Operation Reindeer Rescue by Sarah Hadley Brook
Summary:Sequel to Operation Toy Rescue
When one of Santa’s reindeer becomes depressed, what’s an elf to do? Caleb always makes sure the reindeer are ready for the big night, but when Dancer gets worse and won’t participate in any activities, they bring in new vet Greg Starr.
There’s an instant attraction between the men, but Caleb’s been hurt in the past and isn’t sure he can risk his heart again. The more time he spends with Greg, the harder he falls. But if he can’t get past his fear, he could lose the man he’s meant to be with.
Original Review December 2023:
It's been too long since I read Sarah Hadley Brook's Operation Toy Rescue but I remember it well so I was intrigued to discover there was a follow-up novella. Operation Reindeer Rescue is as deliciously fun as the first visit to Snow Hope and Santa's village.
This time we follow Caleb, one of Santa's elves, as he tends to the Reindeer especially Dancer who seems to be distancing himself from the life he loved so much. Enter the village's new veterinarian, Greg and he brings wonderous things everywhere he goes.
The attraction and chemistry between Caleb and Greg is instantaneous but whether more evolves, well let's face it, it's Xmastime which 99% of the time means HEA so no surprise here that there is no real complications between the MCs. That's not to say there isn't doubts, especially on Caleb's part but answers present themselves to their reindeer sadness and their decision to go slow and wait until after the Big Guy's Big Night kind of loses it's not-so-shiny shine😉.
I guess what I'm trying to say(in a bit long-winded kind of way) is if you enjoyed Operation Toy Rescue than you will definitely love Operation Reindeer Rescue. If you haven't read Toy yet, don't worry you won't be lost, but I highly recommend giving Toy a read. With Santa's Village and Snow Hope Island, Sarah Hadley Brook has created a deliciously fun universe that will leave you smiling and full-on grinning like a silly fool but if one can't be silly while enjoying the holidays, what's the point in celebrating? No idea if the author has any plans for further tales of Snow Hope Island and the nearby land of Santa but if there are I will definitely be snagging a copy.
Summary:
Honey Creek Den #4
Can Grayson and Jai work out the differences their age gap presents?
Since Grayson was a young cub in Alaska, he’s always wanted to be a park ranger. But when a rogue Alpha attacks their small den unexpectedly, Grayson’s alpha father manages to get some of his family as well as two other families out of their village unnoticed. They flee for their lives, and head in the direction of Honey Creek in hopes of finding a welcoming den.
Park Ranger Jai wasn’t happy about getting relocated to Flathead Lake Park in Montana but he had to go where the Park Service sent him. Once there, his bear felt happy and content. Jai had hoped to find his mate there, but alas, nothing. Still, his panda grumbled any time Jai even thought about asking for a transfer, so he made the most of it and made Honey Creek his home.
When Grayson scents his mate on his first day as Flathead Lake’s newest park ranger, he’s not ready. He’s what most people would call a “baby alpha” as he’s just turned twenty-one. He’s not prepared for a mate yet. His family is still recovering from losing everything and he hasn’t had time to establish himself in his position. But fate has other plans.
Things don’t go so smoothly and Grayson almost ruins his chances with his mate. When the same alpha shows up in Honey Creek, set on wiping out all male omegas, Alpha War and his den gear up for a fight for their lives.
Twins are wreaking havoc, triplets are starting to crawl, omegas are going into heat, old Alpha’s are showing up and causing problems, warlocks are still “poofing” in and out at odd times, and Grayson is head over heels in love with his little mate.
Grayson’s Enlightenment is book four in the Honey Creek Den Series. Each book contains a fated mate pair, Mpreg, lots of knotting during growly sexy times and babies. Did I mention babies? These alphas will do anything for their mates, just read and see. The Honey Creek Den Series is a continuing series and is meant to be read in order and not considered standalones, even though each book focuses on a different couple. This book is intended for adults only as these shifters tend to get growly and don’t watch their language. Grayson and Jai's story is around 44,000 words in length.
Summary:
Quest Investigations #2
This case is really going to the dogs…
After I try a little off-the-books interrogation to locate my selkie almost-boyfriend’s nearly-ex-husband (don’t ask, it’s complicated), I’m in the doghouse again with my bosses, who bust me back to surveillance. Ugh. So when another human inexplicably storms into Quest Investigations—something our security spells ought to prevent since I’m supposed to be the only human admitted to our offices—I’m reduced to staking out local fast food restaurants to check out the guy’s alleged sighting of a giant, glowing-eyed, dumpster-diving spectral hound.
Ridiculous, right? Humiliating, too, not to mention boring. But at least they didn’t fire me.
Imagine my surprise when there actually is a giant, glowing-eyed, dumpster-diving spectral hound—one of the Cwn Annwn, Herne the Hunter’s traitor-tracking dog pack, to be exact. Jeez, who let this dog out? It’s my case, though, so it’s up to me—Matt Steinitz, aka Hugh Mann—to return him to Faerie. But while Herne’s normally hopping kennels are inexplicably unpopulated by pups, they’re playing host to one extremely dead body.
Uh oh. Looks like someone’s bite was a lot worse than their bark.
Guess my love life will have to take a back seat again while we nose out the truth.
Dammit.
The Hound of the Burgervilles is the second in the Quest Investigations M/M mystery series, a spinoff of E.J. Russell’s Mythmatched paranormal rom-com story world. It contains no on-page sex or violence, and although there is a romantic subplot, it is not a romance. The series is best read in order.
Summary:
Valley Ghosts #4
Jimbo and Dean found their way back each other after many years apart, and they’re both excited to finally start a new relationship without the fear of the spirit world invading their lives. Jimbo, or James, as Dean calls him, decides it’s time for them to have a real date, and takes Dean to a local fall event. The beautiful weather, colorful leaves, and crisp air all add to the perfect day full of new experiences and time alone.
As night falls and it’s time to leave, things change. The local spirits reveal themselves, and Jimbo and Dean end up on an adventure neither is prepared for, and they’re unsure how to handle the unbelievable events that happen over the course of the evening. What was supposed to be a romantic day, soon turns out to be a life-threatening experience they’re ill-equipped to handle. They’ll need help from the team to solve this mystery and put the spirits to rest once and for all.
A gay paranormal romance thriller.
Demon Magic #4
Maybe it wasn’t my best idea to draw dark magic into myself to save a friend… but it’s definitely not my worst (don’t ask Havoc what that was). The first thing on our list of “Save Miles from the Dark Magic That Might Be Making Him Do Ridiculous Things” is to destroy the ominous book that’s snagging my attention. But what I don’t expect is to be dragged into the book filled with dark mysteries that leaves me with more questions… and a lack of pants.
But it’s nothing that Havoc and I can’t handle. The two of us have proven that our relationship is strong enough that we can face anything life throws at us, so I think we can handle a measly book… maybe… I mean, so far it may look like we’re not winning, but that’s just because it’d be boring if heroes won immediately.
And it’s not like we have to fight this battle alone, especially with an awe-inspiring dragon familiar who is forced to face his greatest adversary (a common housecat), a narcissistic angel who comes with a sword that compliments every cut made, a centaur who always manages to look like he’s on the set of a cologne commercial, and… Etienne (whatever he is).
With the demon I love by my side and my found family, we’re going to stop this darkness before it spreads. But doing so might unveil some things we never expected.
Random Paranormal Tales of 2024
Operation Reindeer Rescue by Sarah Hadley Brook
Caleb hung their jackets and scarves on a set of hooks on the wall, just inside the door.
“Smells absolutely wonderful in here.”
Caleb gestured for Greg to take a seat at the round wooden table in the kitchen, but Greg shook his head. “Can’t I help with anything?”
Caleb smiled. “Sure. Grab some plates and glasses from the cabinet just next to the refrigerator. And silverware is in the drawer right over there.”
Greg set the plates on the counter for Caleb and then set about placing the silverware on the table. Once Caleb pulled the tray from the oven and dished it out, Greg grabbed the plates and set them on the table.
