Like a lot of us, I find I have more leisure time in the summer. Work slows down, days get longer and energy goes up. Maybe it’s all a mirage, but suddenly there’s more time for the fun stuff in life.

Here are my top 5 fun summer leisure loves:

1. The Beach. Breathing the salt air. Splashing in the ocean waves. Walking I the warm sand. Any of it. All of it! One of my favorite all time beaches is Gay Head Beach on Martha’s Vineyard, a small island off the coast of Massachusetts and top summer vacation mecca. When POTUS vacations there, you know it has to be hot! Speaking of which, POTUS plans a vacation to Martha’s Vineyard in my latest Beachcomber Investigations novel, Beachcomber Danger. The problem is there’s a credible threat to his life. But my hero and heroine, Dane & Shana will do their part to foil the threat. Of course, nothing is that easy and nothing good happens without a cost. Find out the price Dane has to pay when you read the book…
2. Summer Theater. Maybe I’m a geek, but I love seeing those small productions done in all the vacation spots well off Broadway—mostly in the mountains. Revivals of long ago favorites like South Pacific or My Fair Lady, or my very favorite The Pajama Game. I’m heading up to the mountains in New Hampshire to see whatever they’re showing!
3. Shopping. I know, I know. This is a great leisure activity any time of year (think Christmas) but it’s extra special when you can cruise the boutiques and shops in a vacation town, especially one that’s on the water, and duck in for specials and AC when the sun gets too hot. My favorite spot is in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, closely followed by Wolfeboro, NH on the shores of Lake Winnepesauki. Or any water front harbor town along the coast of Maine, like York or Kennebunkport.
4. Ice Cream. I know it’s not an activity. Not strictly speaking, but eating ice cream cones, visiting shops or outdoor stands, especially if they’re along a beach or at a carnival, is classifiably a FUN activity! I enjoy the beach side stands at places like Old Orchard Beach in Maine or Salisbury Beach in Massachusetts among many, many others (closely followed by the stands that sell ‘Beach Pizza’!)
5. Reading a Beach Book. This is the ultimate leisurely activity in the summer. Laying around with nothing to do but read for hours on end. On the beach or in a hammock or poolside. Or maybe in bed late at night or before you get up in the morning because you have nowhere else to be. The definition of leisure activity.

If you’re looking for a great Beach Read, check out my romantic detective series, Beachcomber Investigations.

About the Author

USA TodayBestselling Author Stephanie Queen is a romantic at heart and a writer by nature. So of course, she loves creating stories where the good guys always win. She writes the romantic detective series, Beachcomber Investigationsset on Martha’s Vineyard and the Small Towncontemporary romance series as well as other series and stand-alone novels. So far she’s published more than 25 novels and novellas and has no plans to stop.

You can check out all her books at www.StephanieQueen.com.

Although she’s lost count of all the jobs she had before she settled on being a novelist, her favorite was selling cookies as a Keebler Elf. She is a graduate of UConn (go Huskies!) and Harvard U. She lives in New Hampshire with her family and her cat, Kitty.

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Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group
Release Date: July 10th, 2017
Genre(s): Erotic Romance, Contemporary Romance, New Adult, Modern-Day Fairy Tale, Romantic Comedy
Buy Link: https://boroughspublishinggroup.com/books/flip-beat

Molly Ivers thinks she is falling for the opposite of Prince Charming, and she knows she should give him up, but, oh, the temptation.

WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR

Molly Ivers thought she found Prince Charming, but without a devilishly sexy accent, and six months ago she gave into their undeniable attraction. But the swarm of ever-present groupies was so not part of the fairy tale. As much as it hurt her heart, she shut out rocker Evan Castle.

Now, on the verge of finishing her graduate degree and moving to Paris—she even hires a French life coach—Molly begins to realize Evan, who hasn’t given up on her, might be the man of her dreams after all.

Excerpt:

Molly laughed while she told her what had happened last night, though at the moment, she wasn’t sure it was a joke. She sighed and left the computer to go make scrambled eggs. Nell followed her to the kitchen.

“So, should I call you ‘Number One’ now?”

