Anne Malcom

He collected beautiful things. Rare things. Ripped them out of their natural environment and preserved them in all of their dead splendor. The problem was I wasn't beautiful. I was all of the hideous and ugly realities of the world packaged into one broken human being. He came to kill me. That was his business. Death. He ripped me out of my natural environment, the prison I'd created, and locked me away with all of his beautiful dead things. I hated him. I still hate him. But if I was given the choice and the ability to leave this cage, come back to life, I'd stay dead. In all of my hideous splendor. Because my murderer can only possess dead things. And I can only be possessed by someone more broken and ugly than me.

I may be the villain of the story, but at least I get a leading role. Evil is a term thrown around history and literature as if it's something so easily definable. A concept to fight against. Evil doesn’t exist. Neither does ‘good.’ Vampires do, though. I just happen to be one. I’ve cruised through the centuries managing to avoid all the wars, supernatural and human, but still going to all the best parties. I would say I avoided bloodshed, but it’s kind of part of the whole ‘vampire’ thing. I’ve lived on the fringes of a society that considered cruelty and sadism favorable character traits for almost five hundred years. Now I'm in the middle of a war that might just put my nonbeating heart in a lot of danger. Battles, I can handle. The impossible attraction between me and the vampire slayer, not to mention the penetrating gaze of the king of our race, on the other hand? I might not get out undead.

The dance is over. The battle begins. Broken hearts never heal quite right. Especially when they’ve been ripped to pieces, torn to shreds. She wasn’t supposed to fall in love with him. She’d promised she wouldn’t. Stella had known the rules when this began. “I will never love you,” he’d said... But he’d lied, because his world had been nothing but pain and hatred. Because he was a powerful man and love left you weak and defenseless. He had loved her. The dark, ugly twisted parts of him had loved her. His love was torture. It was addictive. It was oxygen. But it wasn’t enough. His life has been a constant war. But he’d never fought for anyone. Until her. He knew that he was cursing her. Sentencing her to a life that she didn’t deserve. That would ruin her. But he had no other choice. He’d fought to be a good man, to let her live without him. But he couldn’t live without her. He would fight for her. To get her back. Till death. He wasn’t a good man. He was the villain. One who needed her. Who would stop at nothing to get her back. He would prove to her that even his wretched, villainous heart could love her.

Darkness asked her to dance. It started with a cold stare. An arrangement. A deal with a devil in a bespoke suit. He was wicked. Cruel. No sane person would fall in love with him. But sanity abandoned her the second she agreed to be his. She chose to take his hand. It started with a white dress. With ocean eyes. With a woman he had to have, even though he had no business touching her porcelain skin. She was never meant to enter his world. He dragged her in anyway. It was meant to be about his twisted, selfish desires. She gave him a glimpse of the man he could’ve been had the world not turned him into a monster. He led her into the abyss. There, in the darkness, she learned wicked things. He knew he’d ruin her life, loving her. So he lied. Like the sinner he was, he broke her gentle, precious heart. Like only a devil could. But the dance had to end.

Everyone expects the fairy tale from me. Because on the outside, I look like I live in a fantasy. I'm a hopeless romantic. I fall in and out of love. I change careers, zip codes and hair colors on a whim. I'm a free spirit without a care in the world. I'm the one that loves everyone and hates no one. But I've got a secret... I'm not a free spirit. Not really. I'm not free at all. My life is only designed to look chaotically peaceful. I'm only designed to look like that. Peace is lost to me. Because I'm trying to escape something. Trying to escape him. My life isn't a fairy tale. It's time the world saw that.

I was a movie star. I'd let the world convince me I was nothing more than that. Until him... Duke is employed to protect me. To make me disappear before I testify. Nothing more. There aren't many places in the world that someone like me can disappear to. Not when billions of people know my name. I'd worked hard to make it that way. To hide underneath layers of fame, beauty and wealth. A ranch in Montana offers escape. Safety. But those Montana skies don't let me hide. Not from myself. Not from the truth. I'm no longer a movie star. I'm a witness. I'm a job. I'm a woman slowly falling in love with a man that despises me. He's tasked to protect my life, instead he ruins my soul.

My story isn’t unique. Isn’t rare. Which is, I guess, what makes it so sad. The story about a girl who falls in love with the wrong man, lured by tender gazes, devoted promises and gentle touches. The gentle touches disappear and she’s held captive with ugly insults and brutal beatings. It’s common, this story. My past. I can’t change the past. I wouldn’t even if I could. The ugliness of my past gave me a future worth living for. Worth dying for. It gave me a reason to fight. To escape. That was my mistake. Thinking girls like me could have a choice. I wasn’t given many promises in my life that weren’t broken, but chaos is a constant promise, always kept, never broken. He comes amongst the chaos. Amongst the ugly. He doesn’t promise a way out. He definitely doesn’t promise peace. But he gives me the opportunity for a different ending to my story.

My name’s Rosie and I come from a dynasty of sorts… the Sons of Templar, maybe you’ve heard of them. I just happen to be the daughter of one of the founding members and am the sister of the current president. The fact I’m a woman means I don’t wear the patch, but it’ll never change the fact that I'm a Templar by blood. We're known as royalty in the outlaw world. Though, the dynasty is dancing on the right side of the law these days. That doesn’t mean that the law and those who enforce it are friends. It will remain the one constant in my tumultuous life. The one rule in our law-free existence. Befriending the law and those that enforce it is a betrayal. Which means me being one half of a doomed love is that much more comical when he’s a cop. Or was. Before I went and ruined it all. Before he shattered that shield he wore to protect society in order to protect me. He saved me and I damned him. I damned myself too, but to be honest, I was damned long before that.

There’s a phrase: Still waters run deep. But there’s more to it than that. Because "still" doesn’t denote peace. Nor calm. Nor happiness. It’s an illusion. It's chaos. The only way to handle chaos is to become it. That’s what Lucy did. She created stillness out of the chaos tumbling inside her and called the most chaotic motorcycle club in the United States her family. The Sons of Templar gave her chaos, friendship, family, danger and death. But she wouldn't want it any other way. Then he came. The one who showed her that her handle on chaos was tumultuous at best. Showed her how to stand still. And how good it could be. And how drowning in those waters comes as easy as breathing.

Librarian note: This is an alternate-cover edition for ASIN B00WRO3R48 Gwen Alexandra does not need a man in her life. Especially not a man who looks like Chris Hemsworth and Joe Manganiello's love child. One wearing leather, riding a Harley, and covered in tattoos. Gwen can bet every pair of her Manolos that Cade Fletcher is trouble. From the moment she meets him, the attraction sizzles between them. Gwen has a problem when it comes to attractive men in motorcycle clubs. The last one she got involved with almost killed her. After healing physically, Gwen decides to get a new start in a small town, half a country away from the man who nearly cost her her life. She isn't in town five minutes when she runs into Cade, a man that is too sexy and dangerous for his own good. She tries to keep away from him, to ignore the attraction between them. But the biker has other ideas, soon she is in way over her head. Her heart, and her life are in danger once again.