Summary:
OutFoxing the Paranormal #3
OutFoxing the Paranormal’s benefactor, Ms. Montague, has a new assignment for the team: to investigate the haunted asylum Oscar’s grandmother died in. But upon arriving at the site, they find a rival duo of ghost hunters already there.
Between unexpected competitors and the murderous ghost of a former nurse, the pressure is on for Oscar to live up to his family’s heritage and lay the asylum’s ghosts to rest. Can he prove himself by putting an end to the nurse’s reign of terror, or will the asylum claim yet another victim?
Just when I didn't think the author could get any freakier and creepier than Rattling Bone, book 2 in their OutFoxing the Paranormal series, out comes #3, Into the Dark. I think many of us have preconceived ideas when it comes to abandoned hospitals of any kind but especially psychiatric or asylums thanks to Hollywood and the Travel Channel which has a few shows like the one's our characters are part of. Sometimes having those ideas going into a book can be difficult to overcome, to not be influenced by, to not use as comparison leaving your expectations too high but for me, I can "look the other way". I love going in with an open mind, especially within the paranormal genre.
I went in with that open mind and everything was fresh but I'll admit once an event occurred in the story, and our characters were left dealing with it, I had cinematic memories pop in but instead of comparing the two, I found I was just more freaked out. Instead of watching the scenes unfold on the screen, they were unfolding in my head, scary stuff.
By now the crew of OutFoxing the Paranormal is well established to us readers so that found family connection is familiar but now they find themselves competing with a fellow ghost hunter show, neither of which was aware the other would be investigating. In this entry, we get to see them interact with not only the dead but unwanted living beings as well. Definitely adds a new level of intriguing fun to the story.
For Oscar this is more personal as this asylum is where his grandmother died and he just wants to free the souls who were left behind to find their ever after peace. Between some not so nice spirits and the addition of the other team, he worries that he won't be able to give the souls the rest he desires in the limited time they have. This is definitely a supercharged , highly emotional, freakies of freaky read that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
On a personal note, one of my great grandfather's passed away in a sanitarium. He was an alcoholic who had suffered a brain injury in a farming accident and spent the last few years of his life in a facility. Thankfully it was a healthy and well respected facility but as I read deeper into this story, I couldn't help but be grateful for the fact that it was nothing like the one Oscar and his team investigate. I know healthy ones are much more common than the kind they write books and make films about but sadly those did exist and I imagine the line between the two is probably a lot thinner than most of want to think about. I added this to my review because having that familial history heightened the emotions, the fear, and made me love every nerve wracking, edge of my seat spine tingles that much more.
The Alpha's Candy-Kissed Omega by Lorelei M Hart
Summary:Alpha Kissed #2
What better place to meet your fated mate than an extraordinary candy store?
And what better season than Halloween? Liam is arranging the amazing treats in the window of his gourmet candy shop, Sugar, when a jogger taps on the window. Despite his policy not to let strangers in when he’s alone in the closed store, this stranger is too irresistible to send away.
Edison has had his eye on the hot alpha store owner for months but has finally gathered his courage to approach him. To his relief and delight, the man of his dreams asks him out on a date. Sweet!
But when a little boy who attends the afterschool activities at Edison’s community center falls into desperate need, he is called upon to take him into his home and so a family begins. A foster child who has been so badly harmed brings challenges, and only a very strong, loving alpha would want to take on both an omega and the injured child. An unexpected pregnancy ups the ante.
They have found one another, but are things moving too fast? Can they take care of the children and each other as well as the businesses they are responsible for? Can they make a home?
The Alpha’s Candy-Kissed Omega is a MM non-shifter mpreg with a hot successful alpha, a sexy, caring omega, a little boy who needs them both and an adorable baby. Plus a surprise or two along the way.
I left myself not enough time to express myself in this review as I'd like(hopefully I can find that time to return later) but just know that this Alpha Kissed entry will leave you smiling, laughing, oohing and aahing all the way through.
RATING:
Summary:
Kings of Hell MC #4
--- There can be no shadow without the man to cast it. ---
Gray. Lost his twin. Will never be complete. Works alone.
Shadow. Monster? Human? Exists to be Gray’s one true companion.
After losing his twin brother, Gray has devoted his life to the Kings of Hell MC. He will do anything to protect his family and that means anything.
Even sell his own shadow to the devil.
Following a fire that left him without one arm, Gray feels pushed to the sidelines. In order to prove to his club that he is still capable of completing dangerous tasks, he will have to team up with the strange creature from the Other Side. Tall, inhumanly strong, and menacing despite the handsome exterior, Shadow is just the tool Gray needs.
The moment Shadow lays his eyes on Gray, he wants to crawl under Gray’s skin and make the human his.
Gray on the other hand isn’t willing to get attached to a monster destined to do the devil’s bidding and disappear once his time is up. Rejected, Shadow has to do everything in his power to convince his human that they belong together.
But as the clock ticks away precious minutes of Shadow’s existence, Gray will have to choose between his loyalty to the Kings of Hell MC and responsibility for the creature he brought into this world.
“Do you feel me running through your veins?”
Gray nodded.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS:
Themes: motorcycle club, alternative lifestyles, demons, monster, tattoos, secrets, crime, gothic, grief, mourning, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, fish out of water, opposites attract, demisexuality, gentle giant
Genre: Dark, paranormal M/M romance
Erotic content: Scorching hot, emotional, explicit scenes
Length: ~150,000 words (Book 4 in the series)
WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, offensive language, and morally ambiguous characters.
Gray. Lost his twin. Will never be complete. Works alone.
Shadow. Monster? Human? Exists to be Gray’s one true companion.
After losing his twin brother, Gray has devoted his life to the Kings of Hell MC. He will do anything to protect his family and that means anything.
Even sell his own shadow to the devil.
Following a fire that left him without one arm, Gray feels pushed to the sidelines. In order to prove to his club that he is still capable of completing dangerous tasks, he will have to team up with the strange creature from the Other Side. Tall, inhumanly strong, and menacing despite the handsome exterior, Shadow is just the tool Gray needs.
