[Feral 01] • Feral Instincts

**This is the second edition. This book was professionally edited and republished on 4/27/13.**

A young woman robbed of her very life and everything she holds dear...

A rather gentle and soft hearted soul, Ava is content in her quiet little life. She has a good job and two friends that she loves dearly. She never suspected that it could all be taken from her in one fluttering heartbeat. Victim of a devious plot, Ava finds herself in the middle of a living nightmare. Taken captive by a monster, she awakes forever changed. Her life will never be the same again. Afraid of becoming a monster herself, she will have to learn to adapt to this brutal new world she has been thrust into. She will have to find the strength to embrace what she has become and to face her fears if she hopes to save herself and the beast who once saved her.

A man who's path has been chosen by fate...

Sent by his pack to help the vampires with a rogue uprising, Teagan agrees to help them track the rogue leader. As the future alpha of his Lykan pack, his responsibilities are clear... that is until he rescues a fallen angel from a rogue vampire out for power and revenge. He knows he can never have her, but her unmistakable pull is hard to resist, as is the beast that resides within him.

They will have to put their fears aside if they hope to survive what lies ahead. What would you sacrifice to save the person you love? Will the beast ultimately destroy the woman he would give his very life to protect? Sometimes we are forced to find strength we never knew we had in order to survive.

~ “What are you?” the angel asked him in wonder.

Teagan hesitated a moment before responding. “I am Lykan.” He answered her with a voice gone rough from the beast within. It was always hard to speak in his beast form. He was shocked that this little slip of a girl had dared to touch him. He had expected her to scream and run in terror from him when she opened her eyes. Instead, she had boldly moved closer and seemed to be savoring the heat of his skin. The muscles on his chest flexed in response to her gentle touch, and he resisted the urge to lean into her wandering hand.

Looking down at the small hand on his chest, he growled, “What are you?” He breathed deeply of her scent, trying to figure it out. She smelled like a vampire but also of human and soft female and something else… Teagan tensed. She also had a male vampire’s scent all over her. Could it be Salvatore’s scent? Was she some sort of new rogue hybrid? Gods, he hoped not. He didn’t want to destroy her.

The look of wonder on her face disappeared as a look of utter despair filled her eyes. She struggled to find the words to answer his question. “I… I… don’t know what I am.”

Tears began to slide down her cheeks. She leaned her forehead into his chest, softly crying. Looking down at her in confusion, he instinctively wrapped his arm around her, holding her to his chest. Clenching his fist, he resisted moving his hand to rub the soft skin of her back in comfort.

“I… I’m a monster.” Her soft voice came to him in a quiet, shame-filled whisper. “Like him… he… he did this to me. He infected me. Please… I can’t be a monster. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I think… you have to kill me.”

Teagan held his breath and froze, his beast growling in protest at her words. His instincts were telling him to protect, not destroy. He didn’t know what she was, but he sensed an innocence about her. He knew she was no monster.

“Please. I don’t think I can take any more. He’s coming back for me. There’s no time. You have to do it now.” The little female lifted her tear-streaked face to look into his eyes. “Please, I would rather die than be a monster like Salvatore or, worse, a slave to him for eternity. This is why you came here, isn’t it? Please… end this… kill me.”