The characters are highly complex and they exist in a world that values strength over compassion, only the strong survive. The life inside the pack mimics that of a real wolf pack with a strict hierarchy that is established through fighting and power. It is also comparable to a medieval court, the king holds his divine right to rule and the queen exists solely to please and support the king. Throw in scheming courtiers with the ability to change into wolves with sharp claws and fangs and you have the pack construct. As the characters are basically wolves housed in a human skin and the story is laced with animalistic references and traits displayed by all. We first meet the main characters Meela and Grey it is on a bloody battlefield where they recognize each other as their soul mate, and Grey takes Meela as tribute for his pack's help in her brother's fight. From this point on Meela belongs to Grey, and in this world, a highly spirited female with a propensity for impulsive actions matched to a dog stubborn, self-assured, dominant male is going to cause problems. We follow Meela in her journey to become the pack's Luna, a pack who are even more wolf than the one she comes from, and with a mate who has set the highest standards for her to reach as his Luna(female Alpha) and will accept nothing less than perfection. In the midst of all this and the struggle they face to form a personal and public relationship, there is one incident that will change them both and the fate of the pack completely. From that point on both Meela and Grey are inevitably changed and for them to be together, either one or both needs to change, but when you live in a world where you are taught that weakness is easily exploited and to admit defeat can potentially lead to your destruction. Thank you @chortle for the great summary

2016 Watty Award Winner for Most VORACIOUS Read Sample only. This book is PUBLISHED! How do you tell yourself not to breathe? He is my mate, and she is his everything. But he chose her, against every single instinct that we both know. For that, I have been whipped, shunned, shamed, disgraced, and broken. All for one moment of madness, I could not control. After two years, I left, unable to bear the pain and loneliness anymore. That was then. This is now. I am back, and I am not the juvenile I was. I am now a fully grown female. I feel his eyes on me, but I can't. I won't. I shouldn't. Time has healed my wounds, but not the deep scars the whip seared into my flesh or his indifference to my heart. Each breath is a pain, and his scent overwhelms me. But I can smell her in it. He still will not give her up, despite his own body crawling with a deep, physical desire that only a mate can satisfy. I breathe: I exist, barely. I am a midwife. I bring life into a cruel world that haunts me every day, and the Doctor I work with is the only one in this pack who holds faith in me. He is the one person who stands up for me - and I feel light again when I am with him. What kind of life is this when two mates cannot be together, yet every part of their primal soul yearns for it infinitely? What kind of cruel moon would torture a she-wolf like this? I can't go on, but I must. Whatever happens, I must attend to my purpose and give my miserable life some meaning; perhaps I can snatch some joy in pieces, but now I see that he needs me - but he also wants her too. How do you tell yourself not to breathe?

This time around the story concentrates on Fin and Victoria and their ill-fated mate pairing. Unaware of Fin, Victoria suffering under a father who hates her very existence and starved of affection, Victoria has a dalliance with another male and Fin discovers this. The male in question was his twin brother Grey. This led to Fin abandoning his pack, rejecting Victoria and embarking on a path designed to punish her by sleeping carelessly with as many females as possible. Events in Grey's Tribute have brought them together, and Fin claims Victoria as his mate while still hating the very essence of her being. However, the Moon will have her way, and she wants these two together whether they will it or not. Victoria is forced to confront every demon she buried deep down in her fight for survival since birth. The main one being that her wolf is more feral than others, unwilling to bend to any and with a hunger to rule more territory. Her wolf's disrespect to his authority will force Fin to remind her of her place. Fin himself struggles with the past Victoria shares with his twin and the fact that it forced him to denounce his full potential as the most dominant alpha of the four packs around. Her wolf's challenge to his status will push Fin into accepting all that he is and could be, and in turn what they can be together. Unfortunately, his feelings for her are harder to change, and his struggle to forgive and forget will impact heavily upon their relationship. An emerging empire, omens of death and the two most dominant wolves compelled by fate to be together with or without their permission leads to an absolute rollercoaster of a story. I did not think I could feel more than I did reading this book. These characters are complicated and while they project an image of indestructibility to those in their world, reading this will show you that those who appear strong may have the hardest battle against their own weaknesses. Thank you @Chortle for the great summary.

My name was once Mia Elizabeth Vauthier. I was the princess of a great land where wolves, grander than any other creature shifted freely between animal and man. Where nature and its inhabitants lived together in an uninterrupted harmony. Where the supernatural was not abhorred by those arrogant beings that called themselves humans. Here the supernatural was just as part of nature as the trees and the grass, just as the Goddess had wished it to be. Since the day of my birth, I had been the envy of all the land. I would be powerful I would be great I would be blessed by the Goddess... Or so they had thought. When I was meant to shed my fragile human skin and flow smoothly in the Goddess' blessed creature of the night, I did not. It did not happen when I was sixteen, or seventeen, or eighteen. The shock had been like steaming water, trickling down the naked skin, tearing skin as it went leaving ugly marks that could never be removed. I became stained. The Princess who was an omega and not just an omega, a wolfless omega. An empty shell, a box with no contents, a heart with no blood. Just an empty vessel. I wished so desperately to fill the empty space with something worth more than the haunting echoes of what should have been but that was not my fate. Instead the once beloved princess I was cast aside, thrust into a tower with no promise of a prince to rescue me. The only dragon that guarded me was my own mind, a sharp weapon which would slowly poison me. I thought nothing could save me... Perhaps it is still too late.

