Crave

Crave Plot Summary

Introduction

# Stone Hearts and Crimson Shadows: A Gothic Romance of Supernatural Sacrifice The plane bucked through Alaskan winds like a dying bird, carrying Grace Foster toward a fate she couldn't imagine. Seventeen and orphaned, she pressed her face to the frost-covered window and watched endless white wilderness stretch below. Katmere Academy rose from the mountainside like a Gothic nightmare—all stone towers and gargoyles, its windows glowing against perpetual twilight. Grace had come to escape the ghosts of her old life, but as she stepped into the castle's bloodred halls, she realized she'd stumbled into a world where monsters were very much alive. Students moved through corridors with inhuman grace, their conversations dying when she passed. There was something predatory in their stares, something that made her skin crawl with recognition she couldn't name. Then Jaxon Vega emerged from the shadows—beautiful and dangerous, with midnight hair and a jagged scar that spoke of violence survived. His dark eyes held depths of pain that echoed her own, and when he warned her to stay away, Grace felt the first stirrings of an attraction that would either save her or destroy them both.

Chapter 1: Arrival at the Academy of Shadows: Grace Enters a World Beyond Human Understanding

The snowmobile died with a mechanical wheeze, leaving Grace in silence so complete it felt like death itself. Uncle Finn waited at the gates, hollow-eyed and watchful in ways that spoke of secrets too heavy to carry. His daughter Macy bounced beside him, purple hair bright against the Gothic monstrosity of Katmere Academy. The building clawed at the pewter sky with twisted spires, more fortress than school. Inside, impossibly long hallways stretched between walls lined with portraits whose eyes seemed to track movement. Candles burned in sconces that should hold electric lights, casting dancing shadows that made stone breathe. Students glided past with fluid grace, their beauty too sharp, their movements too quick to be entirely human. Grace found herself drawn to an ornate chess set in the common area, its pieces carved from black and white marble. She lifted the vampire queen, marveling at the detail in flowing cape and bared fangs, when silk and smoke spoke behind her. "I'd be careful with that one if I were you. She's got a nasty bite." She spun to face the most beautiful boy she'd ever seen. Tall and lean with sharp cheekbones, he moved with controlled grace that screamed predator. His eyes were dark as midnight, ancient beyond his apparent years. A jagged scar ran from temple to jaw, somehow making him more beautiful rather than less. "She's made of marble," Grace managed, her voice steadier than she felt. "She can't bite anyone." His smile was sharp enough to cut glass. "Your point?" When she corrected his misquote of Hamlet, surprise flickered across his features before transforming into something that might be amusement. He stepped closer, crowding her against the chess table until she could smell storm winds over deep water. "You're the one who wanted to see the monsters," he said, holding up a dragon piece. The way he said it made her skin prickle with awareness that this wasn't entirely metaphorical. Something shifted when she whispered that she wasn't afraid because she'd already lost everything that mattered. The predator mask slipped, revealing pain so raw it stole her breath. He reached out to touch one of her curls, electricity arcing between them. The moment stretched like pulled taffy until she pushed against his shoulders, whispering "Please." He stepped back as if burned, but not before she saw the scar clearly, not before her hand rose to cup his damaged cheek. The tenderness seemed to undo him completely. His eyes closed, and for one perfect moment, he leaned into her palm like a man dying of thirst. Then Uncle Finn's voice echoed down the hall, and Jaxon vanished between one blink and the next, leaving Grace with racing pulse and the certainty that nothing at Katmere Academy was what it seemed.

