"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?

Dolly and Valentino. Sweet and intense. Crazy and serious. Two opposites. Two hearts. Two lonely souls. Dolly Armstrong is a crazy 19 year old with no experience of friendships or relationships. Isolated her whole life, she's desperate for a friend, someone she can waffle her heart out to, someone she can dress up in matching duck onesies with, someone who can tame her little crackhead self. Valentino Dominguez, a 25 year old lawyer who has no time for anything or anyone. He didn't care for a relationship, he told himself he was content on his own, basking in the silence of his own presence. That's how he liked it, quiet and calm. Until a talkative girl without the ability to be quiet stumbled into his gym. Can these two opposites ever become one?

PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS "The softest place to fall" "Who did this to you?" The question hangs in the air between us. I can't look at him. I stare at my hands instead. "Ella." His voice breaks on my name. "Please. Talk to me." "I- " The word comes out as barely a whisper. "I can't." "You can. Whatever it is, you can tell me. I'm not going anywhere."