He is the night's reckoning, the shadow that haunts my dreams. This year, he wants more than just my fear. Halloween is a celebration of the bizarre, the unexpected, the dark. And I've always had a twisted enjoyment that dances with the macabre. Things turn sinister when every guy I date ends up six feet under, courtesy of an obsessed stalker. Like a ravenous beast, the murderer hides in plain sight. His identity? None other than Nyx, my brother's best friend and my secret admirer.

I see her jotting down notes in her little notebook. Psychopath. Deranged. No empathy to be found. She doesn't yet understand just how right she is, but she will. I'm obsessed with her. She consumes my every waking thought. The problem is, she's my therapist. Can she break through to me, or will I end up breaking her?

I ran from him, even though my heart knew better. Love was one thing, but survival another. I should have known he'd come for me. Men like him always get what they want. The temptation in his eyes, the heat of his touch...it's all still there, but his gaze is harsher now and his grasp unrelenting. He's not the boy I fell in love with, although pieces of what we once had are still there. I can feel it. I know what he wants from me, and I know it comes with a steep price. I'll pay it though, if for no other reason than to touch him again.

My father had just sold me off. Bartered my body to erase his debt to the very devil himself. A Beast of a man. Literally. A creature whispered about amongst the villagers and feared by all. He was a beastly visage at three times the size of a man, his monstrously huge body covered in fur. Sharp fangs and eyes that held an unearthly red glow. He had paw-like hands tipped with claws and horns that arched back from his inhuman face. I was to live with him, to be his in every way—all ways—he saw fit.

The rabbit's foot sways in the car, a bad omen that I choose to ignore. Her innocent face and offer for a ride are too tempting. Little does she know that I'm a dangerous man on the run, a sociopath with a thirst for the thrill of the hunt. Selena is my rabbit, and I'm about to ensnare her in my trap. As we speed toward the border, emotions I thought I was incapable of stir within me. What will happen when we reach our destination? Will I let her go, or will I keep her by my side forever? The game has just begun, rabbit.

The hunt is what we all crave. Some of us are prey while others are predators. My name is Bree Walker. He calls me little mouse. His name is Mikhail Smirnov. The man without a face. People see him as nothing but a ruthless monster but in him I find salvation. You see I need the beast in him to feel, without it I am simply the walking dead. Let the hunt begin.

Jax ‘The King of Chaos’ Carter and Lily’s story begins the new era of the Beneath the Secrets series.

Stone was my best friend. My protector. My everything. Until he wasn’t. Kids like us didn’t have the best life, riddled with trauma, bounced around in a system that didn’t want us and couldn’t handle us. In our darkest hours, we had each other. Until we didn’t. We tried to hold on to what little we had. Maneuvering the rough waters of our circumstance. Until I couldn’t.

I'm wanted. On the lam, running from the law and my mistakes. The house tucked into the trees seems safe—an excellent place to hide out. Once inside, I find something unexpected. A nurse that can do more than heal my wounds. But the longer I'm awake, the more reality starts to blur, and I can't tell what's real and what's not anymore. Plagued by ill fantasies and temptation, I try to keep her safe from me. It works until the lines between us also begin to blur.

There’s no way out of the maze, there is no way out of the maze. No way out of the maze. No way out. None. A teacher. A student. A scarecrow. One dangerously lusty Halloween night in a small Ohio town that will never be forgotten.