Category Archives: #shifter
SPOTLIGHT ~ More than a Phoenix by Ashlyn Chase
What do you get when you take
Two phoenix shifter brothers
Throw in one powerful witch
And one…monkey shifter?
Mallory Summers is losing it. She’s discovered she can talk to dead people—and she might be able to shift to monkey form. Firefighter Dante Fierro knows the quirky beauty isn’t crazy—just supernatural. But what would she think if she knew his secret?
Hothead Noah Fierro has his own sparks flying with gorgeous ER doctor Kizzy Samuels. While the attraction is mutual, so are the supernatural secrets. With this much sizzle going on, how do you not get burned?
Fighting fires is easy… Finding love is the hard part.
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2KKIiAO
Apple: https://apple.co/2KOJgw9
Excerpt:
Mallory Summers was trying to chat with a nice young man about the weather, but couldn’t help being distracted by two old biddies sitting on the bus bench, peaking at her from under their umbrellas.
One old woman leaned toward the other and whispered loudly, “Tsk. Tsk. Such a sweet young thing…”
“It’s a shame,” said the other one.
Shame? Should I be ashamed for chatting up a nice-looking guy and offering to share my umbrella? Just to make sure the gossips knew how unashamed she was, she turned back to the young man and spoke louder. “Yeah, I saw the weather report this morning. It’s supposed to rain until about noon.”
The guy just nodded. He was a little hard to engage in conversation.
Still, she persisted. “That will probably keep people at home, so my work at the mall will be slow.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted one of the women waddling up to a guy in uniform. They were farther away, so she couldn’t hear what they were saying.
A few moments later, he approached her slowly. He was a handsome devil. She could only imagine what the interfering old woman had said. Probably warned him not to be taken in by the young lady’s flirtatious ways.
“Uh, hi,” the guy said, smiling. He had stunning brown eyes, with thick, dark lashes most women would envy. One of the patches on his uniform looked just like the one on her uncle’s Boston Fire Department uniform.
She suddenly realized he looked familiar. “Hi. Do I know you?”
The young man paused. His smile turned into a grin, lighting up his handsome face. “I know you. You’re Mallory Summers.”
“Right—and you are…”
“Dante Fierro, and I’m wondering who you’re talking to.”
“Huh?” Well, that’s rude. Why should anybody care? She was about to say as much when she turned back to the guy in question to apologize for everyone else’s bad manners—but he was gone.
“Where did he go?” she asked.
“Where did who go?”
“The man… I don’t know his name. And—wait a minute… You’re the Dante Fierro from high school?”
“Yup. So you do remember me.”
“Of course.”
“Do you always hold conversations with blank air?”
“What the heck are you talking about?”
“Mallory, these ladies have seen you at this bus stop three times, talking to yourself. They won’t call the cops, because you’re not doing anything illegal, and they don’t want to call an ambulance, which would be expensive, but they’re worried about you.”
Mallory jammed her hands on her hips and strode over to the two old ladies. “You should be minding your own business.”
They leaned away from her as if they might catch an airborne virus.
“Mallory…” Dante gentled his voice. “I don’t live far from here. Why don’t you come over for coffee and we can talk.”
“Because I have to go to work. I take two buses to get to my job at the Union Mall.”
“I can drive you.”
The weather didn’t look like it was going to let up, and a nice warm car sounded good. She shrugged. “I don’t want to put you out. You look like you’re on your way to work too.”
“I’m on my way home, actually. Come on. It’s no trouble.”
She smiled. “Well, now that I realize who you are, it would probably be okay to accept a ride. After all, it’s not like you’re a complete stranger.”
“Good.” He stuck out his elbow like he was escorting her to a fancy ball. “Let’s go.”
She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm and gave the old busybodies a glare as they passed.
He lived around the corner in a nice two-family house on L Street, a stone’s throw from the main drag, which bordered the beach.
“I shouldn’t stay for coffee. I can get coffee at the mall. Is that your car?” She nodded toward a black Camaro with bright-red racing stripes down the side.
“Yup. My brother Noah calls it my wife.”
“Your wife? Why?”
“Because I named her Joanna, and I take good care of her. He says it’s because she eats up half my paycheck.”
She giggled. “Okay. Well, nice to meet you, Joanna.” As they approached the passenger’s side, she realized how talking to an inanimate object might also make her look like a crazy person—and he’d already caught her talking to, what…a dead guy? Maybe someone who stepped in front of a bus many years ago… She still wasn’t sure what was going on. Could two old ladies be punking her?
He just smiled, dug the key fob out of his pocket, and opened the door for her.
She settled herself on the comfortable leather seat and looked around. His car was indeed in pristine condition. It didn’t have that new car smell, but it looked as if it could have.
He jumped into the driver’s seat and pulled out of the driveway. “Where to?”
“I work at the mall in Somerville. I thought I already said so.”
He drove in the general direction of the expressway, but stayed quiet for a few moments. At last, he asked, “Mallory, are you sure you should be going to work?”
She reared back and stared at him. What was he saying? And did she want to know? “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
He glanced over at her. “It’s just that… Well, you… I mean…”
“Just say it, Dante. You think I’m nuts.”
“No, not nuts. I wouldn’t put it that way, but maybe…I don’t know, stressed?”
“Nope. I’m an artist, and having a creative outlet decreases stress. To pay the bills, I take professional portraits at the mall. Kids’ photos mostly. But I like kids, so that’s not very stressful either.”
“Please don’t be offended, but…are you on drugs?”
She burst out laughing. “No. Are you?”
About the Author
Ashlyn Chase was a registered nurse for twenty years. During those years she wrote articles for professional journals and a thesis, but eventually, thank goodness, discovered the joy and freedom of writing fiction.
Ashlyn considers herself lucky. Her degree in behavioral sciences is a combination of psychology and sociology, so she has studied people most of her life. She doesn’t have to write out exhaustive character sketches to understand her characters or predict how they will behave. That doesn’t mean they don’t surprise her. Sometimes they take her on grand unexpected journeys.
Ashlyn has learned to go with the flow. To enjoy the journey is not only one of her writing goals, but also a challenge in life. She tries to follow where the story takes her. Her identified theme involves characters who reinvent themselves. And why not? She has reinvented herself numerous times—from artist, to nurse, to hypnotherapist, to author, and she has lived in seventeen different places. At last, she’s all settled down and comfy in New England.
Is there a grand design or do we decide our own fates? Perhaps if the powers-that-be have a plot, then they also give us the right to revise it.
