At 18, I was a young man winning the game of life. I had a college football scholarship and a cute girlfriend on my arm for my hometown’s annual Halloween party. Forget spiking the punch. The eccentric old scientist who lives in the woods brewed something more potent…and permanently life-altering.

When my sister is chosen for the Monster Mate Hunt—an annual event where two women must sacrifice themselves to the orcs for the good of us all—I volunteer in her place. The orcs hunt me as I bolt through the forest. I'm captured by the gruff, growly Commander Jaus, who expects me to cook and clean, plus sleep in his quarters with him at night, despite insisting he doesn't want a mate. Then something changes, and his dark, brooding gaze turns my way . . .

When space pirates attack the exploratory spaceship I work on and I'm forced to evacuate in an escape pod, I never expected to crash land on an alien planet. I have no idea where any of my fellow crew members are or if they even got away. I'm entirely alone. Or so I think. Instead, I'm rescued from a fierce predator by a towering purple alien with a tail and color-changing tattoos who ignites strange feelings inside me.

Sent to Screaming Woods to write a magazine piece on its resident monsters, I'm ready to meet hairy beasts, ogres, vampires . . . what I'm not prepared for? A snake man. I'm terrified of snakes. Now I'll have to talk to a man-sized one on a daily basis, because he owns the motel where I'm staying. Once the initial shock of coming face to face with a walking, talking snake passes, I start to see Leroy for the man beneath the monster exterior. And the more I get to know my snake man, the more I realize my biggest fear would be losing him.

Scoring a job at the exclusive and secretive Hotel Castle Verna is exactly what I need to pay off my debt and avoid a punishment I might not survive. The guests are a little eccentric, but they are great tippers. All I have to do is ignore the strange sights, smells, and sounds coming from the guest rooms, and I can remain gainfully employed. Simple, right? Except there's one guest at the hotel who's always watching me with his mismatched black and white eyes.