She could never keep a straight face with Nell. Molly speared a peach slice with a fork and nibbled the end of it. Sweetness filled her mouth. “‘Make it so.’ No, nerd. He seems pretty cool. I mean, if I check it out, this may turn out to be a positive change. At the least, he’ll get me in shape for Paris. His bio says he’s from Giverny, and he’s a retired civil-rights attorney. His website says that when he retired, he decided to change his objective to improving people’s lives, which is why he’s a life coach. Pretty impressive.”

“So, you’re going through with it?”

“Going through with what?” They both looked into the living room, where a bemused Evan stood half naked and barefoot in a pair of black pajama bottoms. Molly licked nectar off the peach on the end of her fork to save it from dropping to the floor. Evan’s jaw tightened, and his eyes gleamed as he zeroed in on her. He cleared his throat and lifted an empty half gallon of milk. “Sorry, you left the door cracked open. I came to borrow milk.”

“Jesus, Evan! Knock next time, or at least text. I’m in my panties.” Nell smacked him on the arm and tugged down her nightshirt as she ran past him into her bedroom.

“Sorry,” he said, but he seemed distracted as he strode toward Molly, eyes glued to her lips. She sucked the rest of her peach slice into her mouth and wiped at a little of the nectar at the corner of her lips. Her cheeks blazed at the hungry longing in his eyes. She turned away to open the fridge to get the milk. It wasn’t uncommon for them to borrow food from one another, and he always watched out for them. He had a comforting, protective nature she’d gotten used to.

She grew painfully aware of her night shorts, which had a tendency to ride up her butt and cut off at mid-thigh, and her thin white tank top. Could he see her nipples? And jeez, Louise, why did they have to harden every time he came near her?

She pushed hair out of her face and poured the milk into his empty half gallon. “Help yourself to the fruit in the bowl there. Nell had leftovers. How much milk do you want?”

“Enough for a bowl of cereal, please. I’ll get some at the store later.” His voice only dropped that low and husky during sex. She stopped after she poured enough milk, then gave him extra.

Evan reached over her to open a nearby drawer. He took out a fork, inserted it into the flesh of a peach slice, and brought it to his lips.

“Forbidden fruit, hmm?”

He teased the fruit around his lips with a wicked smirk. He winked at her and sank his teeth into half the peach as he watched her, licking it. Her mouth went dry. Oh, he knew what he was doing.

Check out the Official Book Trailer on YouTube!

Follow Roxanne’s book releases over the next six months. Be sure to add the books to your TBR pile!

About the Author

Roxanne D. Howard writes sizzling erotic romance with Boroughs Publishing Group and The Wild Rose Press. She is a U.S. Army veteran, and a Columbia College alumni. She loves to read poetry, classical literature, and Stephen King. Also, she is an avid Star Wars fan, musical theater nut, and marine biology geek. Roxanne resides in the western U.S., and when she’s not writing, she enjoys spending quality time with her husband, children, and furry companions. Roxanne loves to hear from her readers, and encourages you to contact her via her website and social media.

Other Books by This Author

Sonnet Coupled

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Thanks for letting me visit with you, Delilah! I thought it would be fun to share the story behind the story with your readers. Let me back up a minute. The first question usually starts: Where do authors get their ideas?

Someone told me they think an author’s brain is a scary place! We do constantly ask, “What if…?”

Sometimes a daydream offers a story start, but ideas and inspiration can show up in the strangest places. My husband and I were in eastern Washington state, hiking along the Snake River in a game management area called Big Flats (which happens to feature in So About The Money, the first book in the Holly Price Mystery series). We had to push through some tangled foliage at the shoreline. Being a mystery writer whose mind really can go strange places, I glanced over my shoulder and said, “Wouldn’t this be a great place to find a body?”

Fortunately, he laughed.

That germ of an idea—a body in the middle of nowhere—kept growing. Why would the heroine be at Big Flats to stumble over the body? How did the body end up beside the river in the first place?

The idea for In It For The Money (Book 4 in the series) came while I was chatting with a friend’s nephew at a party. He was all excited about designing some bizarre machine called a Rockcrawler. I had no clue what he was talking about, but I picked up on his passion. And my writer’s brain went, Hmmm… Rockcrawlers… That’s different.

Let me explain Rockcrawling—or rather, here’s how Holly described the sport to her friend, Laurie Gordon, after Holly dragged Laurie to the opening day events:

“Two guys were sitting on their back porch, drinking.” Holly raised her wine glass and Laurie clicked the rim. “One polished off his beer, belched, and popped open another can. He pointed at the vacant lot next door and said, ‘Betcha I can drive my truck over those rocks.'”

