Patience Sherbrook is no longer in need of her name. She is Belle now, and on the run from an awful future. On the way, she hears the outrageous and frightening rumors of a man they call the Beast of Glendark. One who is said to ride his hills in the witching hours of the night to howl at the moon. The rumors cannot be half true, can they? But when her pursuers press in, Belle finds herself in those haunting hours, in the Beast’s haunted forest, half frozen to death and delirious when she meets the mad Beast of Glendark himself. The Earl of Brannington has made himself a recluse, and he wants it to stay that way. But sending Belle away from Glendark is fast becoming impossible, along with countless more impossibilities concerning her. Bran knows he has nothing to offer Belle but a black heart and the madness and ruin of his dark past. There is only one thing he is sure of, his past is not finished with him yet. And keeping Belle for himself just might lead to her ruin and destruction.