Tuesday Teaser 1/6/15 Daughter of the Wolf Clan
Here we are: our first Tuesday Teaser of 2015! I am making good progress on Wolf’s Princess. I am really liking Sky now that he’s stopped being an idiot. I might interrupt Kit and Olivia’s story to throw in a couple Rose & Sky teasers in the next month or so.
As you read this snip, please remember that Kit has never lived among humans. Enjoy!
Kit searched out dry wood and hurried back to his lair to build a fire to keep his human mate warm. After building the fire to a nice glow, he curled around Olivia, reveling in the bare skin of her back touching his chest. Cuddling soothed something wild inside him. She smelled right. She smelled like him. He lay on his side almost on top of her and put his chin on her shoulder to watch her sleep. At last he felt calm enough to go back to his human form. The pain of the change was brief as he went from his half-form to human. He couldn’t smell her as well in his man form, but he could still feel her stomach where his arm lay over it, and her breath warm on the fingertips he caressed her lips with. Her hair was almost as pale as her belly. It was shorter than his, soft and straight. He used his fingers to comb the tangles out of it.
Safe in his lair with his mate beside him, he was able to think more clearly. What if Olivia wouldn’t be happy to be his mate? She had seemed to resist at first. He hoped he was wrong and she would be glad he had taken her. He hadn’t had a choice either. All he knew was she was his. Whether she was happy or angry didn’t change that fact.
“Olivia,” he breathed. Her name was strange, but easy to say when he was in man form. He still wasn’t sure if she was pretty as the humans viewed prettiness. She was beautiful to him. Her white skin almost glowed in the dim light. Her belly was firm, the teats beneath their wrappings seemed firm also. Perhaps she hadn’t yet given birth to kits. That pleased him, although it seemed strange. She was fully mature, past the age where she would have dropped her first litter.
Maybe it was a human thing. Kit had watched them sometimes from a distance, but he didn’t understand their ways. Justin and Devlin had told him that some human females accepted only one male. Not just one male at a time, but only one male for their entire lives. But that was ridiculous. There were few females but many males among the humans he’d watched. The males must fight each other for the right to claim a female, just as his pride did sometimes when Maria or the others were in heat. Then the pride queens demanded sex from several of the males at a time.
But maybe the human males felt about their mates the way he felt about Olivia. They prevented any other males from servicing their mates and would kill any male who approached. Kit would kill any male who came near Olivia. He was the only one who would give her sex. Kit bent to inhale at her female spot. To have such an alluring scent she must be in heat. He felt fierce and wild from it, just as he and the other males did when one of their females went into heat. She would wake up demanding he give sex. He relaxed into her body, falling into a light catnap while he waited to please her so thoroughly she wouldn’t ask for another male.
“Wake up, Olivia,” he whispered into her throat. “Wake up so I can give you pleasure.”
Chapter Three
When she woke, Olivia’s back was warm but her feet were freezing. She wondered sleepily if she had kicked the blankets free during the night. A slow languorous stretch made her aware of an ache in her back and … something warm and firm pressed against her? A glance over her shoulder shocked her. A man with a bare chest leaned over her, his wild tangle of hair brushing her shoulder and chest. Confusion was partially banished by memory, but nothing reduced the terror that leapt into her throat. She was naked except for her underwear, and he –she darted a quick glance down his body– was completely naked.
They weren’t lying on a bed, only a couple folded blankets on a dirt floor in irregularly shaped rock room. A cave? Light was coming in from the narrow opening at one end, about six or seven yards away.
“You’re awake at last,” the man said, wrapping his arm more tightly around her middle. “I was worried.”
She forced herself to not claw at his arm, but she couldn’t control her galloping heart or her wild breathing. “Who are you?”
“Don’t be afraid. I’m Kit. Your mate.”
Tuesday Teaser 123014: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
This next section in Kit and Olivia’s story doesn’t have a lot of action, just a bit of information from Kit’s point of view. The cat pride is very different from the Wolf Clan, as you’ll learn. Enjoy!
Kit climbed the steep slope to his lair, carrying his mate tightly against his chest. His cave was a hundred yards from the rest of the Pride. They all knew he preferred to be alone. He brought his kills to the Pride to share, and sometimes went to them to give sex to one of the queens, but rarely did any of them come closer to him than the bottom of the slope. He would still share his kills with them, after he had set aside a portion for his human female, but he wouldn’t be giving the queens sex any longer. He had a mate of his own now, like Justin. He wondered how Justin was doing living with his mate’s human pride. Kit could never live under such confining conditions. He was a cougar for all that he couldn’t make a full change. Living in a human pride would kill him. Even if his human mate begged him to join her pride he would refuse.
In his arms, Olivia was still deep in the sleep he’d laid on her. He walked into his lair and paused to inhale her scent. His. His mate. That scent made him want to roll around in it. He needed to have her scent on him, marking him as hers. He wanted her to smell of him. Gently he put her down on the tangle of woven wool blankets he habitually curled on to nap. When would she wake? When she did, would she want him to service her immediately? He put his nose close to her crotch to sniff. She was human so he couldn’t tell if she were in heat. Often Maria, Tricia and Juanita demanded sex even when they weren’t in heat. She smelled good there. It was a happy scent. That is, her scent made him happy. He growled in anticipation.
What should he do until she woke? She needed grooming. The small cuts from his claws still hadn’t healed. That was something he could do for her. Carefully, gently, he licked over her face. She tasted of tears and her throat shamed him with the old blood from where he had accidently cut her skin with his claws. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but she had tried to deny him. He would have to learn to control himself around her. As a human, she was frighteningly fragile. His clawed fingers fumbled a little with the buttons on her shirt, but he was able to remove it and the thick undershirt she wore beneath it. He stared in confusion at the strips of fabric she had wrapped around her chest. Was it a bandage? He sniffed cautiously for blood and decided it must be something she used to protect her teats. He wanted to lick her there. Maria loved to have her teats licked and nipped. He left her chest wrappings alone and carefully groomed her belly, shoulders and back with slow swipes of his tongue.
