The Beast

The Beast is a paranormal romance by the American writer J. R. Ward, published in 2016. It belongs to the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, which follows a group of vampire warriors living in a city in upstate New York.

The Brotherhood's enemies, the slayers of the Lessening Society, are stronger than they have been in years, and they are building their resources by exploiting human weakness. The brothers are preparing for the assault that will follow, and a good deal of the book is taken up with the arrangements that a war imposes on a family.

Rhage is the brother with the largest appetites and the kindest temper, and he is the one whose story this is. He cannot account for the panic and insecurity that have come over him, and after a serious injury he is forced to reconsider what he wants from the life he has built with his wife Mary, which upsets the plans of everyone around him and makes his own household the centre of the book.