Genre: Erotic Contemporary Romance Heat Level: 3 Word Count: 32, 500 ISBN: 978-0-3695-1572-8 Editor: Clara Morgenstern Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Iron Ascendant by Maia Dylan

Heat Level 3
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The Iron Covenant, 6

Elias Crowe built the Iron Covenant from violence, vengeance, and one unbreakable vow - protect the vulnerable at all costs.

Now the organization he sacrificed everything for is collapsing from the inside.

Safehouses are burning. Survivors are disappearing. Federal agencies are closing in. And the man orchestrating it all is someone Elias once trusted like a brother.

Evelyn Cross survived the foster system and turned herself into one of the most powerful tech billionaires in the world. Beneath the polished image, she secretly funds survivor recovery networks and underground operations designed to protect those society abandoned.

She never forgot Elias. Not the boy who saved her life and not the man who shattered her heart.

Forced back into each other’s lives, Elias and Evelyn are pulled into a brutal war built on corruption, betrayal, and blood. But as enemies close in and the Covenant fractures, they discover the most dangerous thing between them isn’t the violence.

It’s how much they still love each other.

 

Excerpt:

The smell hit her halfway down the hallway.

Warm. Sweet. Familiar.

Evelyn slowed immediately.

No.

There was absolutely no way—she stepped into the kitchen and stopped dead.

Elias stood at the stove wearing the same dark clothes from the night before, one large hand wrapped around a spatula while waffles cooked on the griddle.

Waffles.

Her brain genuinely struggled with the image for a second.

Then she spotted the jar of peanut butter sitting open beside the stove and nearly laughed from pure disbelief.

Elias glanced over his shoulder. “You’re staring at me this time.”

“You’re making waffles.”

“You sound offended.”

“I’m—confused.”

That finally pulled the faintest hint of amusement into his expression.

God help her.

Even exhausted and carrying enough rage to level cities, the man was still beautiful in ways that bordered on unfair.

Dark hair slightly messy now.

Stubble roughening his jaw.

Strong hands moving with quiet confidence through a kitchen like he belonged there.

He looked dangerous standing beside marble counters and million-dollar views. Like violence had learned domesticity purely as camouflage.

Then her gaze landed on the coffee pot. Black coffee.

Thank God.

Elias followed her line of sight. “I figured you stopped drinking chocolate milk for breakfast.”

“Growth.”

“You became insufferably sophisticated.”

“You became emotionally repressed.”

“Fair.”

The answer came immediately enough that she blinked.

Then unexpectedly, she laughed.

A real laugh. Small and tired, but real.

Elias looked momentarily startled by the sound himself. That hurt more than she wanted it to.

She moved farther into the kitchen slowly. “You left.”

His shoulders tightened slightly at the quiet accusation. “I needed air.”

“You vanished for seven hours.”

“I came back.”

That mattered more than it should have.

Evelyn swallowed that truth down hard before it could become dangerous.

“You remembered the waffles,” she said instead.

Elias flipped another one onto a plate. “You used to eat six at a time.”

“I was eleven.”

“You threatened me with a fork if I touched the last one.”

“I stand by that decision.”

His mouth twitched briefly.

There it was again.

A glimpse of the boy he used to be beneath everything else.

The sight of it squeezed painfully around her ribs.

A few minutes later they sat across from each other at the massive kitchen island with waffles between them and coffee steaming into the quiet morning air.

Evelyn took one bite and immediately grimaced. “These are terrible.”

Elias snorted softly. “Yeah.”

“They tasted way better when we were kids.”

“That’s because we were living off trauma and sugar.”

She laughed again despite herself, then stood and moved toward the refrigerator.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Fixing this disaster.”

Elias watched with visible suspicion while she pulled out yogurt, fruit, and homemade granola before setting everything on the counter.

“You became one of those people,” he accused.

“One of what people?”

“The healthy breakfast people.”

“Wealth changes you.”

“It really does.”

The easy rhythm between them settled strangely into her chest.

Familiar.

Like no time had passed at all.

Except it had. Years of it. Decades.

Evelyn settled back onto the stool with her coffee wrapped between both hands while silence stretched comfortably for a minute.

Then Elias spoke quietly. “I almost killed him last night.”

She looked up immediately.

His expression had gone distant again, eyes fixed somewhere beyond the windows.

“I had his location narrowed down to three possibilities.” His jaw tightened slightly. “I was downstairs in the lobby when I realized if I just executed Tony outright, someone worse would rise in the vacuum.”

Evelyn stayed silent.

Because she knew exactly how difficult that realization must have been for him.

“I built the Covenant too personally,” he admitted quietly. “Too much loyalty tied to individuals instead of structure.” His gaze hardened. “Tony poisoned parts of it years ago. If I cut off the head without removing the infection underneath, this just happens again.”

The words settled heavily between them.

“I’m taking it back,” Elias said finally.

Evelyn watched him over the rim of her coffee mug while morning light cut across the hard lines of his face.

This man.

This exhausted, violent, stubborn man who still carried the weight of everyone around him like it belonged solely on his shoulders.

He had built something broken.

But he had also built something that saved people.

“Will you help us?” he asked quietly.

Us.

Not me.

The Covenant.

Evelyn looked down briefly at the black coffee warming her hands, then back at him. “Of course.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “Why?”

The question surprised her enough that she actually blinked.

“Because it’s you that’s asking,” she said honestly, “and because it’s what I do.”

No hesitation.

Just truth.

She built systems that protected people. Funded impossible things because someone had to. And because once upon a time, a broken teenage boy had stepped between her and a monster without caring what it would cost him.

Evelyn took another slow sip of coffee.

If Elias Crowe wanted his Covenant back—she would help him reclaim every last piece of it.

Even if it killed her.

****

Elias should have sent someone else. That was what Rafael had said the second he announced he was coming here personally. A founder under federal scrutiny didn’t walk into compromised Covenant sites.

Especially not when Tony was actively turning parts of the organization against him.

But Elias came anyway, because survivors under Covenant protection were dead and 3 medical staff had been executed inside a place meant to heal people.

And because he needed to see it for himself.

The SUV rolled up to the compromised site just after dawn, gravel crunching beneath the tires as armed Covenant guards emerged from the shadows.

Relief crossed several faces when they saw him.

Not suspicion.

Relief.

Elias hated how much that mattered.

Beside him, Evelyn stepped from the vehicle, dark coat wrapped tightly around her while cold morning wind lifted strands of black hair across her face.

One of the younger guards moved forward quickly. “Boss.”

Elias recognized him vaguely. Former military. Good kid.

“What happened, Scott?” Elias asked quietly.

Scott swallowed hard. “They used Covenant clearance codes. Everyone thought they belonged here.”

Tony.

Using trust as a weapon.

Elias looked toward the entrance, jaw tightening as bleach and copper drifted faintly through the cold air. Blood cleaned too late.

Beside him, Evelyn stepped closer silently, and for the first time since this started, Elias realized he was grateful not to walk into the horror alone.

Series:
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