Soon they were sitting down to the best meal Greg had eaten in years. “You are an amazing cook,” he said as he tried to keep from shoveling each bite into his mouth.
Caleb watched him with a grin. “You seem extra hungry.”
Greg took a long drink of his milk before answering. “Before I moved out here, I was living on fast food or frozen meals. I’m not much of a cook. Not really one at all. I can heat up things in the microwave, put a pizza in the oven, but not much else. They fed me well at the clinic, definitely, but this ... this is melt-in-your-mouth, can-I-have-seconds-and-thirds, kind of food.” He leaned forward and whispered, “Is this your superpower?” he asked with a wink.
The blush spread across Caleb’s face and down his neck, pleasing Greg immensely. “You’re adorable, Caleb. I bet you have guys beating down the door to date you.”
Caleb shook his head. “Hardly,” he mumbled.
Greg was shocked. “I guess the men around here aren’t too bright, then. Letting you slip through their fingers.” He put his fork down and reached across the table, tapping a finger until Caleb slid his handout and Greg could stroke the top of his hand. “I know we just met, and I’m probably doing this all wrong, and this is all so new to me, the North Pole, the Island, working with the reindeer ... but I keep having this urgent feeling that if I don’t say something to you, then I might be blowing the most important thing in my life. Which I know could also scare you, being so blunt.”
Cale leaned back and blew a breath out. “Wow. I don’t think anyone’s ever been so honest with me. People hide behind flirting, looking for a hook-up, or just a fling, but you’re kind of putting it all out there, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I am. It’s been a long time since I’ve dated. I spent a lot of time getting my degree and then I just sort of immersed myself in my work. Besides, everyone I met seemed to be the same ... nobody piqued my interest.”
Caleb’s eyes darkened. “But I did?”
Greg rose from his seat and rounded the table and took his hand, crouching down in front of him. “I don’t want to scare you off, but I couldn’t let this night go by without telling you I’m interested.” He laughed nervously. “I’m not usually too good at this,” he admitted.
Grayson's Enlightenment by Taylor Rylan
Grayson — 1
“Grayson! Did you get the last of your stuff?”
“Yeah, Da! I’m going to be late for my first day of work if I don’t get going,” I shouted as I walked down the stairs with the last box of my things. Alpha War offered me a small cabin on den land and after I returned from my two-week crash course training, I started moving everything in. My alpha dad wasn’t happy, but Da overruled him and said it was time for me to have the freedoms a young alpha needed. Whatever that meant.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of you. Don’t worry about your dad. He’ll come around soon enough,” Da said as I stepped down off of the last step.
“I don’t know, Da. I feel like he’s upset with me for whatever reason. Like, I need to be more like him. He always seems so mad, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Grayson, your father was very young when we mated. Younger than you. His parents didn’t prepare him for anything having to do with mates and what to expect or not. That all fell on me and he’s stubborn. Most of the time he didn’t listen. Still won’t. But you, you’re a wonderful young man and alpha. You’ll make some omega a perfect mate someday. I just know it. I’ll always be here to answer any questions you have. If I can’t answer them, and you need to talk to an alpha, I’m sure that one of the alphas in the den would answer any questions you have if your dad won’t.”
“Thanks, Da. Love you. But I really gotta go. Thanks for everything. I know it’s caused Dad to become upset with you.”
My carrier shrugged before responding. “Not the first time, won’t be the last. Now, again, have a good first day at work and be sure to call or text when you get home. I know you’re twenty-one now, and you’re living in your own place, but I still worry.”
“I know, Da. I will.” I glanced at my watch and saw that it was later than I thought, and I wouldn’t have time to stop at my cabin and drop off my boxes before heading into work. It was more important to be on time than it was to get back to my cabin and drop stuff off, so I climbed into my old pickup and headed to work. So much had changed in just the last few months. Until a year ago, I’d never been out of Alaska. Then suddenly we were running for our lives in the middle of the night and didn’t stop until Dad thought we were finally far enough away. If nothing else, he was good at getting us out of harm’s way.
I was about to start my dream job, and I didn’t want to mess it up, so I prayed I didn’t get caught in all of the lights in town. If I did, I’d certainly be late. If I didn’t, then it’d still be close. I knew Ryker was taking a chance on me, and I wanted to make him proud. Sure I had a dad and da, but after what happened all those years ago, as well as right after we found sanctuary here in Honey Creek, I wanted to be seen as a worthy member.
Luckily for me, I caught all of the lights green—there were only three—and I made it to the ranger station with just a few minutes to spare. Not exactly how I wanted to start my first day on the job, but it was better than being late. I’d be sure to tell Ryker that I’d be earlier tomorrow. I didn’t want him to think it was a habit to show up just barely on time.
When I got out of the truck, my bear perked up and pulled me towards the building. I told him to stop and wait, but he didn’t want to listen. I knew he was excited about the prospect of having a job that allowed us to spend a lot of time outside, but he was being ridiculous. When I got next to the building, I was hit with a tangy scent that had my bear begging to burst free. When I looked down at my almost instantly hard dick, my bear suddenly yelled mate! Ours!
I couldn’t stop the loud growl that escaped my throat, and when I strode up to the door, I threw it open and zeroed in on the only person in the room I hadn’t met yet. I didn’t know who he was except that he smelled wonderful and he was our mate. His caramel skin, black hair, almond-shaped dark brown eyes, and slim build drew me unlike any other before. He dropped the coffee mug he’d been holding, and he just stood there staring, as if he were shocked and maybe a little scared.
Having our mate be afraid of us was the last thing my bear and I wanted. I started to move towards him when suddenly Ryker and Troy both started laughing. I gave them a quick glance but then zeroed back in on my mate. Slowly I approached, trying to appear much calmer and not scare him. He rolled his eyes and turned and looked at Ryker and then Troy. When he did, they laughed louder and he swatted at Troy, who just about fell over from laughing so hard. It was Ryker who got it together first.
“Well, I see the fates have been at it again. Shall I introduce you two? I’m sure you’ve figured out who you are to each other by now though.”
“That won’t be necessary,” our mate said to Ryker before he turned back to look at me and walked the last two steps towards me and stopped directly in front of me.
He was several inches shorter than my own six-three height, but I didn’t care. The top of his head only came to my chin, but my bear and I both found him gorgeous and loved the idea of having a shorter mate. He was absolutely beautiful, and he smelled like ours.
“You must be Grayson, our new ranger. Hi, I’m Jai.” He thrust his hand out to me, and when I placed mine in his, I felt a tingle go through my entire body.
“Yes, I’m Grayson. It’s so nice to meet you.” I was at a complete loss of what to do. What did you do when you met your mate? Da hadn’t ever really said anything other than when Dad found him, he left with him. Was I supposed to take Jai away with me? We were in the same den. Da and Dad weren’t. And that was fifty years ago. Things were different now, right?
I looked down into Jai’s dark brown eyes and saw a glimmer of mischief in them. He smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
“Jai, be nice. He’s really young and trying to figure things out,” Troy said to my mate. In a way, I wanted to say thank you to the older alpha, but at the same time, I wanted to rip his head off for talking to my mate like that.
“Don’t worry, Troy. I have every intention of being nice to Grayson. I realize it’s only eight in the morning, but I think it would probably be best if I take Grayson out and show him the south beach at the lake. We’ll be back for the lunch you two have planned,” Jai said as he walked past me, grabbing my hand as he did. I looked over to Troy and Ryker and shrugged as I turned and followed my mate out of the building I’d just rushed to get in to.
“Do you want to drive or should I? Do you have a problem with omegas driving?”
“Why would I have a problem with you driving? Haven’t you been doing it for a while now? Besides, you know the area so much better than me. It’d be better if you drove.”