The moment Shadow lays his eyes on Gray, he wants to crawl under Gray’s skin and make the human his.
Gray on the other hand isn’t willing to get attached to a monster destined to do the devil’s bidding and disappear once his time is up. Rejected, Shadow has to do everything in his power to convince his human that they belong together.
But as the clock ticks away precious minutes of Shadow’s existence, Gray will have to choose between his loyalty to the Kings of Hell MC and responsibility for the creature he brought into this world.
*****
“Do you feel me running through your veins?”
Gray nodded.
*****
POSSIBLE SPOILERS:
Themes: motorcycle club, alternative lifestyles, demons, monster, tattoos, secrets, crime, gothic, grief, mourning, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, fish out of water, opposites attract, demisexuality, gentle giant
Genre: Dark, paranormal M/M romance
Erotic content: Scorching hot, emotional, explicit scenes
Length: ~150,000 words (Book 4 in the series)
WARNING: This story contains scenes of violence, offensive language, and morally ambiguous characters.
I really have nothing to add to my original review. Creepy, freaky, and a healthy dose of heart and Joel Leslie once again brings all of that to the table. I felt as if I was right there facing the evil that is set to rain havoc down and not just as a bystander but part of the fear-filled action. I'm not typically a motorcycle club reader but the authors sucked me in and each entry I got pulled in further and further, the audiobooks just heightened that and I'll be listening to them for years to come, entertained each time. I don't see this series ever getting old for me.
Gray's had a bit of a rough time lately: he lost his twin brother, his arm, and made a pact with the demon, Baal. Because of Gray's pact, Shadow has been given the chance to live inside a human form but does that make him human or monster? Gray has devoted his entire life to the Kings of Hell but now with only one arm he finds himself having to prove he is still worthy of his position. Reluctantly Gray finds that Shadow may be his chance to keep his place amongst his brothers but will he be willing to give his heart to him nowing the clock is ticking against Shadow?
OMG!!! I say that with complete honesty because I am so NOT an OMG-kind-of-a-gal. I enjoy a good motorcycle club story but I'm the first to admit they aren't exactly what I'd classify as my go-to-trope so when I first had the opportunity last year to read Laurant & the Beast I thought it sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go. It was amazing and one of the best books I read in 2017. Each entry in the Kings of Hell MC series has been amazing and although I don't think any of the pairings quite reached me as much as Laurant and Beast, I have loved them all. Well, Gray and Shadow are no different.
So lets take a look at our two main guys. I knew Gray's story was going to be emotional just because he seemed to be a bit of a conundrum throughout the first four. You could tell he had a warm loving heart but he was also ruthless and determined when it came to getting the job done. Having formed that opinion of him already I knew he was going to be a tough one to find happiness especially with what he lost. I wanted to hug him and tell him he was still the same Gray he always was and having lost his arm didn't change that but then I also wanted to kick his ass with how he first treats Shadow. Okay that's not entirely true because Shadow is here because of Gray's pact with Baal and that makes him suspect and he does some not-so-good stuff but he's also new to his human form and needs guidance. I guess what I'm saying is even though I wanted to give Gray a knuckle-rap to the head more than a once I also understand his thought patterns.
As for Shadow, well I won't give too much away but I will say that his innocence is endearing even if some of his early actions are not. I have read vampires, shifters, demons of all kinds who survive on pretty much anything imaginable but I have never read a character(demon or otherwise) that survives on rats, creepy crawlies, and rotting, moldy food and still want to wrap him up in a huge bear hug because he's so adorable. Yes, you read that correctly. Shadow is adorable. How Gray is able to stay away for so long is beyond me.
In Gray's Shadow, we get to see the characters that we have come to love in the previous installments, to see where they are and how they are adjusting to their situations which sometimes can take away from the main story but not in this series. KA Merikan has created a world with Kings of Hell MC that is unforgettable and will grab you from the very first page. If asked whether you can start with Gray's Shadow, I would have to say no. Yes, each entry features a different couple with their own troubles but each one is a part of an ongoing journey but personally, I would not recommend starting anywhere but the beginning, not too mention these are some of the most amazing and well written stories I've ever read, you don't want to miss them. If you haven't started Kings of Hell yet but don't like to wait between books than you might want to wait until the concluding story, In the Arms of the Beast, is released but I highly recommend placing this series on your TBR list and near the top, but if you are like me and have been reading them as they come out then you don't want to wait another minute to read Gray and Shadow's journey. This is literally an edge-of-your-seat kind of story.
RATING:
Pumpkin Patch Cutie by Lacey Daize
Summary:Holiday Surprises #1
Scott wants it all; an alpha and a family of his own. But for now he's content to be the cool uncle.
It's hard to be patient sometimes, but Scott knows that his perfect alpha is out there somewhere. In the meantime he's taking care of his niece, and decides to take her to the nearest pumpkin patch for a day of fall fun. But when she gets lost in the corn maze he panics.
Dom's ready for a new start, he just needs to get his business off the ground.
Dom just moved back to Valle Granja in order to start his own business as a large animal vet. Unfortunately there's not much for him to do while waiting for his license and other important paperwork to be processed. So in the meanwhile he's helping out his uncle on the family's pumpkin patch. But he doesn't expect to help a gorgeous omega in crisis mode.
Neither man expected to find the other that way, but when it's right, it's right.
Pumpkin Patch Cutie is a 14.5K word , non-shifter, M/M, Mpreg romance
Original Review October 2024:
I get it, Mpreg is not for everyone, it's probably one of the "out therest" of "out there" but if we can't look outside the box in our own readings once in a while then what's the point of being a reader? My experience in the genre is still limited to only a few authors but when I discovered Lacey Daize's books I definitely found a winner. The characters, the settings, and omegaverse world building is quite detailed and that's not something you often find in mostly novella-length stories. I'll admit I chose this author first primarily because they often fit the holiday themes for my blog but I really loved them, so no matter what brought them to my shelf, they earned their spot in storytelling stay-ability.
