DeAnn McAnally

On his thirty-sixth birthday, Travis Cornell hikes into the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. But his path is soon blocked by a bedraggled Golden Retriever who will let him go no further into the dark woods. That morning, Travis had been desperate to find some happiness in his lonely, seemingly cursed life. What he finds is a dog of alarming intelligence that soon leads him into a relentless storm of mankind’s darkest creation....

Mirabell Steele has torn her family’s trading business back from the clutches of her unsavory uncle. Now, in an attempt to reclaim her family’s good name, she chooses to enter the first Warlord Games as a Lanistae. With little money to spare, she is left with a ragtag group of warriors and healers who have their own shady reputations.