Lyra Gilbert was born unwanted. Raised beneath the fists of a cruel father and the shadow of a sister who never let her forget it, she's spent her life surviving - quiet, invisible, and alone. Until the night she runs. Bleeding and hunted, Lyra disappears into the forest where the trees whisper like ghosts and the shadows press too close. But something older than wolves watches from the dark - something with golden eyes and blood-soaked claws. And it's not the only one. In a world where monsters walk in human skin and ancient bloodlines rule from the shadows, Lyra finds herself caught in the jaws of something far more dangerous than fate: a legacy she was never meant to survive. She thought freedom meant escape. She didn't know it would begin with a bite. TRIGGER WARNING There is domestic violence in this book.

Every half century in a small little town hidden in the woods, a beast comes out from the forest to claim his bride on the night of an eclipse. The people of call this phenomenon "the taking". This beast is said to be very dangerous. It roams door to door searching for the woman whose being calls to his animal instincts. He will kill, mutilate and destroy everything in his path until he finds his bride. In the past, the townsmen have tried to hunt the creature and kill him before they can steal one of their marriageable daughters, but the beast does not hunt alone. He has followers among the shadows to make sure his goal is accomplished. Once he finds his bride, he carries her back to the forest where she is never seen or heard from again. Celeste believes this so-called "legend" is just some scary fairytale her grandmother made up to scare her. But was she ever wrong when a pair of moonlit eyes stared straight at her through her bedroom window and entered her room. Next thing she knew, she was being carried out the house and into the woods by a half-naked man who called her his. Who would have thought? Grandma wasn't crazy after all. Young Adult novel. Paranormal/Comedy-Romance @2014