Books-n-Kisses

Juliana Havarr has lived her short life feeling inferior to her Albuquerque pack mates. She was on a mission to prove her worth, though she had no idea what that mission entailed. She’d lost her beloved father in a challenge at a very young age, and because he shared a sakana bond with her mother, his death drove the only parent Jules had left into seclusion for a couple of years. Jules was left to bounce between her older sister’s home to the home of her best friend, Jessy. Jules has lived with the guilt of knowing she couldn’t have done anything to save her father, but wishing all the while that she had tried. When her mother returned, she seemed cold and distant, and Jules never spent one second alone with her. With her sister and Jessy’s family caring for her, she always felt loved, always felt protected. Even though Jules was a Breeder, one of the strongest of all wolves, a wolf whose genetic makeup would always ensure the survival of her race, no male ever approached her. She had resigned herself to a life on her own, without a male to call her mate. Everything changed when she met Sorin Campion. One look into his shining copper eyes, she knew in her heart, in her soul, this male was her sakana.

Surrounded by the rest of the pack as we waited for word from our Alpha, their heightened emotional state was almost overwhelming. With their anxiety battering at me from all angles, it made it difficult for me to deal with what was going on in my own head. The fear and apprehension the pack put off as a collective seemed to fill the air with a strange, bitter taste. It pressed against my skin, soaked through my pores, and rose up in the back of my throat like a sour tang I couldn’t wash away.

Standing in the hall, waiting for my mate, away from the others, I was finally able to catch my breath.

Sorin was on his way. He’d shut his emotions down. And that was okay. I might not have been able to share his emotions, but I felt his power…energy…whatever…and it lifted me, relieved the uncomfortable weight of feeling everything.

It had to be an Alpha thing—another effect of Sorin’s choice that threw me off balance.

The low, whining sound of a car engine came up the road, and with it came Hemming’s Alpha presence. Tipping my head to the side, I listened as the tires sloshed through the mud until it pulled up right next to the door Sorin, Taber, and I had entered through only two nights ago. Car doors opened and closed. Quiet voices murmured. The alarm pad at the inside of the door beeped as someone punched in the security code from the outside. The lock disengaged, then the door swung outward.

Cassia came in, her head bowed, her mother’s arm firmly around her shoulders as she led her shuffling daughter through the hall. I didn’t want to feel what came off Cassia, but knowing she’d been forced to witness what had been done to her friend, I was compelled to open up and focus on her anyway.

I flinched away at what hit me: guilt. Crushing, numbing, guilt.

Of course, she would grieve that way—she’d survived. Whether she carried physical wounds or not, the worst wounds of all were hidden inside, along with a thousand and one different forms of the question why.

I could relate to that. I’d watched my father fight for his life and die before my eyes. And even though no one held me down and made me watch, I didn’t look away.

Still…challenges were part of our culture.

Revenge murders were not.

And that was what Rina’s murder was—retaliation for her taking out one of their brothers. Why they didn’t kill Cassia, we might never know.

I took in a breath and sighed as Hemming came in from out of the darkness, Neeru at his side, both shifting to their human forms just inside the doorway. Seff’s shaggy brown wolf trotted through next, three other wolves behind him, all moving directly to their left and into the showers. No one spoke as they flipped the water on to rinse the mud from their arms and legs.

I pushed away from the wall. My gaze never left the door as I waited for my mate to appear. He was right there—outside the door—pacing.

Hemming’s muddy hand touched my forearm as he passed. “You and Sorin got fifteen minutes. Then I need you both in the dining room.”

I nodded.

Fifteen minutes? Fifteen minutes for what?

On silent paws, Sorin appeared. He slipped through the door and it closed quietly behind him. His big head swung around; his eyes landed on me. A dark brown mask framed his copper eyes and came to a point at the tip of his nose. The brown fur blended into buckwheat honey, the same shade as the hair on his head, as it traveled over his back to the tip of his tail. White belly, legs, lips, and jaws made up the rest of his fur, though, currently, most of his fur was splattered with mud.

Damn, my mate was enormous.

Thick legs, thick shoulders, thick mane around his neck. I wanted to fall to my knees and hug him like crazy, clamp my arms around him and never let go. The wolf in me wanted to roll around on the floor, lick him all over and submit to anything he needed, even if what he needed was to vent his anger by drawing blood. A shiver raced down my spine at the thought of his fangs piercing my flesh. Not that I was afraid. I was so far from fearing anything Sorin might ever do to me.

His head cocked to the side as he sniffed the air, then looked down the hall past me to Taber, and nodded.

“Seff,” Taber shouted. “Let’s go.”

“Just finishin’ up,” Seff called back.

The sound of running water splashing against bodies and wooden slats shut off abruptly, leaving only a quiet drip-drip-drip. Three males emerged, towels wrapped around their waists. Seff appeared from around the corner, tucking the ends of his towel in as he looked at Sorin. He paused for a second while he and Sorin locked eyes and held one of those silent convos for a second or two, before giving a short nod of his head. Seff’s brown eyes moved to me. His lips parted as if he were about to say something, but he didn’t. He didn’t smile, either. Without a word, he clenched his jaw and stared at the floor. I watched as he walked past me. Then he and Taber left the hall.

What the rogues had done to Rina, he’d seen it, but kept the lid on his own emotions nearly as well as Sorin did. I listened as the almost silent footsteps took them out of the room beyond, leaving me and Sorin alone.

Around the corner from where I stood, water came on. I moved into the hall of showers. Sorin stood there, the water raining down on his naked, human body. He’d braced his hands on the wall in front of him, his head bowed deep between his shoulder blades. I set his sweats on top of a stack of clean towels and took a step toward him.

“Sorin—”

“C’mere.”

I didn’t walk.

I ran.

I slammed my little body into his wall of muscle. His arms wrapped around me and pulled me under the hot shower as his mouth claimed mine. Soft lips and warm tongue and I couldn’t care less that I was getting soaked. I smoothed my hands up and down his back, feeling his muscles ripple beneath my fingertips.

He whispered against my lips as he grabbed the hem of my T-shirt and yanked it up over my head. “Need you. Need you now.”

Kiss of the Winter Moon

Bk #1

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Shadow of the Summer Moon

Bk #2

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Indie author Amanda LeMay grew up on a small farm in Southern California reading every sci-fi book her dad passed on to her and watching every classic horror movie her mom shared with her. Her love for paranormal romance was an easy leap. Amanda published her first paranormal romance – full of dark sexy wolf-shifters called KISS OF THE WINTER MOON – in February 2018 – and her second book in the series, SHADOW OF THE SUMMER MOON went live in June 2018. Her wolf-shifters share a rare and special bond with their mates: the sakana bond, a rare and ancient bond that links their minds, bodies, and souls.

Amanda still lives in Southern California with her own Alpha-male husband and two grumpy cats and dreams of living on the beach in Texas. When she isn’t writing, or thinking about writing, (or plotting, or characters, or dialogue, or world building), she’s probably working on any number of crafts, sewing, gardening, or lost in another authors’ wonderful dream world. She plots most of her novels while walking, or driving, or while on long Texas beach vacations sitting outside listening to the waves. She loves reading paranormal romance, fantasy romance, sci-fi romance, contemporary romance…well, just romance in general.

Visit Amanda’s website at www.amandalemay.com and sign up for her newsletter to receive exclusive cover reveals and chapter previews.

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