Lysithea Hilenaire Del Arman is a woman on the run. After a dangerous revolt claimed the lives of her family, Lysithea employs the broker, Taron Cardis, to help her escape the kingdom before she meets the same deadly fate. But Taron isn't exactly the easiest man to work with, and the two spend most of their transactional relationship with plenty of bickering and arguing. That is, until an unexpected snowstorm leaves them stranded in an eerie, abandoned mansion. Now, Lysithea and Taron must put their differences aside to survive the cold and continue their escape.

As the temperatures outside drop, things inside the mansion heat up as burning desire ignites between Lysithea and Taron. Will they resist the pull towards each other or will temptation lead them down a more dangerous path?

Winter Wolf has story by cheong yong and art by Soonmu. Translation by Tooning. Lettering by Melina. Published by Seven Seas (October 28, 2025). Rated M.

Content Warning: sexual assault

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Want the flavor of a revolution without all the messiness in Innocent Rouge? Then Winter Wolf might be the solution, especially if you're okay with all that political stuff hanging out in the background. Based on the novel of the same name by RubyChe, the story's heroine Lysithea is one of the few noble survivors of a terrible situation. The daughter of a high-ranking family and herself the fiancée of the prince, she only managed to live through the early days of revolution because the son of a chief revolutionary wanted her to warm his bed. She shot and killed him rather than be raped, and when we meet her, she's almost managed to flee the country. The last step is meeting up with Taron, a “broker” who will get her to an ice-free port and help her stowaway on a ship.

Obviously things don't go that smoothly for Lysithea or this would be a short story rather than a series. But what this setup does is show us that above all else, Lysithea is a survivor. She's scared, she's traumatized, and she's shaken, but she's not going to give up here, even when she and Taron get trapped in the abandoned mansion where they arranged to meet. Her trauma is handled fairly well, too, and not brushed under the rug; she has nightmares and it's evident that just “shaking it off” isn't an option. She's also clearly out of her depth with Mr. Sexy; she tries not to let him take advantage of her, but it feels like he might still be – and his feral yellow eyes feel like shorthand for a more beastly side of him that she hasn't yet seen. Given that he fights off wolves and kills bandits in this book, that's saying something.

The pacing of the story is a bit fast, and every situation goes from zero to sixty in no time flat. That goes for all aspects of the plot, from their meeting to the sex scene to the arrival of the bandits, and that surprised me, because when I first read this in serial form on Manta, that wasn't an issue. Of course, the version I read was also the tamer edition (definitely not “all ages” but also not as mature as this one), so maybe that makes a difference. But Lysithea's strength and determination remain the same, and that, plus some beautiful use of color and background, are the highlights of this book. It's borderline trashy reading in the best way, dark and fascinating as long as you let your brain take the day off.