Dire Bound

The Wolves of Ruin trilogy by Sable Sorensen (the pseudonym of Eliza Phillips and Annie Paige-Stone) begins with Dire Bound. The second installment, Fury Bound, is set for publication in 2026, and details about the third haven’t been released as of this writing. The series contributes to the genre of dark romantasy, which combines the world building typical of fantasy novels and the emotional elements of a romance novel and often features morally ambiguous characters. Sorensen’s work is thus reminiscent of works such as Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing series, Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, and Kerri Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked.

Dire Bound establishes the cornerstones of the narrative’s world building along with the political machinations with which the characters must contend. The novel is set in the kingdom of Nocturna, which has been at war with its neighboring country, Astreona, for 500 years. Astreona is populated by long-lived, bloodsucking humanoid monsters called Siphons, while Nocturna is a kingdom ruled by humans and the direwolves with whom they bond. For years after its inception, Nocturna was ruled by the Queens of Sturmfrost. Five hundred years ago, however, Siphons led by Alistair Brightbane eradicated the Sturmfrost royal family except for a single infant child. That child was hidden away in a common-born family by a royal attendant.

In the vacuum of power, Alistair placed the entirety of the kingdom under a blood curse that wouldn’t allow anyone to speak of or remember the past royal family. Only the royal attendant, the ancestor to the Therion family, recalled the history and, to safeguard it, passed down a handwritten history book for their descendant. Because reading the book circumvented the blood curse, descendants of the royal attendant remained aware of the truth and waited for the true queen to return to the throne for centuries. Thus, at the beginning of the novel, no one but Stark Therion and Killian Valtiere are aware that Meryn is the lost queen. For centuries, therefore, a Siphon king has ruled Nocturna without anyone’s knowledge, subjecting both humans and direwolves to their command and leaving the war with Astreona in a stalemate.

In terms of societal structure, Nocturna includes a social class specifically for the humans who have bonded with direwolves. Within this group are four packs: Strategos, Phylax, Kryptos, and Daemos. Each pack is identified by a specific strand of color (silver, yellow, blue, and red, respectively) and has a specific role in the kingdom’s functioning. Strategos pack members are tacticians and leaders of the Bonded packs and use communication magic, Phylax members play the role of guardians and use their defense magic as shields, Kryptos members are spies and shadow walkers who can use concealment magic to gather information, and Daemos members are warriors who use their augmentative magic to make themselves stronger and faster in battle.

While internal rivalries exist within these four packs, the Bonded are meant to act as a united entity. Within each pack is a subset hierarchy. When recruits first bond with their direwolves, they’re called Rawbonds. Once they graduate from the Trials, they’re considered Bonded and, depending on their competency, may achieve higher ranks in the pack, which include Gamma, Beta, and Alpha. All Alphas rule over their packs but must answer to the Sovereign Alpha, Siegrid Therion (Stark’s mother).

Direbound lays out the difference in each pack and establishes how and why both Stark and Meryn are the Alphas of the Daemos and Strategos, respectively. In addition, the novel intertwines Meryn’s hero journey and discovery of her true lineage with the uncovering of the Valtiere royal family’s corruption and sinister intentions.