“Thank the fates. I know you’re young, and honestly, I’m a little worried. Here, hop-in.” Jai opened the passenger door of his black pickup truck for me. When I climbed into the newer model, I glanced over at my beat-up truck and realized that I really wasn’t ready for a mate. Nowhere near ready. I had nothing to offer. I’d just turned twenty-one recently, and I hadn’t even really started my first day on my first real job yet. I had almost no savings, and yet, here I was sitting in the passenger seat of my mate’s truck.
I knew he was older than me. And most likely, quite a bit older. He’d obviously had a bit more time to get his life together before we found each other. What could I really offer? Sadly I realized, absolutely nothing. I looked out the passenger window and watched the scenery go by as my mate drove away from the ranger station. I realized my dream job just became hell. I’d have to work beside my mate on a daily basis.
“Grayson?”
“Huh?” I responded as I turned and looked at Jai.
“There you are. I called your name several times. I asked if everything was okay? You don’t seem happy.”
“Everything’s fine. I was just thinking. So what’s so interesting about the south beach of Flathead Lake?”
“It’s one of our major touristy areas. There’s a large section that is great for swimming, and it attracts a lot of visitors. We have to check it frequently during tourist season to make sure the swim buoys are still in place as well as the nets.”
“That makes sense. So we’re going to check on those?”
“We can. Honestly, I just thought we should get out of there and away from those two. We wouldn’t be able to talk otherwise. As it is, they’re going to constantly be picking on us.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Because just a few months ago I was complaining about not finding my mate yet and here you are. To think that I could have found you almost a year ago.” Jai had a sad look on his face, and it made me want to pull him into my arms and comfort him. What was up with that? Was that part of being mates? My bear was grumbling at me, wanting me to do that exact thing, but I told him to be quiet. Our mate was driving us, and I couldn’t hold him just now.
“Yeah, I guess. I’m sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. The fates know what they’re doing and when it’s best that we meet. I’m sure there’s a reason we haven’t met before now.”
“I think you’re the only one I haven’t met yet. You’re a panda, right? I don’t quite recognize your scent, but I remember hearing that there was a panda in the den.”
“I am, yes. And you’re a polar bear. I recognize your scent because I’ve worked with Troy for the past two years. That and I know all about how you and the rest of your group came to the den.” Jai glanced at me and gave me a quick smile before looking back out the windshield. Instead of looking out the passenger window again, I looked out the windshield and watched the scenery from a different perspective, still lost in thought about everything that had happened already this morning.
“Do you have siblings?”
“I do. I have three brothers and five sisters.”
“Wow. That’s a lot of cubs!” I was surprised. Nine cubs? That was almost unheard of. Did pandas have an easier time getting pregnant?
“Yeah, my omega dad seems to be quite fertile. I’m smack in the middle. Four older, four younger.”
“So you have two dads?”
“Yep. Female pandas are just like any other female bear. They have a difficult time getting pregnant. My dads have been mated for almost three-hundred years. Only three of us are left waiting for our mates. Well, now two of us. I have a brother and sister left unmated. Well, and me, until you claim me that is,” Jai said as he pulled into a busy parking area. He wasn’t kidding when he said it was a popular area.
“When does tourist season end?”
“This is the last weekend so we’re going to be extra busy. Labor Day weekend seems to signify the end of summer and most people are trying to get in that last fun-in-the-sun moment before the long, cold winter sets in.”
“Makes sense. Should we go have a look around?” I asked as I opened my door. I didn’t give Jai a chance to reply before I walked to the front of the truck and waited. I may have been young, but I had manners and knew how to use them. It crushed me that I was going to have to tell Jai I couldn’t claim him. I wasn’t settled enough for a mate. I had nothing to offer yet.
When the beautiful man joined me in front of the truck and smiled up at me, I did my best to keep an indifferent look on my face. Damn, this was going to be hard.
The Hound of the Burgervilles by E.J. Russell
Chapter One
“Are you sure about this?”
I glanced sidelong at Eleri, my new Quest Investigations co-worker and self-described BFF, as we inched closer to the counter in Wonderful Mug Coffee Shop. If I looked straight at her, she’d know I was about to lie, big time. Apparently I have a tell: My lips are moving.
“One hundred percent,” I said. Yup. Total lie. Ninety percent, maybe. Okay, seventy-five. Fine. Fifteen at the most.
Or ten.
To be honest, guilt niggled at my insides over asking Eleri to accompany me. Since she’s fae, she has free access to Faerie through any available gateway. My Quest credentials entitle me to use the FTA—Fae Transportation Association—to travel between any relatively secluded spots via shortcuts through Faerie, but there were a couple of reasons why I couldn’t justify calling up Frang, my usual driver, and toddling off through the portal.
First, I didn’t feel right using a Quest FTA voucher for this trip, since it was personal, not professional.
Second, FTA drivers follow carefully regulated paths through Faerie so the traffic won’t disturb the residents, and none of them would ever take me where I needed to go. Because everyone—even a duergar like Frang, who’s as big as your average commercial refrigerator and regularly knocks back shots of dragon piss and crushed holly berries—steers clear of bean-nighe.
I expect you would too, because you know, Washerwoman of Death and all.
I know what you’re thinking: Don’t do it, Hugh! Or, if you’re really trying to get my attention: Don’t do it, Matt! Because when you use my actual name instead of my Quest Investigations moniker, I know you mean business. But come on, cut me a break, okay?
After three weeks of nothing but texts with Lachlan Brodie, the selkie who was actually interested in dating me, I was running seriously short on patience. We’d agreed not to go any further until he wasn’t married anymore, but—
Oh. Right. Did I mention that my prospective boyfriend is still married? Well, he is. Technically. And since I’m not a home-wrecker and Lachlan isn’t a cheater, both of us refused to so much as kiss until he severs the handfasting knot with his fae husband.
And I really, really wanted to kiss Lachlan Brodie.
“When we get there,” I said as we crept toward the cashier, “let me do the talking.” Grizel, the bean-nighe I was seeking, would answer three questions for us if we went about it properly, but she was extremely literal about what constituted a question.
If Eleri were a wolf or bear shifter rather than a dryad, I’d have described the noise she made as a growl. “I don’t know why we have to go to a stupid coffee shop, anyway. Zeke always has a fresh pot of the best coffee in the known universe back at the office”—she lowered her voice—“with druid-blessed beans.”
“We’re at the coffee shop because I know better than to try to get any sense out of you before you’ve had your first cup. And this morning’s trip—”
She smirked. “You don’t want anyone at work to know about it, do you?”
I shot her a glare. “You know.”
“Yes, but I’m your BFF. You tell me everything.”
“Not everything,” I grumbled. Some things were too embarrassing to admit. Like how following years of pining after one unattainable man, I’d shifted my affection to another man who was just as unattainable. At least at the moment. “And when did you become my BFF?”
“Are you saying I’m not?”
I frowned, thinking over the very short time since I’d met Eleri on my first solo case for Quest. She’d been working as a maid then and wearing a severe black and white uniform, with an attitude to match. After our somewhat rocky start, we’d become close in a remarkably short time. Now she was comfortable flying her true self around me: a style favoring clunky boots, patterned leggings, denim skirts, and a rainbow’s worth of sweaters and jackets—“In natural fibers,” she’d informed me with a sniff—as well as more snark than any other ten people. “I…guess not.”
“There you go. So what’s the deal?”
We shuffled forward again. “It’s been three weeks,” I murmured.
She fluttered her eyelashes at me. “Since we declared our undying friendship for each other?”
“Since Lachlan said he wanted to date me.”
“Oh, brother.” She rolled her eyes. “Are you telling me we’re running a stealth mission in Faerie today because you want to get laid?”
“Shhhh!” I glanced around wildly. Wonderful Mug was located a stone’s throw away from United Memorial Hospital, which had a wing devoted to treatment for the supernatural races—supes, they called themselves—not that any humans other than me would ever know about it, since it sort of existed in an alternate dimension.
