Claiming Red

They called me Red for the cloak I wore. Soon they'd call me Red for the blood I spilled.

I saw my own death in a vision. Hands bound, water filling my lungs, the village elder counting the seconds while I drowned.

So I ran into the forest they warned us about. Into the dark that had swallowed my husband and six armed men and sent back pieces.

I didn't make it far.

I woke up in my dead grandmother's cottage with boards on the windows and a bar on the door. The man who put me there was tall, scarred, and living in these woods like he'd grown out of the trees. He said he was keeping me safe. He said the forest had things in it that hunted by scent. He said I couldn't leave.

He cooked for me. Argued with me. Watched me with amber eyes that tracked every move I made like I was something he'd been starving for his whole life.

Then I saw what he really was. Black fur. Gold eyes. A wolf the size of a nightmare standing where the man had been seconds before.

Wolves and blood-keepers have been enemies for centuries. He should have torn my throat out. I should have run.

Neither of us did what we were supposed to.

But he wasn't the only wolf in this forest. And the other one was older, hungrier, and already knew what I was worth.

When the village came hunting, when the thing in the dark came for what it believed was its, I had to choose. Run again, or fight beside the man who was never really a man at all.

I chose blood.

Claiming Red is Book 1 of the Once Upon A Monster series. Each book can be read as a standalone. MF dark paranormal romance. HEA.

A dark paranormal Red Riding Hood retelling with werewolf romance, forced proximity, captive-to-lovers, a plus-size FMC over 35, and a dangerous hero who'd rather die than claim her without consent.