Here's my list, the key to opening the gates of ordinary, to get my life back to a somewhat normal degree: 1. Get a job.... With a bunch of Academy boys? Didn't see that one coming. 2. Earn money.....Well, obviously. It's the only way we'll make rent this month. 3. See mom happy again.... If that's even possible. 4. Let go of dad.... Okay, that one is going to be a little harder to do. 5. Make some friends.....Never had any. I could always scribble this one out. Who needs em anyway? 6. Fall in love. Wait, I don't remember that last one being in there. Yup, that's definitely a mistake. Me, Stephanie Thompson, fall in love? HAHAHA! That's hilarious.... not to mention impossible!! Or so I thought.

"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?

"Your name's Anna and you're an anesthesiologist?" "Yes." "That's punny." "I can't wait to knock you unconscious." +++ Anna is an anesthesiologist. She's surprised that people laugh at the phonetic connection between her job and her name. She's even more surprised when one of her patients wishes he doesn't wake up right before she sends him under. And when he wakes, he says he could bear living another day if it meant staying with her, which leaves Anna wondering if he's just delirious or serious...