Consequently, any one of the bleary-eyed people currently queued up for their morning caffeine fix could be a supe. But the Mug was popular with humans too, and the supe community had strict rules about exposing their existence to my kind in a way that would draw unwanted attention and interference. Aside from the dire punishments on deck for violation of the Secrecy Pact, I had no desire for anybody—supe or human—to know about today’s little jaunt.
In case you hadn’t caught on already, it wasn’t exactly legit.
“We’re going,” I said, “because Lachlan—and okay, me too—shouldn’t have to wait forever for Wyn to surface.” Considering Lachlan’s soon-to-be-ex was a Corlun Dwr, a Welsh water sprite, surface might be a literal description. For all anyone knew, he could be lounging around at the bottom of a lake somewhere. “And Wyn should know that it’s safe for him to come out of hiding.”
She tilted her head, her eyes going unfocused for a moment. “That’s fair. But I still don’t know why we have to keep it so quiet we couldn’t even use the translocation gate at the office. We’d get to Faerie much quicker and have druid-blessed coffee and scones to boot. If Lachlan hired us to find Wyn...” She studied my face and trailed off. “He didn’t hire us, did he?”
I winced. “Not technically. But he hinted that he would if Wyn didn’t come back soon.”
“So what’s the rush?”
“The rush?” I narrowed my eyes at her. “How old are you?”
She stuck her nose in the air and sniffed. “It’s impolite to ask that.”
“Why? Because I should never ask a lady her age? That’s a little sexist, isn’t it?”
“It’s got nothing to do with gender. The only real way you can determine a dryad’s age is by counting our rings.” She bared her teeth. “After we’re dead.”
I gulped. “Oh. Well. Never mind. But I’m guessing you’re older than you look.”
“How old do I look?”
“Maybe late twenties?”
“Damn,” she muttered. “I was hoping for twenty-one, max.”
“Don’t be vain. You know you look good.” She did. Eleri was lithe and petite, her golden-brown hair in a pixie cut, her skin smooth and light brown—except when she was manifesting a tree, when it turned distinctly bark-like. “Not a day over sapling.”
“Shut up,” she said, but her smile glimmered.
“My point is that all of you…” I made a rolling gesture with my hand to indicate I was referring to supes in general. “You’re all extremely long-lived. Lachlan and Wyn have centuries to work out their issues. I’ll be lucky if I have another good decade or so—and trust me, as a human, I won’t carry my age nearly as well as you do.”
“Ah,” Eleri said. “Also fair. Okay, I’m on board.”
“Thank you,” I replied as we finally made it to the counter.
“Good morning, Hugh.” Sierra, the cashier, winked at me. Since she ran my credit card for my orders, she knew my name was really Matt Steinitz. But I used Hugh—what everybody at Quest called me—as my Mug name, since nobody ever gave their real name to the baristas. “The usual?”
“Yes, please. And a hazelnut latte, extra whip, for my friend.”
Sierra grinned at Eleri, who blinked in a rather dazed way. “What name should I use for you?”
“Uh…”
What the heck? I peered down at Eleri. She was never at a loss for words. I glanced between her and Sierra. Oh. Oh. “Flora,” I said. “You can call her Flora.”
Eleri shot me a wild-eyed glance and swallowed. “Flora. Flora works.”
We moved aside to wait for the new barista to fix our drinks. Until last summer, the regular morning barista had been a supe—an achubydd, a magical healer—although he was so deep in hiding that nobody knew. Heck, he didn’t even know he was working next to a hospital that was practically Supe Central. Jordan, Quest’s werewolf “intern,” had once wreaked his particular brand of chaos at the shop too, but now, as far as I knew, Wonderful Mug was staffed by humans only.
Which would be as much a problem for Eleri if she was, er, interested in Sierra as it was for me with Lachlan.
“You realize she’s human, right?”
Eleri shot me a fulminating glare. “I’m aware, thank you. But since we’re about to embark on a very sketchy secret mission so you can get busy, I’d suggest you keep your comments to yourself.”
“Right.” I saluted. “Sorry. Carry on with the ogling.”
“Shut up.”
We collected our coffees and left the Mug, Eleri casting only a few longing glances over her shoulder at Sierra. Sierra returned longing for longing and glance for glance. Very interesting. We’d definitely be returning to the Mug, and I doubted Eleri would complain about it next time. In fact, she’d probably suggest it.
She led me to a pocket park a few blocks from the hospital. I glanced around curiously. The place had a footprint hardly bigger than the Quest offices, but the mature trees—both evergreen and deciduous sporting brilliant autumn color—along with ranks of rhododendrons cut off the view of the street. “Is this a regular FTA stop?”
“Nope. But I’m a citizen of Faerie, and since the King and Queen loosened the barriers, I’ve got pretty much global access as long as I enter near a tree. Hell, I could be an FTA driver if I wanted to pick up extra gold. In fact—” She took the last swig of her coffee and pitched the empty purple cup into the park’s lone trash bin. “—I almost decided to go that route after I ended the gig at the Martinsons. If Quest hadn’t offered me a job, I wouldn’t have had many other options.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not big on the whole gardening scene. That’s one of the reasons my clan chief disapproves of me.”
“That guy,” I said with disgust. “Mr. Stick-Up-His-Ass. How is he still in charge?”
She shrugged. “He’s OG.”
“Old guard?”
“Old growth. It’s impossible to uproot him.” She grinned, her incisors more pointed than most humans. “Although that doesn’t mean we don’t try.” She plucked my cup out of my hand and sent it after her own.
“Hey! I wasn’t finished with that!”
“You want to get laid or not?”
“Eleri,” I said, my tone laced with warning. “That’s not what this is about.” Mostly. Okay, mostly, but not entirely. Lachlan didn’t deserve to have his life put on hold, either.
“Whatever. Let’s go.”
She grasped my wrist and hauled me after her between the trunks of two maple trees and then…
My breath caught, just as it did every time I made that transition between my world—the human world—and Faerie. Everything was different here. It smelled different. Newer and older at the same time, which sounds weird, I know, but it’s the only way I can describe it. The only fuel burned in Faerie was wood, and not even much of that, since the trees are practically sentient. Magic is the real power source. So there’s always a hint of ozone, like after a thunderstorm, but otherwise everything just smells so fresh and, I don’t know, green.
And the sky. Well, it’s not blue. Or not only blue. It’s the color spectrum: Red in the morning and violet at night, moving through all the other colors as the Faerie day—which may or may not be the same as an Outer World day, since time moves differently there—progresses. Niall, one of my bosses, and the brother of the Faerie King, once explained that it was because Faerie was an artificial construct, created by the elder gods in the Days Before (don’t ask “before what?” or you’ll get that look and the very unhelpful response of “before Faerie”). He suggested I think of the whole thing as being enclosed in a soap bubble or a glass ball, its surface acting like a prism.
I suspected there was more to it than that, but it was still so freaking cool. I was literally in another dimension, one where magic was ordinary and gender was optional and anything could happen.
Since I’d wanted to get this little task taken care of as soon as possible—and before Niall and Mal, our other boss, noticed Eleri and I weren’t in the office—the sky was still red, maybe tinging toward orange. We were at the foot of the tor. The ceilidh glade where most of the big gatherings happened was inside the grove of trees at the top. The Keep—the big stone monstrosity that used to be the seat of the Unseelie King before the consolidation of the Seelie and Unseelie courts and the marriage of the Seelie Queen and Niall’s brother—was off somewhere on the other side of the tor. Although given that Faerie geography wasn’t exactly static, who knew where it was today.
“Which way?” Eleri asked.
“Uh…” Good question. I’d only encountered this particular informant once before, and I’d been in company with Mal at the time. I pointed up the side of the tor, a little to the left of center. “That way. I think.”
Eleri shot me an exasperated glare. “You do know where we’re going, right?”
“Cut me a break. Do you know where everything is in here?”
“Well. Yes.” She pressed a hand below her heart, over her calon, the extra organ that every supe possessed—except vampires, apparently. “I can call on the One Tree and it will show me where anything is. It’s how the FTA drivers can navigate the regular paths.”
