June Breslin thought she’d survived everything—cancer, betrayal, divorce—until the drugs that saved her turned her into something else. At night she prowls Livonia with claws that secrete a black, intoxicating toxin; by day she teaches undergraduates and pretends to be human. When a corrupt sheriff, a campus predator, and a string of disappearances fall into blood at her hands, June has to learn to live with the monster beneath her skin. 

A frightened student named Kyle becomes more than an ally; he becomes a tether to the life she didn’t want to lose. But Harriet Ivy Corporation, the shadowy lab behind the so-called cure, wants something June can’t give: a child shaped into a weapon. With her sister kidnapped and a ticking deadline, June must choose whether to embrace the beast or destroy the thing growing inside her—before the corporation turns motherhood into massacre. 

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Target Audience: 

Adult readers (25–55) who favor dark, female-led thrillers and antihero narratives. They enjoy morally ambiguous protagonists and visceral scenes told from intimate POV (examples: readers of female-centric psychological thrillers and dark urban fantasy). June’s voice, transgressive impulses, and her complex maternal storyline will especially appeal to readers seeking a subversive, emotionally charged protagonist.