“You’re lying.” Laurie narrowed her eyes.

“Swear to God.” Holly raised her right hand. “And since God takes care of idiots and drunks, the first one made it over—alive—and his friend and all their friends had to try. And their friends…” She waved at the scene before them.

Continuing that excerpt…

Beyond the last vendor booth, Holly saw another jacked-up truck rumble toward the enormous pile of boulders that marked the start of the rockcrawler course. The crowd shifted, watching the truck’s progress up the torturous 45-degree angle.

Just past a short series of tented seating—the sponsors’ section and some “premium seats”—an array of parked pickup trucks overflowed the designated parking area. Men—and a few women—stood in the beds for an elevated view. More than one person had climbed onto the top of the truck’s cab. The coolers and grills gave new meaning to the term “tailgate party.”

Holly waved a hand at the crowded areas beside the course. She wasn’t sure what to call the space. The stands? Infield? Peanut gallery? “Trucks climbing over rocks may be nuts, but this is fun. It’s like a big party.”

“Clearly, you don’t get out enough,” Laurie said dryly.

“Maybe.”

Probably.

“’Course, when you told me rockcrawling was a big deal, I about laughed my ass off. I mean, seriously? Rockcrawlers? I still can’t believe they drive trucks over big piles of rocks.” Laurie worked in admin at the local hospital. The Boulder Bounders sporting event wasn’t exactly her scene, either. “I’ve never seen so much alcohol and testosterone in the same place. It’s like a slow-mo NASCAR race with giant wheels.”

“And rocks. Don’t forget the rocks,” Holly said. For a moment, she longingly watched the partying instead of the competing truck. She needed to, make that wanted to, invite friends over for a cookout at her house—if she could find an open afternoon in her overcrowded schedule.

Yeah, good luck with that.

IN IT FOR THE MONEY

Holly Price traded professional goals for personal plans when she agreed to leave her high-flying position with the Seattle Mergers and Acquisition team and take over the family accounting practice. Reunited with JC Dimitrak, her former fiancé, she’s already questioning whether she’s ready to flip her condo for marriage and a house in the ‘burbs.

When her cousin Tate needs investors for his innovative car suspension, Holly works her business matchmaking skills and connects him with a client. The Rockcrawler showcasing the new part crashes at its debut event, however, and the driver dies. Framed for the sabotage, Tate turns to Holly when the local cops—including JC—are ready to haul him to jail. Holly soon finds her cousin and client embroiled in multiple criminal schemes. She’s drawn into the investigation, a position that threatens her life, her family and her already shaky relationship with JC.

LINKS:

Amazon: https://authl.it/B07D6FDF2X
https://bit.ly/InIt_AmazonUniversal
Nook: https://bit.ly/Nook_InItForTheMoney
Kobo: https://bit.ly/Kobo_InItForTheMoney
iBooks: https://bit.ly/iBooks_InItForTheMoney

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cathy Perkins started writing when recurring characters and dialogue populated her day job commuting daydreams. Fortunately, that first novel lives under the bed, but she was hooked on the joy of creating stories. When not writing, she can be found doing battle with the beavers over the pond height or setting off on another travel adventure. Born and raised in South Carolina, she now lives in Washington with her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.

Sign up for her newsletter on her website or follow her on BookBub for new release announcements.

You can also find her hanging out on Twitter – https://twitter.com/cperkinswrites and Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCathyPerkins

The image of a writer varies, according to the person you ask. For some, it’s the image of a famous, wealthy author who goes on book tours, accompanied by a well-dressed but harried assistant and with tons of extravagances. For others, it’s the image of a poorly dressed, shivering person in an attic or garret, pounding away at a keyboard. And then there’s the image of the person who writes on the same book for eons, never to get it published.

The true image of a writer, at least for me, is very different. A writer is someone who lives for words. Words she reads, writes and edits over and over again. And this part of my life is very solitary. Not lonely, certainly, as I’m living with the people I’ve created and placed in jeopardy. But there is another facet of my life as a writer, and that’s the more public image.