10 Surprising Facts About Romance Novels
Ashlyn’s Take on the Value of Romance Novels
Author Social Media links:
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BLOG TOUR – Craved by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates #4) by Felicity Heaton
New York Times best-selling paranormal romance author Felicity Heaton is here today for the book tour of her new shifter romance release, Craved by her Cougar, the fourth and final book in her brand new Cougar Creek Mates Series.
Set in her popular Eternal Mates world, Cougar Creek Mates takes you into the deep Canadian wilderness to a secret place that’s home to a cougar shifter pride led by four sexy brothers, each guaranteed to steal your heart and set it racing!
All four books in the series are out now, meaning it’s complete and ready for a good binge-read! Who doesn’t love a series binge-read? Every book has a happily forever after and there are no cliff-hangers, because there’s nothing worse than a cliff-hanger!
Check out the book, download it with your Kindle Unlimited subscription if you have one, and be sure to enter the awesome grand giveaway happening at her website!
Craved by her Cougar
(Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 4)
Felicity Heaton
For the last twenty years, Cobalt has burned with a need of one female, a beautiful raven-haired cougar who captured his heart the moment he set eyes on her. His position as pride protector has been a blessing at past mating gatherings, keeping females away, but this time it feels like the worst of curses, because the female who has bewitched him so thoroughly is taking part for the first time and all he can do is watch as males battle for her.
As much as she hates the way her mother controls everything in her life, Ember is thankful for it as she constantly turns away suitors, unaware of the pain she’s sparing Ember from with every male she rejects. Every male who isn’t the gorgeous blond with darkness in his eyes and an easy smile she burns for with an intensity that scares her, awakens feelings in her that have her verging on doing something reckless. Damaged goods he might be, dangerous and unpredictable, but with every contest over her that pulls her closer to her doom, she grows more determined to follow her heart, no matter the consequences.
With every fight over the right to Ember, the tethers on Cobalt’s feelings twist and threaten to snap, a torment he cannot bear and one that has him willing to risk it all, because a single kiss would make even the harshest punishment worth it. He would die for one moment with her: his fated mate.
Read it with your Kindle Unlimited Subscription or buy now from…
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Enter the grand tour-wide giveaway to win one of a $75, $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Card at the Craved by her Cougar book page.
This giveaway is international and open to everyone, and ends at midnight on October 14th. Enter now:
http://www.felicityheaton.com/craved-by-her-cougar-shifter-romance-book.php
Cobalt shoved his hands through his platinum-blond wild hair and growled as he clawed at it, pivoted and began pacing back along the clearing in front of his cabin, faster now as his emotions started to get the better of him again.
He needed to fight. His muscles felt too tight, clamped on his bones, his entire body pulled as taut as a bowstring and, fuck, he was in danger of snapping.
His claws lengthened, his fangs sharpening as frustration mounted, an explosive mix of anger, shame and bitter disappointment. He snarled, lips peeling back off his teeth, and wheeled to pace back the way he had come, his strides clipped as the need to fight merged with an ache to shift.
Gods, he wanted to surrender to that soul-deep ache.
He wanted to purge every damned feeling that was boiling inside him, twisting him and pulling him apart, and let instinct take over. Shifting into his cougar form would give him that release and the relief from it all he so desperately needed.
His animal form dampened his emotions because it couldn’t process them as easily as his human side so it suppressed them instead. His messy feelings would fade into the background if he remained as a cougar for long enough as his instincts rose to swamp him.
In that form, he obeyed a more basic and uncomplicated set of needs.
Fight. Feed. Fuck. Survive.
It was all that mattered when he was running as a cougar, and it was tempting to let it sweep over him, but it was dangerous too.
Those instincts were liable to send him straight to Ember.
He wanted to fight for her, as the other males could, and, sweet gods almighty, he needed to ease her needs, ached to give her the relief he could feel she desperately needed. Whenever he was close to her, it drummed in his blood and drove him to do something, whatever it took to ensure that she found the release from her instincts, from the mating heat that had brought her to Cougar Creek.
Cobalt tried to push her out of his head, but need flared inside him, made him want to claw his own damned skin off as he twitched restlessly, body primed for the delicate, beautiful female who had caught his eye two decades ago and had been on his mind ever since.
In his heart.
The sun crept higher, breaking the tops of the mountains as he turned away from the creek and paced back towards the other side of his small territory. It chased the crisp coolness from the morning air and from his arms, making him aware of how cold he had gotten in just his black t-shirt and jeans.
Cobalt slowed his step to bask in the light, letting it warm him and wash over him, wishing it would carry away all his troubles as it used to whenever he had bathed in it when he was a kid.
The mist swirled as the air heated, rippling over the surface of the shallow broad river to his right and snaking around his ankles.
He stared at the horizon and drew down a slow, deep breath of the cold air. Narrowed his focus to that distant point where jagged snow-capped mountains met the sky and let everything else fall away from his shoulders, until they felt lighter again.
He couldn’t let this go on any longer.
He would go mad if he did.
With Ember’s presence pushing at his restraint, cranking him tight with emotions that were tearing him apart and instincts that were making him volatile, he needed all of his focus to control himself around her and the other males. He didn’t need to be distracted by what had happened.
But Rath was always caught up in Ivy, his beautiful mate, and it pained Cobalt to see them together, so happy and swept up in each other. He couldn’t even talk to Storm because his younger brother was away in England looking into his mate’s half-brother’s background, trying to determine whether he really had been working alone and not with Archangel, a hunter organisation that had attacked his pride almost four decades ago.
An organisation that had taken their parents from them and had come close to taking Storm too.
Just thinking about that night had the need to fight rising again, a wild and feral urge to bloody his claws and fangs in order to protect his brothers.
Cobalt focused on the sunrise again, using it to calm that urge. It was slow to leave him, his fatigue and another night of worrying leaving him worn down and weak to it.
When it had finally flowed out of him, he looked down at his hands.
At his extended claws.
He stared at them, willing them to go away, but they refused.
Fuck.
He needed to speak with Rath.
It needed to be today.
Before he became a liability, a male not on the edge but firmly over it, one who was likely to fight over the slightest thing.
And he knew with a sickening sense of certainty that if he fought, it wouldn’t end there.
He would kill.
Cold went through him, his blood icy sludge in his veins, and his stomach churned.
He growled at himself. He had let this go on long enough, couldn’t put it off any longer or he would be a danger to the pride.
Cobalt twisted on his heel and marched along the riverbank, heading away from the sunrise and towards the area where most of the cabins at Cougar Creek were situated.
Ember’s family’s one included.