As for Pumpkin Patch Cutie, well frankly the title says it all. Omega Scott is ready for the whole family shebang but until he finds his alpha he is more than satisfied with his uncle role. What better way to fill that role than taking his niece to the local pumpkin patch and maze. There is a bit of location issues and his uncle mode kicks in trying to find her. Not sure which is the real pumpkin patch cutie: Scott the panicked uncle, Madison the lost niece, or out-of-nowhere hero alpha Dom who himself is helping his own uncle by working the season at his patch? All three could hold the title and they all help turn the cutest of cute meets into full on forever romance.
Pumpkin Patch Cutie is short, sweet, and all kinds of yummy. Is it too short? Perhaps, I certainly hated to say goodbye to Scott & Dom but some times short is perfect, especially when it involves some heartwarming holiday yummilicous vibes. I won't say more just know that if you have been enjoying Lacey Daize's Holiday Surprise series then this will strengthen that love and if you're new to the series be ready to blown over by a marvelous blend of sweet, sassy, and sexy in the entry that jumpstarted the series.
Summary:
Beset by chronic migraines, a gym bro ex-boyfriend who won't return his stuff, and a witch's neon-orange advertisements in his peripheral vision, David's had enough. There's only one way out: hand over control to a demon who'll be motivated to fix those issues in order to live in a pain-free, magical logo-free body. David will just have to be satisfied with being along for the ride.
But the summoning doesn't work quite the way David expects. Maybe, in retrospect, he shouldn't have used birthday candles and a can of extra hot and spicy menudo soup in his ritual.
Then again...even though it's not the way he intended, handing his body over to a demon has its compensations...
Demon Next Door is a short, sweet, spicy MM romance with a guaranteed HEA. It originally appeared in the Heart2Heart Volume 7 paranormal anthology, and has been slightly updated.
Eliot Grayson is not a new-to-me author but also not one I'm super familiar with but when this showed up just as I was looking for something short and Halloween-y, I couldn't help but jump at it. Not a lot I can say without spoiling it and won't do that, just know that there is heat, humor, and heart which will satisfy both your human and paranormal needs. Okay, perhaps it's not scary on the paranormal front but it still fits the genre. I laughed, I fanned myself, and I wanted to wrap David up in MamaBear hugs, Demon Next Door will really feed your different hungers. And lets be honest, I think most of us would like to find a magical cure for our aches, pains, and ailments.
Into the Dark by Jordan L Hawk
Chapter One
Howlston Lunatic Asylum, Howlston, WV. 1979
Barbara Fox didn’t have much time left.
She knew it: urgently when she could avoid the drugs, distantly when she couldn’t. Some nurses checked more thoroughly than others. And there had been a stretch of time…one year? two?…when the doctor ordered the whole ward lined up once a day and given injections of Prolixin to render them pliable, no matter what their initial diagnosis.
That had been…bad. She tried not to remember the screaming faces of the dead, crowding around her, desperate to be heard. The drugs slowed her thoughts, made it impossible to concentrate. Impossible to guard herself against their sorrow and pain.
If only that had been the worst of it.
Her tongue spasmed involuntarily, and her hands tightened on the smooth wooden banister running along the wall between rooms. It was meant to help steady patients, and she both hated she needed to use it and was grateful for its presence.
She glanced around, using the curtain of her hair—once her pride, now hanging in lank strings—to hide her gaze. No nurses nearby, so she shuffled a few more feet, closer to the locked door at the end of the ward. Other women wandered the hall along with her, made restless by Haldol or their own minds.
“Get out,” whispered a voice from no living mouth.
If only she could. Barbara didn’t have the strength left to block out the voices of the dead. There was nothing she could do to help them anymore. But maybe, maybe, she could help the living.
They’d finally taken Suzette to the medical ward, once her deep, wracking coughs became too frequent for even the overworked nurses to ignore. She’d gotten sick the night Barbara heard the voice of a dead man talking to her in the next room over. Over time, what had been a light cough attributable to the dust and pollen changed into something wet and gurgling as her lungs began to rot.
She wasn’t the first to go this way. If Barbara didn’t act, she wouldn’t be the last, either.
Gritting her teeth, Barbara shuffled closer to the door. The ward was a quiet one, most of its inhabitants drugged to the point of somnolence. Sometimes the nurses got sloppy, forgot to lock a door. She just needed to get lucky.
Lucky. A bitter laugh bubbled somewhere deep inside, then died before reaching her lips. Lucky didn’t tangle with a murderous ghost, get possessed—however briefly—and end up here.
They said the ghosts weren’t real. Said she was schizophrenic, then gave her drugs that made everything so much worse.
She wasn’t getting out of here alive. Scott, her baby boy, was almost a man now. She’d never dance at his wedding, never hold a grandbaby, never…
Tears threatened; she squeezed her eyes shut to keep them in. No use worrying about things she couldn’t change, that was what her mamaw always said. What happened outside these walls was beyond her reach forever.
But in here…
A rot infected the heart of this place. She could smell it sometimes, during the night when the ghostly creak of gurney wheels rolled past her door. A stink of gangrene and pus, a wound so infected and so deep it sickened everything around it. Turned orderlies mean, depressed nurses, and twisted the minds of the poor souls who’d come here needing help and found only overcrowded halls and electro-shock. In the worse cases, it crept into bodies and corrupted them, drowning lungs or inflaming organs.
Her defenses were paper-thin, torn apart by the drugs, but she was still a spirit-worker like her mamaw. Put on this earth to help bring peace to the dead, and thus to the living they haunted.
There were so, so many dead here who needed help she could no longer give them. But maybe, if she could burn out the rotten core, she could save the living like Suzette. With luck, cauterizing the wound would let the harmless dead move along as well.
Not much farther. She was almost at the door. Barbara glanced around again, saw no nurses, and reached for it.
The handle turned. They’d forgotten to lock it.
