Luna I was eighteen. He was over two hundred years old. I was an inexperienced vampire exploring Eastern Europe by myself. Banner was the king of the Scottish Lycans. He was huge. I was small. And he wouldn't take no for an answer. Talk about a forbidden, age-gap romance. Our meeting had been nothing short of happenstance, luck of the draw, a strike of fate, or one of the many other things people say when you meet the one person meant to be yours and yours alone. But we were meant to be together. Fated mates by destiny. Maybe I should have fought the attraction. Maybe I should have played hard to get. Especially when my Lycan mate was so big and burly, growly and an over-the-top alpha? But where was the fun in that? Reader note: This is the origin story for Banner and Luna. Although the story timeline predates the Lycans series as this is somewhat of a prequel, it doesn't have to be read before any of the other books.

Mikalina It was a spur of the moment, maybe reckless, definitely a shock to everyone I knew when I decided to take a trip across the ocean to a foreign country and stay for an undetermined amount of time. Renting out a cottage in a tiny European village whose residents barely spoke English was the perfect escape from overbearing parents, fake friends, and a future that seemed bleak. And helping out an elderly woman with her shopping to earn some extra cash seemed easy enough. Mindless, hour-long walks through the thick woods that surrounded said village also sounded ideal. No Internet. No television. And just the bare basics to get me by. Perfection. Stress-free. Exactly what I needed. Or maybe I was wrong about it all. I felt someone or something watching me from the darkened, dangerous woods. I felt someone—something—stalking me. I didn’t know what or who it was, but I knew with certainty it wasn’t human… and that it wanted me. Ren I wasn’t human, not completely. A Lycan—a centuries-old wolf-like creature that was feared by all, stronger than anything on the planet, and who was only ever after one thing. My mate. For over three hundred years, I had one purpose in life. Find her, the one female born to be mine. My female who’d cause the Linking Instinct—that supernatural connection that told me she was mine and I hers—to finally take root and make me whole. And for hundreds of years, I’d been alone, saving myself for my mate, never stopping the search. Until I scented her, saw her, finally felt my heartbeat and the blood rush through my veins with hope and anticipation. Mine. She didn’t see me, but she sensed me. And she ran. She couldn’t possibly know how much the chase turned me on. I didn’t know how I’d make her understand I could never let her go, that nothing and no one would stop me from making her mine. Because once a Lycan found his mate… nothing in this world, nothing supernatural or human, could keep him from her.

Luca I'd lost my mind, was more animal than man. More crazed than sane. And all because I hadn't found my mate, that one female born to be mine and mine alone. As an over four-hundred-year-old Lycan, a supernatural being who was able to shift from human to my inner wolf, my kind was known as fearsome beasts with unimaginable power. All feared us, and rightfully so. I had given up hope of ever finding my mate and because of that had let my inner beast reign supreme, control me. I was far more rabid than anything else. But then it happened. I saw her, my halfling mate. Part Lycan. Part vampire. She was perfect and made just for me. I craved her like no other, and I'd have her as mine no matter what. For there was nothing more dangerous than a male of the Otherworld finding his mate and keeping her close. But she had protectors, brothers, and a father who saw me for the beast I was and were ready to go to war with me... to keep her from me. I'd been waiting my entire life for her, and they'd soon realize I'd level anything and anyone who thought to stand in the way of claiming my prize, no matter the consequences or repercussions.

I had no family, no friends. I was utterly alone and always had been. And once I aged out of the system that had raised me, I decided to find out exactly who I was. Where did I come from? Who were my parents? What made me… me? It became the fire in my veins. And my journey led me to Scotland, the Highlands, and for the first time in my life, I had this feeling of… belonging. What should have been a simple hike through the Scottish countryside led me to discover that there were things far more mysterious than trying to find out who I was. There were other things—creatures—lurking in this world, ones who were stronger, fiercer… ones who were not human. Everything I’d ever known seemed like a fable now. And it was one of those otherworldly creatures who stalked me—chased me. And I knew I couldn’t outrun him. I couldn’t escape. He’s bigger than any man I’d ever seen, stronger than anyone should be. His growls were feral, his fangs animalistic, and when he watched me it was with glowing eyes. I found myself at his mercy, chained to a bed, and alone with this man who isn’t really a man at all. I asked him why I was there, why he took me, held me against my will. And all he said was… I was his mate. \official blurb to follow\

I’d never felt like I was missing anything in my life, not until my only friend left to start a journey to find out her own history. It had been clear in the ugliest way that I relied on her company too much over the years. I needed to make my own path, create my own story. But then one video call changed my entire life, and I was thrown into a new world where creatures that had only ever been in fiction and movies were now very much real. And one of them was coming after me. A werewolf—Lycan—from myth and lore. He said I was his. He said he was coming for me. So there was only one thing for me to do. Run. Cian said he wouldn’t stop until he found me, until he put his mark on my neck. He said he’d go to the ends of the world to make me his mate in all ways. He’d have one hell of a chase on his hands, because I wasn’t going to make this easy on him. That was my plan until everything changed—and someone else was hunting us.

Adryan I was ruthless, brutal. A sociopath by all accounts. The leader of the American Vampire Clan, a male who all feared because I was merciless. And then I found my mate. Kayla. So fragile. Breakable. So human. I’d make her mine, and she’d hate me for it. I wanted to give her pain with pleasure, wanted to break her skin and lick up the blood I spilled… take Kayla into me like she’d take me into her. I’d have her surrendering to my needs. I’d give her my body but wouldn't be able to give her my heart. How could I when it wasn’t something I had to offer, when I was nothing but a coldhearted killer? So when the threats come to my front door, it’s time to show my female she’s mated to the most dangerous vampire in the world.

Odhran The moment I found her, my fated mate—the only good and right thing in my dark, hollow life—she was taken from me by my enemies. She was gone, ripped from my arms, a feeling more painful than if my heart had been torn from my chest. I changed that day. I didn’t see myself as Odhran, loyal soldier to the king of the Scottish Lycans, any longer. I became scarred, emotionless… soulless. 
And over the decades, I became stronger, more deadly. I turned into a killing machine, a warlord who took lives because mine had no meaning any longer. I realized I became this male for a reason, a purpose. To take down the organization that stole and enslaved what was mine by right and fate. And I knew that because I found her. I found them. 
They thought they could take her, keep my mate from me. They didn’t know I’d destroy them because of it.

Sebastian I was a ruthless monster. A right-hand enforcer to the most powerful sociopathic vampire in the world. The only thing that mattered was satiating my bloodthirst for killing. When it came time to take out the Assembly, a group of demented humans who used creatures of the Otherworld for their own sick entertainment, I was ready to litter the ground with their corpses. And I did my job well. But when I woke up in the middle of nowhere and realized I’d been thrust into another dimension, the idea of death was a sweet relief. But then I was found by an unlikely ally. She saved me. This tiny Fae female with pointed ears, tiny fangs, deep red hair, and freckles that made me hungry and thirsty and dying to see every part of her. Ada. My mate. It was an enemies-to-lovers start, where it was her and me against everything else in this dangerous new world. And for the first time in my life I actually… wanted something for myself. I wanted to protect instead of kill. I wanted to love instead of hate. I just didn’t know if I could ever be anything but the villain of my own story.