As a wolf shifter growing up in a strong pack, I should be living my best life. But after my father tried to kill our leader, I’m labelled an outcast, traitor, less than dirt. When I can't take pack life any longer, I run, but apparently they don't like losing their punching bag. Torin, the leader’s son, drags me back before my first shift...a shift that will reveal my true mate. I never could have predicted who mine would be, but the moment my wolf looks upon him, I’m filled with hope for a brighter future.

Moving to a new town to start college, where I can try to be normal. Or at least pretend I am. I’m willing to fake it, because I’m tired of trying to get better. Tired of spilling my guts to doctors and therapists to understand why I’ve heard voices since I was a child.

One heroic act damned me for eternity. With a name like Tor, I should have been a hero, just like my father and twin. Turns out I’m not. Not even close. Instead I’m the very thing we hunted. A depraved monster. I thought there was no escaping the curse. No hope for a future. And then I met my mate in the unlikeliest of places: Blackwood Asylum. A place for criminals. Power-hungry madmen. Supernatural outcasts. And her, the curvaceous writer who sees ghosts.

My father called them messengers. He once told me they walked among us and that somewhere in this dark and godless city, there shined a faint sliver of hope. I had only to look for the signs. Well, I’ve spent my whole life investigating the inexplicable and all I've found are the unsettling vestiges of iniquity—the evidence of another world shrouded by the obscure. Purgatory to some, where depravity hides in shadows, and girls like me are little more than delicious bites of temptation. Others call it Nightshade.

One day, I was a regular college student, working a boring job and studying for finals - and the next, I was transformed into some strange creature of the night. Now, I’ve got powers I don’t understand, I can change my appearance with a thought, and I’m having all kinds of odd...cravings. If I thought all this was gonna get me out of going to college, though, I’ve got another think coming. Nope, I still need an education.