Moving as quickly as she was able these days, she swung it open—and stopped in her tracks.
A big woman loomed in front of her, dressed in a nurse’s uniform, the trailing skirt and frilled cap long out of date. Her eyes locked with Barbara’s, blazing with fury. Her mouth opened, stretched wider and wider, far past any human limit.
“Get back!” The words roared from the hollow cavern of her ghastly mouth, accompanied by a frigid blast that stank of freezer-burned meat.
Caught off guard, Barbara cried out and staggered away. Her twitching muscles betrayed her; she fell heavily to the floor, banging one elbow.
Within seconds, living nurses hurried into the hall, drawn by the sound. “Damn it, Deirdre, you left the door unlocked again!” one of them shouted. She walked toward the door, oblivious to the dead woman.
“Stop!” Barbara yelled at the ghost. “I can help you! Why couldn’t you have just let me through?”
She sounded crazy, she knew it, but what else could she do? Other nurses grabbed her arms; she tried to fight, biting and scratching wildly until she felt the sharp sting of a needle in her biceps.
No. No, this had been her one chance. Suzette’s one chance. They’d watch her from now on, make sure she swallowed her pills, maybe even confine her to her room. She struggled to get free, but already her limbs felt heavy and her thoughts began to fuzz.
“Call Dr. Dixon,” ordered one of the nurses restraining her. “She needs to go back to the fourth floor. And lock that door!”
The nurse closest to the door shut it, never realizing she stood only inches from a dead woman. Through the crack as it closed, Barbara saw the phantom nurse nod firmly, as if at a job well done.
One more life ruined.
The Alpha's Candy-Kissed Omega by Lorelei M Hart
Chapter One
Liam Delmonico
October first...an hour before dawn...my wait was finally over. Sure, all the holidays were great and as the owner of Sugar, a boutique candy store, I was able to indulge in my love for them. I got orders for my Mother’s Day long-stemmed triple-chocolate roses from thousands of miles away. Stockings filled with miniature truffles for Christmas. Valentine’s Day...don’t get me started. But Halloween was my personal favorite.
My staff and I had already created trays of everything from teensy, intense dark chocolate bats to white chocolate—not my favorite, but some of our customers loved it—to hand-painted terrifying clowns. We would begin shipping them out later in the week, packed in our special overnight mini-chill chests. It didn’t take much heat to ruin chocolate’s perfection or, horrors, to have it bloom, that whitish film all chocolatiers dread.
While we specialized in chocolate items, we made many other kinds of sweet delights. Candies of all kinds. Everything prepared on site from the highest quality ingredients. We had even surrendered, at special request, for that most pedestrian of treats, a copper kettle setup, right inside the shop, where twice a day Hazel, our fudge-maker supreme, prepared her grandmother’s recipes for old-fashioned creamy squares of mouthwatering awesomeness while customers watched.
As I trundled the cart we’d set up the night before toward the front window, I flicked on the lights in the shop. Outside, the last leaves of autumn skittered along the sidewalk and the sky was just starting to brighten to the east. We’d cleared the display before going home, so I had a blank canvas for my creation.
Trace, Hazel’s husband, a remarkable man who’d not batted an eye when he learned the woman of his dreams was once a star football player named Harry, had as usual come up with the painted elements we required. Although his artwork garnered tens of thousands at auction, he painted backdrops and just about anything we wanted and wouldn’t take a dime in return. He only requested we didn’t let anyone know he was doing it, which made perfect sense.
This year, we had a full haunted house display, six-foot-tall facade and open windows in which our delights could reside. Thus the bats, vampires, witches, ghosts, and other denizens of the night. The moon hanging over it was made entirely of divinity, the spiderwebs, spun sugar, and even the graveyard soil consisted of crumbled midnight-chocolate cookies, one of our few baked items. I stepped back and clicked on the October playlist I’d compiled, a combination of heavy classical music and mostly retro tunes from bands like Oingo Boingo who I felt had the season down to an art. Unable to resist, I did have a few short segments of spooky sounds.
As “Dead Man’s Party” filled the shop, I sang along, arranging my treats and feeling the Halloween spirit fill me. Thus absorbed, and with the inside lights making it hard to see the predawn street outside, I didn’t notice the man staring in until he rapped on the window, making me jump at least two feet in the air.
He leaned closer to the window, pointing at something, and saying words I of course could not hear through thick plate glass. After one particularly weird experience with a nutritionist who wanted to lecture me on how I was responsible for all the ills of the world, calling me a dealer in death, my staff had made me promise not to let strangers in after hours, but this “stranger” was pretty cute.
Although he looked like a guy out for an early morning run, his tight shorts outlined an impressive package, and the grin on his handsome face was knee melting. So...another health nut wanting to tell me the error of my ways, or a guy who exercised to allow the pleasure of a few extra calories into his life? Maybe I could just talk through a crack in the door until I determined who I was dealing with. A lock of hair flopping over his forehead, a weakness of mine, decided it for me, and I moved out of the window toward the door, pointing to it as I did. Twisting the lock, I swung the door open and stuck my head out.
“We’re not open yet.” Cuz, you know, dawn and the closed sign didn’t give that away.
“Oh, I know, and I am sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to tell you how much I loved your display. I run by here all the time, and always think it’s great. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to let the creator of candy greatness know this.”
And the voice matched the face, matched the body. Smooth as molasses and rich as 75% cocoa dark chocolate. A little shiver raced up my spine. “How nice of you. Window dressing is one of my favorite parts of the job, I have to admit.”
“Those little bats are killer. All the detail. And the webs...wow.”
“Want to come in for a minute and get a better look?” Sorry, staff. This guy got me. I opened the door wide.
“Oh, no. You’re busy. I wasn’t trying to finagle my way into chocolate heaven.”
I wasn’t a swooner, but if I had been, I’d have been laid out on the floor. “Get in here. Now.” My inner alpha was taking over, planning dinner dates and dancing, sunset cocktails on the beach.
