In my dreams, I never escaped the Oregon woods. Life after death isn't easy to accept, especially when I still feel like a ghost. Now, I live deep in the mountains of Montana—the paradigm of beauty. But they are also the home of horrors. Horrors that I only unleash at night. When my pigs are allowed to feast.

Barrington University is home of the Lords, a secret society that requires their blood in payment. They are above all—the most powerful men in the world. They devote their lives to violence in exchange for power. And during their senior year, they are offered a chosen one.

The night my sister died, a piece of me died with her. So I made a vow to enroll at Spine Ridge University just like her, find the person responsible… and make them pay. Until I meet three sick boys of the Skull & Serpent Society: Felix, Dylan, Alistair. Rude, heartless, vicious guys who are obsessed with making me regret I ever stepped foot on campus. They make me a deal: My body in exchange for a glimpse at their violence.

I did a bad, bad thing. Thanks to a blank in my memory, I'm not sure what that thing was, but it was horrible enough to get me locked up in the psych ward for seven years.

I live my life by a few simple rules—let no one in, trust only my family, and don’t ever spend more than three nights with a woman. Those are easy enough to abide by until I meet gorgeous, captivating, and absolutely brilliant Sophie Winston and fall into a dangerous romance with the sister of the detective investigating my father’s murder.

Of all the hospitals in New York City, he walks into mine. I know from the moment I see him that Alex Volkov is dangerous. He’s the kind of trouble from which every woman should run. The bullet his bodyguard took for him proves that. My attraction to him is not rational, not logical...but it’s too strong to resist. I tell myself it will be just one night. One night to step away from the stress of work, to give into temptation. But before I know it, he’s pulling me deeper into his world of excess and violence, invading not only my life but my heart.

We like to believe monsters don’t exist, even in the moonlit streets of a place like Salem, Massachusetts. But they’re very real...and very human. There’s danger lurking around every corner. People are vanishing off the street into thin air, never to be seen again.

Welcome to Emerson Grove. With our fantastic university, suburban lifestyle, and the city nearby, you’re never going to want to leave. I almost believe their slogan, until my ride drives off, leaving me on the doorstep of a pretty house to reveal a blast from the past. Leaving one lion’s den, I’ve fallen straight into another. I didn’t agree to this part. I didn't agree to…them.

After our rival gives up the throne as my dying wish, my men trust him to protect me from any danger that may come my way. He keeps me safe, somehow understanding the darkness that lurks inside of me. He knows it cannot be caged, and he allows me the ability to set it free when we’re alone.

Five years ago, I masterminded the infamous massacre of the Tri-state Timberwolves. The streets outside the Wolves HQ ran red with the blood of the old guard, and not one of those members loyal to my father were spared mercy. Not a single one. I let the media twist and distort the story. My new recruits eagerly proved themselves in spreading false news, in covering our tracks. To the general public, the Tri-State Timberwolves were extinct. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.