Chapter 2: Dangerous Allure: First Encounters with Jaxon Vega and the Supernatural Elite

Grace's first night proved that survival meant more than enduring altitude and sub-zero temperatures. Unable to sleep, she ventured out hoping to glimpse the aurora borealis. Instead, she found herself trapped in the entrance hall with Marc and Quinn, two students who looked at her like she was dinner. They'd just returned from outside wearing nothing but t-shirts despite the deadly cold. Their casual disregard should have been her first warning. The way they sniffed the air around her, like predators scenting prey, should have been her second. "What are you doing out of bed, Grace?" Marc asked, his voice carrying undertones that made her skin crawl. "Everybody knows your name." They circled with practiced ease, cutting off escape routes while maintaining the pretense of casual conversation. When Quinn reached out to yank one of her curls, Grace felt barely leashed violence rolling off them in waves. These weren't bullies looking to haze the new girl. They were something far more dangerous. The threat was clear when Marc mentioned showing her the snow. They intended to drag her outside in pajamas and hoodie, where the cold would kill her in minutes. Grace fought with everything she had, kicking and biting and screaming, but they were impossibly strong. That's when Jaxon appeared. Grace didn't see him arrive, didn't hear footsteps on stone. One moment she was struggling helplessly, the next both boys were flying across the hall, slamming into walls with bone-jarring force. Jaxon stood between them and her, his presence filling the space like a gathering storm. "Is there a problem here?" His voice was lower than before, more gravelly, colder than the snow outside. The casual menace made all three of them wince. Marc and Quinn cowered like whipped dogs, their earlier aggression evaporating. They stammered apologies, claiming it was just a joke, but Grace could see fear in their eyes, the way they couldn't meet Jaxon's gaze. After they fled, Jaxon turned his attention to Grace, dark eyes cataloging every inch as if checking for damage. When he noticed blood on her lip, his expression grew even more dangerous. "You're bleeding," he said, reaching out to brush his thumb across her lower lip. The touch was gentle, almost reverent, but what he did next made her breath catch. He brought his thumb to his own lips and slowly, deliberately, licked away her blood while holding her gaze. The gesture was intimate and possessive and completely inappropriate, yet it sent heat racing through her veins. "You should go," he said, voice rough with something she couldn't identify. "And I strongly suggest that after midnight, you stay in your room where you belong."

Chapter 3: Accidents by Design: Discovering the Hidden Predators and Ancient Rivalries

The chandelier incident happened during what should have been a simple walk through the common area. The massive fixture groaned ominously overhead as Grace passed beneath it. Time slowed as tons of carved bone and metal began their deadly descent toward the stone floor. She should have died. Instead, strong arms wrapped around her waist, yanking her backward just as the fixture exploded where she'd been standing. Bone fragments peppered the air like shrapnel, dust clouding everything in choking white. Her savior was Flint Montgomery, a golden-haired boy with amber eyes and an easy smile that made her feel safe for the first time since arriving. He was warmth where Jaxon ran cold, light where the scarred boy was shadow. "Just lucky you were here," Grace gasped, still shaking from the near-death experience. Flint's smile faltered for just a moment. "Yeah. Lucky." But across the room, Jaxon watched with eyes like black ice. Even from a distance, Grace could feel his fury radiating outward like heat from a forge. Students gave him wide berth as he stalked from the room, and she wondered why her rescue seemed to have made him so angry. The snowball fight should have been innocent fun, but nothing at Katmere was ever truly innocent. Grace found herself perched in a tree with Flint, laughing as they pelted unsuspecting students with perfectly aimed projectiles. For a moment, she almost forgot the strangeness of this place. Then the wind picked up. It started gentle but quickly became violent, buffeting her small frame until the branch beneath her groaned ominously. She gripped the trunk tighter as gusts seemed to target her specifically. The branch snapped. Grace plummeted toward snow-covered ground, certain she was about to break every bone. But instead of hard earth, she landed on something warm and solid—Flint, who'd somehow positioned himself beneath her fall. They tumbled together into a snowbank, Grace ending up straddled across his hips in a position that made heat flood her cheeks. What she didn't see was Jaxon standing at the clearing's edge, hands clenched into fists, the very air around him vibrating with barely contained power. She didn't realize that the vampire prince's telekinetic abilities had really saved her life, yanking Flint into position at the last possible second. All she knew was that once again, the golden dragon had been there when she needed him most. The pattern was becoming clear, even if its true meaning remained hidden in shadow and lies.

