I wasn’t human, not completely. A Lycan—a centuries-old wolflike creature that was feared by all, stronger than anything on the planet, and who was only ever after one thing. For over 300 years, I had one purpose in life. Find her, the one female born to be mine. My female who’d cause the Linking Instinct—that supernatural connection that told me she was mine and I hers—to finally take root and make me whole. And for hundreds of years, I’d been alone. Until I scented her, saw her, finally felt my heart beat and the blood rush through my veins with anticipation. Mine.

Where did I come from? Who were my parents? What made me…me? It became the fire in my veins. My journey led me to Scotland, the Highlands, and for the first time in my life, I had this feeling of…belonging. What should have been a simple hike through the Scottish countryside led me to things far more mysterious than trying to find out who I was.

Jesse Sampson and her two younger sisters have lived a hard life on the streets of Seattle, Washington, for the past several years. Four years before, the Earth received its first visitors from space, causing mass fear. Alone in a world gone mad with just her sisters, Jesse has learned to use the darkness and the remains of the city to survive and keep what was left of her family alive. She has seen the savage side of human nature and finds they are not much different from the aliens who conquered the Earth.

I broke the rules and stole an auction item from her buyers. Because somehow, they’d managed to abduct a Gryfala princess. Though, she doesn’t look, or act, or sound quite like I thought one of her kind would. But I’m merely a Rakhii gladiator; this is the closest I’ve actually ever been to a princess. I’d be considered lucky, indeed, if she chose me to guard her. Instead, I want more. I need her to claim me. Because she doesn’t know it, but now I can’t let her go.

Gemma Hara is drowning under the weight of her father’s debts. Working herself to the bone, she knows that if she doesn’t pay them off in time, the sadistic creditors will take everything: their home, their respected name, and, worst of all, her two beautiful sisters.