One year has passed since Elias Thorne destroyed the Gilded Hound and vanished into the wilderness. Now living as a ghost in the forests of Oakhaven, he struggles to keep the beast at bay, aided only by Sarah Jenkins, the woman who saved his humanity. But peace is a luxury a monster cannot afford.
When a ruthless government division known as "Iron Chimera" descends upon the town, they aren't looking for justice—they are looking for a prototype. Led by the cold and calculating Colonel Graves, the military has weaponized the very serum that cursed Elias, creating a new breed of "Apex Soldiers."
Driven from his sanctuary and stripped of his anonymity, Elias must wage a guerrilla war against an army of chemically enhanced super-soldiers. But his greatest threat isn't the Colonel or his machines; it is "Subject Nine"—a mirror image of Elias, stronger, faster, and devoid of a soul.
As Oakhaven burns and the noose tightens, Elias must make an impossible cling to the last shreds of his humanity and die, or embrace the monster fully to save the only person he loves.