FROM THE WORLD OF NICOLE BERETTI
Before & After the Sasquatch, Nathan Ward: The Road To APEX Jaegers takes readers back to the beginning of the Nicole Beretti universe, long before Special Agent Nicole Beretti joined the FBI and before APEX Jaegers existed.
The story follows Nathan Ward, the man readers know as the calm, capable leader of APEX Jaegers. In the Nicole Beretti Thrillers, Nathan is often the person making the difficult calls from behind the scenes. Here, readers get to meet him at twenty-five, before the FBI, before the team, and before he understood that the creatures most people dismiss as legend may be very real.
This is not a Nicole Beretti Thriller, but it is set in the same world, revealing the terrifying experience that shaped Nathan's future and ultimately helped lead to the creation of APEX Jaegers.
Before Nicole Beretti. Before APEX Jaegers. There was Nathan Ward.
At twenty-five years old, Nathan Ward returns to the small town in northern Washington where he spent every summer with his grandparents. Weeks earlier, while still serving overseas, he learned that his grandfather had passed away, leaving Nathan the family home.
Unsure what comes next after completing two military tours, Nathan reconnects with his lifelong best friend, Gabe, and tries to settle back into civilian life. A hunting trip into the surrounding wilderness should be a welcome distraction.
Instead, it becomes a nightmare.
Deep in the forest, the two friends encounter something neither knew could exist. Something that turns an ordinary hunting trip into the most terrifying experience of their lives.
The experience leaves Gabe desperate to forget what happened. Nathan can't.
When local authorities dismiss his claims and friends laugh off his warnings, Nathan finds himself standing alone against a threat no one else will acknowledge. As strange activity begins surrounding his property, he realizes the creature hasn't stayed in the woods.
It followed him home.
Forced to defend himself against a threat unlike anything he has ever faced, Nathan discovers a harsh truth: when the unimaginable becomes real, no one is coming to save you.
The events that unfold will change the course of his life forever, setting him on the path that will one day lead to the FBI and the creation of APEX Jaegers.
Before & After Sasquatch: Nathan Ward - The Road to APEX Jaegers is a suspense-filled cryptid thriller and the origin story of one of the most important characters in the Nicole Beretti universe.
Released: 30 June 2026
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