Havendoor, New York is a small out-of-the-way town. Surrounded by forest, it’s the perfect place to build a mansion and raise six spirited monsters to be extraordinary beasts.
Oliver
Vampires don’t fall in love. At least, that’s what I’ve always believed. How can you fall in love when everything with a beating heart is a potential food source? Yet from the moment I first saw Britta, nothing else mattered. I don’t even care that the story she writes may destroy me and my brothers. Fighting my instincts to claim her isn’t an option, but getting her to see beyond my monster may be impossible.
Britta
I came to Scrim Hall to unravel a mystery and write a story that would push my journalism career to the next level. I never believed the stories of monsters living in the woods. I was wrong. Though this monster has a hold on me that I can’t explain. His bite is magic, but his heart is a drug I can’t resist.
Declan
A grim reaper knows when people are ready to cross over to the next life. That makes it hard to get close to anyone. My brothers are monsters too, so their lives are long, and their deaths far enough away that they don’t invade my senses. Every other human is not as much of a mystery. I touch them and I know when they will draw their last breath. Until Anabelle. From the first touch, I feel need and desire. Not a hint of death in her future. It’s not possible, and yet…
Anabelle
I’ve never met anyone as sad or as caring as the man who came to comfort my grandfather at the end. There had been other hospice workers, but none like Declan. He spent hours with me and Poppy then he was gone. Unable to shake him from my mind, I search him out at a strange mansion in the woods. I can’t decide if he’s a monster or a man, but I’m drawn in like a moth to a candle and can’t fly away.
FINN
My brothers and I have a vacation cabin on a large piece of property in the wilderness. I often go there to spread my wings. It’s hard to let my dragon free when people are around, and the beast needs to fly. The last thing I expect is to find a woman passed out in our woods. She’s like a precious jewel and my dragon can’t let her go.
MARINA
I’ve been searching my entire life for proof that I’m not crazy. I was five years old when I saw the dragon flying over my family’s summer rental. He had golden eyes and his soul spoke to me. Then he was gone and no one believed me. They said he was a dream and when I wouldn’t let it go, they put me in therapy. Even I started to believe I was nuts. Now I’m looking into those same eyes and my dragon is a man. Maybe being trapped in a cabin with a beast is a bad idea, or maybe I’m having a breakdown, but when he looks at me, I don’t want to be anywhere else.
Silas
My gardens are my life. I design and create them. When my wolf needs to run, there’s plenty of space around Scrim Hall. The rest of the time, my life is semi-normal. At least it was until my landscape supplier retired and his granddaughter took over the business. I can’t stay away from the fiery goddess. Now that I have her scent, my beast wants more, and I can’t deny the wolf.
Lucinda
I’ve never met a man as ferocious or as attractive as Silas Dimitri. My brain says run. My heart says he’d catch me—and I’d like it. I’m only supposed to deliver plants to the mysterious mansion in the woods, but arriving at Scrim Hall is like falling into the rabbit hole. However, my wonderland is filled with pleasures beyond the imagination, and I don’t think I want to go home.
Griffin
Demons are not that rare. You’d be surprised how many of us are living right under your nose. A living demon has to make trips to hell from time to time in order to recharge. This time when I push back into the world of man, I unexpectedly land in a public part of the park. Luckily, only one woman is present. Her level of shock is so severe, I can’t leave her. The beast inside me softens with her in my arms.
Julia
I was meditating in the same spot I do every day when the weather is good. The gates of hell opened up and a sexy-as-F man gapes at me. The next thing I know, I wake up and he’s holding me. His pale eyes hold none of the black I first saw when he jumped from a fiery pit. He presses his lips to my forehead and tells me everything is going to be okay. For the first time in my totally messed up life, I believe it.
Noah
I’m close to my regeneration, but I hold on a few extra days so I can attend my brother’s wedding. I’m sure I look like hell, but the only one who seems to notice is the gorgeous friend of the bride. She’s been on my mind since we first met and if I wasn’t close to doing what a Phoenix is best known for, I’d be all in for a mutual seduction. When I tell her I’ll be better in a few days, her eyes fill with sympathy. Once I’m reborn out of the ashes, there’ll be a lot of explaining to do.
Nina
He was sick the weekend of the wedding. Even so, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. So beautiful and elegant. I’m a little ashamed, but during the rehearsal dinner, I follow Noah into the woods. I don’t know what I hoped for, but he bursts into flames and a minute later he’s in front of me—perfect, naked—and I’m about to lose my mind. He’s weak, and I run to him. A moment later, total chaos erupts around us and we’re attacked by a team in hazmat gear and whisked away in the night.
Wentworth
I forfeited my mating rights many years ago when I took a wife who was not my true mate. She died nearly a century ago, and I have filled the void of lost love by raising six monsters to be fine men. I’m no saint—I’ve also sown many oats with the lovely local women. Even so, loneliness crept deep inside my soul until a human interior designer invaded my home and my heart. I’m a monster descended from lions, but Isa doesn’t run from my appearance. Though, she does run.
Isa
I was hired to decorate some new houses being built on the property surrounding Scrim Hall. I wouldn’t have left New York City for anyone other than my dearest friend, Nina, but she asked, and here I am. While I’m admiring the magnificent home, I come face-to-face with a monster. No amount of warning could have prepared me for the allure of the beast living in the main house. I should want to get away, except something in his sad eyes lures me in. As much as I want this monster to be mine, the mistakes of my past send me running.
Wentworth
I can’t force Isa to accept our mating bond. All I can do is beg her to give me one week to decide our fate. One short week to convince a stranger that I’m the only one, man or beast, who can truly make her happy.