In a dystopian 2025, the entire world runs on slave labor.

In the deserts of New North America, we grew up together. I was the banker's daughter with a future mapped out for me, and he was just the slave boy next door, the one my parents told me not to touch. Told me not to name.

But I did. When the world called him a number, I called him Riven.

Then the monsoons came. One kiss in our childhood treehouse changed everything. We were found out, and Riven was taken away, sold to the mines - meant to toil, meant to be forgotten. Meant to die.

Now I'm in college, miles away from my past, trying to be the girl my parents always expected me to be.

I hope he's forgotten me. If he remembers, it's with a grudge.

He's back now, not dead, not broken, but burning for revenge.

And I'm his target.

RIVEN is a 20k-word prequel novella to NEVER BROKEN (THE UNCHAINED #1). It can be read as a standalone with no knowledge of the series. It explores what really happened between two secondary characters from the main series - and sets them up for the second chance they deserve. Since it is a prequel, it ends on a hopeful note but does not include a happily ever after.