BERKLEY ROMANCE
Published by Berkley
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
penguinrandomhouse.com
Copyright © 2024, 2025 by Allie Oleander
Penguin Random House values and supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader. Please note that no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.
BERKLEY and the BERKLEY & B colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Cover design and illustration by Jess Cruickshank
Book design by Kristin del Rosario, adapted for ebook
Title page art: deer silhouette © gomolach / Shutterstock
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Oleander, Allie author
Title: Willing prey / Allie Oleander.
Description: First Berkley Romance edition. | New York : Berkley Romance, 2025.
Identifiers: LCCN 2025005401 (print) | LCCN 2025005402 (ebook) | ISBN 9798217187294 trade paperback | ISBN 9798217187300 ebook
Subjects: LCGFT: Romance fiction | Thrillers (Fiction) | Erotic fiction | Novels
Classification: LCC PS3615.L4256 W55 2025 (print) | LCC PS3615.L4256 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23/eng/20250407
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025005401
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025005402
Ebook ISBN 9798217187300
Willing Prey was originally self-published, in different form, in 2024.
First Berkley Romance Edition: October 2025
The authorized representative in the EU for product safety and compliance is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68, Ireland, https://eu-contact.penguin.ie.
ep_prh_7.3a_153313019_c0_r0
Contents
Dedication
Author’s Note
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
_153313019_
For everyone willing to brave the woods.
Happy hunting.
Author’s Note
Thank you for considering Willing Prey as your next read!
This is a high-heat novel, and some readers may be uncomfortable with the kinks/sex acts depicted, and/or other adult topics. Please review the following to ensure this book is right for you.
Kinks*
Primal play—including predator and prey games, hunting, scratching, hair-pulling, and biting
Rough sex—including striking, dragging, and kicking
Consensual non-consent
Forced orgasm
Light breath play/choking
Light degradation (both ways)
Light restraint (hands and body weight)
Orgasm denial (both ways)
Oral sex
Semipublic sex
Spanking
Transactional sex
Praise (both ways)
*This book is not a guide for BDSM or other sexual practices. Please research any new sexual activities you are considering.
Content Warnings
Brief moments of age- and appearance-related insecurities
Discussion of childhood emotional abuse
Discussion of hunting
Infidelity (by a previous partner)
Light alcohol consumption
Light stalking
Physical violence
Prior death of a parent
Profanity
Sexual play with an inexperienced partner/no aftercare (at first)
Tick discovery and removal
ONE Claire
Nerves make me slam my truck door too hard, the sound shattering the stillness and announcing my arrival before I’m ready. My Chevy pickup seems out of place in front of the sprawling Victorian home, a blemish on an otherwise perfect face. I’d expected a partner at a law firm to have a nice house, but this is beyond what I’d imagined. It’s picture-book perfect, complete with a welcoming front porch and huge, grassy yard.
Once I look past the house and yard, my heart beats a little harder. The woods are thick, the trees dense and lush. If the house is something from a storybook, the forest belongs in a fairy tale. It’s pure Grimm’s.
It’s fitting, considering I’m here to be hunted by Shane Underwood, partner at Graves, Underwood & Crowe—the law firm where my ex-husband works. For the next thirty days, I’m no longer Claire, the recently divorced physical education teacher.
I’m prey.
Anticipation thrums through me, mixing with anxiety. I love the woods, and I used to love being hunted by my ex-husband, Keith. But that’s different than being stalked through the forest by a near stranger. I’ve met Shane a few times, and he was…intense.
Think about the money.
He’s offered me $30,000, enough money to pay off my student loan debt and get my footing postdivorce. One of Keith’s numerous lies echoes in my head: we’d pay off his loan first, since the interest was higher, then start working on mine. We doubled the monthly payments, even tripling them when we could. The fall before last, we made the final payment on his loan, and he started sleeping with someone at the firm, a pretty paralegal who couldn’t have been older than twenty-two. Our marriage struggled along for another year before I discovered the affair and gave myself a divorce for Christmas. The gift every thirty-five-year-old woman wants after eleven years of marriage and putting a man through law school.
