I'm sitting on the ground in front of a vampire, stripped down to my underwear. I tremble under his narrowed gaze. "All of it," he says. "Are you trying to humiliate me!" I snap, squeezing my arms around my chest. My heart smashes against my ribs. "Sir." It's under my breath, a growled sound. I'm so mad I can hear my blood roaring in my ears. "And what if I am?" he asks, his voice a deadly whisper. "I've had a long day. I'd like to see the special human my rats bought for me. I'm not going to ask again." Even Jack hasn't seen me naked, not fully, anyway. It's not because I didn't want to. It's just hard to push away things your family has told you all your life. My sisters would gather around the tv, eating popcorn and doing homework, laughing at supermodels in music videos and calling them sluts. They would jeer at the popular girls. They even made fun of Faith's miniskirts, causing a fight that lasted between me and my family for weeks. One more furious glance from the vampire and I peel my bra off. I try not to think and just let my body do it for me, my fingers nervously dancing around the plastic clasps. I fumble a few times before the gray material finally hits the ground. I flinch. I'm vulnerable to those cold, inspecting eyes. "You are lovely," he says offhandedly. It doesn't sound like a compliment; he says it like he's describing the weather. Stating a fact. There's a squeeze of heat in my stomach. A strange and horrible thrill that leaves me ducking away from his gaze, my eyes tracing the veins of gray in the floor. "If you behave, you might enjoy being mine." *** Annabeth Cross, a college student about to marry her high school sweetheart, almost has the perfect life. But one terrible day changes it all. Her lover dies from attacking vampires, and she, her best friend, and her now-dead fiance are brought to a realm where werewolves and vampires war for dominance and other fantasy creatures are forced to obey them. Her fiance is brought back by magic, but he is not the man he once was. Annabeth is quickly bought by the most powerful vampire in the land, the beautiful, wealthy, and cunning Xavier Bella. He enrolls her as his spy in Briarwood Academy, an elite school for all species of magical creatures. But what happens when two alphas from warring packs claim her as their own? Who can she give her heart to?  And what if Annabeth is no human at all? What if she belongs to a dangerous destiny?

 Nico's smile returned, and his eyes shone. When his gaze slid up my body, he brought a warm flush to my skin. I wanted him to find me as attractive as I found him.   "I've been waiting for you, Dimitri. I like this 'mating stuff.' It's comforting to know I'm destined to love someone so beautiful." He winked (winked!), tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear. My mouth quivered. No one had called me that before, and I hated him for it. "You may be an alpha, and you may be a billionaire, " I said, crossing my arms over my chest, "but this is my van. Get out." He swung the door open. When he smiled, I wanted to trail my hands down every crevice of his body, draw the warmth of his skin to my fingers. The kiss had been too short. Even if I couldn't be with him, even if I didn't want him, I still missed him fitted against me, the pressure of his body, the scent of his skin. "You're mine," he said, his voice lifting. And I think, at that moment, I was. *** Nico Asim is a billionaire. An alpha who can provide for his pack, a man who doesn't take 'no' for an answer. Dimitri is none of the above. He's ashamed of his wolf and shudders a the thought of a mate. As a baker with a budding business, twenty-three-year-old Dimitri doesn't need the added obligation of a life-long partner. Let alone, a man who could control anyone with his money. The type of man that scares him. But Dimitri can't deny the physicality and longing between himself and his fated lover. Dimitri's world is cracking open. He can have the man he's starting to love or everything he used to think he wanted, but he can't have both. ***