Excerpt!
“Hard to say.”
“Hard because you don’t want to or hard because you don’t know?”
“Take your pick.”
He seemed both annoyed and rattled. The annoyed made sense; I didn’t belong. I didn’t know what I was doing. But shouldn’t the leader of an FBI task force be past the point of rattling?
There was no sign of the kid anywhere, though there were several doorways through which she might have gone. “This place is empty. Why did she bring me here?”
Ash drew me into the shadows where he’d lurked. “It isn’t going to be empty for long.”
Seconds later a low, savage growl rumbled in the stillness. Ash set his finger to my lips.
“Shhh.” His hiss trilled along my nerve endings, along with a second growl.
The moon shone through a skylight as the girl crept out—skitter, shuffle—and the silver beacon sparked off her eyes making them shine as blue as a tropical sky.
“Hey, sweetie,” I said, and Ash let out a sharp sigh.
“What is it about ‘shh’ you don’t understand?”
I sidestepped his grasp with a smooth move I didn’t have time to pat myself on the back for because the kid snarled and loped straight toward me. She no longer sounded human, which was crazy because what else could she possibly be?
Ash shoved me aside. “In the way, goddamnit!”
My suddenly two left feet stumbled over the buckling concrete. I managed not to fall, but I did take my eyes off the girl, off Ash.
A gun roared, and I cowered, ears ringing, gaze returning to the young woman as fire erupted from the wound. What sort of bullet did that?
An inhuman, unearthly howl rose from the flames as she fell to her hands and knees. Jenna’s dress ripped even as it burned.
It was only when Ash ordered, “Stay back,” that I realized I’d inched closer. I reached for my phone—nine-one-one in my head—and cursed again my empty pockets, my menopause-boggled brain. Not that there was anything that could be done by anyone now.
The howl died even as she did.
“What did you do?” I whispered—horrified, disgusted, frightened. Ash was nuts or near enough.
“My job,” he repeated, and his face . . . I did not want to be the person on the other side of that expression.
“You’re not an FBI agent.” Not a question, not anymore, but he shook his head anyway, calm, gray gaze pinned on the pyre.
“I search,” he said. “I find, then I hunt.”
“Human traffickers. But she isn’t, she is . . . she was . . . their victim. Wasn’t she?”
“Until they made her into something else. Something that preys on others, something that now has victims of its own. Or would have if I hadn’t been here.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“Come.” Ash beckoned, and when I shrank back, he caught my arm, hauled me along. “Look, then you’ll see.”
I didn’t want to peer at a flaming, dead child. Except . . . she wasn’t.
I closed my eyes, squeezed hard, then opened them again.
Yep, still a wolf.
Website
Facebook
Goodreads
They say a mother will do anything for her child . . . I’m living proof
This nightmare began when I got the call every parent dreads. My daughter, Jenna, was missing from her college campus. Of course, my mind went to the worst place. After all, my late husband was a powerful senator. Was this some political payback?
I call in a favor and soon I’m partnered with an FBI sex trafficking agent. He tells me local girls have been disappearing for some time now, and he finally has a lead. But what we find at that abandoned warehouse is something out of a horror movie.
Werewolves! Two rival packs, their alphas fighting, winner take all––the pack and the trafficked girls. The werewolves must replenish their breeders, recently decimated by a virus that killed only the females.
But Jenna’s been keeping a secret, which only makes two of us. Though I should be angry, I know the lies I’ve told play a huge role in why we’re here. I’ll do anything to make it right. No way is my girl going to become a sacrificial mate for the greater good––even if she is the ‘chosen one.’ So, I do what any mother would do, I take her place, offering myself to Gideon, the winning alpha, as his mate.
Gideon’s goal is to live in harmony with the human world, but there are others who exist for the power, for the violence, and they don’t plan to let peace prevail.
There’s a civil werewolf war brewing and I am right in the middle of it.
Check it out on Goodreads!
Buy your copy here
Author bio:
Lori Handeland is a five-time nominee and two-time winner of the prestigious RITA™ Award from Romance Writers of America, as well as the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over sixty novels spanning the genres of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, contemporary romance, historical romance, historical fantasy and women’s fiction. Her novel Just Once received a coveted, starred review from Library Journal and was optioned as a feature film by Catalyst Global Media.
Lori set her sight on being an author at the age of ten. She remembers sitting at a typewriter before she knew how to type, pecking out a story about a family who went into space. As an only child her summers were spent with that typewriter, television, and, above all, books. As a young adult, she got sidetracked by the need to make a living. She worked as a waitress and later enrolled in college to become a teacher.
Lori lives in Southern Wisconsin with her husband of over thirty-five years. In between writing and reading, she enjoys long walks with their rescue mutt, Arnold, and visits from her two grown sons, awesome daughter-in-law and perfectly adorable grandchildren.
Goodreads
Sounds like a good story.
ReplyDelete