“Oh. Right. Um… I’m looking for a stream.”
She upped her exasperation by a factor of ten. “Well, that’s specific. This place is lousy with streams.”
“With a tree above it.”
“Dude,” she said. “Seriously?” And she gestured to the vista that was literally nothing but trees.
“Where someone hangs washing.”
She stilled. “Are you kidding me? You’re looking for Grizel?”
I lifted my chin in an attempt to look confident. “She’ll be able to tell us where Wyn is.”
“If you’re lucky,” she retorted, “and can translate whatever cryptic crap she hands you. You’d be better off consulting a freaking crystal ball.”
I blinked. “You’ve got those?”
She screwed up her face. “Well. No. But playing pin the tail on the centaur would be more dependable than Grizel.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “She helped us find another missing person once, so I’m willing to try again.”
She folded her arms. “But not to tell Mal or Niall about it, or ask for their help.”
“It’s not their problem. It wouldn’t be fair.”
She sighed. “Fine. It’s your funeral pyre.” She squinted at the tor, scanning for something that I couldn’t detect. “There.”
She took off up the hill with me slogging along behind her. The tor was one of those changeable Faerie geography things—sometimes it could feel like you were scaling Mount Everest and other times it wasn’t any more strenuous than hiking over the Nike campus berm. Today it was somewhere in the middle, so by the time we got to the top and stopped inside a dense grove of alder and birch, I was breathing heavily, but not about to pass out. Eleri, of course, looked as fresh as she had in the line at Wonderful Mug, although considerably more awake.
“Grizel’s stream is through there.” She pointed at what appeared to be a solid wall of tree trunks.
“How the heck are we supposed to get the lay of the land? I may be a surveillance specialist, but I can’t see through that.”
She shrugged. “So move the trees.”
It was my turn to give her the Seriously? glare. “Now is not the time for dryad humor, Eleri.”
“For a change, I’m not joking.”
“Fine. I’ll bite. How the heck do I get trees to move?”
“Ask them nicely.” For an instant, she maintained her poker face, but then she relented and grinned at me. “Chill, BFF. I’ve got you.” She strode forward and placed one palm on a birch, the other on a neighboring alder, murmuring something I couldn’t hear clearly but which sounded like Welsh.
And the trees moved aside.
“Damn. You’re good,” I said.
Eleri just winked at me and gestured for me to follow her. We crept through the magically less dense copse until we could peer out through the underbrush to the hillside beyond.
Grizel was there, all right, in all her blue-skinned glory. And when I say blue, we’re not talking about faint bluish undertones. Nope, we’re talking full on Smurf. She wasn’t tall—probably a hand-span shorter than Eleri who barely topped five feet—although her knot of iron gray hair, held in place by some kind of bone, added another inch or three. She was wearing the same ankle-length green skirt and faded, loose-knit shawl that she’d been wearing the first time I’d seen her, so either she only had one set of clothes or she had a really consistent fashion sense.
On the other hand, if you were called the Washerwoman of Death, who knew how you handled your own laundry?
Several garments already hung from low-hanging branches of the gnarled oak tree about halfway down the slope. She had a couple of clothespins gripped between her teeth as she lifted a limp shirt out of the wicker basket at her feet.
“Uh oh,” Eleri murmured. “Somebody’s number is up.”
“Let me do the talking, okay? She can be really literal about what constitutes a question, and we can only ask three.” I’d been formulating them for the last week, turning them over in my mind to make sure they couldn’t be interpreted more than one way, and I was convinced I had them nailed. Wyn was as good as found already, and then Lachlan and I could get on with, well, getting it on. “Just block her access to the stream as fast as you can because if she makes it into the water, she doesn’t have to answer.” And once we tipped our hand, our chances of successfully ambushing her again would be precisely zero.
“I’m not an idiot,” Eleri hissed. “I know how this works.”
“Okay. You head for the stream and I’ll herd her toward you. But she’s quicker than she looks, so don’t dawdle.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, lowering into a sprinter’s crouch. “If I can outrun a forest fire, I can outrun her.”
“Ready. Set. Go!”
We launched ourselves out of the trees, Eleri speeding toward the stream bank while I angled toward Grizel. She saw me—I know she saw me, because she stared right at me—but she didn’t do anything other than spit out the clothespins and bare an alarming array of pointed yellow teeth.
Uh oh. I remembered something from our first encounter—she’d believed I’d been some kind of tribute, a gift to her from Mal, in exchange for information.
Maybe tackling her without his backup wasn’t my most brilliant notion.
I started to slow my pace, but before I could veer off to the side, something streaked past me, clipping my hip and sending me staggering into the laundry.
While I was wrestling with a face full of wet suede—ewww—Grizel shouted a curse in Gaelic. When I finally pulled the clinging fabric off my head, she was charging down the hillside, a lean wolf with a telltale white blaze on his flank nipping at her heels.
“Jordan,” I groaned. “Of course it had to be Jordan.”
The young werewolf had started interning at Quest at the same time Eleri hired on, and he was nothing if not enthusiastic. Unfortunately, he didn’t possess a lot of common sense and if he’d ever considered the consequences of his actions before he plowed full steam ahead, I’d never heard about it.
Eleri was crouching at the stream’s edge, her arms spread, her fingers sprouting leaves and her signature thorn accessories, a resolute expression on her face. While Grizel hadn’t run from me, Jordan, as reckless as he was, was getting the job done of driving her toward Eleri. Okay, this might work out after all.
But then Grizel reached into the pocket of her apron, and her arm flew in a windup any major league pitcher would envy.
“Fetch!” she called.
Jordan’s gaze immediately snapped to follow the trajectory of whatever she’d sent sailing through the air and he took off after it, crashing through the underbrush in his eagerness.
Grizel cackled, then calmly strolled the last few yards toward the stream, neatly bypassing Eleri who, for some reason, didn’t try to stop her. Grizel stepped into the water on extremely large bare blue feet, then turned to smirk at us.
“Safe,” she said. “Tha great ninnies.”
Ghost Hexed by BL Maxwell
Chapter One
First Official Date
Jimbo
“So, you want to go or not?” I barked at Dean. He ignored me as usual, and without missing a beat, continued with his inventory as if I hadn’t said a word. “Dean?” I tried again, not so snappy this time.
“What is it, James? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you?” he said as he looked up at me with a sexy grin and the greenest eyes I’d ever seen. His dark brown hair was shorter and neater than it had been when I’d first laid eyes on him, but the years gave him an edgier look that was both hot and classy. What the hell did he see in me? I had no clue, but I was thankful for whatever the fuck it was. “You’re staring again,” he said, with an eye roll and a shake of his head.
“Sorry, still don’t know what it is you see in me, but I’m glad for whatever it is.” He stood from where he sat at one of the dining room tables and moved over to where I sat across from him. With no warning he straddled me and smoothed one of his hands over my head that really was due for a shaving and cupped my chin with the other.
“You were the hottest chef at culinary school, and now you’re my hot boyfriend.” He leaned in and brushed his lips lightly over mine before gripping my face with both hands and having his way with my mouth.
“Dammit, Dean,” I panted out; this man got to me more than anyone ever had, before or after him. He drew his tongue across my lips and leaned just out of my reach when I tried to kiss him again. He leaned in close enough I could feel his smile ghost across my mouth, and when he thrust his groin against mine, I clenched my teeth so I didn’t blow right there.
“Was there something you wanted to ask me?” he whispered.
“Fuck, what you do to me—it should be illegal, but I’m so damn glad it’s not.”
He huffed out a laugh, and when he tried to stand up from my lap, I gripped his thighs and kept him there. “Where do you think you’re going? I have something I wanted to ask you, but you used your power of sexual persuasion on me, and you know I can’t resist you.”
Enchanting Exposition by Alice Winters
Chapter One
The scream that explodes from within Menace would put a dying banshee to shame.
