In Manhattan, tensions are rising. In a play for power, the Rossetti family has made a decisive blow, crippling their rivals—an act that has forced the Fiores to make a desperate move to maintain their supremacy. Many miles away, Luca Davis, a young medical student, has no idea his life is about to change. No idea that everything he's been told about his life has been a lie.

Being a lifelong Chicago Thunder fan, I know that Blaine Olsen is trouble. Because all hockey players are. He's a notorious playboy, and I refuse to be another notch on his bedpost. But when he shows me the part of himself he keeps hidden, it gets harder to resist him.

Sebastian “Bash” Vogel, the magnetic, cross-dressing CEO of AnaVoge, has long been a lone island when it comes to his personal life. Self-assured and playful, he’s never left wanting for suitors - but Bash isn’t looking for something permanent. He’s more than fulfilled with his company and his closest friends, and no one is going to shake up the status quo. That is, until he’s thrown over the shoulder of one of Chicago’s finest and hauled out of a burning building.

Ari had a game plan for life: shoot people. Get money. Hang out with fellow criminal friends. He saw absolutely no reason to change that plan until one dark night in Memphis, when a little girl reached out to him with pocket change and a desperate plea for him to help her. Adopting an abused little girl off the streets was, needless to say, not part of the plan. Ari had no idea what he was doing with an eight year old. He especially didn’t know how to juggle taking contracts and raising a little girl.

Of all the people who could have seen me when I was at my most vulnerable, it had to be him. Caleb. My stepbrother and the golden child of our messed up blended family. We barely know each other, but for some reason, he takes care of me when an incident at the club leaves me helpless and alone. He hates me as much as I hate him, but something about his bossy attitude and unflappable calm soothes me. I don't want to want him, but no one has ever made me feel the way he does.

I like to party; to have a good time. Life’s too short not to. I learned that when I lost my grandpa. He told me to have fun while I can, and I intend to. Though sometimes when you’re having a good time, you forget others may see you as irresponsible. And sometimes you screw up. I’ve definitely screwed up a time or two, but I’m still determined to have fun. I’m hoping I’ll convince my best friend, Camden, to do the same along the way. He’s too serious. Too focused. Too busy taking care of everyone to just relax. And that’s where I come in.

I’m the fun one. The loud one. The overly opinionated one with no filter. I’ve been unapologetically me since day one, and it hasn’t been easy. Kicked out of my home when I was sixteen, I chose to be alone rather than not be my true self. I found my family now and a job I love. I have everything, and yet I’m still an outcast in so many ways...

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.

As a kid, you don't think about the sacrifices you'll have to make for your dreams. I surrendered a carefree childhood to hours upon hours of grueling practices. Abandoned life with my family in favor of a boarding school that would hone my skills to perfection. But my biggest sacrifice, the one I couldn't predict I'd have to make as a little boy, is denying who I am. I thought I could do it. I thought hockey would be enough. After all, as the top rookie in this year's NHL draft and the most promising defender the league has seen in years, my dreams were coming true. Enter Xander Nydek.

As a 42-year-old single father, the last thing I expected before Christmas was for my daughter to sign me up for a community matchmaking event. The Christmas Buddies program becomes a challenge I can't wait to overcome when I realize the man that has been assigned as my buddy for the holiday season is none other than Paxton Montgomery. He's massive, grumpy, incredibly gorgeous (in a lumberjack kinda way), and also—weirdly enough—the only person in town who doesn't like me.

Jamie Canning has never been able to figure out how he lost his closest friend. Four years ago, his tattooed, wisecracking, rule-breaking roommate cut him off without an explanation. So what if things got a little weird on the last night of hockey camp the summer they were 18? It was just a little drunken foolishness. Nobody died.

I never thought I'd go to college a virgin, but unless something changes—and fast—that's what's going to happen. In comes Harden Hart, my all-American boy-next-door best friend with an offer to help in a way I'd never imagined. The boy, who turned everything he touched to gold, had a filthy side to him I'd never seen. Oh, and did I mention 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?

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.