Luckily, he didn’t think I was a nut giving orders to strangers because he stepped inside and drew a deep breath. “Wow. It smells amazing in here.”
I grabbed a chair from one of the cafe tables and brought it over by my working area. “Doesn’t it? I think that every morning when I come in. Have a seat, and we can talk while I finish up.”
“If you’re sure it’s no trouble?”
“None at all. I have a pot of coffee in the back if you’d like a cup.”
He grinned again and I knew I’d do a lot to keep seeing that. “You’re a lifesaver. I never let myself have mine until after my run, but I think I can call it officially over.” He disappeared into the employees’ only section and returned with a steaming mug of my own mocha java blend. “Can I help you with anything?”
I shrugged. “If you don’t mind, you can hand me things. Once I get to the other side of the window, I have to keep climbing in and out, so that would be great. If you don’t mind.”
“No,” he said shaking his head slowly. “I don’t mind at all.”
Gray's Shadow by KA Merikan
Chapter 1
An insistent, high-pitched voice called for Gray over and over, but he refused to answer, his flesh and bones so heavy he could barely lift a finger. His mind was a swamp that kept dragging him beneath the surface, away from the monotone voice and the world where he’d have to pry his eyes open. His lids and mouth weighed tons, so he stayed under, floating in and out of awareness until the call became so loud he could no longer stand it.
When he first opened his eyes, the world appeared in a green-gray blur, but he kept blinking until the mist cleared. He spotted something round, with several legs extending from it in a circle. It stayed still, like a huge white spider about to jump down onto his face. He wasn’t exactly afraid, just confused by the constant sound coming from so close. He couldn’t move at first, as if there were harpoons lodged in his muscles, but as moments passed, he finally forced his head to roll over the pillow, and faced the machine that called out for Gray in the rhythm of his own heartbeat.
Everything fell into place, and the objects he couldn’t quite recognize before gained meaning and purpose. The fan above his bed was still, as it wasn’t too hot yet.
How long had he been here?
Memories flooded him in waves, always drifting away before he could make sense of them. He looked to his side only to be struck by what he already knew was his reality.
He’d lost an arm.
A part of the sigil that had been burned into his skin was visible from under the bandage as if to remind him that he’d made a pact with the demon who resided in their clubhouse. But what had the creature wanted in return for Jake’s life?
One thing he was sure of—it involved the next new moon. He was to do something then, just like Knight had since making a pact of his own.
But what was it that Baal wanted from Gray? He’d been delirious with pain when the demon appeared before him, spilling out of a small mirror on the wall of the ambulance like animated tar. His shape had filled the whole space, surrounding Gray with opaque blackness. He could still hear the screech of the monster’s horns against metal, but what had he agreed to that night? He couldn’t remember.
The heart rate monitor beeped faster, and its panicked pitch finally pushed Gray into action. Dragging his upper body off the bed, he grabbed the side rail and reached out for the button, but instead of his other arm, a bandaged stump came into view, and he recoiled, breathing faster when the heart monitor changed its tune accordingly, as if in warning. Nausea grabbed at Gray’s throat, but he leaned out of the bed as far as he could and tapped the red button, switching off the sound. Only then did he roll back and let himself rest in the dark room lit only by the greenish glow of the monitor and a distant streetlamp outside his window.
At least his body did, because the beacons in his mind flared up with anxiety. Mr. Magpie had suggested Gray was the only one to be trusted with the important job of stealing the Pigeon Heart, a ruby that supposedly held the key to the safety of their world. Instead, Gray had entered an agreement with the very being the world needed saving from. What had he done?
Gray had been picked because of his agility, stealth, and ability to work under pressure, but how was he to deal with the difficulties of a heist so high-profile if he was newly missing an important tool of the trade—his left arm? Had Magpie given up on him and offered the job to someone else? If one of his biker brothers was asked, was he fine?
Frantic, Gray looked around to find his phone, but it was nowhere to be seen, and his anxiety was growing by the second.
He couldn’t wait until morning to find out. What if the new moon was tonight, and he only had hours left to complete his task?
Gray dragged himself up again, but had to take a few seconds to fight the dizziness rolling through his skull like water stirred in a pot. At least he was alive. At least he’d managed to save Jake. But how much worth would he have to the club now, when he’d always been the man going where no one else dared and dealing with threats that required peak physical fitness?
Gray stared at his knees, breathing hard to gather his thoughts, but the place where he should have an arm loomed in the corner of his eye. He repeatedly glanced its way hoping it was only a trick of light, but the limb was stubbornly missing.
With an unpleasant sensation in his chest, Gray slowly disconnected the machine from his torso, then proceeded to get rid of the IV, and all the other things that had kept his body in working order throughout… God knew how long. The catheter was the worst bit, and he ended up unsuccessful, silently cursing all the gods he didn’t believe in. He sat through the intense pain in his dick and lower stomach, but once it receded, it was time to move. With the goddamn thing still in if necessary.
Once free, Gray found the lock of the side rail and slid it back, carefully shifting his legs off the mattress until the tips of his toes brushed the floor.
He stood on trembly legs, shocked by how weak he felt, but his first steps still took him to the window, and he was relieved to see that it was not the night of the new moon. Breathless, he let himself lean against the cold glass that relieved the feverish haze, and watched a lone car move down the street.
The hospital was on the outskirts of Brecon, and when he looked toward town, spotting very few lit windows, it became clear that it was past midnight. This, at least, explained the deathly silence.
Gray made his way toward the door until his shadow climbed up the wall—elongated, and so dark something about its almost physical presence triggered a bleep in his mind.
But when he stopped moving, the shadow did as well. There was nothing unusual about it. Maybe his brain was still not at its best after the shock his body went through following the fire.
He opened the door and left the small room, standing still in the dark, empty corridor. There were lamps lit on either end of it, but the distance seemed impossibly far, like a mirage in the desert that a man could follow for hours without ever getting closer to the lifesaving water. Gray rested some of his weight on the wall and moved. With his head down, he watched the resin tiles under his bare feet, counting distance. Inch after inch, he neared the bright lamp, his one reason to drag his lead-brick feet along.