How long would she sleep? Any of his pridemates would have thrown off his compulsion by now. Humans were weaker that cats. Maybe it would take her longer to wake up. He would wait for her to wake to service her, but he wanted her right now. At least he could rub against her and absorb her scent while he waited for her. She wore boots and socks and heavy pants with a belt and a knife on the belt. He approved of the knife. As a human female she had neither claws nor strong sharp teeth with which to defend herself. A knife was a good thing for her to have. He removed her pants, socks and boots, but decided to leave the cloth she wore around her hips in place too. He would love to groom the pink flesh between her legs, but she might be angry if he did that without her invitation.
He pondered that. Did he have to wait for an invitation? She belonged to him. When he’d first found her she had tried to deny him. Now that she was here, in his lair, wearing his scent, she would realize that she must submit to him. But he should at least wait until she woke. Females could be moody and unreasonable when it came to sex. So he satisfied himself with sniffing the rich scent from her female place and cleaning thoroughly between her toes and along the arch of her slender feet.
After he had finished grooming her he realized that with the sun down his lair was cooling rapidly and her body was chilled. She was human and would feel the cold more than he did. He had never had a fire in any of his lairs before, but he’d never had a weak human female either. A small fire would be good for her. He could put her clothes back on her too, but he didn’t want anything between their bodies when she woke and demanded sex. His pants joined hers on the floor beside them. Was she like Maria who liked her lover to be rough and screamed at him to go faster, thrust into her harder? Would she buck against him, trying to throw him off to force him to dominate her? Or was she like Juanita, who liked to play during sex and cuddle after? Or maybe was she like Tricia who indulged in the act only when her need was riding her hard, and clawed the males away as soon as she was satisfied. He hoped she liked to play. She was so delicate he might break her if she demanded he be rough with her. It was in his nature to take control during sex. Maria loved that. For her, sex was a battle. Playful would be good. He liked to play and he liked cuddling, too. Cuddling Olivia was something he would love to do.
“Wake up, Olivia,” he breathed into her hair. “Wake up, mahmadte.”
Tuesday Teaser 12/23/14: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
Christmas is *this* close! I still have some cleaning to do before the family starts arriving tomorrow, and the laundry pile is about to fall over and drown the kitties, but other than that I think I’m ready for the holiday. I hope your plans are going well too!
Here is your Tuesday Teaser from Kit and Olivia’s story. Kit is distantly related to Eddie Madison. but unlike Eddie he clues in pretty quickly that if he treats his mate roughly it hurts her. Everyone in his Pride plays rough, and since they’re all cats, they heal quickly. Olivia, he sees, doesn’t recover quickly. I think Kit is going to be a great hero! I hope you’ll enjoy this next snip.
Chapter Two
Kit ran carefully with his precious burden. His feelings about this female confused him. He didn’t like people outside the pride. He didn’t get along even with his own pridemates, and they at least left him alone most of the time. Humans were cruel. Why this one smelled so fascinating he didn’t know. He knew only that when he’d first seen her he had wanted to break her neck. Until he scented her. Then all he wanted was to get as close to her as possible. A year ago one of his pridemates had claimed a human female as his mate and gone to live with her pride. Family, the humans called it. Kit had thought him crazy. Give up the freedom of living in the wild with the Pride in exchange for a confined life with humans? But now he understood. This female was his. Utterly his and he would keep her with him, never let her go, ever. He would go to almost any lengths to make her happy. Part of him, the sliver of human reason that dimmed when he was in his shift, whispered he was acting crazy. Kit ignored the whisper. It didn’t matter what his human side thought.
“Kit!” the female said insistently again. She had tried to talk to him from time to time, but now wasn’t the time to talk. He glanced down at her, inhaling her scent, but didn’t respond. He needed to keep his attention on the rocks and trees. He was moving with all the speed he could muster, so he could have her safe in his lair before dark. It hurt him when he saw the bruises his fingers had left on her throat. Devlin had tried to warn him to be more gentle. Human females were so fragile. The bruises should already be fading, but since she was a human, he would have to take far more care with her. He resolved to never hurt her again.
Maria might not like that he was bringing a human female into the Pride. She and Juanita and Tricia were the queens and they shared all the males of the Pride between them. They might not like another female to share their males with. He didn’t care. This human, Olivia, was his. He wouldn’t allow any other male to give her sex. Olivia would be his queen. If she objected to him giving sex to the other queens he would forsake them. When Justin, his pridemate, had found his human mate last year, the human female had demanded that he service only her. That must be exhausting for Justin. Maria sometimes required three or four of the males to satisfy her when she was in heat. But Kit would be happy to spend all his time pleasing only Olivia. He snarled at the thought that she might want to invite other males to please her. He would kill any male who so much as sniffed at her. He was the youngest of them, but they all feared him. Not only was he the fastest and strongest of them in spite of only being able to take a half-form, but he was sometimes able to control their minds if he bothered to make the effort. His eyes could force them to surrender if he thought it hard enough. It was seldom worth it. His teeth and claws were easier to use. But sometimes it was good to have everyone walk away unbloodied.
He leapt from one spine of rock to another ten feet away and felt the female tense in his arms. A glance down at her showed her pale blue eyes staring up at him. In spite of a light tan, he could see her skin was naturally pale. Her fine white blond hair was long enough to flutter in the wind created by his speed. he wanted to pet it. He didn’t know if she was beautiful the way humans counted beauty, but her long bony face with its narrow long nose and high cheekbones was beautiful to him.
She tried to hide it, but he could scent her fear. Her neck with the bruises from his fingers, speckled with tiny gouges from his claws still troubled him. Once he had her safe he would tell her he regretted hurting her, but he had no time to sooth her fear now. Yes, after he had brought her to his lair, he would speak to her. There he would be secure enough to resume his man form and assure her she was safe with him. He would protect her and any kits they had. First he had to get her to his lair. He had to hide her so her pride couldn’t find her and take her away from him.
*
How long could he run like this? Olivia looked up at the sky and saw the sun was almost down. It had been at least four hours since Kit had picked her up and carried her away. His pace was faster than any racehorse and his heart rate and breathing weren’t labored. Olivia estimated he had carried her at least sixty miles. She had tried to pull a few of her hairs out and let them drop on the ground along the way from time to time. Even her father would have trouble tracking her all this way with no scent markers from her. But by now her father, brothers and the ranch hands would be searching for her. They would easily track her horse to where Kit had attacked her. After that she wasn’t sure how plain the trail would be, especially with Kit carrying her so her scent wouldn’t linger on the ground. But he was leaving some prints. Even though he crossed running water several times and moved over hard rock, surely her dad and brothers would be able to track him. She just had to leave some clues behind to help them.