As a romantic suspense writer, I compete, whether I like it or not, with many other writers and have to find readers in various ways. One of those is to attend conferences and book signings. There, I put on my smile and talk to readers, meet other authors and generally try to expand my world. Through the years, I’ve come to realize I haven’t only been trying to sell books and “get my name out there”, but I’ve met some awesome people.

I’ve met husband and wife teams who write together or who act as each other’s technical expert/editor/artist. I’ve met mother-daughter teams who do the same. And I’ve met individuals with talents that extend from cooking to metal works and more. Each and every one of these people who I’ve met has left a mark on me and on my creativity, I think. So, this blog’s purpose is to thank each and every person I’ve met over the years who has made conversation, complimented me on my books, laughed at my jokes and sat with me at breakfast when I’m less than pleasant.

While I’m an introvert at heart, I’ve come to appreciate and look forward to the reader/author events I go to each year and to see the friends I’ve made. I relish the opportunity to talk books with people who equally appreciate them, as I do. And I look forward to being able to do this in the future as well.

If I see you at an event in the future, please say hi. I’m there for the pleasure of socializing with like-minded people. And if I sell some books? That’s good too.

Oh, by the way, I have a novella coming out on June 26th, Saving Sidewinder. It’s set in Elle Jame’s Brotherhood Protectors World and is available here:  https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Sidewinder-Brotherhood-Protectors-World-ebook/dp/B07DR2GSZL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529969250&sr=8-1&keywords=saving+sidewinder.

Below is a short blurb. Hope you check it out.

Saving Sidewinder

Sam “Sidewinder” Jameson left the Rangers to keep an eye on his young friend, Kid, as he recovers from their last mission, an injury Sam blames himself for. To tide him over and be close at hand, Sidewinder agrees to a short stint with Hank Patterson’s Brotherhood Protectors. He expects his assignment to guard Alana Christian and her son from threats to be a job, nothing more. What he doesn’t plan on is how the job will change him and his expectations, both of Kid and of himself.

I’m addicted to Historical romances. In fact, the very first romance book that I ever read was an Amanda Quick novel.  I was hooked from the first sentence and haven’t stopped reading the genre since. There are so many great eras to write and read in — Regency, Medieval, Victorian, WWI and WWII, and let’s not forget Ancient times — give me a hunky Roman legionary any day 😊.

So, it made perfect sense to me when one of my favorite authors, Carole Mortimer, suggested we do an anthology together. I love Carole’s books!

But Ms. Mortimer’s generous offer did make me think. I started wondering what it is in general that I love about romance books and what keeps me writing them. Yes, of course there is the romance. Who doesn’t love a happy ever after ending? I know I’m guaranteed a HEA in any romance that I read, and yet still, I get tense reading my favorite books, rooting for the main couple and hoping they overcome the obstacles tossed their way so they do end up together on the last page.  But I was thinking more about the characters — heroes specifically. And then it dawned on me, I love Cinderella books. No matter what I write — Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Historical, Contemporary, even Reverse Harem, I write heroes who are princes. Maybe not necessarily always the conventional prince with a crown and castle (though I do write a lot of those, even Princes of Hell), but what I love best about a good hero, is that he’s a prince at heart. He loves his soulmate. He’s caring, he’ll go to great extents to do what is right for her, even going so far as giving her up so she can have a better life. Of course then his sidekick has to always step in and hit him over the head with a good dose of sense and make him realize he is what is best for the lady in his world.

And that is what I hope I accomplish with every book I write — a happy ever after ending for a couple who truly love each other. Or in the case of my Reverse Harem books, a HEA for a heroine and her three heroes 😊. But even in RH books, my heroes are always devoted to their girl.

Long live the Romance!

A REGENCY DUO

By USA Today Bestselling Author Carole Mortimer and Angelique Armae

An excerpt from PRINCE OF SCANDAL by Angelique Armae:

He smiled to himself. Eliza was a real spitfire, if nothing else. Though he was starting to see she was a lot more. In fact, she was everything he was missing in his life—kindness, beauty, humor, selflessness. He could go on all night about Eliza’s good qualities. He really should have never let her go. “I may be a cad and God knows what else, but I am not going to steal the bed from you. Now get in and get a good night’s sleep.”

“Not happening.”

“Really, it’s fine. I’m too sore to move.”

“You’ll be stiffer in the morning spending the night in a chair.”

He’d be stiffer spending the night in bed with her. “I’m afraid it must be as nothing can entice me to move at this point.”