A whisper of music beckoned him beyond the glow above his head, and the closer he was, the more clearly he recognized the sound of an overrated pop number that he detested. There was no doubt about it—he was still in the human world.
For the briefest moment, his confused brain told him someone whispered from behind his back, but when he flinched and glanced over his shoulder, no one was hiding in the shadows.
By the time he reached the room where two nurses listened to music over a late-night dinner of sandwiches, he was panting and sweaty as if he’d ran five miles. His heart raced, dizziness made him lean against the doorframe, but he had to know what was going on with the Kings of Hell. Had someone else been hurt in the fire?
For a moment, he wasn’t sure why the two women looked so spooked when they finally spotted him, but he calmed down and let one of them lead him back to his room once they promised to call his father.
A doctor came over to see him next, and once she had gone, one of the nurses switched on the television to entertain Gray, but the rerun of some dumb family-friendly sitcom didn’t make the passing of time any easier.
From the corner of his eye, he watched his own shadow stir every time the brightness of the television screen changed ever-so slightly. The thing had been following him all his life, yet for once he found its presence unsettling, as if it could listen to Gray’s thoughts and watch him like a hidden camera. Was it… darker than it should have been, or was it the sigil carved into Gray’s skin that made everything appear a bit strange and alien?
The wait felt like hours, even though he’d only managed to get to episode two of the show when the stomping in the corridor outside told him his father was coming.
Rev was a hulking presence in the doorway, his bald head reflecting the light overhead, wide chest heaving as he caught his breath after rushing down the corridor. There was a spot of white paint where his black T-shirt stretched over a rounded belly, but he seemed put-together enough that he couldn’t have been sleeping when he got the call.
Gray tried to wave, but the hand he felt rise and move wasn’t there. He tried to ignore the twist in his gut and spoke. “How long was I out?”
Rev smiled widely and walked up to him with arms stretched out as if he wanted to give Gray a hug, but then took a glance at the side where the stump was and instead pulled up a chair and patted Gray’s leg with unusual gentleness.
“It’s been two weeks. You don’t remember? You’ve opened your eyes before. I was told you just needed rest. Are you in pain?”
Gray glanced at the bandaged stump and the sigil burned into the skin above. He didn’t know what to say. “It’s… no, not really. Feels like I could just curl my other hand into a fist,” he said, but only one set of fingers followed his thought.
“Do you need anything? I’ll get you books and DVDs and shit. There’s no point for you to come back when the clubhouse is such a mess. Your place was spared, but the whole lounge area and a few other rooms are fucked. Thank fuck that the structure itself is so solid. We had it reinforced while you were here.”
Gray exhaled and rubbed his face, once again shocked when he felt the touch of just one palm. He could still feel his other hand. Why wasn’t it there? Why was there this weird ache mid-way down his left arm? He knew in theory, but a part of him didn’t want to accept this reality. “Is everyone all right?”
“For the most part. A few people got burned, had bones broken, but no one died. They’re all back on their feet in one way or another. Your injuries were the worst. I…” Rev slouched. “I’m sorry. I did everything I could, but saving your arm was impossible. We’d have both burned to a crisp if it wasn’t for Jake.”
Gray sucked in air, suddenly lightheaded. “Did the pact work? Could he turn back? Everything is so fucking blurry.”
Rev nodded but he wouldn’t look at Gray. “It did. He’s in charge of the thing. Even managed to turn a few times since then to help with clearing the rubble. It’s… strange, but that’s what our life is now.”
Gray swallowed hard, for a moment settling his gaze on the television set. “Did I… say something? I know I need to be home for the new moon. But what did he actually want from me?”
Rev straightened up, but instead of focusing on Gray’s face, he focused on something over his shoulder. “You said you traded your shadow. But it’s still there. Maybe he can only take it on the new moon. Or maybe you weren’t yourself back then. Fuck knows.”
It was as if all vitality drained out of Gray. With his heart sinking deeper into his chest, he peeked beyond the bed, at the dark shape on the wall that reflected his own position. He had many questions, but he knew his father couldn’t answer them, and there was no point in worrying him. He was likely scared shitless of losing his only remaining child and didn’t need any more anguish.
“Oh, right. It’s not like I need it.”
Rev smiled, but his wrinkled forehead was still marred with worry. “My thoughts exactly. If that was the price to pay, you’ve done very well. I… I’m proud of you, Gabriel. You saved Jake’s life.”
Gray nodded, but the odd anticipation deep inside made him restless. “Yeah, well, there’s other things to be done, and I’m in no shape to deal with the kind of shit that happens when I’m on the job. What about that ruby Magpie wanted?”
“The Pigeon Heart? We had an opportunity, but that window has closed, and now we’re back to square one. We have to be ready and on call for whenever Magpie gets intel. Don’t worry about it. You’ve done more than enough.”
The coddling made Gray flare up with sudden anger. Rev had never been this easy on him. Was it the arm? The hospital setting? Would he now be treated as if he were made of glass? If he’d survived the agony of finding out his twin brother was dead, he could survive losing an arm.
But he said nothing.
Pumpkin Patch Cutie by Lacey Daize
Chapter 1 - Scott
“Come on!” squealed my niece, Madison. “Hurry up!”
“The pumpkin patch isn’t going anywhere Maddie,” I laughed. “No need to rush.”
“But it’s right there!” she protested, rushing back and grabbing my hand. She tried to tug me faster, little puffs of dust flying up behind her feet in the dirt parking lot while the sunlight glinted off her golden hair.
“It’s not a race,” I replied. “We’re going to go through the corn maze. Then we’re gonna get some photos, play games, and pick out your pumpkin.”
She let go, moved in front of me, put her little fists on her hips, and gave me a sassy glare. “I know that! Papa and dad brought me last year!”
“So you’ve done it before,” I teased. “I guess we don’t need to do everything today. Let’s just go grab a pumpkin and leave.”
