Predator: one that preys, destroys, or devours. He was always the predator, always the one stalking and preparing to strike. Failure was not an option to him, not achieving what he desired was not an option. He spent his whole life with this mentality, that he was the predator. In the wild it was the survival of the fittest, and life was no different. Those were the rules he lived by. And everything and everyone could be prey in his eyes. Including her. Prey: one that is helpless or unable to resist attack. She had lived on her own for years, taking care of herself. She had survived even against the odds, with her dignity still intact in the process. Maybe her life wasn't what others expected or would want, it wasn't even what she wanted. But it was hers and she made the best of it, surviving on her own and under her terms. Until she meets him and turns her life upside down. She is no longer surviving on her own terms, but his. And there is nothing she can do. *The story will have underplays of power dynamics. Teasing, taunting. He is the predator and she his prey, but who is really going to be captured by who?*

When a murder shakes her tiny village, Alera will discover a horrifying link between the scars on her arms and the werewolves and vampires that stalk her home. ***** Nineteen-year-old Alera has grown up in the village of Adaymos, listening to stories about the monsters that live in the forest that surround her home. Labelled an outcast because of the scars on her arm, she's an easy scapegoat after one of the villagers is found murdered, but when newcomer Will is framed instead she's forced to question everything she knows about the mysterious outsider. Could he really be the killer? Or is he hiding more about the werewolves and vampires that live in the forest -- and the truth behind Alera's scars -- than he lets on? [[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]