Her dad would be disappointed in her. She wasn’t supposed to be more than a mile from the ranch house unless she had one of her brothers with her. According to Uncle Shadow even that was too far for a woman alone. His daughter Victoria had to scheme to get any freedom at all. Luckily Aunt Glory could stand up to Shadow better than anyone, so Vicki did get some freedom. Poor dad must be frantic to find her now. Olivia was sorry she’d pushed the limits of her freedom so far. When her dad and brothers caught up to her they’d put her in lock down for sure.
“Kit!” She’d been trying to get him to pay attention to her for the past three hours, but he’d always ignored her. Since he was running on relatively level ground now, she dared to squirm gently in his grip. “Kit, please! Let me down just for a couple minutes. I have to… I need to go to the bathroom.” When he paid no heed she pinched him and screamed, “Kit, are you listening to me?”
He glanced down at her with that alien face showing something fiercely feral and clamped his arms even tighter. “No.”
“Yes!” she snapped back. “Unless you want me to pee all over you.” She wasn’t making it up. She really did need to go, but the real reason was that her urine would be like a red flag to anyone tracking her. “Kit! Please!”
Maybe it was the “please”. He leapt up to a rock crevice and set her down. He waved a hand—paw—at the crevice. “Hurry.”
Olivia’s legs almost folded. She staggered and might have fallen if Kit hadn’t steadied her with a hand under her arm. After only a second he let her go and took one half-step back. He wanted her to pee into the deep crack in the rock. The scent would be harder for her father and brothers to catch there. She unbuckled her belt and found those rabid golden green eyes watching her carefully. Honestly shocked, she stopped.
“Can’t you go away for a minute?” she asked stiffly.
“No.”
“Then you have to turn around,” she demanded.
“Why?” he asked in apparent confusion.
“Because it’s not polite to watch someone go to the bathroom!”
That strange feline face showed bafflement. Was he totally untamed? Didn’t he know anything about common courtesy? Privacy? She felt suddenly cold. He really was feral. “Kit,” she began. Saying please seemed to help before. She tried it again. “Please step away and turn your back. It’s not like I’m stupid enough to try to run off. I know you’d catch me to two seconds. Okay? Please?”
After staring at her for a long minute he did as she asked. It was embarrassing for her, but she quickly did her business and did her best to leave evidence for her father to find. Before she had even finished buckling her belt Kit was back, swinging her up in his arms and sprinting off again. Even her father couldn’t cover ground this quickly. Her urine scent would be gone before he came this way. Helpless tears stung her eyes and in spite of her efforts, she couldn’t force them back. Kit looked down at her as he ran. His eyes really were pretty, in a fierce, non-human sort of way. Intense and staring steadily in hers, his eyes filled her sight. She felt like he was trying to hypnotize her. Her effort to look away failed.
“Sleep,” he commanded in a fierce purr-growl. “Sleep, mahmade.”
And somehow, without her meaning for them to, her eyelids dropped and she slept.
Tuesday Teaser 12/16/14: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
Oh, dear. Today’s teaser is very short. Sorry! Does it help if I tell you I’m writing the first love scene between Sky and Rose? Well, it’s not a full love scene. I have to ease them into this. After all, they’re both virgins. Rose is giving off confusing signals and Sky is reluctant to push her for fear of frightening her. But they’ve just woken up in the same bed, and they must have drawn close together in sleep, because when Sky wakes up Rose had her face pressed into his chest and they have their arms around each other. Sky wakes first and just lays there with a huge smile on his face, because his mate is sleeping so trustingly in his arms. Then Rose rolls away from him onto her back and his hand ends up in an interesting place. They both freeze, shocked yet delighted. I wonder how far I should have them go before Sky forces himself to stop and let Rose flee to the shower, leaving him alone in his pristine white sheets?
Well, here is the teaser from Olivia and Kit’s story:
He hauled her up into his arms and began running. She had never travelled so fast. How could he run so fast? He was running uphill, carrying her in his arms like a baby. Even her wolf-born brothers and cousins couldn’t run like this. Over his shoulder she could see Devlin shaking his head, getting smaller and smaller.
“I told you not to challenge him,” he yelled, but Kit had carried her so far so fast that the words were very faint.
He was moving too fast for her to try to throw herself out of his arms. A spill on the steep mountainside could be fatal. Kit would get tired soon; he had to. Maybe then she could get away from him. His heart pounded calmly and steadily against her cheek, not seeming to labor at all. The wind created by his speed forced tears from her eyes. Yeah, it was the wind that made her cry. Olivia blinked the hot tears away, determined to fix landmarks in her memory to follow back home when she’d gotten away from him.
And she would get away. She might have been willing to allow him to court her, but the way he’d treated her showed her he’d be a terrible mate. Escape might be difficult, but she was her mother and father’s daughter. She could track and survive in the mountains as well as either of her brothers. Even if she wasn’t able to get away on her own, her father and brothers would come for her very soon. Grimly she settled into the steely arms that held her against a warm chest, waiting for her opportunity to escape.
See? I said it was short. Sorry! More next week!
Tuesday Teaser 12/9/14 Daughter of the Wolf Clan
In spite of my evil computer chewing up nearly all of chapter 14 in Wolf’s Princess, I’m making good progress. I’m shooting for the rough draft to be done by December 31. With all the holiday get togethers I might not make it, but I’m going to give it my best shot. Rose is easing away from her sarcasm and Sky is beginning to open up to her. At this very moment, Rose is just waking up from a nightmare and Sky is about to comfort her. Please excuse me so Sky can get on with the comforting… meanwhile, enjoy this next tidbit from Olivia’s story. 😉
Yermade roared and fastened a hand around her throat, and by either luck or care on his part, his claws didn’t touch her skin. “No dokdim! You mine! Mah madte.”
“Okay.” Olivia hated the tremble in her voice. “Just don’t hurt me. Okay? Don’t hurt me.”
The hand on her throat became caressing and he made that purring noise again. “Naherchu, Yermadte naherchu.”
Your mate not hurt you. Yermade wasn’t his name. Olivia forced herself to look into his eyes. “What’s your name?”