“You really are difficult, Your Royal Highness.”

He quirked an eyebrow.

Eliza responded with a lick of her luscious, plump lips.

The woman had no idea the misery she caused him. “If it weren’t for my damn wound, you’d be very sorry for having just done that.”

https://www.amazon.com/Regency-Duo-Carole-Mortimer-ebook/dp/B07C7N8CXQ/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Regency-Duo-Carole-Mortimer-ebook/dp/B07C7N8CXQ/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-regency-duo-angelique-armae/1128523693?ean=2940155220633
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-regency-duo/id1374110595?mt=11&at=

About the Author

National best-selling author Angelique Armae / J. C. Makk is a native New Yorker who loves all things royal, can trace her Irish roots back to the Scottish Highlands, is half Italian, and is owned by a long-haired Tuxedo feline. As a child her favorite toy was Emerald The Witch, a small doll with green eyes, green hair and purple skin. She spends most days writing, unless her cat deems otherwise.

Website: https://angeliquearmae.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AngeliqueArmaeFans
Facebook RH group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aarmaesreverseharemgroup/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AArmae
Newsletter: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/c6u8g7

For the sake of argument, everything I’m about to share with you is absolutely my opinion unless I am citing a statistic, in which case, I’ll tell you where I got it from. Cool? Great.

What makes the best stories tick? How much we, the audience, empathize with the characters. Take a step back with me for a moment as I roll the clock back to 1984. I could go back farther, but I am specifically going back to the day I saw the first Terminator movie. I was 12, and I saw it on a Saturday afternoon at my favorite theatre. Me, my popcorn, and my mom settled in to watch the movie.

As a side point, I love sci-fi movies, and Terminator had time travel, so check! I loved big action pieces, with lots of booms, and the film definitely had those. I loved characters I could invest in, and go on this journey with—and guess what, yep, Terminator had that in spades.

More, it had characters I empathized with. Sarah Connor didn’t seem to be particularly special. She was a waitress and had a roommate and was just trying to make ends meet. She could have been my neighbor, or my friends or even one of my parents. My mom was a waitress. So right away, I’m invested in her. Now she spends half the movie getting chased by some unstoppable killing machine and kidnapped by a guy who feeds her this story about being from the future.

Her reaction is what any one of us would have. Are you crazy?

Yet, in the end, she falls in love (or at least some mad survival lust) with Reese, and then in a final battle, manages to kill the Terminator. She does it. Reese keeps her alive long enough to help, and he survives long enough to do some damage, but Sarah rescues herself at the end.

Holy crap. This was like when Princess Leia grabbed the blaster and started shooting. Or when she told them all to jump into the garbage chute. Leia, who’d been held captive, actively participated in her own rescue. In later films, Leia is part of the strategy, the straight-up fights, and eventually strangles Jabba the Hutt during the rescue of Han. Leia was a bad ass.

Sarah Connor inherited that mantle.

Now I can go on and on about the badass heroines of action movies (trust me, I could), but here’s the thing—too often I heard when I was growing up that action movies were for guys. Rom coms were for chicks. We even call them “chick flicks”. My parents wouldn’t get me Star Wars toys, cause those were for boys. But I could have this pretty pink Barbie, cause it was for girls.

Action-Adventure whether it’s Terminator, or The Bourne Identity, or The Avengers isn’t just for “boys.” In fact, according to Deadline.com (see I told you I’d cite the data), Avengers: Infinity War had an audience of 40% women. Of course, it also had a huge audience period as culmination of 10 years of franchise building. A franchise I have wholly supported and am a tremendous fan of.

Why?

Cause I can empathize with those characters whether he’s a king of a hidden country with mystical powers or a narcissistic billionaire in a suit or a remnant of the cold war era spy with varying shades of gray to her morality. I can empathize because the writing, and the action, and the characters themselves have invited us along on this journey.

At the end of the day though, my love of action adventure with elements of romance or not, dates back to that Saturday afternoon in a theater as the end credits began to roll on Terminator. The film didn’t have a happily ever after, if anything, the ending was ominous. A promise that all the horrible things Reese warned her of were coming, yet we also had this sense of hope and Sarah was invested in saving her son and eventually the future.

