Title: In the Dark

Author: Lila Rose

Genre: NA Paranormal Romance 

Cover Designer: Wrapped Pages

Editor: Hot Tree Editing 

Release Date: March 29th

Mothers were supposed to love unconditionally. Mine didn't. In fact, she tried to kill me on my thirteenth birthday, when she saw just how different I was. My dad saved my life that night. He also took her away on an extended vacation, leaving me with an ever-absent uncle. 

Five years later, solitude was something I lived by. I had to because I was different and people tended not to cope well with the unusual. In fact, they hated me for it, were even scared of me because of it.

I thought I was meant to live alone, until Isaac Grey took notice of me. He changed my life, taught me I wasn't the only one who was different, and I didn't need to be alone. 

But with love comes sacrifice and then pain. Could I ever escape living in the dark?

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Prologue 

I didn't want to ask for help. Mum was already upset about something she'd heard from down the street. But my fear was raw, palpable, leaving my breathless and shaky. I didn't know what was going on or why pain spread through my body. 

    With my arms wrapped around my middle, sweat covering my body and stabbing pains shooting through me, I staggered into the kitchen. The scent of bacon filled the room and my stomach growled in response when I inhaled the familiar greasy scent.

    How was I hungry when I was hurting so much?

    Am I dying?

    Tears fell unbidden, dampening my cheeks. I quickly wiped them away, not wanting to panic her.

“Mum.” I coughed. She stood at the stove, her back to me.

    She turned, tongs in her hand and screamed.

    I covered my ears; still, her scream drilled into my head, hurting me even more.

    “Mum,” I yelled, even my own voice hit me like a sledgehammer to the brain. 

    Her screaming stopped. Wide-eyed before me, she gaped. “Leila? Your body…”

    “Help me. It hurts.” I collapsed to the ground on my hands and knees. “Please.”

    “No. No… Look at you—you're wrong.” She sobbed, her hand covering her mouth in horror.

    Another fierce wave of pain rushed through me. Crumpling to my stomach, I moaned. With my head sideways on the cool vinyl floor, I watched through watery eyes the skin on my arm and hand shimmer and shake, as it… changed.

    What is happening to me?

    Mum inhaled deeply, her voice low and calm, devoid of emotion. “You've always been different. I— You're not my daughter. No. I can't… You're bad. This… it proves it.”

    Icy terror rippled through me, cutting through my pain when I watched her own transformation—sad haunted eyes turned cold and hard. 

    From out the corner of my eyes, as I lay helpless on the floor, she stood above me with the hot pan in her hand.

    Dad yelled from somewhere for my mum to stop, his footfalls fast approaching. But it was too late.

    The pan collided with my head.

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I was born in Brisbane, Australia. My step-dad was in the Army, which caused us to move around a lot. We finally settled in country Victoria, Australia. I am the youngest of four children and I can say that I was spoilt a bit. I drove my mum crazy when I refused to eat meat at a young age. Now I live with my husband and two children, and I find myself regretting all the troubles I put my parents through because my monsters are just as picky as I was.

I started writing in 2013 and self-published the first of the Hawks MC Club series Holding Out. The next to follow was something different, I wrote Senseless Attraction, a YA novel. Soon I was back to the Hawks series with number two Climbing Out. I have more to write in the series, but there will be also be more novels in the humorous erotica genre, like Left to Chance, which is out now.