“Kih.” It seemed he struggled to make the right sound. “Kihdt.”
“Kit?” she guessed. Wasn’t that what the other man had called him? Those monstrous fangs must make it hard for him to pronounce Ts. “Kit, my family will be looking for me. I need to go home.”
The lion man roared and this time his claws pricked her neck when his hand tightened. The other man spoke soothingly, and Olivia was able to follow most of what he said.
“Kit, you’re scaring her. You don’t want to hurt your mate. Let me talk to her so she’ll understand. I won’t try to take her away from you. Kit, I smell blood. You’re hurting her.”
Kit growled something completed unintelligible to Olivia but the other man seemed to get it right away. Kit was tense as he moved a few inches, enough for her to see the other man, but although he retracted his claws, his hand remained circling her throat. “Dok nahluk,” he growled.
“Lady, we can talk, but don’t look at me,” the other man said quietly, in perfectly enunciated English, his eyes cast to a point past her left shoulder. “And don’t stare at him either. Don’t do anything to make him think you’re challenging him. He’s pretty emotional now. He doesn’t mean to hurt you, but he doesn’t have good control right now.”
Kit turned to cover her with his body. He pressed closer to her and Olivia found her nose buried against his chest. He had an earthy scent, but not unpleasant, and she could feel the vibrations of his quiet snarls against her cheek.
“His name is Kit?”
“Yeah, Christopher. I’m Devlin.”
“What is he?”
Kit’s growls rose in volume and his hand tightened.
“Sorry,” she whispered hastily. “I’ve just never seen anyone like you.”
Devlin’s voice was cold. “He’s a person, same as you are, and he can hear and understand everything you say. After he calms down he’ll go back to his human form.”
Olivia wondered what he looked like in his human form. “Sorry,” she said again.
“Kit’s chosen you to be his mate. It might be a little rough at first, but you’ll adjust.”
Were Devlin and Kit lions like her brothers and cousins were wolves? Those men in the Wolf Clan who had wolves didn’t marry. They waited for the wolves within them to choose a mate for them. If that was how Kit’s lion worked, then he should be courting her in an effort to get her to accept their mating. If this was courting she’d hate to see how he treated someone he didn’t like. Her back ached and her throat hurt from being crushed and the multiple small claw marks. Those injuries, plus his feral roaring and snarling, didn’t make her see him in a lover-like light. But if his lion had chosen her for a mate, she should be polite. She had seen her cousins’ pain when their mates rejected them. Olivia aimed a smile up at Kit’s lion face.
“If Kit and I are mates, then Kit needs to come and meet my parents,” she said brightly. Once home her father and brothers would protect her while Kit courted her. They could also teach him the correct way to court a prospective mate.
Kit roared.
“Stop that,” she told him, annoyed. On the other hand, the roars were loud enough that if her brothers were anywhere near they’d hear them and come investigate. “It’s only polite for you to meet my family. If I accept you, they’ll be your family, too.”
“You come wih me,” Kit returned, speaking very carefully, with more than a hint of a growl.
“I can’t. My brothers would worry and if I’m not home soon they and my dad’ll start looking for me.”
“Nah find you.”
“Yes they will! My father’s the greatest tracker alive. And if he doesn’t find me, he’ll send for the Clan to come help. That would be three hundred men! You can’t hide me from that many people who love me.”
His shrill scream sent shudders down her spine. “Kit –“
“Quieh!” he snarled, squeezing her throat so tightly she choked. “You come me now.”
He hauled her up into his arms and began running.
Wolf’s Lady Has Released!
Wolf’s Lady is out!
I’ve priced it at $0.99 through the holidays. After that it will be raised to $2.99. I’ve enrolled it in Kindle Unlimited, so it will be available only at Amazon until March. After that it will be at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, the iBookstore, and Smashwords.
Wolf’s Lady takes place a few months after Wolf’s Vengeance. In this 45,000 word novella we get a look at Sky and what he’s been doing, and we re-visit Sara, Stone’s mate.
In the year 2070, there are no cool advanced technical gadgets or weapons. In fact, most people are living like it’s the American frontier all over again. Terrorists used nuclear devices to simultaneously destroy most major US cities, as well as major cities in other countries. With the huge loss of life, the infrastructure crumbled. Hospitals and rescue services were so overwhelmed that they failed. The terrorists also released a virus that later came to be known as the Woman Killer Plague. It killed both men and women but more women died, making females valuable commodities.
This is the world of Sand Wolfe, a lonely bachelor of the Lakota Wolf Clan, and Miss Amanda, the woman his wolf claims as their mate.
Sand goes to Omaha to work as muscle in his cousin Sky’s whorehouse. There he meets his mate, Miss Amanda, who also works in Sky’s House, although in a very different position. She is the only woman his wolf will allow him to have, and she’s the only woman he wants. He will do anything to convince her to accept his mate claim.
Can a businesswoman leave her glamorous life and settle down in a wolf den? Amanda finds Sand’s methods of persuasion very persuasive. But will the men of Omaha allow her to leave? Sand figures he might have to kill a few of her clients, but it’s a small price to pay to bring his mate home.
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Tuesday Teaser 12/2/14 Daughter of the Wolf Clan
Wow, is it really December? Yikes! I have to decorate for Christmas (probably should do some cleaning too!) write and send out cards, finish my Christmas shopping, take care of my eleven year old niece for a weekend, go to various parties, and I have another 25,000 words to write in Wolf’s Princess. I’m exhausted already! But I’m hopeful I can finish the story by December 31. If I can write an average of 6,500 words a week, it’ll be cake. Wish me luck!
Here is the next snip in Olivia’s story. Oh, and can you imagine what the lion man looks like? Here you go. Enjoy!
Her lion man backed up until his back was an inch from her front. “Mine!” he roared.
Slowly, the words they had been speaking began to make sense. Lehergo. Let her go. Muzlergo. Must let her go. Nahyorz. Not yours. Olivia exhaled with relief even as she dabbed at the blood on her neck. Somehow, knowing they spoke English helped ease some of her fear. Not all of it, but some. If the lion man would just move and let her breathe she would be even less afraid. She wedged her hands between them and gave his back a shove. He roared and crushed her between his back and the hard rock wall. Her shoulder blade was ground into a sharp jag in the rock hard enough to drag a shriek from between her clenched teeth.
