"Stop. Stop, please." I sob as the whip comes down on my back once more. "Shut up yo-" my tormentor's words are cut off by a ferocious growl. I sense another masculine figure in the dark room, but can't make out a word he's shouting. The burning and searing pain that I'm experiencing is just too much. A sickening snap is heard and something drops onto the cold, stone flooring. The chains around my wrists and ankles are broken along with the tight metal collar around my neck. "Mate." my rescuer growls, gently cradling me in his arms. ********************* Charlotte Beck has been tortured and abused by the Red Stone pack ever since she turned eight. She doesn't know why they hate her or how she ended up a lower rank than the Omegas; no one even bothered to label her as a slave. She has never known the true meaning of love or how it felt like, all Charlotte knows is that her pack surely doesn't feel that way about her. Finding a mate was a dream that was thrown out the window long ago; all of the verbal abuse led her to believe that she didn't deserve one. It's not until she attempts to escape again that she realizes that she has a chance of living a better life, one where abuse isn't an everyday thing. Xander Reynolds, Alpha of the Lunar Shadow pack, finds her when she's taken to his cells as a trespassing prisoner. Known as the strongest Alpha in the continent, he does everything he can to protect his mate. The only problem is that she's too emotionally scarred to allow him to. His dark and violent reputation is the only thing that Charlotte knows about him. The memories of their childhood together beaten out of her mind. Traumatized and high on fear, she struggles to let down her walls. Her real home is with a man who she cannot remember and a brother who she wishes she remembered. Can Xander get his mate to love him? Or will Charlotte let her past keep them apart?

"What the hell?" I took a step closer to the mirror, staring at my reflection in disbelief. The person looking back was still me, but at the same time it wasn't. I had the same thick, dark, curly hair. The same hazel eyes. The same olive skin with a light dusting of freckles (ugh) scattered across the bridge of my nose. But my curls were now streaked with highlights. And not the subtle, golden-brown ones that sometimes appeared during the summer. No, these were an aggressive, dazzling blond that went from the roots of my hair all the way to the tips. It looked like I had spent a full day getting my hair done in some upscale salon. Never mind that I had never set foot in such a place since the day I was born. My eyes appeared somehow wider and more luminous. The colour brighter, my eyelashes darker up against them. And, when I looked closely, my pupils seemed to be slitted almost like a cat. I looked down at my body. My skinny arms-which had always refused to gain any definition no matter how hard I exercised-were lined with flat, wiry muscles. My bony shoulders were now curved and smooth. My scrawny legs were toned like a dancer. I reached down and lifted my shirt, revealing two subtle lines running vertically down my perfectly flat stomach, hinting at the rock-hard abs underneath. My whole body was rippling with strength. Like liquid steel.

The Sorceress's Knight Tournament, a competition that's hosted once every five years, has come to Arcadia's Knight Academy. This tournament will decide who becomes a Knight for the newest Sorceress-who just so happens to be Caspian's childhood friend. Caspian has entered this dangerous competition. But with backstabbing nobles, under the table politics, and a dark figure working in the background, he'll need to worry about more than just winning. His life, and the life of his childhood friend, hangs in the balance. Complete!