His pulse jacked up as he spotted it through the trees nearest the river. The lodgepole pines and spruces sheltered it, providing some cover for it where it stood just ten metres from the riverbank, facing onto the large swath of green that formed the main area of the creek.
Smoke curled lazily from the chimney, signalling someone was up.
His step slowed and he couldn’t stop himself from glancing across at the front of the L-shaped cabin as he entered the clearing and started up the two-hundred metre stretch of grass to where his brother’s cabin stood at the top of it, nestled beneath the trees.
The curtains were drawn across the small windows that flanked the door of her cabin, blocking him out. An ache started inside him, throbbed deep in his bones and had his step slowing further, until he almost stopped and surrendered to it.
He wanted to see her.
That yearning burned inside him, a need he found hard to deny. His instincts pushed him to step up onto her deck and knock on her door, to go to her. Fuck, they more than pushed him.
They demanded it.
She was his.
He knew that.
Gods, he knew it.
It blazed inside him like an eternal flame that was only growing fiercer, burned so hot he felt as if it was going to devour him sometimes, utterly destroy him unless he found a way to calm the raging flames.
There was only one way that was going to happen, and while his position as pride protector had been a blessing before, keeping the females away from him because his duty meant he couldn’t participate in the gathering, it was the worst of fucking curses now that Ember was taking part for the first time.
And he couldn’t.
He had never hated his duty before, but he hated it with a vengeance now.
When he and his brothers had taken it on in the wake of the Archangel attack over thirty years ago, a brutal assault that had left the pride shaken and had forced them to move to a new territory, he hadn’t cared. But then, shortly after they had settled at Cougar Creek, he had set eyes on Ember for the first time.
She had been a long way off maturity, a cherub-cheeked young female who would have looked like a teen nearing twenty to any passing humans.
He had watched over her whenever she had been at the creek, and had used his position as pride protector to keep the females away from him during every gathering, and damn, she had grown into a stunning female with supple curves that set him on fire every time he looked at her.
Idiot that he was, he had wanted to give her time to reach maturity before approaching her, figuring she would make an appearance at the creek at some point and he would be there when it happened since Rath kept him up to speed on who was visiting.
He just hadn’t thought her first appearance after maturing would be a damned spring gathering.
Now he was stuck on the side lines, acting as security for the pride while they were caught up in the mating heat and overseeing all the fights for dominance over females that were breaking out.
Females like Ember.
But she was his, and he needed her.
He needed to knock on that door that separated them. He needed her to open it and look at him with soft eyes, ones that told him he wasn’t alone, that she ached for him too, craved him with the same ferocity as he craved her.
And he needed her to open her arms to him, because what he really needed most right now was to rest his head on her shoulder, wrap his arms around her and just hold her until he felt he was back on solid ground, everything put back in place and right again.
Gods, he needed to hold her until this pain went away, just wanted one moment with her without anyone seeing them, or judging him.
He needed her to hold him together, to lend him her strength and give him courage and hope.
Hope that she would be his and hope that his life could only get better from this point.
He scrubbed his hand over his mussed blond hair, did it so much these days he was surprised he had any left, and huffed as he pushed away from her home and forced himself to head towards Rath’s one-and-a-half storey log cabin at the top of the sloping green.
He trudged up the gentle hill, the growing distance between him and Ember tearing at him, and wanted to growl when a dark-haired male emerged from the woods to his right and he caught the male looking towards the river.
Towards Ember’s cabin.
The hunger in the male’s pale golden eyes had Cobalt looking over his shoulder, seeking the one he was looking at.
Ember stood on the deck, dressed in dark blue jeans and a thick black sweater that hugged her curvy figure, her damp ebony hair blending into the wool as it tumbled around her shoulders. She nursed a steaming mug, gently blowing on it, her profile to him and the other male.
A male who was still staring at her.
Cobalt itched with a need to change course and close the distance between him and the male to drive him away and make it clear that Ember belonged to him. The gods only knew how he managed to stay his course, finding the strength to keep moving towards Rath’s cabin instead.
He glanced at the male again before taking the step up onto the deck that stretched the length of the gable end of the log cabin, finding him still watching Ember. Maybe he could just shoo the male away before rousing his brother. It probably wouldn’t take much. A flash of fangs and a growl might be enough.
If it wasn’t?
He was liable to take things further in order to make sure he left, and he wasn’t sure he had the strength to restrain himself and stop himself from going all out on the male. Hell, the state he was in right now, frayed and close to the end of his tether, there was a danger he would skip the flashing fangs and growling and go straight to beating the shit out of the male.
So he forced himself to rap his knuckles on Rath’s door instead.
Because if Ember saw that side of him, if she witnessed the darkness he held within him, she would never want him.
He eased back on the deck and glanced up at the triangular window that sat beneath the eaves of the roof as he waited. A shadow moved across them, and then the door in front of him creaked open to reveal his older brother dressed in only a loosely buttoned pair of faded blue jeans.
Rath rubbed sleep from his grey eyes and yawned.
“What’s up?” his brother murmured quietly and his eyes narrowed on him as he finally lowered his hand to press it against the doorframe.”You look like hell. You alright?”
Cobalt blew out his breath. “Can we talk?”
Read it with your Kindle Unlimited Subscription or buy now from…
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Binge-read the complete series !!!
Book 1: Claimed by her Cougar – Available in Kindle Unlimited!
Book 2: Captured by her Cougar – Available in Kindle Unlimited!
Book 3: Courted by her Cougar – Available in Kindle Unlimited!
Book 4: Craved by her Cougar – Available in Kindle Unlimited!
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you’re a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.
If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:
WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS | INSTAGRAM
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BOOK TOUR ~ Courted by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Series #3) by Felicity Heaton
New York Times best-selling paranormal romance author Felicity Heaton is here today for the book tour of her new shifter romance release, Courted by her Cougar, the third book in her brand new Cougar Creek Mates Series. Set in her popular Eternal Mates world, Cougar Creek Mates takes you into the deep Canadian wilderness to a secret place that’s home to a cougar shifter pride led by four sexy brothers, each guaranteed to steal your heart and set it racing! With all four books in the series releasing just weeks apart, this is going to be one hot summer.
Check out the book, download it with your Kindle Unlimited subscription if you have one,
and be sure to enter the awesome grand giveaway happening at her website!
Courted by her Cougar
(Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 3)
Felicity Heaton
Madness is sweeping through Cougar Creek, and Flint wants no part of it. The fever has two of his brothers in love already, and Flint is damned if he’s giving up the bachelor life to tie himself to one female, but when a perimeter sweep has him running into an exotic and enthralling beauty who rouses his instincts as a cougar shifter and a male, the hunt is on.