I love writing these types of stories in some fashion whether it’s a paranormal adventure about wolves on the hunt or military insertion to save someone or a humorous romp of royals trying to deal with life. It’s about the adventure, and yeah, the action. I love reading them, too. Or watching them. Sometimes we’ll pick up a book or go to the movie because it looks cool, but we only stick around or come back for more if it takes us deeper.

Whether it’s saving your kids, saving your house—hell saving the cat—we can live vicariously through the heroes and heroines in our books, and our movies. I love multi-dimensional heroes and heroines. My heroes are not all alphas, and my heroines are not all helpless, needing to be saved. Sometimes the battle is intense and physical, sometimes it’s haunting and emotional.

It’s always about the journey.

Okay, and the hot guys. Yeah, I’m a little shallow.

Sometimes.

What do you love about action/adventure and romance? Do you have a favorite film?

Don’t Miss Heather’s Brand New Releases in the Special Forces & Brotherhood Protectors series:

Shielding Shayna

Honor comes in all sizes.

Shayna Morgan has been a little bit of everything in her life—a daughter, a niece, a sailor, an investigator, and homeless. Nerve damage has left her with only partial feeling on her right side, and pain threatened to cripple her. Family pulled her home from where she slept in her car outside of DC, but it was the men and women of the Brotherhood Protectors who inspired her and gave her a purpose. She may not be able to fire a gun with any accuracy, but her new project fulfills her in so many other ways—helping other female vets just like her. It’s all hard, honest work and good sweat until a shadowy threat takes aim at her ranch.

Purpose comes in all shapes.

Fergus “Oddjob” Roper went into the Air Force at 18, before making a lateral move to the Navy, and then left the SEALs when he was 33. After 15 years of service, two wars, multiple deployments and 3 degrees, he’s looking for his next mission. After a year in Texas working with a horse trainer specializing in equine support animals, he’s heading to Montana to visit with old friends. He came for the beer, and stayed for the women…one woman in particular. Oddjob doesn’t mind mucking stalls, or helping out on the project—but what he wants is to shield the woman who saved his life, even if she doesn’t know it.

Link: https://heatherlong.net/books/military/special-forces-brotherhood-protectors-kindle-worlds/brotherhood-protectors-shielding-shayna/

Covering Coco

Life between the cross hairs

Retired Navy SEAL John Jacob “Jacko” Johnson earned a reputation for being cool under pressure, having more kills from behind the scope of a sniper rifle than anyone else active on the teams, and being a total smartass. Some things don’t change, and not even a traumatic brain injury sidelining him keeps him from kicking in when his friends need it—most recently a top-secret mission to retrieve a lost asset.

Bolt action is louder than words

Coco Adler’s military career ended abruptly on a dishonorable discharge. Or so reads her military file. Recruited for a top-secret program, she digs in deep. When her cover is nearly compromised and she can’t reach her handler, she goes dark but stays on mission. The last thing she expects is a lunatic in a Hawaiian shirt to take her down a moment before a sniper’s bullet would have.

Forced to work together, Jacko will do everything to cover Coco’s extraction—even if it kills him.

Link: https://heatherlong.net/books/military/special-forces-brotherhood-protectors-kindle-worlds/special-forces-operation-alpha-covering-coco/

Meet Titus – the Soon to be Alpha of the Rock Prowler Pack when interviewed by one of his pack’s cubs.

“You want something, Sammy? An interview for your school magazine? Well… I suppose it couldn’t hurt.”

Sammy giggled and opened up his writing book. “So, T. what’s your nickname.”

Titus: “Never had one. Not unless T. counts. You started something the first time you called me that. Now the whole pack uses it.”

Sammy blushed. “It suits you. But I said Big T first, what with you being so big and all. Anyway. Where did you go to school?”

Titus:“I planned to head to earth and do some serious study”—he shook his head—“but things went so far south it never happened. Some witch kidnapped my true-mate and I spent almost a century trying to free her.” The wolf’s shoulders slumped as he stared into the distance. After a deep breath, he added. “Not that she wants anything to do with me or the pack. I guess you can say I graduated from the school of Hard Knocks.”

Too young to understand Titus’s pain, Sammy shook his head. “Girls suck.”

Titus:“Only when you’re a cub. Give it a few years and you might say different. My best dream was to bond with my true-mate but she wouldn’t even look at me. Now I don’t have any dreams left.”