Chapter 4: Blood and Starlight: Growing Intimacy Amidst Mounting Supernatural Dangers

Grace's sprained ankle provided unexpected opportunity for intimacy when Jaxon insisted on carrying her back to the castle. Despite her protests about being too heavy, he lifted her effortlessly, his arms strong and sure. The gesture was both protective and possessive, and Grace found herself melting into his embrace despite all reservations. In her dorm room, his gentle care revealed a side she'd only glimpsed before. His fingers were cold but infinitely careful as he examined her ankle, probing for breaks with the skill of someone who'd dealt with injuries before. "There's no swelling and only a little bruising," he murmured, his touch feather-light on her skin. "I don't think you broke anything." When he wrapped her ankle with hot-pink bandage, his hands lingered on her calf, stroking with intimacy that made her breath catch. The air between them grew charged with possibility, and when he looked up to meet her eyes, she saw something that made her heart race. "Grace," he said her name like a prayer, his hand coming up to cup her cheek. She leaned into the caress, eyes fluttering closed, and for a moment the world narrowed to just them and electricity crackling between them. Their text conversations revealed glimpses of wit and warmth his controlled exterior never showed. He told terrible vampire jokes that made her laugh, shared favorite songs with surprising vulnerability. When breakfast arrived at her door—Belgian waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream—Grace knew it was from Jaxon even before finding his note. The copy of Twilight that followed was an even more significant gift, its message clear despite Jaxon's attempt to frame it as warning. But it was the page from Anaïs Nin's journal that truly took her breath away. "Deep down, I am not different from you. I dreamed you, I wished for your existence." The intimacy of the gesture, the vulnerability it revealed, made Grace's chest tight with emotion. The meteor shower changed everything between them. Jaxon led her onto the castle's parapet, wrapping her in a blanket that seemed to hold impossible warmth while they watched shooting stars paint the Arctic sky. In darkness, with vast wilderness stretching endlessly below, Grace finally understood what she was feeling. "What's it like to just let go?" Jaxon asked, his voice barely a whisper against wind. For the first time, his carefully constructed mask slipped, revealing the lonely boy underneath. When he finally kissed her, soft as snowfall and twice as devastating, she knew there was no going back. She was falling for a vampire, and the ground was rushing up faster than she could comprehend.

Chapter 5: The Weight of a Crown: Jaxon's Dark Past and the Brother He Destroyed

Grace found Jaxon in his tower room, surrounded by wreckage of furniture destroyed by uncontrolled power. Books lined the walls, musical instruments gathered dust in corners, everything speaking of a mind too sharp and too burdened for someone who appeared barely eighteen. When he finally told her what he was, the words fell between them like stones into still water. Vampire. Prince. Killer of his own brother. "Hudson was going to destroy everything," Jaxon said, his voice hollow as winter wind. "He had the power to make anyone do anything he wanted. He could have made you kill yourself, Grace. Or me. Or everyone you've ever cared about." The story unfolded like nightmare given voice. Hudson Vega, the golden prince who was supposed to inherit the vampire throne. Hudson, whose charm masked sociopathic hunger for power that would have consumed the world. Hudson, who started a war that nearly tore apart the supernatural community before his younger brother stopped him the only way possible. "I killed him," Jaxon whispered, and Grace saw the weight of that choice in every line of his body. "And I'd do it again." But it wasn't just the murder that haunted him. It was the aftermath—the way his parents turned against him, how former friends now looked at him with fear, the crown he never wanted that sat heavy on his head. He carried the world's safety on his shoulders, and it was slowly crushing him beneath its weight. The scar that marred his perfect face was punishment from his own mother for killing the favored son. When Grace reached out to touch it, offering comfort instead of condemnation, something fundamental shifted between them. "My eyes," he said quietly when she asked what he'd inherited from his mother. "That's what I got from my mother. My eyes." Grace leaned forward to study them, noting again the silver flecks that made them so striking. "They're beautiful eyes." "Did you inherit anything else from your mother?" she asked softly, sensing opportunity for real connection. "I hope not." The words were unguarded, revealing pain so deep that Grace's heart ached for him. But the moment he realized what he'd said, Jaxon's face closed off completely. He'd sacrificed his own humanity to protect both the supernatural world and the human one, bearing the weight of a crown he never wanted and the hatred of people he'd died to save. When Grace kissed him despite knowing what he'd done, she wasn't just falling for a vampire anymore. She was falling for a king.