All Yasmin is interested in is making sure her friend, Ivy, is safe, but the alluring black-haired man with a wicked smile she meets on the path to the creek has her thinking about other things. When an incident at Cougar Creek leads to her revealing a secret, and Flint’s persistence pushes her to a rash decision, her entire world is in danger of being turned upside down.
With the gathering in full swing, and males determined to prove their worth to Yasmin, Flint discovers he’s not immune to the madness sweeping through the creek, because he’ll do whatever it takes to claim victory and win Yasmin’s heart… no matter how dangerous it is.
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Enter the grand tour-wide giveaway to win one of a $75, $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Card at the Courted by her Cougar book page.
This giveaway is international and open to everyone, and ends at midnight on September 23rd. Enter now:
Yasmin huffed as she pushed her ebony waves out of her face, feeling the dampness at the back of her neck that irritated the hell out of her as her hair stuck to it, clung in a way that made her want to do something. Scream probably.
She stopped near a towering pine that looked like every other damned tree in the forest and turned in a circle, trying to spot the path. There had to be a path. She was sure she had been following one from the trailhead where she had left her car parked next to Ivy’s Jeep, and several other vehicles that had told her she was in the right area.
Maybe it had been an animal track.
A cool breeze blew up the gentle slope to her right, carrying the scent of water. She could hear the river in that direction. Maybe it would be wise to head downhill until she found it and then track it towards the area that her friend had called ‘the creek’ more than once. There had been a river in Ivy’s photographs. It stood to reason that she would find her friend near the one she could hear.
Yasmin shrugged out of her heavy pack, set it down on the rough earth between the tangled roots of the pines and rifled through the side pockets, her mood taking a nosedive as she struggled to find what she was looking for.
“A-ha.” She grinned as she opened the fifth pocket—seriously, why so many pockets on these stupid backpacks—and found her elastics and other beauty items.
She straightened, lifted her hair away from her neck, scrunched it together and tied it in place with the band. Parts of it instantly fell down again, framing her face, but it would do for now. All she cared about was keeping her neck clear. It was bliss as the breeze caressed it, had a soft sigh leaving her lips as she savoured it.
When the wind died down again, she stripped off her black jacket, because a winter coat combined with her royal purple sweater and the long-sleeved cream t-shirt she wore beneath that had probably been a bit much. She had been expecting the weather to be cooler than it was. There had been snow on the mountains in Ivy’s photographs after all.
She peered through the dense trees to catch a sliver of the mountain that loomed closest to her. There was still snow on it. Apparently, snow on the peaks didn’t mean it was cold in the valley. It was rare she learned something new, novel in fact. What else was she going to learn on this adventure?
Yasmin hefted the pack back onto her shoulders. The weight of it pressed down on her and she twisted and grimaced, trying to get comfortable again. Maybe the sunny day wasn’t solely responsible for her working up a sweat. The heaviness of her pack combined with the exertion of the hike probably would have been enough to have her running a little hot even if it had been a chilly day.
She threaded her coat over the bottom of the right strap of her pack, so it pressed against her back and hip and wouldn’t fall into the dirt, and kicked off again, picking her way through the trees as she headed downhill towards the river.
A man with wild black hair and golden eyes stepped into her path, emerging from the trees like some sort of predator to stare her down.
She casually drew to a halt four metres from him.
Raked her gaze over him, taking in a navy shirt that stretched tight over his athletic build, long legs encased in very practical black trousers, and scuffed boots that looked as if he had trekked hundreds of miles in them and needed a new pair. Too cheap to purchase them? Or sentimental and attached to these ones for some reason?
She lifted her head back up to meet his golden eyes.
He didn’t look the sentimental type.
His straight jaw set hard, his lips compressing, causing the scar that streaked across the left side of his mouth to pull on his cheek.
He looked as if he wanted to growl at her.
Yasmin concluded there was a high probability he could help her. “I’m lost, can you tell me the way—”
“Private property. Turn your ass around and march it back the way you came,” he interjected, voice a gravelly snarl that had more bite than the local bears.
That was rude.
She narrowed her dark eyes on him. “No. If you would let me finish.”
He shook his head. “Not going to happen. This is no place for camping. Private property.”
“Yes, you’ve said that twice now, and if you would let me finish.”
He took a hard step towards her, his eyes glowing brighter. Oh, if he wanted to do angry, she could show him angry.
“Listen,” she snapped. “I know my friend is somewhere around here, and I am going to see her. Something tells me you know her. Ivy Wentworth?”
The barest flicker of surprise lit his stormy gold eyes before he schooled his features, hardening them again. “Don’t know her. Off you go now. Try the other direction.”
Liar.
“The other direction is my car.” And his, she was guessing.
It was probably the battered ancient pick-up she had seen that had more rust than paint on it.
“Good.” He folded his arms across his chest and glowered at her.
“So I’m not going back that way. I’m going this way.” She started left, because he had obviously come from nearby and that meant she was close to the creek.
He was in front of her in a flash, blocking her way. “I can’t allow that. Turn your ass around and march it back to your car.”
That was it.
Yasmin mimicked him, crossing her arms over her breasts, and the bastard had the audacity to glance at them as her actions pressed them together and upwards in her purple sweater.
“Try to make me leave,” she growled as she glared at him. “I dare you. We’ll see who comes off worse.”
His golden eyes leaped up to hers, and this time he didn’t hide his surprise.
Not used to strong females?
He was taller than she was, his build slim but clearly powerful. His shirt was tight enough that she could see it was hiding a muscled torso, and he had rolled up the sleeves to reveal tightly corded forearms that flexed as she stared at them.
Yasmin lifted her eyes back to his. “I’m going to see my friend whether you like it or not. You can’t stop me.”
He tried anyway, moving left and right to block her path as she tried to get past him.
Exasperating man!
She was close to hitting him to get him to stop.
He blocked her again when she made another attempt to pass him rather than giving in to the urge to clobber him. “How do you know this friend of yours is at the creek?”
She almost smiled. The creek. So he had come from the place where Ivy was staying with her new man. Which meant he was going to take her there, whether he liked it or not.
She feinted going left, and when he moved to block her, she went right and slipped past him. He growled in frustration and grabbed her wrist, and she turned on a pinhead, slammed her palm against his chest and shoved him back into a tree. He went easily, wasn’t a challenge at all.
Mostly because he was holding back.
Thought her feeble? Thought he might hurt her by accident if he exerted a little strength? She wanted to laugh at that.
