Victoria Gibberson, eighteen and cursed with telepathy, has spent her life drowning in the thoughts of others. When a devastating car crash claims her parents, she seizes the chance to reinvent herself, transferring to Pearly Canines—a deceptively quaint town where she plans to bury her trauma and focus on college. Yet Pearly Canines pulses with an unsettling magnetism that Victoria can't resist. Something ancient thrums beneath the surface, drawing her deeper into its dark secrets. Then she meets Alexander Hunter, whose penetrating gaze seems to pierce straight through her mental walls and into her soul. One moonlit night, he corners her in the shadows, his voice a dangerous whisper against her ear: "Hello, mate. Let's fall in love with each other." Victoria's carefully constructed fresh start shatters. Caught between the allure of her destined mate and the sinister mysteries threatening to consume her, she discovers that some fates are inescapable—and some loves are born in darkness.