“Scott!”
“That’s uncle Scott to you, young lady.”
She stuck her tongue out and grabbed my hand again. “Come on!”
I grinned as she pulled me towards the line of people waiting to pay. She already had a huge personality, and she was only seven. I couldn’t wait to see what kind of woman she grew into.
She was also going to make an excellent big sister, but she didn’t know that yet. I had her for the weekend so that my brother Tyler and his omega Lee could try for another while Lee was in heat.
Part of me was jealous. Tyler was two years younger than me, had found his fated mate in college, and already had his family started. Meanwhile I was knocking at thirty’s door, never had a relationship last longer than six months, and hadn’t been on a date at all in almost a year.
I shook my head, trying to clear the errant thoughts. I wanted it all: a family, and an alpha. It was just taking me a bit more time to find it was all. I had to trust that the wait would be worth it.
Madison bounced on the balls of her feet as we stood in line to pay.
“Do you want a princess makeover?” I asked, glancing at the add-ons.
She shook her head. “No. I’m not a princess.” Then she gave me a fierce look. “I’m a dragon-slayer!”
I laughed. “Fair enough. We’ll get you the dragon slayer package.”
“Yay!” she declared, dancing a bit in place.
A few minutes later we reached the front of the line, and I was face-to-face with an absolutely delicious-looking alpha. He had the rugged charm of a farmer—complete with cowboy hat—and an easy smile that made my insides squishy and my omega bits threaten to start slicking me up.
Somehow it was a reminder of just how long it had been since I’d last been with a man, and… oh… if ever I needed a knot, it was then. I wanted to grab handfuls of his brown hair and gaze into his blue eyes as he plowed into me.
His smile widened, and I realized that I’d been daydreaming about him fucking me senseless instead of paying attention.
“Say again?” I asked.
He chuckled. “How many?”
I forced an awkward smile. “Oh. One adult, one child. We’ll also add a dragon-slayer package and a five-pose photo shoot.” I paused. “Do I pay for pumpkins here?”
He gave me a lopsided grin. “You’ll pay for pumpkins over where you pick them out so they can weigh them.”
“Oh, ok.”
“So I’ve got one adult, one child, dragon-slayer and five photo poses. Right?”
I nodded, trying to control my reaction as I felt a bit of slick escape. I just had to hope that my cock stayed soft. It wouldn’t look good for me to be wandering a corn maze filled with kids while sporting a stiffy.
“That’ll be sixty dollars.”
I pulled out my wallet and handed over the money.
The alpha turned to Madison. “Hold out your hand so I can put your wristband on swetheart.”
“Ok!” she replied, placing her hand on the table.
He deftly put the band on her, then wrapped one around my wrist as well. “A few attractions might have additional fees, but you’ll pay for those there.” He then pointed. “Head to that booth and they’ll get her dragon-slayer gear on, plus give her the mission.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled, tongue-tied around the handsome alpha.
He gave me another easy grin. “Ya’ll have fun.”
“Yay!” Madison declared, rushing off.
I laughed, nodded and followed her to the booth. There she was given a foam sword and had a burlap costume draped over her clothes. Then a very solemn actor told her that a blue dragon had stolen all the kingdom’s gold and taken refuge in the maze. She was to follow the tracks, find the dragon, and bring back one of the lumps of gold to help restore the kingdom.
Madison put on a serious expression and vowed to bring back some gold, then gleefully ran to the maze entrance.
“Come on!” she called, hopping from one foot to the other as she waited for me.
I shared a glance with the booth attendant, who was trying not to laugh, then headed after her.
“Now stay close Maddie,” I said as she ducked through the entrance. “The corn is tall and I don’t want you to get lost.”
“I thought we were supposed to get lost, because it’s a maze,” she replied, looking around for dragon tracks.
“We’re supposed to get lost together.”
“Oh.”
We reached the first intersection, and debated on which way to go, until I saw a splash of blue at the top of some stalks.
“Aren’t the dragon tracks supposed to be blue?” I asked, pointing to the paint.
“Thanks uncle Scott!” she squealed, sprinting towards the painted corn.
I followed as she reached the end of the aisle and waited for me. “Keep close Maddie,” I reminded her. “If you keep rushing off I’ll make you hold my hand.”
She pouted. “But you’re slow.”
I laughed. “We have plenty of time.”
She huffed and crossed her arms until I reached her.
“Did you find any other dragon tracks?” I asked.
“That way,” she replied, pointing to a blue footprint.
“Let’s go find that dragon then,” I said, smiling as she stayed beside me.
We made our way through the maze, following the clues until we found the prop ‘dragon’ sleeping near a hoard of gold spray-painted rocks.
“Grab your piece of gold Maddie,” I said. “Then we’ll find the way out so you can claim your prize for completing your mission.”
She crept up on the dragon and grabbed a piece of gold, then bolted back to my side. She beamed up at me and showed off her prize.
“Good job!” I praised. “Very brave.”
She did a little dance, then sprinted off in the direction of the aisle opposite the one that had led us there.
“What did I say about running ahead?” I asked.
“But we’re almost done!” she protested.
“We’re not out of the maze yet though.”
“I’m gonna find the way out!” she declared, then ran down the next aisle out of sight.
“Madison Evers,” I scolded. “Get back here.”
“Come on!” she shouted back.
I sighed and made my way to the intersection, but when I looked in the direction she’d run she was nowhere to be seen.
“Madison!”
“Over here Scott.”
I jogged in the direction of her voice. “Stay where you are Maddie, and keep talking to me.”
A giggle and the sound of running feet.
“You can consider this afternoon’s ice cream date cancelled if you take one more step,” I announced.
The sound of running stopped.
“Where are you?”
“I’m here Scott.”
I followed the sound of her voice, but soon found myself at a dead end. I backtracked, but with each turn her voice seemed farther away, until I couldn’t hear her at all.
“Madison?” I yelled.