“Get away,” she yelled, trying to shove him away. “You’re hurting me!”
The pressure eased slightly, but she could feel growls and snarls vibrating in the body pressed against her. The other man said, “See? Yuherher. Lehergo.”
You hurt her, Olivia translated. Let her go. “Yes, please let me go. My brothers—”
“No!” screamed the lion man, slamming her into the wall again. “Mine!”
The other man spoke, once again using his Alpha tone, but her lion man half crouched, all his muscles bunching in preparation for a spring. Olivia could just see over his shoulder and the other man looked perfectly human. His hair was black, either very short or pulled back tightly from a suntanned face with regular features. With his long lean body he looked like he would be fast on his feet, but could he defeat the lion man? Olivia didn’t want the sane one hurt; she was counting on him getting her out of this mess.
She tapped the lion man’s shoulder. “Excuse me. Let me introduce myself. I’m Olivia Stensrud. And you are?”
The dark-haired man’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead in disbelief. Her lion man loosened his crouch a little bit, head tilted slightly as if to hear her voice better, but he never looked away from the other man and his snarls didn’t stop either. Maybe she’d spoken too quickly?
“I am O liv ee ah Stens rud,” she enunciated carefully. “Who are you?”
The lion man looked over his shoulder at her, almost calm now that she was talking to him. “Yermade.”
“Yermade? That’s –uh—nice.” She looked past him to the dark haired man. “And you?”
The dark-haired man flinched when the lion man crushed her between his hard back and the harder rock wall, snarling at the other man. Olivia screamed in pain and anger when her already bruised back flamed with new pain.
“Would you stop that? It hurts!”
Yermade half-turned to her, still keeping part of his attention on the other man. He made a strange noise deep in his throat. A purr? “Sorry, Yermade noherdchuh.” He dipped his head briefly for one quick swipe of his rough tongue over her throat. “Yukay?”
But the look of concern on that alien face was wiped away by fury as he wheeled on the other man, who had taken several silent steps toward them. The dark-haired man froze, speaking in a quiet voice too rapidly for Olivia to decipher what he was saying. But Yermade seemed to understand, and consider the man a threat. He spat something back, but the words were so distorted by snarls and growls that Olivia had no idea what he said. Since he had moved a foot or so away from her she took the opportunity to sidle to the left, away from his punishing back. He must have eyes in the back of his head, because he didn’t have to look at her to pin her against the rock wall. She frantically tore at the elbow digging into her windpipe.
“Yuherder, Kit,” the dark haired man said urgently. “Moofyarm.”
The elbow eased a centimeter away. Able to breathe again, Olivia tried to translate what they had been saying. Yuherder? You heard her? You hurt her? Moofyarm. Move your arm. “Look, Yermade, I just want to go home.”
“Mahmade no go!” Yermade growled, still facing the other man as if he were a threat.
“Mahmade?” Olivia said doubtfully.
“You mahmade.” Yermade looked over his shoulder at her, and his eyes glowed fiercely at her. “You. Mahmade.”
“No, I’m Olivia.”
Yermade turned on her, ignoring the other man long enough to stab a wickedly sharp claw at her face. “You. Mah. Madte,” he yowled.
Mah ma … Olivia felt the blood run out of her face. “My mate?” she gasped. “You think I’m your mate?” She looked past Yermade to the other man. “He thinks I’m his mate?”
Wolf’s Lady News
In this day and age of digital publishing (and Amazon) authors have many options in getting their stories out to the reading public. I’d say 99.999% of us write because we have stories we want to tell. Having people read them and then tell us, “I really enjoyed your book!” is the greatest return we could receive for the hours we put into our writing. But making a little monetary income from our work never hurts, you know? My original plan was to release Wolf’s Lady for free everywhere. I’ve since decided to put it up at Amazon for $0.99 in their KU and Select programs. It will go up at Barnes & Noble and Kobo and the iBookstore in March, but that’s not fair to those I told it would be free. So I will be including links for free .ePub, .pdf, and .mobi downloads in the newsletter I will send out next weekend.
So if you don’t get my newsletter, the sign up link is on the right. I won’t be offended if you sign up in November and cancel in December. 🙂
Happy Reading!
Tuesday Teaser 11/18/14- Daughter of the Wolf Clan
First, a quick writing update: I am mostly done with edits on Wolf’s Lady, which will be a free read released on December 5. And I’m plugging along with Wolf’s Princess. I estimate Sky and Rose’s book will be around 85,000 words long, and I’m at 58,000 words now, so I’m 2/3 done. I’m working hard, I promise, but there is a lot of story left to write. I suspect it will be over 85,000. We’ll see.
The next Tuesday Teaser will be Daughter of the Wolf Clan, which is a story about Tami and Tracker’s daughter and the odd stranger who steals her to be his bride. Hint: he is distantly related to Eddie Madison. Here we go. As always, this hasn’t been edited, so there will be typos and weirdness.
Daughter of the Wolf Clan (working title)
By Maddy Barone
Rocking C Ranch, Colorado
October, 2088
Chapter One
Olivia Stensrud rubbed her sore rear end while she watched her spooked horse flee, taking her rifle and canteen with him. Stupid animal, leaving her stranded here alone, miles from the ranch. What had scared him? Olivia looked around the mountain trail but saw nothing. It was silent, no noise that might have scared him, only the sound of the wind in the aspens and the burbling water in the ice cold stream cutting through the meadow below. She sniffed the air, trying to catch the scent of an animal that might have spooked her horse, but she didn’t have her father’s sense of smell.
Her brothers would never let her hear the end of this. She hadn’t been bucked off her horse in years. They loved nothing more than teasing their baby sister, except, possibly, scaring off any boy brave enough to smile at her. They were still teasing her about being sweet on Rob Russell down in Kearney. If they knew just how far she and Rob had gone in the stall in his father’s smithy her brothers wouldn’t have teased her about it; they would have beaten Rob to a pulp.
But that was months ago and what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. Right? She was almost twenty years old, practically an old maid, and Rob was one of the few men brave enough to court her. He was tall, and strong, and handsome. And he was a really nice guy, with a good job in his father’s blacksmithing business. Rob said he loved her, and he would speak to her father about marriage, but dad had packed them up and got back to the ranch for the winter earlier than usual this year, so Rob never got the chance to ask. When she got back home she would write Rob a letter.