“What the fuck is that noise?” Havoc asks as he comes rushing into the apartment we live in. It rests above the café where Havoc had been overseeing things before rightfully assuming something horrible had just happened from the way my familiar is acting.
He has a makeshift weapon in each hand, ready to crack open skulls and annihilate, but he’s not yet certain what to execute, so he strikes a rather attractive pose instead.
Havoc is a handsome demon and the man who’s stolen my heart. While we took a roundabout way to find each other’s hearts—which included hundreds of years living as a mage and contracted demon who didn’t always see eye to eye—we got there in the end. It might have been a bit bumpy along the way, but all that matters is we finally found each other.
He has rich black hair disrupted by two white horns that twist softly. Besides them and the vibrant blue eyes with catlike pupils that scan the living room, he could pass for a human… for the most part.
This handsome man is obviously prepared to save me from whatever hell is happening inside my home by showing up with a sword in one hand and a butcher knife in the other.
The moment he spots Menace who is seated right in the middle of the room, he does not, in fact, lower his weapons but grips them tighter, like he’s prepared to end the creature to stop his wailing.
Menace is my familiar… a rather unique being since up until I stumbled across him, I believed that the only familiars still present in the magical community were for witches. He’s the only mage familiar that I’ve ever come across after assuming they were all gone. And while he can turn into a badass dragon, he’s generally in the form of a rather unique-looking cat with blood-red fur, far too many needlelike teeth to count, and a black tongue—which I can see during a rather long and extended yowl. Clearly, his life is rather difficult.
“I’m sorry, Miles, I think your familiar is broken and it’d be best to put it out of its misery,” Havoc says. “I will gladly take the title of executioner for you.” He doesn’t seem at all distraught over his plan to execute the creature.
He steps toward Menace, who throws his head back and lets out another rather dramatic shriek.
“Menace, stop!” I order, not sure how much longer I can listen to this. It’s loud and shrill enough to make my ears ache and I really didn’t think it could go on for so long.
“Why is he doing it?” Havoc asks me.
“Remember when Yoko and Baron said they were going on vacation and asked me to watch their cat?”
“No.”
Of course not. “Do you listen to anyone talk but me?”
“Depends on whether I can laugh at them or ridicule them while they speak,” Havoc admits because he is… in fact, slightly evil.
I ignore that and wave toward the cat carrier that had remained unnoticed because of all the screeching. “So I just brought Yoko’s cat in and Menace started acting like this. Menace, stop. You’re being obnoxious and likely scaring away my customers,” I say as I kneel by the cat carrier and unzip it.
The regular cat, who would be wise to avoid Menace, pops out, not seeing any issues with anything happening. She’s a rather fluffy long-haired cat with thick gray fur. I’d met her a time or two at Yoko’s place, so I thought it wouldn’t be a huge deal to watch the cat while they were gone. I pick the cat up and present her to Menace.
“Menace, this is Cottontuft. Cottontuft… I’m sorry,” I say.
Havoc finally puts the butcher knife down and the sword away. “Miles, what if it ends up like Nicco’s carrier pigeon… you know, the one he tried using to send you letters until Menace ate it and left its head just… lying there.”
I quickly pull the cat that’d been excited to meet Menace back to me in not at all unreasonable alarm. “Menace, if you harm even a hair on this cat’s body, I will be so pissed. No more YouTube videos or TV or… anything, got it? And if you super hurt her, I’ll never forgive you and will sever our connection and like… banish you to being an outside familiar.” I set the cat down and give her a pat to show that she is nice and we are to treat her with kindness.
That shuts Menace up long enough for the cat to walk over and just throw her body against Menace so she can rub on him.
Menace jerks back like the touch is coated in acid as he screams again, smacks her fluff—which his paw just sinks into—and tries standing his ground.
The cat is so fluffy she doesn’t seem to notice any of it, but trots on over when she sees me. She leaps onto my lap and starts kneading my legs like she’s so happy to be out of that carrier that she will love anyone and everyone. Yoko did say she was a pretty chill cat and likely wouldn’t be upset over the change at all.
Menace is apparently appeased by that because he finally stops making ridiculous noises. Or so I believe until I look up and realize that his mouth is hanging open like he’s so horrified by the cat’s actions that he can’t even find the “words” to depict his rage.
“Don’t give her that look! You hate sitting on my lap. Don’t act jealous,” I say as Menace’s hair rises and he does some weird arched-back sidepass all the way to me. He raises his paw, planning on yeeting her off my lap, but when I catch the paw and give him a stern look, he glowers at me. And since I have prohibited the use of the murder mittens, he proceeds to just plow her off my lap and promptly sits on it, proudly claiming it as his own while his tail twitches.
He is pleased as he sits like a prince upon his throne… until she returns to my lap, rather stubborn herself.
“I like her,” Havoc says, which snaps Menace’s attention to him, probably because Havoc has never claimed to like Menace since I acquired him. The two always have butted heads and now, for some reason, Menace is offended by it.
“Now, now, Menace. She’s just here for a little while. It’ll be fine. She’s just a cat, okay?”
Menace is positive it won’t be fine.
“So we have a meeting at Jacob’s University of Bullshit here in an hour, right?” Havoc asks.
I look at the clock before realizing that all of this nonsense took far too much time. “Oh shit, yeah, I need to get ready,” I say as I stand up, causing Menace to fall off his throne, before I hurry back to get dressed.
I really don’t want to be late when it comes to meeting with Jacob because even one more day of being in this house with that cursed book of dark magic is one more day of stress.
This all started hundreds of years ago after a dark mage named Geoff adopted me with the plan to use me for my magic. While he raised me and taught me everything I know about magic, he was also manipulative and knew how to harness it to benefit him, which led to me meeting Havoc. Cutting a long story short, I broke free of him with Havoc’s help, gathered a group of people together and murdered Geoff.
Or at least we thought we had. But nope. The asshole leaped back into my life hundreds of years later, risen from the dead just to make my life miserable, or so it seemed. In our quest to defeat him, Lanni, one of our good friends, ended up swapping bodies with him—it’s a long story—but it ended up having lasting effects on her. After he was dead—for a second and definitely final time—my life was chucked right back into a whirlpool of chaos when Lanni was then taken over by the dark magic brought out by Valerie, a woman who had pretended to care for me when I was a child but who is also dead now; we’re at least decent at the unaliving people part.
With barely any options—really none that would allow Lanni to keep living—I removed the dark magic from her in the only way I knew how… by absorbing it into myself, which… maybe wasn’t the best plan I’d ever had.
I thought all was fine until I’d gone upstairs to retrieve a book for Lachlan the day after acquiring the magic. While looking for Lachlan’s book, my mind had been drawn to another one that’d never even caught my attention previously. Before the darkness had taken root inside me, it had seemed to be nothing more than a bound book filled with blank pages.
But nothing prepared me for the way the dark magic reacted to it. Words in a language I didn’t know that I could understand sprang to life, rushing to the surface in black ink that caused the darkness inside me to rise up.
I had Havoc remove the book from my sight, which helped significantly, but we need someone else to destroy it, which is why we have an appointment to meet with Jacob at his school.
And while I’ve only had this cursed magic for about a week, my own magic hasn’t been overly pleased by the new addition. Even so, my magic is strong enough to keep it pushed down and out of sight, hopefully until I find a way to remove it.
“Allow me to get my bag and then I’m ready,” Havoc says as he hurries off.
After I finish getting ready, I step out into the hallway where Havoc comes out of a different room hefting a rather large bag. While I know it’s to transport the book, I’m uncertain why it’s so large. And is he carrying bricks in there with the way he’s having to lug it? “What’s in that bag?”
Havoc gives me a look. “Don’t you worry about it.”
Clearly… I’m worried about it. But Havoc will be Havoc, so I just pretend none of it exists as I come out of the hallway to find Menace holding up a pillow. He has engaged his dagger claws into one of the couch pillows and is now holding it suspended over Cottontuft’s head, like he was just caught red-handed on his journey to smothering the cat of cuteness.
