Is it a gift if it has teeth? Haley Campbell is caught in a snare: longing to run wild but terrified of her secret violent urges. When she finds her grandfather's diary in the attic, she discovers her insatiable hunger is an inherited trait. The ancient frail man who used to chain-smoke in her parents' living room is responsible for countless unsolved murders in the 1930s and -40s. Fearful of following in his bloody footsteps-her birthright, after all-she travels to Wharton, a beachfront town, hoping to find the Alpha who may have a way of curing her hunger before someone else gets hurt. Candy Bailey is feeling boxed-in: an unfulfilling relationship, a dead-end job, and a raging case of writer's block. Something has to change. Then she meets Haley, a beautiful young woman on a mysterious quest. Candy is desperate to help her-if only to see her smile. But when their relationship escalates into something more, Candy is thrust into a dangerous world she never knew existed. Meanwhile, Alpha Angus Chilton and his human lover, Hunter Bailey, have built a quaint, beautiful life together in Wharton. The tumultuous events of the previous year are now just a distant nightmare. But when Haley makes her presence known, it may tear everything they built asunder.