Lori

The supercilious cow who just hired me for my dream job didn't do so because of my impeccable filing or my ability to type 80 words per minute. She did so because she took one look at my plus-size body and assumed my smoking hot billionaire bosses wouldn't look twice at me. I assumed the same. But when I meet the big alphas running Dacian Enterprises, we're all in for a shock. Their eyes turn silver the moment they take me in, looking for all the world like the big bad wolves that want to eat me up. One of them already has—a Howlr hookup that I ghosted after the hottest night of my life.

I'm not all that special, really. I'm sure there are a lot of girls with old gypsy blood who see the dead, have killer cults hunting their family, and turn into something that gets scary when they panic. Yep. I'm just an ordinary girl. I wish people would believe that. I've been labeled as one thing or another for most of my life: Death Girl. Crazy Gypsy Girl. Gothic Chick. Monster. It took my mother's death for me to finally start getting answers about what's really been going on. Unfortunately, most of the answers come from men...who aren't just men.

An escape from my parents who insist I follow in their footsteps as a Guardian of the Society. Keep the members safe—that's what I'm supposed to do. But how can I safeguard the students when I can't even protect myself? Someone has been watching me. His eyes burn into my soul like a branding iron. At night, he haunts my dreams and transforms them into nightmares. Sometimes when I wake, he's there, standing at the foot of my bed in awe of my existence. He isn't the one I fear most, though

In therapy, they tell you to use your senses. List the things you know: Sermons recited with malice. A blood-soaked ritual. The sting of tears and gasping sobs of the dying. Rotting flesh. I grew up in a cage, tortured by the Lord Almighty's most twisted servant. Death and despair became my close companions as I watched years of slaughter at Pastor Michaels’ hand. Eighteen girls. Dead. Eighteen lives. Ended. Eighteen futures. Stolen.

My name is Dawn Rose. I was the food-scavenger for my group of outcasts in the Fringe - what used to be LA County before the Abnorms and supernaturals turned it into a hellscape. But I never expected to witness a brutal murder-by-magic. Now I've been whisked off to Briarwitch Academy, the place where magic goes to grow. The faculty think I have an ancient untapped power. Yeah, right. Like I'm going to fit in with drunken gnomes and goth pixies.

Isobel knows it. The Alphas know it. Yet every time they make a move, Ironside counters with two, always one step ahead, outsmarting them at every turn. Just when they grasp a lifeline, Ironside threatens to hang them with it. They have only one choice: play the game—the real game, exactly as it was designed. With new contracts pulling them deeper into the service of the Stone Dahlia and yet another settlement tour looming on the horizon, they must execute their roles flawlessly.

The Ironside Show is back. Bigger than ever, and shinier, too. To the audience, it’s a glorious spectacle, but to Isobel Carter and the Alphas of Dorm A, it’s a trap. A maze. The further they venture, the darker their path becomes, until all the tarnish has flaked away and only the bare metal bars remain.

The academy that once promised Isobel Carter salvation has pulled back the curtain and revealed itself for what it truly is. A pretty little prison. She may have been reduced to a puppet behind a screen, but at least the Alphas of Dorm A are there to heighten her performances, quicken her breath, and flood her face with colour for the cameras.

Isobel Carter is making headlines. Some of them good, some of them bad, and some of them … astounding. She started at the bottom and now she’s near the top with everything she never wanted, but the Ironside Show doesn’t care, because she’s just become one of the most interesting students at the academy, and everyone seems to have big plans for her.

Ironside is more than a regular academy. It’s also the biggest reality TV show in the world … and a very elaborate, very luxurious prison. Their hallowed halls are ruled by the Betas, Omegas, and Deltas—but this year, the officials are stirring things up. Isobel Carter—the only rare Sigma to be accepted—is the first sign. But there are others. Many others. A sudden influx of powerful Alphas will turn academy life, and Isobel’s life, upside down.