“What the hell are you doing?” I ask.
Menace hisses and flings the pillow in his own version of a temper tantrum as I quickly scoop him up and force him to look me in the eyes.
“You are a grand and mighty familiar… are you really going to allow a cat to get the better of you? Come on, let’s go. And Cottontuft… be good.”
The cat just chills in a sunny spot, eyes too heavy to hold open while her literal menace is carried out in a football hold as we head downstairs.
While Yoko and Baron, the two who help run my café that sells food and drinks as well as charms and other things, are gone, some of my other employees have had to step up. I give them a nod as I pass through and head out to the car where I realize that there are two others waiting for us.
“Who invited them,” Havoc growls as he notices the two men standing outside my car. One is Etienne, a… unique man who is rather complex to understand, even for someone like me, who has seen quite a bit in my hundreds of years of life. His magic revolves around the fact that many years ago, he was sacrificed when a group of people thought they could—control? Manipulate? Who knows—a creature named Dyame who guards the river of the dead. Instead, it caused Etienne and Dyame to merge into one being.
Dyame is on a whole other level of interesting. While I don’t interact with him often, he occasionally takes over Etienne’s body. He’s rash and prepared to toss threats around as fast as he can spit them out. But he’s also quite fascinating and helped Etienne bring me back to life after I died, breaking the hold Geoff had on me. He seems very adamant about protecting Etienne and always comes to our aid.
Then there’s Leo, who is Etienne’s partner, a man who looks older than Etienne but is actually quite a bit younger than him—sixty years younger, I believe. He’s a healer and a fairly level-headed man, who fits well with Etienne.
Etienne beams, but his cute expression seems to bounce off Havoc. “Miles begged me to come. He dropped to his knees before me, stroking my thigh as he whispered, ‘Etienne, I need you to come.’”
“For what? To dig your own grave?” Havoc grumbles.
“Leo! I’m so glad you could make it,” I say as I give the man a pat on the back so he knows that he is welcome.
Leo gives me a smile. “Thanks for inviting me… I think. I don’t actually know what we’re doing, but whenever you enlist us in anything, we nearly die, something explodes, and something else threatens to eat us… I’m starting to wonder if we shouldn’t ask for specifics before agreeing to show up.”
That is a good point… ah well. I mean, they keep showing up, so it’s kind of their fault too. “This keeps life from getting too boring,” I assure him as I get into the car. Menace—who is on a high from smacking a defenseless cat—jumps into the passenger seat, so when Havoc is done putting the bag in the trunk, there’s no room for him.
“Move, hairball,” Havoc growls, which results in Menace flipping him off… or at least that’s what I assume he’s doing.
“Come on, Menace. You can sit on my lap,” I say as I drag his unwilling body to me so Havoc can get in. It’s a little worrisome as I lower him onto my lap, since all of his murder claws have engaged, but he loves me so he puts them away as he makes contact. “Menace is upset because we’re watching Yoko’s cat.”
“Isn’t Menace always upset?” Etienne asks. “I’ve never seen that thing wake up and be like ‘Today, I will revoke Satan from my soul and be decent.’”
The way Menace’s head turns to look at Etienne makes me question if he really has been possessed.
Etienne grimaces and waves me on, so I start driving. As the others start to chatter, I find my eyes drifting over to the rearview mirror when I feel a thrum of magic swell up inside me. It twists and tangles with the tendrils of my own magic, but it doesn’t feel right.
“So what exactly is going on?” Etienne asks.
My eyes snap away as I force my focus back to the issue at hand. “I’ll… explain everything once we’re there.”
My magic is generally pretty mellow inside me. I can feel it, and when I need to whip it out to protect us, it’s ready to destroy what it can, but years of perfecting it has made it so solid that absolutely nothing can make it ripple. There’s something to be said about Geoff’s cruel teaching methods because he wanted me well aware that if I didn’t do something right, I would be punished until it was perfect. It taught me phenomenal magic control.
But right now… my magic is uneasy. It feels like there’s a wave rocking inside me, and at the bottom of that ocean sits a bomb packed full of darkness and eager to go off.
And that darkness… oh, how sweet would that power be if I allowed it to wrap around me, to run free. I could make everyone drop to their knees before me… make them beg for forgiveness. I would keep Havoc safe… absolutely no one would ever be able to touch what is mine. No one could ever harm anything I care about because I would have all the power I ever needed.
“Miles? I can tell you’re not paying attention because we were just talking about how impressive my dick is,” Havoc says.
My attention is ripped back to him, and I raise an eyebrow as I force my expression to stay even. I don’t want him to know how bad that book makes me feel. It’ll all be fine because we’re going to destroy it today, and I can go back to pretending like I didn’t make a horrible mistake. “Oh? That’s our topic of choice? If we want to talk about your dick, we need to talk about the time you nearly lost it,” I say.
Havoc cups his groin. “Don’t do this to me, Miles. We can’t relive that. That lady collected them!”
I hesitate. “Wait, what? No, I was talking about that bandit who nearly shot you in the dick since you were brawling with him naked. Who the hell are you talking about?”
“You know that time we didn’t have money, so we were going to stay in the stable and that really sweet lady invited us into her room? You were like out within minutes, but before I fell asleep I found her stash of petrified dicks.”
I tear my eyes away from the road to make sure he sees the expression on my face. “You left me in a room with a dick-cleaving woman?” I growl.
“You know…” Havoc pauses before pointing at me. “There was…” He can’t really seem to come up with any reasoning for this.
“You were gone when I woke up.”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to wake up to her sawing my dick off, so I slept in the stable!” Havoc says, like this is perfectly reasonable.
“I’m so glad we’re normal, Leo,” Etienne says before giving him a rather sweet smile.
“You’re sleeping on the couch tonight,” I decide.
Havoc has the balls to look shocked. “Me? What did I do? You still have your penis! I checked this morning! We weren’t exactly getting along at that point in life, so you can’t blame me for… leaving you there.”
I sigh and wonder how I can still be surprised by this man.
My mind slides off him as I feel that buzz from the trunk again. It’s such a good feeling. I bet having that power… that magic would just… feel so fucking good—
“Miles!” Havoc snaps, tearing my mind away from the darkness that was dragging it under. “Pull over, let me drive.”
“No, I’m fine,” I say as the magic swirls around inside me, mixing and surging. Oh… the control… I would never have to fear anyone again. I could show them what I really can do—
“Miles, stop the car,” Havoc barks.
“What’s… going on?” Etienne asks.
“Good news or bad news first?” Havoc asks as he tries grabbing the steering wheel, but I smack his hand away because it’s mine. Just like this magic is mine. Even if he wants to take it from me! I bet he wants to keep it for himself!
“Uhhh, good news, I guess?” Etienne says.
“Miles is handsome. Bad news is that his handsome ass decided to save Lanni by absorbing her dark magic, and now we need to stop the car because we’re going hella fast and Miles is not acting like himself.”
“Stop the car? What do we need to stop the car for? You’re so silly, Havoc,” I say as I push the car faster, exhilarated by the magic, by the rush of it all. I even reach over and pet his face, which he weirdly doesn’t seem to enjoy! How could he not? “Why don’t we feel the wind in our hair?” I roll down all of the windows so the wind is whipping us in the face and making my eyes water. “HOW FUN!”
“I would like to not get murdered, thank you!” Etienne says as Havoc goes for the steering wheel again.
Using the wind streaming in, I harness it to push him against his car door.
“Don’t be silly, Havoc! Everything is fine! Everything is—” My words are cut off as Etienne wraps the seat belt around my neck and starts pulling while Menace lets out a battle cry before biting me. The seat belt does a pretty damn good job choking me. Who would choke a man as all-powerful and amazing as me?
