I’m never one to turn down a bet. Especially not when it comes to retaliating against the dean for pulling a dick move before summer break. So when the dean’s golden child arrives at Astor for his freshman year, my fellow troublemakers throw down a wager I can’t resist. The target: the dean’s son, John Thomas Hawthorne, or “JT”. The bet: corruption in any way I choose. It should’ve been easy. With his mess of brown curls, pouty lips, and good-boy reputation, JT is the perfect revenge. And even better? He’s straight.

His new life in Chicago consists of performing autopsies and eating chips while watching old detective series. Until…He's suddenly standing in front of me. Leather jacket, washed-out jeans, jet black hair. His deep, green eyes are so intense on me I can barely breathe. It's in his crooked smile, bold flirting, and confident—borderline conceited—behavior that I get lost.

For almost a decade, I've been the secret pen pal of a convict—my best friend's father. All I wanted was to help bridge the gap between father and son. But the innocent act soon turns into more. Through our letters, I am able to be the brave, confident guy I am in fact, not. So what if I fibbed a little when I sent him a false photograph of me? And reinvented myself in those letters? After all, what's the harm when Griff will never be released from prison?

When my grandmother, the leader of the Rathmore Coven, summons me, I have no choice but to answer her call. To reach her, I must cross the Wood, the realm of Wotan, lord of the hunt. Rumors of his cruelty and brutality precede him, but nothing prepares me to meet the monster face to face. Because Wotan is more than a monster. He's a predator, a bully, and now he's claimed me as his pawn in his war against my grandmother. A master of torture, he's determined to master me, stripping me bare of all my secrets.

He's a bad man, and I don't mean trash like your ex. I mean seriously bad. I mean dangerous. You can tell just by looking at him: black eyes, a menacing scowl, and a nose that's been badly broken in the past. He is my arch-nemesis. My mortal enemy. My singular obsession. I was afraid of him when we met. He kidnapped and chained me to a bed. Me—Damon Alexander Beckett of BeckIT fame and fortune. Well, the joke's on him because I'm going to make it my life's mission to destroy him. But first, I have to survive being his captive.