Yasmin huffed and splayed her hand out against the centre of his chest, and yes, it was firm beneath her palm, muscles rigid and tensed, and there was that strength he was hiding from her.
“Are you going to take me to Ivy now?” She inched closer to him and pressed her hand harder against his chest to keep his spine pinned to the tree, just in case he thought about moving.
But he didn’t seem inclined to break free of her hold.
He regarded her with gold eyes that held a spark of heat, his silence stretching out for a moment that was so long she began to feel a little uncomfortable as she stood with her hand on his chest, his heart pounding against it, steady and strong.
She also started to wonder whether she had done some sort of permanent damage to him. She was on the verge of asking him whether he needed medical assistance when he finally responded.
He dipped his chin in a nod, his eyes remaining locked with hers as he spoke. “What’s your name?”
Not quite the response she had anticipated, but she would give it to him, because unlike him, she wasn’t rude. “Yasmin.”
He glanced down. “I’ve heard of you.”
She followed his gaze, tensed and removed her hand from his chest as she realised she was still touching him. His eyes lifted to her, banked heat in them, a flicker of interest that had her wanting to look away from him as a fire tried to lick over her cheeks. She resisted the need that raced through her and the blush, quelling both of them.
“I don’t doubt that.” She kept her voice even and emotionless, so he got the message that she didn’t feel the attraction that zinged between them. She really didn’t. “Ivy emailed me telling me she met a guy, fell in love of all things and that she wouldn’t be home for a while. She assured me that she was fine, but I’m here to see that for myself.”
“Commendable.” He knew big words. Trying to impress her?
She nodded. “I like to think so.”
He pushed away from the tree, coming to tower over her, easily eight inches taller than she was, and looked down at her.
His handsome face softened, that heat in his golden gaze lingering. “I’m Flint, Rath’s brother. Ivy is fine. She’s in love with Rath and nothing bad is happening here.”
He could attempt to appease her all he wanted. It wasn’t going to make her leave.
“Good.” She adjusted the bag on her back. “Because I prefer to heal injuries rather than cause them.”
A hint of a smile, enough that she could see that he would be devastating if he cracked a full blown grin. “Came here prepared for war?”
Yasmin nodded again. “If necessary. Ivy is my friend. My only friend.”
That had him turning serious, the dark slashes of his eyebrows knitting hard as the corners of his lips turned downwards. “I get that. You’re protective. I have a protective streak of my own… one I’ll introduce you to if you try to do anything to hurt my brother, including attempting to take Ivy from him.”
She arched an eyebrow at that. Protective of his brother’s happiness? That was commendable, as he would say.
“You think you can take me? Good luck with that.” She strode past him.
His eyes landed on her back and raked down her spine, a hot shiver following in their wake, and he purred, “I know I can take you.”
Read it with your Kindle Unlimited Subscription or buy now from…
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com.au
Book 1: Claimed by her Cougar – Available in Kindle Unlimited!
Book 2: Captured by her Cougar – Available in Kindle Unlimited!
Book 3: Courted by her Cougar – Available in Kindle Unlimited!
Book 4: Craved by her Cougar (coming 29th September 2018)
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you’re a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.
If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:
WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS | INSTAGRAM
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RELEASE BLITZ ~ Syn Consulting (Dragon War Chronicles #1) by A.G. Carothers
Release Blitz
Syn Consulting: Dragon War Chronicles Book 1
by A.G. Carothers
Available Free with Kindle Unlimited/$3.99 to purchase
Blurb:
Welcome to SYN Consulting, the top business strategy consulting firm in Europe, home to a motley crew whose leader has a life changing secret. CEO, Danica Lestrange, is the first female dragon born in the last 800 years. Hidden from the rest of her kin and raised in the human world, she built a life that she would defend until her death.
A devious plan is unearthed while working on a new business deal that could plunge the dragons into another war with the humans. The humans may have forgotten the last dragon-human war, but the dragons have not. Will the war reveal this hidden world to the humans, or will the clans come together to defeat their enemies and maintain their anonymity?
Danica must gather her allies and help the very dragons she’s hidden from her whole life. She can only hope that she’ll be strong enough to protect her chosen family.
This is the first book in a new series about dragons who want nothing more than to live in peace, but refuse to be subjugated. In war there’s also love, and love is blind. Love doesn’t care about gender, race, species (in this case), or sexuality.
Warning: This book contains explicit sexual content between consenting adults. There are sexual scenes between MM, MF, and MMF. This book also depicts romantic relationships that are MM. There is also a high level of explicit language, snark, kink, and possibly bad puns and fart jokes.
This book does end in a cliffhanger. Book 2 will be released in November 2018.
Make sure to attend the release blitz party on 8/19/18!!
About the Author:
A. G. Carothers is actually a dragon very cleverly disguised as a human. They are a non-binary author of LGBTQI Romance and Urban Fantasy, who enjoys writing original and entertaining stories. They are very excited to share the worlds they’ve created with you.
AG currently lives in Tennessee with their platonic life partner, who is not a dragon. They yearn to live back in Europe and will some day. In their spare time they are addicted to losing themselves in the lovely worlds created by other authors.
AG is committed to writing the stories they see in their head without restrictions. Love is blind and doesn’t see gender, race, or sexuality.
Stalk A.G. Carothers:
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BOOK TOUR ~ Captured by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates #2) by Felicity Heaton
New York Times best-selling paranormal romance author Felicity Heaton is here today for the book tour of her new shifter romance release, Captured by her Cougar, the second book in her brand new Cougar Creek Mates Series.
Set in her popular Eternal Mates world, Cougar Creek Mates takes you into the deep Canadian wilderness to a secret place that’s home to a cougar shifter pride led by four sexy brothers, each guaranteed to steal your heart and set it racing!
With all four books in the series releasing just weeks apart, this is going to be one hot summer.
Check out the book, download it with your Kindle Unlimited subscription if you have one, and be sure to enter the awesome grand giveaway happening at her website!
Captured by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 2)
Felicity Heaton
In the wake of an Archangel attack on Cougar Creek, Storm is seething with a need for revenge against the hunter organisation and the key to it might be the petite blonde mortal he’s locked in his cabin, one he’s determined to make sing for him. Only the beauty has a fiery temperament to match his own, and the more time he spends with her, the more she stokes a fire inside him. One that fills him with a startling and undeniable need to make her sing in another way—in his arms.
Gabriella isn’t going to take her captivity lying down. She’s going to give the pig-headed brute holding her against her will hell until he finally believes she’s innocent. He might be a cougar shifter, but she isn’t afraid of him. Or at least she isn’t afraid of what he is. The way he affects her, the flames that lick through her whenever they’re close, terrifies her though, because the longer she’s around the towering sexy-as-sin shifter, the hotter that fire blazes, and it’s only a matter of time before it burns away all her restraint.
