraping by in a gang-ruled hellscape where desire is as dangerous as starvation. But when rumors surface of a shadowy recruiter who trades flesh for passage into Valgard, Seth faces an impossible sell his body to strangers in the city’s glittering underbelly, or watch his mother wither in the ruins. With Matteo’s protection slipping away and violence closing in, Seth must navigate a world where every touch is transactional—even the ones that burn with the heat of something real.