All he wanted was to disappear. What he found wouldn't let him go. Humanity clings to survival in fortified cities, learning to live beside the horrors that slipped in from another plane. Monsters now walk freely among the ruins of the old civilisation. For a runaway boy scraping by on the streets, danger is nothing new. Hunted by violent men and ignored by a society too busy surviving, he's learned to trust no one. But when he crosses paths with a strange, otherworldly being - one unlike any he's seen before - his life takes a turn for the surreal. The creature is powerful, unpredictable, and completely alien in thought. It breaks boundaries as easily as bodies, and the boy wants nothing more than to be rid of it. But fate - or an unbreakable, incomprehensible will - keeps pulling them together. As tension builds and an uneasy bond begins to form, a far greater danger looms. And it's not from the monsters outside the walls. The story in full, including the explicit excerpts: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D5WL39BL (chapters 1 R - 12 BC) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYT3Q7H7 (chapters 13 R - 25 R)

C41 was taught to fight and never trust anyone but a select few. But in order to leave prison, he might have to work with those who can break him. ***** Inmate C41 is the youngest registered "feral" shapeshifter -- someone unable to control his animal urges and aggressions. When he turns eighteen he is transferred to the Adult Feral Rehabilitation Center in Scotland, where he meets a mysterious American government agent who endlessly probes him with questions. C41 does the only thing he thinks will help him survive - he lies. And that starts a chain of events that will either end in a prison break or a life of torture. Content and/or Trigger Warning: sex and violence. [[Wattys' Shortlist]] [[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]]