With the mating heat and the attack bringing cougars back to the creek, Gabriella is a complication Storm doesn’t need, but she’s one that he wants… because she might just be his one true mate.
Read it with your Kindle Unlimited Subscription or buy now from…
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This giveaway is international and open to everyone, and ends at midnight on September 2nd.
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Storm wasn’t convinced that his Little Bird didn’t know the tune he wanted her to sing, not one bit. She hadn’t been surprised to hear him mention Archangel, which meant she knew about them, and he had no doubt she was in league with them.
Like brother, like sister.
Ivy kept vouching for her, but even Rath wasn’t buying what his mate was selling—that Gabriella was an innocent caught up in all of this.
If she was innocent, she would tell him everything she knew. She wouldn’t have a reason to keep denying him and refusing to speak.
“You know the tune, Little Bird.” He turned away from the door, strode to the couch and slumped onto it. “You just don’t want to sing it. I’m a patient man… I can wait until you break.”
He wasn’t a patient male. Not by a longshot. He was itching to open that door and scare her into speaking, but gods, some part of him couldn’t do it. He could still taste the terror that had gone through her when he had grabbed her and pulled her towards the bedroom, her fear that he had been about to violate her, and it was bitter on his tongue, had him cursing himself for causing it. He had only meant to scare her into speaking by locking her in a dark room.
Of course, Little Bird had got revenge by using the last shred of his electricity.
It was going to be a long dark night in there for her.
Storm kicked his feet up onto the coffee table between the couch and the log burner and slumped further, so he was almost horizontal as he stared at the fire. Tomorrow, he would wheel the solar panels out into the clearing and jack them in. Not for her sake though. His desire to get some juice in the batteries had nothing to do with the petite blonde ball of fury ranting in his right ear about being a prisoner.
He tried to tune her out, but fuck, she was persistent.
“I demand to know how Ivy is.” Her tone, so damned regal and oh-so-British, grated on his nerves.
No one ordered him around.
So he ignored her, let her rant until she wore herself out and went quiet. He switched the focus of his senses to her, tilted his head to his right as he felt her stillness, and listened. Her breathing was soft, even.
Little Bird had worn herself out and right to sleep.
Storm kicked his feet down, tempted to check on her. Two reasons not to sprang to mind. One, she might be trying to trick him into opening the door so she could attempt another escape. Two, he didn’t give a damn whether she was comfortable or not.
He really didn’t.
Not only was she human, but she was born of the same woman that the fuck-head Alexander had come from—a woman he was sure was involved in Archangel as much as her husband had been, and therefore had been involved in what had happened to his family and his kin.
Thirty-six years ago.
He slid his grey gaze towards the bedroom door.
Gabriella looked no older than thirty, hadn’t even been born when his parents had been brutally taken from him during the attack by the hunter organisation, but gods, he couldn’t stop himself from laying blame on her shoulders, because he needed someone to aim his anger at, the rage that had been festering inside him for close to four decades now.
Rage that wouldn’t be satisfied until he hunted down every last human who had been involved in the raid and painted his claws with their blood.
He tipped his head back into the couch, the leather creaking as it depressed, and sighed as he closed his eyes and tried to relax. His cougar side shifted restlessly beneath his skin, the pain of his memories of that night winding him tight inside, until he felt sure he would snap.
He shoved to his feet and paced, his strides clipped as he fought to work off some of the energy flooding him, aggression and pain that needed an outlet or it would drive him to shift and hunt.
He needed a run.
He hated mountains and forests, and everything that reminded him of his early years, before Archangel. Preferred big cities and fast cars, and even faster women. All the modern conveniences and concrete and glass that made this world feel like a million miles away.
But the mountains and the forests gave him one thing he loved.
Space to run.
He stripped off his t-shirt and lowered his gaze and his hands at the same time, reaching for the button on his jeans. He froze as his eyes landed on the thick scars that ran over his right hip and disappeared into the waist of his jeans, could almost feel them where they trailed down his thigh to the inside of his knee.
His heart started to pound, a heavy rhythm that rattled his ribs as fear rose to choke him and he saw blood on his bare skin, saw muscle carved open in the line of the scar and bone peeking through in places. His throat closed as he heard Cobalt’s words swimming in his ears, telling him to hold on, and saw his older brother viciously battling to protect him from the humans trying to get to him while he was weak and wounded.
Pull it together.
Storm shook off the fear and squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his teeth as he breathed through the pain, fighting to suppress it and break the hold his memories had on him. He wasn’t there now, pissing his pants and fearing for his life like a fucking cub while Cobalt went to war, his older brother’s strength more than a match for the humans while Storm’s had been inadequate because he had been seven years off sexual maturity.
Movement on his senses had him snapping back to his cabin, on high alert as alarm rang through him, the thought of coming under attack while caught up in his past and vulnerable driving him to react.
But no one was near him.
He stared at the wooden door that separated him from the human.
She shifted on his sharp senses, rolled over and moaned as she settled again.
He had been a fucking idiot for picking his cabin as her cage, but what choice had he had? The other cabins belonged to males, and some to females, and he didn’t know who was due to return for the gathering that would happen this year, one where eligible males were coming to service the needs of the females of the pride who were in heat.
Gods, he wouldn’t say no to a slice of that. He needed a good fuck. No strings attached. Just the way he loved it.
He pushed out thoughts of screwing, because it was just his hormones messing with him, the season rousing the need in him even when he couldn’t participate. His family were responsible for maintaining order during the gathering, and as much as he hated that, wanting to fuck like the next male, he relished it in a way.
Because he got to do the other thing he loved.
Fighting.
Plenty of males lost their heads during the gathering, jacked up on hormones and pushed to the edge by them. Storm was allowed to beat the crap out of them if they kicked off a fight that wasn’t over the right to mate with a female, which meant he got to fight at least once a day. Not gentle warm-up type fights either. He got to really let loose.
Just as he had when Alexander had landed that damned chopper on their land and tried to fuck with his family.
Storm slid his gaze back towards the door.
Towards Gabriella.
She groaned and moved again, and this time, it sounded more like a whimper. He focused. Her heartrate was off the scale too. Having a nightmare?
He didn’t give a damn if she was.
Really didn’t.
Storm scrubbed a hand over his mouth. Fuck, it had been a mistake to set up his cabin as her cage. Sure, it had been the right thing, because it would keep her safe from the other males coming to the area and it was easier for him to keep an eye on her in his own home.