Olivia shrugged her shoulders to loosen the tight muscles and looked down the trail, hoping her horse would stop so she could catch him. She whistled for him, but he didn’t come. He was probably a mile away by now, heading for his stall back at the ranch. She was going to have to hoof it home. Unless her brothers saw her riderless horse? They might tease her to death about it, but they would come find her. Overprotective idiots. If she were very lucky, they wouldn’t mention it to dad. She knew the rules about riding too far from the house alone, and she was well past his one mile limit. Her father was a reasonable man, but he was also a wolf, and wolves tended to go overboard in protecting their families.
Olivia brushed herself off one more time, touched a hand to the hilt of the knife in her belt for reassurance, and headed down the trail after her horse. It was a pretty day for a walk, a perfect October day in Colorado, with the aspens gold against the deep blue of the sky, contrasting with the green of the scrubby pines. Yes, a lovely day for a walk, and she would stress that to her brothers when— if they found her before she got back to the ranch.
The path was rocky, so she walked carefully in her high-heeled cowboy boots. There was a sheer rock wall soaring toward the sky a yard to her left, and a grassy slope started about ten yards away on her right, spreading out into a grassy mountain meadow cut in half by a stream. In the meadow, tumbled rock lined the edges of the stream. This is one of her favorite places to come to be alone and think. Her mom had shown it to her when she was little.
As she had been taught, Olivia kept her eyes moving to and fro to find any trouble before it found her. She hadn’t forgotten that something had scared her horse. Everything might look serene and calm, but a horse didn’t shy and buck for no reason at all.
All her caution didn’t keep her from being surprised by the thing that dropped from the rock wall twenty feet above.
Tuesday Teaser 11/11/14: Wolf’s Lady Cover Reveal
First, let me say Happy Veteran’s Day to all those who have served their countries in the armed forces. Hats off to veterans!
I’m not doing a regular teaser today because I have a Cover Reveal for you.
Wolf’s Lady, After the Crash book #6.5
Sand Wolfe, a lonely bachelor of the Lakota Wolf Clan, goes to Omaha to work as muscle in his cousin Sky’s whorehouse. There he meets his mate, Miss Amanda, who also works in Sky’s House, although in a very different position. He will do anything to convince her to give up her career and accept his mate claim.
Can a businesswoman leave her glamorous life and settle down in a wolf den? Amanda finds Sand’s methods of persuasion very persuasive. But will the men of Omaha allow her to leave?
Chapter One
Omaha, Nebraska – the new Sin City of what had once been the United States
September 10, 2070
Sand Wolfe looked at the distant wall enclosing the city of Omaha, hiding the distaste wrestling with curiosity in his belly behind a blank face. He had been here only two months ago as part of the group escorting a cousin’s mate to her uncle, but on that trip he had stayed outside the wall while the others took Sara into the city. He liked to run free, and stepping foot inside a dirty city was something he’d never wanted to do. Curse Snow for talking him into this.
“C’mon,” his cousin Snow muttered. “The gate is right ahead.”
They walked, leading their single horse behind them, through an area which had once been the outskirts of Omaha. Now it was empty, all buildings and trees burned away decades before he was born to prevent attackers from using the scenery to sneak up on the city unseen. Sand flicked a glance up at one of the watch towers built into the wall, his excellent eyesight finding two men there, and the long barrels of rifles aimed at him and Snow. The barrenness of the land gave the guards a clear line of fire. Sand forced his shoulders not to twitch.
The road led them directly to the gate. More guards were there, armed with rifles and questions.
“Names,” one guard barked at them.
“I’m Snow Wolfe,” Snow said in his quiet, gentle voice. “This is my cousin, Sand Wolfe.”
The two guards, beefy and well fed in their olive drab uniforms and black boots, exchanged a glance, but they said nothing about the names as one wrote them in a book. Snow was actually Snow On His Fur of the Lakota Wolf Clan, and Sand’s full name was Wolf Running In Sand. The cousins showed their Lakota heritage in their waist length braids and dark skin. They wore denim jeans and cotton shirts in deference to city peoples’ requirements, but they both wore comfortable moccasins.
“What’s your business in Omaha?”
“We’re visiting family.”
The man poised his pen over his book. “What’s the name of the people you’re visiting?”
“Sky Wolfe.”
The guard who wasn’t writing gave a low whistle. “Sky, huh? Lucky. Or does he make you pay full price?”
Sand scowled to hide his confusion. Pay full price for what? The guard writing paused with his pen above the paper. “Cute. Snow, Sand, and Sky. No sun?”
“No.” Snow’s voice was flat.
“Alright. Ages?”
“Twenty-eight,” Sand answered.
“Twenty-seven,” said Snow.
The man wrote it down. “How long are you staying?”
Snow raised his eyebrows at Sand. “Two months maybe. We’ll head out before winter comes.”
Maybe he could stick it out that long, but Sand doubted it. He was sure they could have snuck into the city and avoided all this gab. No wolf warrior liked to be interrogated by human men who were clearly inferior. One of the guards went to their horse and searched through the saddlebags, inventorying their spare clothes and scant food stores. Sand tensed with a low growl bubbling up his throat when he pawed through the sealed letters Taye, Rose, and others from the den had sent for Sky, but the guard only noted the letters down in his book too.
“No weapons?” he barked.
“We both have a knife,” Snow said, touching the grip of the knife in his belt.
The guard wrote for a while longer, then tore the sheets out of his book to hand one to Sand and the other to Snow. “Your Visitor Permits. Keep those with you at all times. They’re good for two months, until October 31. The City Guard can ask to see them at any time and if you don’t have your visitor’s permit with you, you will be escorted out of the city.”
Sand read the words on his permit. It identified him as Sand Wolfe, age twenty-eight, six feet two inches tall, 170 pounds, slender build, black hair very long, brown eyes. Nose aquiline, mouth full. All accurate enough, he supposed, folding the paper and putting it on the breast pocket of his plaid cotton shirt. He rolled his lips together, wondering what the paper meant by “full”. He hadn’t eaten anything since the rabbit his wolf had caught and eaten last night.
Once they were past the gates Sand took a deep breath and steeled himself to enter the city. “Let’s find Sky.”
