Dark Cutter (Ambush Moon Cycle)

In the wilds of America’s Last Frontier lurks a beast far worse than any werewolf… Having survived the bloody showdown on Merchant Island, Rayne Ellison believes she’s finally found a cure for her condition. At a secret clinic on a remote section of the Alaskan coast, a small group of werewolves are being treated by the enigmatic Dr. Rachel Stanley with regular injections of a serum which suppresses their transformations. Desperate for a normal life, Rayne ignores the drug’s disturbing side effects and the suspicions of her fellow patient, Trent, who insists the doctor’s motives are less than altruistic. When several people in the nearby town are brutally murdered, apparently by a large animal, Rayne tells herself it has nothing to do with her. But as the body count rises, so do local tempers—already high over the planned construction of a state-of-the-art commune by a firebrand tech billionaire. And even while Rayne begins to suspect Trent is right about the doctor, her new friend, a retired anthropologist, warns of a legendary evil said to reside in the surrounding forest—an ancient monster whose name the area’s original residents refused to even speak. With her tenuous salvation threatened on all sides, Rayne must decide what agonies she will endure, which alliances she will forge, and how many people she will see die to protect what could be her last chance for the life she always wanted. Dark Cutter, second installment in The Ambush Moon Cycle, a trilogy of horror novellas from Luciano Marano, continues the author’s bold and modern take on the classic werewolf myth begun in Hidebound.