Sammy carefully wrote Titus’s every word in his notebook. “What would you do if you became rich overnight.

Titus:(growls softly). “I can’t see my luck changing now. No, don’t write that bit down. Let’s just say I’m not hurting financially and I don’t need more money.”

Sammy broke off to sharpen his pencil. “And what’s your favorite food?”

Titus:Nothing tastes good anymore except whisky. No, don’t write that down either. Just put that I don’t have much appetite. I hunt and I eat whatever I can find. That’s it, Sammy. Interview over.”

Titus stood and beckoned a group of cubs over.“Time for your tracking lesson. Give me a two-minute head start, and if you find me, I’ll shout the lot of you an ice-cream.”

To Seduce an Omega

The Rock Prowler alpha condemns Viola for her inability to shift. Forced into poverty and isolation, she ekes out a meager existence as a healer. As the pack omega with a crippled knee, she’s forbidden to mate. Her first heat beckons, but no wolf will dare to bed her.

Titus, a wolf rejected by his true mate, overflows with violence and anger. The Lykae King sends him to take over the Rock Prowler pack. He condemns Viola for wanting payment before she treats her patients and threatens to bring in a new pack healer. With her crippled knee and no other income, she’d starve.

She-wolves from families who disagree with the alpha have vanished. When Titus investigates, the alpha’s allies imprison both him and Viola. To escape, he must seduce Viola—the she-wolf he insulted and reviled. If that’s not bad enough, she despises him for his seeming allegiance to the alpha. As he gets to know her, she steals his heart, but after all that’s happened, how can she accept him when even his fated mate refused him?

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 Excerpt

“Heal her.” The stranger scowled and thrust the injured woman at Viola.

She blinked and stepped back so quickly she almost overbalanced. After taking a moment to stand up as straight as her crippled leg allowed, she donned her professional healer persona. “For a price. Cash. Up front.”

Viola lied, of course. Leaving anyone in pain was beyond her, but the man with the broad chest and gold-flecked eyes didn’t need to know that. Besides, unless she got hold of some cash soon, she might never eat meat again.

The low growl that rumbled from his throat and the way his eyes narrowed made her wish she’d stayed silent. He bared his fangs, and although she wanted to retreat, she stubbornly held her ground.

His lip curled. “Do it. I’m good for your fees. Just get a move on.”

His deep, angry rumble made her think of a volcano ready to erupt. And damn, when she stared up him, he looked as tall as the mountains that trapped her in Rock Prowler territory. Out here in the midst of the forest, miles from the nearest settlement, she should be wary. This stranger emanated strength, protection, and…flat-out fury. At her.

His jaw clamped as he shoved past her into the hut. She followed, mentally triaging her patient. Tansy’s clothes hung off her in tatters, and an arrow stuck out of her leg. Deep scratches, the sort only a murder thorn could inflict, covered her torso. The woman’s breathing came in fast, shallow pants. Her skin looked as though it had been touched with frost, and rivers of dried blood stained her leg.

Absently, Viola wondered what the other woman been up to that involved tangling with a bush renowned for shredding skin. Not running from Mr. Fix-It here, I hope. Ignoring her concerns and her attraction to a newcomer with the short hair and bad attitude, she reached out to stroke Tansy’s hair. Rather than gather her supplies, Viola hardened her heart and met the stranger’s gaze.

With his torn ear and bent nose, Mr. Fix-It looked ready to tear out her throat. Her stomach clenched as though he’d punched her, and his disgusted look promised a reckoning once she’d tended Tansy’s wounds. Viola’s tender heart went out to the woman in his arms. Despite her bold words, she’d never let Tansy suffer, but she needed to bargain to survive.

As the pack’s omega wolf, she expected nothing from anyone—except insults, of course. Chin high, spine stiff, she kept her hands at her side. “Perhaps you shouldn’t have chased her into a murder thorn in the first place. Of course, I’ll help her once we’ve agreed on a price.”

The stranger’s furious growl cut to her heart, but unless she demanded her cash in advance, she’d starve.

About Kryssie Fortune

Kryssie’s imagination runs wild. She loves dragons, sensual Fae, and sensual vampires. Show her a dominant Lykae male and her toes curl. Feel free to visit her website or check out her blog. She can also be found on Facebook or Twitter.

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Blog: https://kryssiefortune.blogspot.co.uk
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