Feeling like a wide-eyed boy from the country made Sand scowl. The city was said to have twenty-five thousand residents. What were they all doing on the street at this very moment? He could see only a few yards ahead of him on the sidewalk because it was so crowded with pedestrians. Some of them were women, and as far as he could tell they had no male escort.
Women, walking alone? What were their men thinking? Were they crazy? Anyone could snatch them away!
Well, maybe not. The sidewalk was full of people. If a woman screamed for help, there were plenty of men to step in. The women dressed differently, some in skirts and some in pants, but every one of them he saw wore a silver whistle around their neck. To make a call for help? It made sense. The sound of a whistle could travel farther than a human voice. He saw more men in the olive drab uniforms and black boots standing at corners, watching the people on the sidewalk with sharp attention, noting each wagon or rider than passed on the street.
“I don’t like this place,” he muttered to Snow. “What is that noise?”
His cousin grabbed his arm. “Look! It’s the bus!”
A large wooden rectangle on wheels rolled laboriously up the street toward them, accompanied by a roar, like a fierce wind in January. A team pulling a wagon on the opposite side of the street shied, half rearing, until the driver jumped down to pull them to the side of the road out of the way of the box. He soothed them with gentle hands until they stood quietly, only little shudders rolling through them. Sand felt kinship with them. He didn’t like the noise either. He didn’t see horses pulling the box, and when it passed them he saw no one pushing it. The stench it emitted made him want to gag.
“Isn’t that marvelous?” Snow said enthusiastically. “I saw it last time I was here, but I didn’t get to ride it. Let’s go!”
Ride in the belly of that thing? “What about the horse?” he said, keeping his tone mild so Snow wouldn’t know he was unsettled by the evil thing. With the noxious odor lingering behind the bus, even Snow’s keen nose wouldn’t detect his unease.
“Oh. Right.” Shoulders slumped, Snow watched a door open in the box and steps lower. A dozen people crowded around the opening, and one by one they disappeared inside. “Well, I’ll ride it later, after we stable the horse.”
Sand started walking again. “Why do you want to ride it? It stinks.”
“But it goes all over Omaha. Omaha is big! Instead of walking from the river to the outer wall you could sit and ride.”
Sand slanted a glance at his cousin. “We have feet for a reason. How hard is it to…?”
He trailed off as something caught his attention. He was riveted on a splash of color on a pale bare arm, a hand with long fingers tipped with red paint holding a railing as a woman stepped up into the bus. Sand’s heart stuttered. Long brown hair, glossy with health, rippled in the breeze as the woman disappeared into the box. He’d had only the briefest glimpse of her, but the sight was seared into his brain. He watched the box roll away, almost too stunned to register his wolf’s frantic attempts to burst out, almost too stunned to be able to think. But one piece of knowledge swirled in his belly.
His mate was in Omaha. His mate was in that noisy, stinking box and she was going away from him. The hell she was going away from him! He tore at the buttons on his shirt to strip to let his wolf out, but Snow grabbed his arm hard, keeping him from ripping his shirt off so he could release the wolf. His wolf clawed at his insides, demanding to be let loose so he could follow his mate. Sand tried to jerk free but Snow held on.
“What are you doing?” Snow hissed.
“My mate!” was all Sand could get out. “Let me go! My mate is in that box thing.”
For an instant Snow’s hands loosened, surprise flashing over his face, but he tightened them again. “Hold on, you can’t change here in the street. The City Guard—” he nodded at the uniformed men “—will shoot you if you do. Calm down. We’ll find her. Omaha is big, but there’s not that many women here, and half of those are too young to be your mate or too old. What did she look like?”
It took effort, but Sand forced himself to take his fingers away from the buttons on his shirt. He drew a deep breath and closed his eyes, calling up the image of his mate. He’d seen her only from the side, but he knew he would recognize her again in an instant. “She’s about six or seven inches shorter than me. Soft, and round in all the right places. Her hair is down to the middle of her back. It’s brown and a little wavy. Not plain brown. The glowing brown like that polished wood desk Taye got for the Lupa.”
“Walnut,” Snow supplied.
“Yeah. Her cheekbones are high. Her chin has a shallow little dent in it. Her face is soft, her mouth is wide.” How he wanted to stroke a thumb over her lips! “I didn’t see her eyes, but I think they’re light. Green, maybe. Or blue. Her skin is very pale. She was wearing a skirt down to her ankles, light flowered fabric, floaty. Her shirt …” He swallowed, remembering the scrap of green fabric that barely covered the most beautiful body he’d ever seen. “She has a picture painted on her shoulder. It goes from her upper arm, across her shoulder down to her –er, under the neckline of her shirt.”
“Uh-huh.” Snow reached to pat the nose of their horse. “She sounds distinctive. I bet Sky can help us find her. “
“Yeah.” Sand began walking briskly in the direction of the river, where his cousin lived. “Let’s hurry.”
It was an hour long walk, even hurrying as they were. There was a tall stone fence around Sky’s house. That wasn’t unusual. A man had to take steps to protect his property. The gates were made of fancy black iron twisted in ornate shapes. They were pretty but wouldn’t do much to keep attackers out. On the pale stone wall hung a rectangle of metal. It said:
The Sky’s The Limit
A Gentlemen’s Club
Open Tuesday through Thursday 5:00pm to 1:00 am
Friday and Saturday 6:00 pm through 2:00 am
Private Entertainment by Appointment Only
A man he didn’t know came to the gate to ask their business. He looked tough, and was armed to the teeth. He was polite though, and became politer when Snow said they were Sky’s cousins, come to visit for a few months.
“Mr. Wolfe has been expecting relations to come,” he said, opening the gate. “Y’all sure do look alike. I’m Keith Henderson. Stables are around back. There will be a boy there to take the horse. Mr. Wolfe is probably in his office this time of day.”
As they passed through the gate Sand nodded approval when he saw a pair of secondary gates were made of stone. Not so pretty, but much stronger. Then he looked forward. The gravel drive was a tan ribbon cutting through green grass that stretched like a well-tended carpet a good half-mile to a tall, three story red brick house sitting on a rise. The drive split and one fork became steps that marched up to the fancy front door, and the other curved away to the back of the house.
“This is where Sky lives?” he asked Snow. “This is his house?”