I lose my concentration on blasting Havoc into the door as Etienne pulls the seat belt tighter. What a little shit! Does he seriously think he can stop me by using the power of a fucking seat belt?
I slam down on the brakes and cackle as I hear his head slam into the back of my seat a moment before I accelerate. I grab the seat belt and melt it, tearing it free as my flames whip out of control because I am AMAZING.
“Fuck, fuck!” Havoc yells as I ditch the fucking steering wheel and start crawling for the back. “Grab him! Don’t let him get into the trunk!” Havoc shouts as Leo leaps past me to worry about steering this fucking car. Why worry about something so foolish when that beautiful book is back here for me to peruse? Oh, the JOY!
“Mr. Goody Two-shoes gonna save the day, eh?” I snarl at Leo who is trying to stop the car. I even give him a good kick in the head, but luckily for him, the window is still down so he doesn’t end up smashing into it.
Havoc grabs on to my legs as I twist and kick. Does he really think he’s going to stop me? ME! What a fool! All he’s managed to do is pull my pants and underwear down enough that everyone in the car gets a clear view of my ass cheeks.
“You lowly creatures are going to bow before me!” I yell as I grab on to the back seat, prepared to punch my hand through it if I have to. Suddenly, Menace leaps onto me before chomping down on my bare ass cheek.
“YOU FURRY FUCK,” I yowl as I kick Havoc in the chest, toss the cat at his head, and scurry the rest of the way into the back seat where Etienne tries to grab me with his weak little body. “What are you going to do with those teeny limbs? Don’t make me laugh!”
That little fucker leaps onto me and starts choking me as I use the power of magic to blow the fucking car seat apart.
I mean… come on… does he really think his measly chokehold is going to do shit to me when I’m made of magic? While the car comes to a stop as a burning inferno, I climb through the flames and reach into the hole I’d created to pull the bag out. I scoop it up as Leo starts rolling the window up, like that’ll stop me! I punch the glass right out and start shimmying through.
“This is mine. All mine! Ha ha! You dumb fucks! All mine!” I cackle as my clothes burn… I guess I really should have used a spell that didn’t burn them off me. BUT WHO CARES?
“All mine! Ha ha! Fucking losers think you can take my book!”
Oozing out through the car window, I do a little flip midair before smashing into the side of the road, but even that can’t stop me! “Mine, mine, mine. All mine. Ha ha.”
“Miles, stop!” Havoc orders as he grabs for me while exiting the vehicle, so I snatch him by the throat.
“You fucking sexy man!” I growl as I tear him in for a teasing kiss I savor before bolting.
I scurry down the street, forcing cars to dodge me left and right as I hold the bag above my head so all can see that I have the power!
“You can’t catch me. No one can catch me! I am lightning! I am fast as fuck!”
I dive off the road, leaping the ditch and taking to the field, pushing myself into a run because this book is all mine! It’s mine and not theirs and I’m going to rule the fucking world. I’m going to rule it allllllll. They’re going to bow before me! They’re going to—
And that’s the moment a fucking dragon slams me to the ground, pinning me there as I curse, throw fire at him, and flail some more. His massive paw keeps me pinned to the ground, his weight alone keeping me from rising to my feet.
How dare he! “You are nothing without me. Without my magic you are nothing more than a little kitten hissing and scratching. I make you strong. It is my magic that makes you anything more than that cat you hate. So join me! Together we can rule the whole world! We can rise above them all!”
He tears the bag out of my hands, and just like that, I watch him fly off as I forlornly look after it. I even hold my hands out to it, wishing that I could fucking fireball his ass back down to earth.
Before I realize… that I have no fucking idea why I’d ever want to fireball Menace!
It takes me about a minute of staring before my magic chokes down the darkness inside of me and I realize that I’m lying in the middle of some field butt-ass naked with… one sock on, holding my hands up to the sky like I’m waiting for someone to swoop down and pick me back up.
Sarah Hadley Brook lives smack-dab in the middle of the Heartland and is the mother of two wonderful young men, as well as two cats. During the day, she works in the nonprofit world, but reserves evenings for her hobby-turned-passion of writing, letting the characters she conjures in her mind take the lead and show her where the story will go. When not working or writing, she can be found reading, working on dollhouses, trying her hand at new recipes, or watching old movies and musicals. In her ideal world, Christmas would come at least twice a year, Rock Hudson and Doris Day would have costarred in more than three movies, and chocolate would be a daily necessity. She dreams of traveling to Scotland some day and visiting the places her ancestors lived. Sarah believes in “Happily Ever After” and strives to ensure her characters find their own happiness in love and life.
The Men of Crooked Bend Series is what started it all for me and it was incredibly difficult to let those men go. It was originally supposed to be a trilogy but it ended up as a ten book series with a bonus book that's part of The Snow Globe Christmas Series. In the Men of Crooked Bend series, you get to know the cowboys and other men of Wild Creek Ranch in Crooked Bend, Wyoming (a totally fictitious town). The series is set in the foothills of the Grand Teton Mountains, a place I fell in love with as a teenager.
I have a closely related spin-off series called Sulfur Springs. In it you leave Wild Creek and go to the little neighbor town of Sulfur Springs and meet the sexy men of the Sulfur Springs Fire Depart, the sheriff's department, as well as quite a few US Marshals. You see some familiar faces but you also meet some very new ones. It’s finally finished and ended up being a nine book series.
I love to read, it’s always been one of my favorite things to do since I can remember. When I started writing, I couldn't decide if I wanted to write contemporary or paranormal as I love both. I chose contemporary but still, paranormal was talking to me and those darn shifters kept saying, “tell our story, it’ll be fun.” So I did. And it was. That’s how I started my Honey Creek Den series. Honey Creek is another totally fictitious town set on Flathead Lake (a real place) in Montana. I've never been there, but hope to get there at some point. Honey Creek Den is finished with the planned six books. The Timber Valley Wolf Pack is also finished with six books and now I've moved onto the Warlocks of Amherst Series. This series takes us away from the den and pack and we get to know Edison's warlocks in Amherst, Massachusetts.
When I'm not busy writing about cowboys, architects, sheriffs, firefighters, US Marshals, bears, tigers, or warlocks (to name just a few), I like to read (who doesn't?). Because of my limited free time, I’m fond of short stories and novellas. I can be found on Amazon, Book Bub, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Multi-Rainbow Award winner E.J. Russell—grace, mother of three, recovering actor—holds a BA and an MFA in theater, so naturally she’s spent the last three decades as a financial manager, database designer, and business intelligence consultant (as one does). She’s recently abandoned data wrangling, however, and spends her days wrestling words.
E.J. is married to Curmudgeonly Husband, a man who cares even less about sports than she does. Luckily, CH loves to cook, or all three of their children (Lovely Daughter and Darling Sons A and B) would have survived on nothing but Cheerios, beef jerky, and satsuma mandarins (the extent of E.J.’s culinary skill set).
E.J. lives in rural Oregon, enjoys visits from her wonderful adult children, and indulges in good books, red wine, and the occasional hyperbole.
BL MaxwellBL Maxwell grew up in a small town listening to her grandfather spin tales about his childhood. Later she became an avid reader and after a certain vampire series she became obsessed with fanfiction. She soon discovered Slash fanfiction and later discovered the MM genre and was hooked.
Many years later, she decided to take the plunge and write down some of the stories that seem to run through her head late at night when she’s trying to sleep.
Many years later, she decided to take the plunge and write down some of the stories that seem to run through her head late at night when she’s trying to sleep.
Alice Winters started writing stories as soon as she was old enough to turn her ideas into written words. She loves writing a variety of things from romance and comedy to action. She also enjoys reading, horseback riding, and spending time with her pets.
Sarah Hadley Brook
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Taylor Rylan
Operation Reindeer Rescue by Sarah Hadley Brook
Grayson's Enlightenment by Taylor Rylan
The Hound of the Burgervilles by E.J. Russell
Ghost Hexed by BL Maxwell
Enchanting Exposition by Alice Winters
