Harley Rayne just wanted to feel like she belonged. Years of living in her sister's shadow, feeling like an outsider in her own family, only managed to push her further into the arms of Frank Essex—the cliche bad boy who knew just how to seduce her into his control. She yearned to feel wanted, to feel seen.

And oh, did he see her.

The night Frank revealed the beast within, Harley realized monsters were real. Not just the monster her boyfriend had become, but the literal monster he was. And he wanted to make her like him.

Maybe, in his own sadistic way, Frank really did love her. Maybe that's why he dragged her into the world she was never meant to be a part of. Sometimes the desire to belong and to be loved, sprinkled with an unhealthy dose of lust, can find you wandering blindly into the wolf's den.

Harley may have escaped Frank and his pack, but she couldn't escape the truth: people who were supposed to love you hurt you, and she'd been letting everyone else influence how she lived her life. Now she would fight tooth and claw to live life on her own terms and take back control of herself. Even if that meant choosing between death and the monster she feared.

[Previously published as "Deny the Moon" until June 2018. Melissa A. Graham rebranded under pen name Madison Chase in 2024]