“Yep. Wait ‘til you see the inside.”
As they led their horse down the drive around the house, Sand got a good look at the place. It was huge! Had Sky suddenly become rich? Only a rich man could afford to live in a house like this. It had a fancy porch with white columns, and lots of tall narrow windows with white woodwork around them, and rounded sections Sand didn’t know what to call. He couldn’t believe his little cousin lived in a house a hundred times nicer than the den.
“He’s got humans living here, right?” he muttered to Snow. “Must be a pain to heat in the winter.”
“Oh, sure,” Snow agreed. “Most rooms have fireplaces, but with the electricity generated by the river, it keeps pretty warm anyway. The ladies’ appointments wouldn’t appreciate coming into a cold room to do their business.”
Before Sand could ask about appointments and business, a pair of men stepped onto the drive. “Paint!” Snow called joyfully.
Sand hung back a minute, examining the other man. He was a stranger with brown hair and eyes, his face behind its close clipped beard hard and expressionless. Sand noted the burly shoulders and long arms. He could be trouble in a fight, Sand judged. Then Paint was pounding on his back.
“I’m glad to see you two!” he said, adjusting his eye patch. “Now I can head back to the den for a while. I don’t mind helping Sky out, but this place gets to me. You’ll know what I mean after a week or so.”
Sand suppressed a sigh. He hadn’t wanted to come in the first place. Except … His mate was here. In his amazement at seeing where Sky lived he had almost forgotten that. He had to find her!
“This is Neil Marzek. He’s head of Sky’s enforcers. Neil, this is my cousin Snow and my cousin Sand. I’ll take ’em in to see Sky. You’ll take care of their horse?”
Neil’s face still showed no warmth. Sand could respect that. They were strangers in his domain. “Sure,” Neil said in a gravelly voice.
Snow grabbed the saddlebag to carry into the house before following Paint up the back steps to a mudroom and on to the kitchen. Sand looked carefully around as the three of them passed through the kitchen to a narrow hall that led into an office. A man in a suit and tie sat at the desk, his dark hair cut short, his hands pale and pampered, holding a pen. Who wore a suit to sit at a desk?
The man looked up, blue eyes narrow under black brows, then he stood. He was as pretty as a girl, Sand thought derisively, before amazement unhinged his jaw.
“Sky?” he yelped.
The man grinned, then, a dimple biting into his cheek beside his mouth. “Sand. I know it’s you by that broken tooth.” The grin deepened. “Breaking that tooth is one of my happiest memories.”
“It’s only chipped,” Sand said with dignity as Sky came around the desk to crush him in a hug. Then he did the same to Snow, before lightly punching Sand’s shoulder. “You! Sand, you are the reason I was on kitchen duty so much back at the den. Whose idea was it to sit out in the hall outside the Lupa and the Chief’s room when they made love?”
Sand laughed. “That was a long time ago! We were all just kids back then.” He sobered, running his gaze from Sky’s glossy black shoes to his gray-blue slacks with their perfect creases to the matching coat, crisp white shirt and navy blue tie. “You cut your hair. You don’t look like yourself. What’s happened to you?”
Sky’s face retained the smile, but somehow it seemed to Sand as if a door had closed. Sky propped one hip on the edge of his desk. “Like you said, it’s been a long time. People grow up. So, are you here to work with me or just visiting? I can always use more muscle to keep the visitors in line.”
Snow bounced on the balls of his feet. “We’re here for a couple of months. We can help you out. But Sand—”
Sand cut him off. “I found my mate, Sky. She’s here in Omaha, somewhere. You have to help me find her!”
Sky stared for a moment, his level brows pulled low. “Of course.” He looked down at his feet, crossing one ankle over the other and apparently examining the shine on his shoe. “You realize, don’t you, that if she is in Omaha she is probably either already married or working in a house?”
That had been the thought circling his mind like a caged beast ever since he’s recognized his mate. He joined in Sky’s contemplation of his shiny shoes. “I know,” he said softly.
Sky reached out to give him a comforting slap on the arm. “But you never know. Maybe her family is well off and they’re able to afford to pay to keep her single.”
They would have to be very rich to afford the yearly Single Status tax. She hadn’t been middle aged, but she didn’t look like a teenager, either. Sand didn’t know anything about rich women. Had she been wearing rich woman’s clothes? “Yeah, maybe.”
Snow dug in the saddlebag. “Before we get into Sand’s mate, here’s the letters from home.”
Sky took them and leafed through them until he came to the one with Rose’s handwriting on the outside. As far as Sand knew, this was the first letter Rose had written to Sky since she’d found out he was running a whorehouse in Omaha. Sky’s hand clenched on the envelope so tightly his knuckles shone white, and that invisible door over his face opened just enough to show the edge of raw emotion before it slammed shut again. “Thanks.” He set the letters casually on the desk behind him. “So tell me about your mate.”
“She’s beautiful,” Sand said immediately. “I know every man says that about his mate, but mine truly is. Her hair is long and brown and it shines in the sun. Her skin is very pale.” Words failed him when he remembered her soft, curved body. “She has a painting on her arm and her shoulder.”
“A tattoo,” Snow put in.
Sky nodded, using one finger to scratch his chin. “What was the tattoo of?”
Snow shrugged, looking at Sand. Sand shrugged too, helplessly. “I don’t know. It went from here,” he touched his biceps and drew his fingers up the outside of his arm, over his shoulder to his heart, “and went here. Do you know her, Sky?”
Sky looked at Paint. “Maybe,” he said at last. “I know of a few women who fit that description. We’ll find her, Sand. Not now; it’s late in the afternoon. But we’ll find her, I promise. Why don’t you get them settled in, Paint? I’m going to my room to read my letter. My letters,” he corrected himself.
Sand’s wolf didn’t want to wait even another minute to start the hunt for his mate, but Sand forced him down. His mate was here in Omaha. He would find her. Sky had his letters in his hand, running his thumb over and over the one with Rose’s handwriting on it. Sky must be anxious to read Rose’s words.
“Sure,” Paint said. “I’ll get them beds out back and then show ‘em around.”
Sky pushed away from the desk. “I’m glad you’re here,” he told Snow and Sand with fervent honesty. “I’ll see you tomorrow and we’ll start the hunt for your mate.”
