"Smooth lips caressed my forehead, and I opened my eyes wide in shock. There, staring into my face, was the most handsome young man I'd ever seen. He was bare from his waist up, and from his waist to his knees, he was covered only by an animal-skin girdle. His eyes were the lustrous yellow-green color that the cougar's had been, yet they were human eyes, as all the rest of him was very human indeed."
Between working a job, taking care of her family's farm, mourning the loss of her late aunt, AND keeping her alcoholic parents out of trouble, Aria's life is anything but a fairytale! While walking through the woods one morning, Aria is attacked by a trio of rougue trespassers out for a little more than the prize buck... In a twist of fate, she is saved by the one creature she would never have expected: a puma. Now, Aria must come face to face with an impossible reality that will challenge everything she believes to be true about her world...
As she enters a new world of magic and mystique, Aria is forced to choose between her world and this new society before the one man who can destroy it all takes both forever. With her time running out, Aria struggles to come to terms with the one thing that may be able to save her--that new dimension of herself that is greater than any sorcery: her heart.
As Claire aims to leave her oppressive stepfamily behind, she befriends Zion. Will he be her ticket to freedom or a distraction in achieving her dreams?
*****
Claire Olsen has had a crush on Zion Petrakis since the first time she laid eyes on him, but he never noticed, instead only having eyes on the school's it girl, Maddie Jennings. Knowing she couldn't compete with Maddie, Claire hid her feelings for Zion, satisfied with admiring him from afar. However, when a series of events led Claire closer to Zion, her feelings for him grew from infatuation to love. And despite fighting hard to keep her feelings contained by distancing herself from Zion, he was determined to show her that he's earned a spot in her life.
[[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]