Only sample chps. Annabelle finds out that she is not the real daughter of the Alpha at her werewolf pack. As the world she knows comes collapsing down, she has to hide from the Demon Lord who is determined to find her. Will the Werewolf King yield to the Demon Lord's ultimatum and give her to the enemy or will she be the cause of a looming war between the two species? More importantly, who is Belle and what does the Demon Lord want with her? Belle's meeting with the Werewolf King does not go very well, she finds him to be an arrogant bastard! Worse still, he wants nothing to do with her. "Why do I feel you're my mate? What have you done to me? "bellowed the King. "How do you know I am not your mate?" I asked, growling in frustration. I did not want to be his mate any more than he wanted me to be his, but his cocky attitude was getting to me. "Because you are not even a werewolf," he grunted, his black irises shimmering dangerously. "You're a liar," I screamed not caring that I was talking to the most lethal creature in the world. He roared in laughter, the sound of which irritated the hell out of me. Aargh! How I wanted to rip his heart out even as I wanted to glue my body to his and stay there forever, basking in his scent. I was so mad that I wanted to show him how wrong he was. Soon, he would be sorry, he would kneel and beg for my forgiveness. The mental image of him on his knees made my lips twitch with amusement. I started phasing out to my wolf form, and when I stood in all my glory, I prowled and preened to show off my beautiful fur. He laughed even harder. I simply wanted to kill him. Yes, my wolf was small, but it existed. Why the hell wasn't he on his knees then? "As I said, you're not a werewolf," he repeated. Huh, what did he mean by that?

If you can see them, then you're already dead. If you can hear them, then you're not far from it. If you can smell them, like the forest they live in, then avoid danger at all conceivable costs. Because they're the monsters in the shadows of Harvey Hill's forests, and their king needs his queen.

Purchased by the Demon King, Victoria O'Hare is thrown into the world of the immortal. Brutal and ruled by instinct, the Demon King comes to her in the dark, filling her world with pleasure and fear. Cursed and broken, King Sebastian struggles to control his inner demon. He now owns a sweet little beauty. One who calls to him in the darkness. One he could kill in an instant. Victoria struggles to show Sebastian there is more to him than his brutal nature. Despite his curse, Sebastian is tempted to accept all Victoria has to offer. When a desperate werewolf and an evil army threaten war, King Sebastian must accept what he is and protect the woman he loves...if his inner demon doesn't kill her first.

Vincent Shaw is defeated, half-dead, and broken in more ways than one. A powerful werewolf now in exile Vincent's mistakes haunt his every step. Evelyn the Meek is a sweet little half-ling and a skilled alchemist. With her own tormented past Evelyn risks life and limb to nurse a broken werewolf back from the brink of death. With a scheming mystic in the mix, an army of evil at the gate, and a vengeful mercenary on the hunt - Vincent and Evelyn must overcome all odds and each other.

"Y-you," she stuttered, staring at the handsome man sitting on the sleek black throne, "you're..." He rolled his eyes, waving his hand impatiently and said, "Hades. Come on, say it with me. Ha-des." "Hades," Ariel breathed out, still not believing the sight before her. Every picture she had seen of the gods had not depicted Hades' beauty. The god sitting before her was not a crusty old man with a white beard; no, he was a Calvin Klein model. "Yes," Hades clasped his hands together and grimaced, "the God of Death and riches; that's me." Ariel nodded, still refusing to believe but knowing she had to and Hades' grimace turned even bitter, "And you, darling, will be staying with me for quite some time." ~*~ Cover: _nymphomaniac Published: 8/6/14

"You once said you'd never fall for a girl with a leash, Konstantin," she teased. "Tell me... has the monster finally fallen?" ⸻ Van Volkov was cold, distant, and counting down the days until his debt ended - until Aira Blight tore his world apart. Now he's bound to her, heart and soul, sworn to protect the human girl who became his greatest weakness. A year after being rescued from her grandfather's estate, Aira's finally free - living the life she once only dreamed of. But this new life brings new truths. Van is changing, pulling away, haunted by something darker than she can reach. When his curse rises to claim him, Aira must cross worlds and face the spirits of the past to save the man who once saved her. He's her protector. Her bond. Her undoing. He gave her freedom. Now she'll risk everything to give him back his soul. (Book 2 from Lady and the Wolf)