They say life begins at 40.... But when infertility led to my divorce, it seemed more like the end. When I’d rather be at home in my sweats binging '80s movies, my dad begs me to go to Carlton with him for moral support as he presents my much younger sister to their unmated Alpha.

Tate is not the sort of neighbor you can ignore. Especially when he walks around half naked for all the world to see. I can't help that I got a weak spot for bad boys. But that was before I became a single mom, and I’m not so weak anymore. Besides, Tate lights my temper without even trying, and I swear he enjoys teasing me. Well, two can play at that game, and I think it’s time someone teaches him a lesson. 

When my husband ran off with our saloon’s hostess, I left Montana, joining my college-aged son in Oregon. Eugene’s a far cry from my little hometown, But I did my best to blend in with the locals, And tried heading out for a jog. I thought I saw a hippie gathering deep into the trail— Until they changed into a pack of wolves.

Aurora is a virgin, but she’s certainly not innocent. She knows the cutthroat Wolf King ceremony that pits female wolves against each other isn’t about finding a suitable consort for Steele. It’s an indulgent animalistic display of passion and power. However, if she avoids the ceremony, her father’s kingdom will become Steele’s. It doesn’t mean she will lower herself to his questionable standards. In fact, she’ll go to any lengths to lose, because she already has Griffin, a far superior suitor, waiting for her. Then Aurora is chosen, and her world is thrown upside down.

Unlike other werewolves, I never wanted a mate. I would rather teach stupid mortals than inherit my family business as my father wished. Because I hated my blood. But I met her, in a bar, on a chaotic night. She's so distinguished, and her scent drove me crazy. With all my strength, I forced myself to leave because I didn't want to entangle this innocent girl in my abyss. But she reappeared in my class. Loving her seemed to have already been written in my genes, and I couldn't resist her no matter how hard I tried.

I’m not a guy who likes to leave the forest much. But I’m driving my grandad’s bus route, while he’s having a hip operation. If I don’t, he’ll lose the career he's loved for 50 years. I’m happy to help the old man out, but it’s a pain in my ass…endless hills, the bus wheezing and spluttering…whining customers…. Then she clambers on, and I know why fate threw this good deed my way.

I walk into the bar with my pack, and I scent her straight away. She’s lying behind the counter with blood trailing from an injury to her head. My desire to protect her stuns me almost as much as her beauty. But it’s the smell of her blood that stuns me the most—it’s something not quite human. When she wakes up, her fear tells me all I need to know. She definitely thinks she’s mortal. I choose to disagree.

Rule number one of Wall Street: don’t fall in love with your billionaire boss. I hate my boss. The Wall Street tycoon is a jerk. A world-class alpha-hole. Devastatingly handsome but terribly flawed. He goes through assistants like I go through vanilla lattes, and I need this job. But I went to school with bullies like him, so I’m not afraid. I hate my attraction to him. How sparks fly when we spar. The way he barks orders and dresses me down. I hate how I fantasize about him during and after work hours.

He was my first, and I thought he’d be my last. Now, he’s asking for a second chance. Micah Hutton is charming, sweet, and confident. And his page in the shirtless fireman calendar for charity? Trust me, November has never been hotter. But like Grandma says: "It’s never the angels who look like sin".

For my kind, to be without a mate is to be doomed. I know it is too late–all that awaits me is retirement and death, and I’ve embraced it. But when a suicide mission lands on my old boss’s desk, I’m the one he calls. Who better to tackle the mission in the deep, oppressive mines of my own ancestral homeland, if not an Arachnae already slated to die? And it’s not a rescue mission–he wants me to retrieve the corpse of a billionaire’s daughter kidnapped by a terrorist organization. Except our intel was wrong. She’s alive. Tortured and injured–but alive.