Chapter 6: Betrayal in Sacred Spaces: The Resurrection Ritual and Ultimate Deception

The tea tasted wrong. Grace noticed it the moment liquid touched her tongue—too bitter, with an aftertaste that made her stomach clench. But Lia smiled so sweetly as she poured, and conversation flowed so naturally, that Grace pushed down her instincts and drank anyway. Lia Vega, Hudson's former girlfriend and Jaxon's childhood friend, had been broken since the golden prince's death. Grace had watched her drift through Katmere's halls like a ghost, beautiful and tragic and lost. When Lia finally reached out in friendship, Grace was eager to help her heal. She didn't realize she was drinking her own doom. The drug worked slowly, stealing strength from her limbs and clarity from her thoughts. By the time Grace understood what was happening, she was already too weak to fight as Lia dragged her through hidden passages beneath the school. The tunnels were older than Katmere itself, carved from living rock and decorated with human bones arranged in macabre artistry. "You're the key," Lia whispered as she bound Grace to a stone altar surrounded by vases of blood. "The catalyst that will bring him back to me." The ritual chamber was nightmare of flickering candles and ancient symbols carved into walls. Grace struggled against her bonds, but the ropes were soaked in something that burned her skin wherever they touched. Around the altar, Lia had arranged components of her resurrection spell—blood from a dozen different supernatural species, herbs that reeked of death and dark magic, and at the center of it all, one terrified human girl. "Hudson isn't gone," Lia continued, her eyes bright with madness. "Death is just another prison, and every prison can be broken. I just need the right key to turn in the lock." Grace's blood, it seemed, was that key. But not just any human blood—hers specifically, for reasons Lia refused to explain. The vampire girl began to chant in a language older than civilization, and the very air began to thicken with malevolent power. Somewhere in darkness beyond the candlelight, something stirred in response to Lia's call. Something hungry and patient and utterly without mercy. The ritual chamber filled with whispers that seemed to come from the walls themselves, and Grace felt the temperature drop as whatever Lia was summoning began to claw its way back from the grave.

Chapter 7: Stone and Sacrifice: Grace's Transformation and the Price of Eternal Love

