Being snowed in with a grizzly shifter wasn’t on the itinerary for my holiday in the mountains.

Going on a winter backpacking trip may not have been the best thing to fix a broken heart. After an accident on trail leaves me without my pack and nearly freezing to death, the last thing I expect to see is a huge, terrifying grizzly lumbering out of the woods.

Even more unexpected is watching that grizzly turn into a man who scoops me up and carries me back to his cabin.

With a blizzard setting in and no way to get home until the storm passes, Irving invites me to stay. And it doesn’t take long for cozy nights in front of the fire with my big, burly, handsome rescuer to turn into something else. Snowed in together with nowhere to go, we quickly discover the merits of sharing body heat to stave off the cold.

But I came out to these mountains for a reason, and after a breakup that left my confidence shattered, I don’t know if I can trust this, trust him, trust myself not to make another mistake and fall for the wrong person. Especially with time running out as the snow stops falling, and real life waiting for me back in Seattle.

Seven years hasn't been long enough to forget the bite of Casimir's rejection.

When the Monster Relations Bureau tasks me and Casimir with solving a string of rogue vampire attacks in Boston, I'm quick to let him know I work best alone.

But it doesn't take me long to end up in the crosshairs of the city's most feared vampire coven, and with no better options, I agree to work the case with Casimir. It puts me under his protection, staying in his opulent Gothic manor and slowly rediscovering the reasons I've always found him so darkly irresistible.

With a city on edge, a twisted power struggle between corrupt politicians and the covens who've silently ruled over Boston for centuries, and the vampire from my past quickly becoming the bane of my present, it's all I can do to keep Casimir at arm's length and protect the pride he shattered seven years ago.

As we get closer to solving the case, lines blur, danger rises, and all the walls I've kept raised against him crack and crumble, until I'm forced to face the fact that I'm just as powerless now as I was then against this vampire and the wicked pleasure of his bite.