Willow's had to fight to get to where she is now. She doesn't need anyone telling her what to do or how to do it. Her life is perfect the way it is, but it's near impossible for her to fulfill her wants of keeping her independent lifestyle. For starters, Willow isn't even human; she's a Volpe (fox-shifter), but being a Volpe is more complicated than simply being able to shift into a fox. For thousands of years, there were only humans and for those thousands of years, they killed each other over the color of their skin. But that was then. Now shifters are an everyday part of life and no one cares about the color of a person's skin: it's their species, and it's even worse than it was between humans and the levels of melanin in their skin. Volpes are the most hated of all the species. Supposedly cunning and deceitful to many, they are discriminated against and viewed as nuisances. Lupos (wolf-shifters) hate them most of all, with Volpes returning the favor. Lupos - with their powerful packs and Alphas throughout the world - have the obvious social advantage over Volpes, but that doesn't stop the world from turning and the natural course of events to happen. Every shifter will eventually find and bond to a person who compliments them in every sense for no other reason than a cruel twist of their reproductive biology. With little to no conscious decision as to who their "mate" will be, two shifters - two strangers - are forced together, their fates forever intertwined because of a chance encounter. To many, this is seen as a blessing, but to Willow, a so-called "soul-mate" is the farthest thing from her mind. Will the sparks fly or will the fists fly when she realizes that a member of the very species she resents so passionately is her mate? How can a Lupo ever be with a Volpe when all they see each other as are the harmful stereotypes of their species? How will their bond evolve into something that uncovers secrets decades in the making?

EPILOGUE WILL BE FREE STARTING JUNE 29TH, 2023! Diana wakes up in pain, tied to a bed and unable to escape. She's been trapped by a group of surgeons with a twisted passion and she's their next victim. ***** Diana Slater, a typical University student, wakes up in pain, tied to a bed and unable to see. After a mysterious figure, known only as Dr. Sweeney, nurses her back to health she finds out the truth. The Doctor has kidnapped her and given her a cat's eyes as part of a larger ploy to turn humans into collectibles. Now she's being trained by Ben, another patient, with the skin of a snake, on how to behave. Diana and Ben are forced to work together to try to escape the murderous doctors - until she discovers Ben might not be the victim he makes himself out to be. The only person Diana can trust is herself, and if she fails, her eyes won't give her another nine lives. [[Winner of the 2018 Fiction Awards for Best Horror Story]] [[word count: 80,000-90,000 words]] Cover designed by Holly Thurston