Ten years ago, he was the boy she loved. Now, he's her captor hiding behind a mask.

Ten years ago, civilization crumbled, leaving women the only currency left. After watching her fiancé die, Mila has managed to survive by becoming a ghost in the woods. She has one rule: never be unprepared. But a desperate supply run leads to an ambush, and Mila wakes up in the crumbling headquarters of the Kingsnakes. Hidden in the walls of an abandoned motel, the Kingsnakes are running a blackmarket breeding ring.

She expected a monster to be hiding behind her breeder's mask. She didn't expect her supposedly dead fiancé.

Ray never planned on becoming a Kingsnake. But in a world of starvation and danger, protecting his two younger sisters meant doing the unthinkable. To keep his family fed and safe from the very men he works for, Ray has spent years chipping away at his soul, trading in human lives to ensure his sisters aren't next.

When the girl he once promised to protect is hauled into headquarters, Ray's carefully constructed survival plan shatters. Mila is a reminder of a life before the collapse, a life he spent a long time mourning. But in this new world, mercy is a death sentence. To save Mila from a fate worse than death, Ray will have to betray the only men keeping his sisters alive.

And in the lair of the Kingsnakes, the most dangerous thing is love.