Children and adults laughed all around, but Madison’s voice wasn’t among them.
“Madison!”
Demon Next Door by Eliot Grayson
Everyone always thought pain was the worst part of a migraine.
That is, if they even believed migraines were real. The idea that literal head pain was just figuratively in the sufferer’s head was a lot more widespread than I’d have believed without proof.
Proof like my ex-boyfriend, whose voice grated even more over the phone than it had in person during the year I’d wasted trying to live up to his expectations. It’d taken me that long to figure out that he couldn’t live up to mine, either, no matter how moderate I kept them.
“It’s seventy-five degrees out, David,” he said—shouted—into my ear, and I winced, panting through the wave of nausea brought on by the spike of pain. “No one could possibly be cold. I’m not going through all my stuff today, I’m busy. Suck it up. Use some willpower, gods.”
Willpower. Yes, of course. I counted down from five. Four, three, two, one…
“Men don’t feel pain they don’t want to feel,” he said, right on cue. “It’s biological. So like, go to your therapist, or something. I don’t even know what fucking heating pad you’re talking about, okay? Just buy one or something. I have to go.”
“Hello? Kenny? Please don’t—damn it,” I moaned, moaning again when the first moan sent a throb through my right eye, slumping down into the couch with a final, hopeless whimper.
Gods, I was like those knights in the Monty Python movie who kept saying the word that hurt them over and over again, until they were caught in an infinite feedback loop of screaming and flailing and covering their ears.
Except that for me it was moaning.
And calling my ex.
The heating pad. Ugh. I curled into a shivering ball, dropping the phone on the coffee table next to the couch and wrapping my arm around my head. Migraines made me so cold. The pain was seriously the least of it, even though that sucked giant swinging balls, too. It was the shivers. The queasy tilting of my stomach.
What had possessed me to think that Kenny would a) remember that we’d owned a heating pad when we lived together, b) try to find it in the stuff he’d taken from our closet without my permission, or c) spend thirty seconds of his day thinking about someone other than himself? Maybe if the heating pad had come equipped with a mirror, a set of weights, and a flirty personal trainer named Scotty, it’d have been of some mild interest to him.
Kenny and Scotty. They probably didn’t need a heating pad at all in their migraine-free, perfectly fit and toned existence, unless it was useful for muscle aches from too much lifting.
Or no, sorry. Men didn’t feel pain unless we wanted to.
And yet they couldn’t bother to give the stupid heating pad back to me.
Buy one. Thanks a million. I’d never have thought of that on my own.
As if I could leave the house like this. Someplace might have one available for delivery, but it’d hurt too much to try to use the app I had for groceries and stuff. Looking at my phone was agony when the headache had really gotten its claws into me, and anyway, my vision blurred so that I couldn’t see the screen.
It made me weepy, too. Not always. But this one was turning into a real tear-jerker.
Like, how had I not known Kenny was cheating on me? When he’d been turning me down for sex for—well, most of our relationship, actually. And when he spent four hours a day “at the gym”? Although sadly, they were such gym rats that they probably were working out in the traditional sense most of the time rather than having sex at Scotty’s place.
Tears trickled down the side of my nose and spread all wet and slimy over my cheek, gluing it to the tweedy fabric of the couch cushion and sticking strands of my overlong blond hair to both.
I could do better than Kenny, right? Of course I could. Not that I had either before or after, or anything. I had no idea why we’d been dating in the first place except that he’d suggested I blow him when we were standing near the same bar, and then we’d kind of kept hanging out, and eventually moved in together, because we both liked action movies and me blowing him. Also, his lease had expired.
But any second now, a better guy would come along, and my lack-of-love life would take a dramatic turn for the better.
Yeah. Aaany second now.
After hours, or maybe an eternity of shivering on the couch and crying, I lapsed into something like unconsciousness.
Jordan L. Hawk is a trans author from North Carolina. Childhood tales of mountain ghosts and mysterious creatures gave him a life-long love of things that go bump in the night. When he isn’t writing, he brews his own beer and tries to keep the cats from destroying the house. His best-selling Whyborne & Griffin series (beginning with Widdershins) can be found in print, ebook, and audiobook.
If you want to contact Jordan, just click on the links below or send an email.
Lorelei M HartLorelei M. Hart is the cowriting team of USA Today Bestselling Authors Kate Richards and Ever Coming. Friends for years, the duo decided to come together and write one of their favorite guilty pleasures: Mpreg. There is something that just does it for them about smexy men who love each other enough to start a family together in a world where they can do it the old-fashioned way ;).
K.A. Merikan is a duo of queer writers who don’t believe in following the well-trodden path. In their books you can dip your toe into dangerous romance with mafiosi, outlaw bikers and bad boys, all from the safety of your sofa. They love the weird and wonderful, stepping out of the box, and bending stereotypes both in life and in fiction. Their stories don’t shy away from exploring the darker side of M/M romance, and feature a variety of anti-heroes, rebels, misfits, and underdogs who go against the grain.
Be prepared for shocking twists, dark humor, raw emotions, and sizzling hot scenes.
Lacey DaizeLacey lives in New Mexico with her four critters. She’s a Jill-of-all-trades by day, but loves writing in her spare time. She dabbles in a variety of pairings, but jumped feet-first into the deep end of omegaverse the first time she read it. She loves the play on social expectations and the different ways to express romance.
Steamy books with delicious tension, heart-wrenching pining, and a hefty dose of action and adventure have always been Eliot’s jam as a reader and author.
Find out more about Eliot’s books or sign up for an occasional newsletter on her website, or come follow along on Instagram. Happy reading!
Jordan L Hawk
B&N / SMASHWORDS / AUTHORGRAPH
EMAIL: jordanlhawk@gmail.com
Lorelei M Hart
Into the Dark by Jordan L Hawk
The Alpha's Candy-Kissed Omega by Lorelei M Hart
Gray's Shadow by KA Merikan
Pumpkin Patch Cutie by Lacey Daize
Demon Next Door by Eliot Grayson
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