Jaxon arrived like vengeance given form, his power shattering ancient wards that protected Lia's ritual chamber. Stone walls cracked and crumbled as his telekinetic abilities lashed out in waves of barely controlled fury. He was magnificent and terrifying, every inch the vampire prince whose very existence kept the supernatural world in line. But he wasn't alone. Flint burst from the shadows in dragon form, emerald scales gleaming in candlelight, wings spread wide enough to brush the chamber's vaulted ceiling. For a moment, Grace thought he'd come to rescue her. Then she saw the way he looked at her—not with concern, but with something that might be regret. "I'm sorry," the dragon rumbled, his voice distorted by shifted form. "But we can't let her complete the ritual. Hudson can never be allowed to return." The battle that followed was brutal and swift. Vampire and dragon clashed while Lia screamed her fury, the resurrection spell wavering but not breaking. Grace struggled against bonds that cut deeper with every movement as supernatural forces tore the ancient chamber apart around her. Jaxon fought with cold precision of someone who'd killed before and would kill again if necessary. His telekinetic abilities turned every loose stone into a weapon, every piece of debris into a projectile. But dragons were nearly indestructible, and Flint's claws raked across Jaxon's chest, drawing blood that steamed in frigid air. Time crystallized into a single, perfect moment of choice when Lia, desperate to complete her spell, plunged a ceremonial knife toward Grace's heart. Grace saw the blade descending, saw madness burning in Lia's eyes, saw Jaxon turning toward her with horror written across his beautiful features. But she also saw something else—shadow moving behind Lia, dark smoke coiling like a living thing. Hudson's spirit, partially summoned by the interrupted ritual, reaching out with ghostly fingers toward the vampire girl who'd sacrificed everything to bring him back. Grace reached deep inside herself, to a place she'd never acknowledged before, and found something that definitely wasn't human. Power flowed through her like molten gold, transforming flesh and bone into something harder than diamond, stronger than steel. The knife struck her chest and shattered against skin that had become living stone. Grace's transformation was beautiful and terrible to witness. Her human form shifted and flowed, taking on characteristics of something ancient and powerful—a gargoyle, guardian of sacred places, protector of the innocent. Wings unfurled from her shoulders, stone-gray and magnificent, while her eyes blazed with inner fire. The chamber filled with blinding light as ancient magics collapsed. When radiance faded, Lia lay still among rubble, her obsession finally ended. Jaxon reached toward Grace with trembling fingers, his face a mask of wonder and desperate love. "Grace," he whispered, and her name on his lips sounded like a prayer. But even as she turned toward him, Grace felt stone spreading through her consciousness, pulling her deeper into a form that was never meant to be temporary.

Summary

Grace Foster came to Alaska seeking escape from grief, but found herself thrust into a world where love and death walked hand in hand through castle corridors. Her romance with Jaxon Vega wasn't just forbidden—it was potentially catastrophic, a match between human fragility and vampire power that threatened to shatter the careful balance between supernatural species. Yet in choosing love over safety, Grace discovered strength she never knew she possessed, the courage to stand beside a king who'd sacrificed everything to protect a world that feared him. The frozen wilderness became backdrop for a love story written in blood and starlight, where every kiss carried the weight of kingdoms and every touch could trigger earthquakes. Grace learned that monsters weren't always the creatures with fangs and claws—sometimes they were the choices people made when pushed beyond their limits. In her final transformation from vulnerable human to stone guardian, she found not defeat but purpose, becoming the protector her new world needed even as it meant sacrificing the life she'd dreamed of sharing with Jaxon. Their love story ended not with happily ever after, but with the deeper truth that some bonds transcend flesh and time, that real love sometimes means becoming the guardian who watches from the shadows, ensuring that the person you cherish can find their way back to the light.

About Author

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Tracy Wolff

Wolff delves into the realms of the fantastical and the romantic, crafting stories that blend paranormal romance with young adult fantasy. Her dedication to these genres is evident in her commitment to writing about tortured heroes and empowered heroines within richly constructed worlds. While her early career as an English professor laid the groundwork for her literary expertise, her passion for storytelling was ignited at a young age, influenced by reading Judy Blume and romance novels. This fusion of academic foundation and personal passion informs her narrative style, which has resonated with audiences across multiple genres, from young adult to women's fiction.\n\nOne of Wolff's most celebrated works, the Crave series, illustrates her ability to intertwine complex characters with enthralling plots set against a backdrop of supernatural intrigue. The series has captivated readers by exploring the journey of Grace, a teenager navigating a mysterious Alaskan boarding school filled with vampires and other mystical creatures. Beyond the Crave series, Wolff has ventured into diverse literary territories with books like the Ethan Frost series and Sweet Nightmare. By creating vivid and immersive worlds, her books invite readers to escape into narratives where romance and fantasy collide, offering a blend of excitement and emotional depth.\n\nReaders seeking narratives that challenge and entertain will find Wolff’s work to be a captivating escape into the realms of "romantasy." Her ability to craft stories that appeal to both young adult and new adult audiences demonstrates her understanding of what resonates with readers. Her status as a #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA TODAY bestselling author underscores her impact on the literary world. This brief bio captures the essence of an author who has not only enriched the genre but has also connected deeply with a diverse readership.

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