But the whole place smelled of her already.
Her scent was embedded in everything, felt as if it was seared right into his soul.
Sunshine, sand and surf, with a hint of something tropical.
He snagged the red comforter from the couch, brought it to his nose and inhaled, and muttered a ripe curse as it smelled of her.
And damn, she smelled good.
Had his instincts as a male firing on all cylinders.
Read it with your Kindle Unlimited Subscription or buy now from…
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com.au
Book 1: Claimed by her Cougar – Available in Kindle Unlimited!
Book 2: Captured by her Cougar – Available in Kindle Unlimited!
Book 3: Courted by her Cougar (coming 8th September 2018)
Book 4: Craved by her Cougar (coming 29th September 2018)
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you’re a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.
If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:
WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS | INSTAGRAM
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BOOK TOUR ~ Claimed by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series #1) by Felicity Heaton
New York Times best-selling paranormal romance author Felicity Heaton is here today for the book tour of her new shifter romance release, Claimed by her Cougar, the first book in her brand new Cougar Creek Mates Series.
Set in her popular Eternal Mates world, Cougar Creek Mates takes you into the deep Canadian wilderness to a secret place that’s home to a cougar shifter pride led by four sexy brothers, each guaranteed to steal your heart and set it racing!
With all four books in the series releasing just weeks apart, this is going to be one hot summer.
Check out the book and be sure to enter the awesome grand giveaway happening at her website!
Claimed by her Cougar
(Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 1)
Felicity Heaton
Having lost his parents and mate in a brutal attack on his cougar shifter pride by a hunter organisation, Rath burns with a need to keep humans off his land and out of his life. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect his pride from them, but when a lone female wanders into his territory, it isn’t a burning need to drive her away he’s feeling and it isn’t his pride that needs protecting, it’s his heart.
Down on her luck, Ivy follows a lead to a spot where she hopes to photograph black bears, but what she discovers there is a mountain of a man who lacks manners and seems determined to drive her off his property, a man who stirs unbidden fire in her veins and a strange sense of home.
With a pride gathering on the verge of happening at Cougar Creek and the air charged with a mating heat, the last thing Rath needs is a human on his land, especially one as beautiful and alluring as Ivy, one who rouses a fierce need to fight for her, but he can’t convince himself to let her go, and that proves dangerous for them both.
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Enter the grand tour-wide giveaway to win one of a $75, $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Card at the Claimed by her Cougar book page.
This giveaway is international and open to everyone, and ends at midnight on August 12th.
Ivy swung her camera left, towards the side of the river she was on, wanting to capture a shot of it with the glacier in the distance and the sun rising above it.
A shape loomed in the mist, disturbing it, and her heart lodged in her throat, a thrill chasing through her as she pressed down on the shutter release, sure it was a bear.
But as the mist parted, it wasn’t a bear that emerged.
It was a man.
A mountain of one.
He moved towards her with a predator’s gait, prowling through the mist that tried to cling to his long powerful jeans-clad legs and the cuffs of his worn dark green fleece, the sun rising behind him casting golden highlights in his thick dark hair. His square jaw, shadowed by stubble, tensed and his stony grey eyes darkened as they narrowed on her.
It took Ivy a moment to realise he was talking to her.
“You’re trespassing” His gravelly deep voice rolled over her, a growl that suited his appearance.
He looked more dangerous than the wild animals in these parts.
A hunter?
She wasn’t sure how she was trespassing. As far as she knew, no one owned the land she was on, and she had done her research to make sure she didn’t accidentally do exactly what he was accusing her of doing.
He lowered his steely grey eyes and his handsome face twisted in a savage expression as they landed on her camera.
“Hand it over” He held his right hand out to her.
Ivy clutched her camera to her chest. Like hell she was handing it over to him. It had cost her thousands of dollars.
“No” She eased back a step and glanced at her backpack where it sat on the bank a few metres behind her, and then at the man.
He looked fit, and as if he belonged in this wild world, and she wasn’t sure she would make it more than a few metres if she tried to run. He would easily catch her. Her heart pounded at that, and she wasn’t sure whether it was out of fear or something else.
Something she was not going to examine closely.
The bear spray on her belt suddenly felt heavy, and she was tempted to use it on him, would if it came to it, even though it was against the law. Diplomacy was always the first weapon she reached for in situations like this though, one that often had the desired effect. He wasn’t the first man to attempt to block her path, and he wouldn’t be the last.
He continued to scowl at her camera. “Why are you here?”
“I’m photographing bears.” She debated showing him the pictures in the hope it would convince him that she wasn’t a threat, but hit two snags.
He would have to get close to her in order to see them, meaning he could easily snatch her camera or her, and she had put a fresh memory card in the camera last night, not wanting to have to scramble for a new one if she ran out of space when photographing bears.
He didn’t look as if he believed her.
Ivy turned towards her bag, heart slamming as she decided to risk it and find the memory card she had with photos on it.
The man was behind her in an instant, closing the distance so swiftly that it tore a shocked gasp from her lips as his left hand locked around her right wrist.
She stumbled as he pulled her towards her backpack and twisted her arm in his hand, trying to break free.
The bastard had a grip like iron.
She clutched her camera with her left hand and struggled harder, adrenaline flooding her veins to push her to fight for her freedom as her blood rushed, heart thundering in her throat.”Get off me.”
Screw diplomacy.
Ivy released her camera and seized her bear spray in trembling fingers, yanking it from her belt and aiming it at him. He launched his other hand towards her and snatched the canister before she could depress the trigger, scowled at it and then at her, and started pulling her along again.
“You need to answer some questions.” The dark note in his voice rang warning bells in her head and she kicked him in the shin, sure he would release her.
He just glared at her and kept dragging her along. When she tripped on a rock, he pulled on her arm, raising his above his head so quickly she avoided faceplanting on the ground. A bastard with a grip of iron and the reflexes of a cat.
She refused to thank him, shot him a scowl when he looked as if he was expecting one, and found her footing again, a strange calmness coming over her as she checked her Nikon to make sure she hadn’t scuffed it on the rocks. As soon as she saw it was fine, that odd sense of calm dissipated, her situation flooding back in to shake her all over again.
The man grabbed her backpack, slung it over his shoulder and marched her along the shore, ignoring her struggles as she tried to prise his hand off her, working her fingers under his in an attempt to loosen them.
They didn’t budge.
Bastard.
He was big, stood close to a foot taller than her and his shoulders were twice as broad as hers. His dark green fleece hugged his physique to mock her with his apparent strength. It wasn’t going to deter her. Even the biggest men had a weakness, and she would find his.
