From book #2 in The Caged Series: HAUNTED (your first teaser)
I wasn’t the Ruby he’d first met, cowering naked against a tree, afraid of her own shadow. I was tarnished, worn by the events that had occurred over the past year. Erosion should leave things smoother and softer than they were before; it left me more angular and prickly. The new Ruby was learning how to do things on her own terms, consequences be damned. She would not be caged again; not for anyone or any reason.