Her eyes widened, fighting him forgotten as a clearing came into view, a stretch of grass that spanned at least a hundred metres along the river and ran maybe twice that back towards the mountain. In among the trees, hidden beneath their evergreen canopies, cabins nestled, each of them a different shape and size.
She hadn’t seen any of them in the aerial shots of the valley, had figured the man for a camper, but it looked as if he lived here.
In the middle of nowhere.
“Are you a hunter?” She stared at the back of his head.
He glared over his wide shoulders at her. “No, and I don’t tolerate hunters here either.”
“I’m not a hunter.” She huffed when he still looked as if he didn’t believe her. “I’ll show you proof if you let me go!”
This time, when she twisted free of his grip, he released her, the suddenness of it sending her off balance, so she had to plant her foot out to stop herself from falling over. For a moment, she thought he had released her so she could show him her photographs, but then he stooped, grabbed a silver pail and filled it in the river. He poured it into a white container, and followed it with two more scoops, glared at the container and the small amount of water in it, and then at her, as if it was her fault he was collecting so little.
She realised it was when he grabbed her arm again, pulling her up the grassy slope.
“I thought we were done with the caveman act.” She kicked him in the back of the leg and must have caught him in a sweet spot because his left leg buckled, sending him down onto one knee.
And jerking her with him.
She squeaked as she hit the grass, twisting just in time to make sure her shoulder took the blow and not her camera.
He shoved her arm away from him, his expression stormy as he pushed back onto his feet, and checked his damned water, holding it up and looking a hell of a lot relieved when he saw he hadn’t spilled it. He pulled a cap from the back pocket of his jeans, revealing a heck of a fine backside as he lifted the hem of his green fleece, and screwed it onto the canister.
This time when he started moving, he didn’t grab her and drag her with him. Score one for her.
He scored a point of his own when he said without looking back at her, “I’m making coffee, and I’m feeling generous today. If you want some, and a chance to explain what you’re doing on my land, come with me. If you don’t, get the fuck off my property before I drive you off it.”
Charming.
But the thought of a hot drink, and the sight of smoke curling lazily from the metal chimney on the roof of the log cabin he was heading towards, had her picking herself up, grabbing her bag and following him.
And not only because she wanted to warm up.
She had the feeling that if she could just convince him that she wasn’t here for any nefarious reason, he would let her stay and photograph the bears.
She looked back at the river, and the mist that still swirled above it, eager to return to it in case any bears came to it while it looked so magical.
He disappeared into the cabin.
Ivy forced herself to follow him, nerves rising again as she approached the small building. A voice whispered not to go into it, that he was luring her in there for nefarious reasons of his own and that she should just leave now before it was too late.
He had been rough with her, forceful.
She had no reason to trust him, to believe he wouldn’t hurt her or abuse her.
He appeared in the window to the right of the open door, paused at his work and looked up at her, his grey eyes looking more blue in the light. His dark eyebrows drew down and he moved, disappearing from view for a heartbeat before he appeared in the doorway.
“Have a seat out here if it will make you feel more at ease.” His bass voice curled around her, a hint of warmth in it now, and in his eyes too as he gazed at her, his irises appearing more gold than grey now.
A trick of the light?
She eyed the two wooden chairs on the deck, and then peered into his cabin as he moved back into it, at the log burner against the left wall of it. It was warmer in there, but the thought of going inside had her nerves rising so she settled herself on the chair below the window and put her pack down by her feet.
Her focus strayed to the river as she waited, and it was hard to resist snapping a few shots of the valley as the sun rose higher. The way he had reacted to her photographing the valley had her holding off though, afraid that if she dared to take any more pictures that he would kick her out and her chance to photograph the bears she was sure came to the area would be lost.
He emerged from the cabin to her right and set a chipped white mug down on the table beside her. The coffee was black, and she preferred hers white, but she was damned if she was going to mention it. Steam rose off it, luring her in with the promise of warmth, and she grabbed it and lifted it to her lips, and breathed in the aroma.
A contented sigh swept through her.
While he lacked milk and manners, he had good taste in coffee, clearly made it using grounds and not instant granules.
She would have thanked him if he hadn’t chosen that moment to speak.
“So, you have your coffee, where’s my proof?” He remained standing, a glowering tower of muscle and menace, his eyes dark and stormy again as he fixed her with a hard look and nursed his own cup of coffee.
Clearly the caffeine hadn’t improved his manners.
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Book 2: Captured by her Cougar
(coming 18th August 2018)
(coming 8th September 2018)
(coming 29th September 2018)
BLP REVIEW ~ Tracy
I’ve loved Felicity Heaton‘s writing style, world building and character development since I the first book I read by a lady who is definitely in my top 5 author list!
Claimed by her Cougar is the first book in the new Cougar Creek Mates series which is a spin from the fab Eternal Matesseries by Ms Heaton.
I liked the change of setting for this series; while I love that a lot of the action in the EM series took place in London, I loved the descriptions of this new setting. The addition of the hated Archangel organisation, in a slightly different vein, was interesting too.
Rath was kinda what you’d expect of one of Felicity leading men – I do adore her kinda busted and gruff heroes. On first meeting him he comes across as a total arse but as the book progresses and we find out his secret, and why he is so distrusting of outsiders, you can understand his attitude and it helps that his reaction and attraction to Ivy starts softening his view and demeanor
Ivy was a determined lady who was passionate about her job and couldn’t understand why Rath had such an issue with her being around. She’d been badly burned by someone she had trusted and the last thing she needed was another man dictating what she could and couldn’t do. She was also desperate to make a success of her current assignment so she could move on to bigger, more important work. How would she react if and when she eventually found out what he was hiding.
Rath tries to deny to himself that Ivy is his fated mate and while she has no idea of what’s really happening between them she knows there is something more to the attraction and feelings she has for him.
As ever, the story was well written, engaging and you could so easily imagine the settlement that was Rath’s home from Felicity’s description. The heat between the pair was combustible, even when they were trying to fight it. With action, suspense and sexy shifters, this book had me caught from the first chapter.
I’m really looking forward to the other books in this new series and to seeing more of Rath and Ivy as well as his brothers, one of whom we were introduced to in ‘Claimed’
A solid 5* recommended read – even if you haven’t read the Eternal Mates series, or indeed any of Felicity Heaton’s previous books, this is easily a standalone and a great place to introduce yourself to some fabulous #PNR story telling.
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you’re a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.
If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:
WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS | INSTAGRAM
