Each wants the other, but neither can stand to be in the same room.
One day in the Big Woods, Normal Josie wakes up and helplessly watches a Shifter virus kill her immediate family in their remote wilderness homestead. Josie has no choice but to carry on. She's forced to brave the forested Wild alone, leading a string of pack horses with all the supplies she can manage to her uncle's Shifter outpost--back to where she became known as a little Normal female who could kick butt with the best Shifters, back to where she fell in love with the only Shifter she could ever mate. Thank goodness he isn't there. But when living among a pack of Shifters, a girl has to obey the alpha. And her alpha has secret plans for her, plans that involve the only Shifter she loves--the Shifter who now irritates the hell out of her.
Stationed at an isolated agricultural outpost with nothing but teenage hormones for company, Shifter Hostillian doesn't mind monotonous day-to-day schedules where he rules the roost. And then his inner Wolf's favorite wild cat screeches at his door. He has no desire to mate the only person who challenges everything he utters. But his Wolf makes demands the minute it catches Josie's scent.
Stand back and watch the fireworks light up the Minnesota sky because the BIG BAD BEAST can't help but to huff and puff and blow Josie's house in...
Book Details:
BIG BAD BEAST
Werescape Book Six
Skhye Moncrief
Genre: Paranormal Romance
ASIN: B0088DE3EA
Word Count: 38,000 words
Cover Artist: Erin Dameron-Hill (EDH Graphics)
Excerpt
Wolf writhed in agony inside
me because she was even more beautiful when she hissed words through grated
teeth. But I'm unlike the Shifter Tacitus who seeks challenges. No. I prefer my
females docile and safe at home. Josie will never be either.
Mine, Wolf growled.
"Gods-damn-it,
Hostillian. Don't growl at me. Just let me pass." Her pale blue eyes
glinted like they had a Shifter glow of their own.
Play, Wolf hummed.
Sit. Quiet. Let me think.
Her heart thrashed like she
faced a grizzly.
And she'd said Augustus had
that damned wink when he gave her this assignment. He sent her on purpose.
Hell, I can't let her go out with the curfew a few hours away. Not that tight
little ass and those pouty lips. What kind of Guardian would I be if anything
happened to a female? "There's nowhere you can go this time of day. You
have to stay here." Hopefully, I sounded calm. But she has a way of
working from every angle to pry my flesh from my bones. A way of forcing every
one of my blood cells into my swelling cock.
"You're kidding.
Right?" she snarled. "You and me in the same space until
morning?"
She's right. But I'd be damned
if she got the best of me in any discussion. "If you behave, everything
will be fine," I managed calmly.
"Me?" she crowed,
pointing at the floorboards with obvious rage reddening her cheeks.
"You're the one who accused me of coming here on purpose. I offered to
leave too."
Unfortunately, I couldn't
allow her to win. "You will behave. I have seven teens here learning to
grow wheat. But they're highly impressionable--"
"How dare you suggest I'd
seduce them!" She thrust up a finger and stabbed the pointed tip into my
chest. "I don't know when the last time was I even looked at a youth the
age of the one that just left. He's scrawny."
The solid fingertip jabbed
harder with each of her words.
Not hard enough to soften
Wolf's cock. "You're not leaving this cabin until sunrise." I turned
my back to her, leaned an elbow against the biting doorframe, and stared at
unfolding grassy prairie beyond the gaping gateway.
Movement even farther out
noted my loping students in their Wolfskins were returning to prepare for the
evening meal. "You'd better find something to do, Josie. The boys are
back. In were-form. And they'll be shifting shortly. If you don't want to
mislead them by staring at their nude bodies, you'd better back away from the
door and find something to do."
****
What an asshole. First
implying I can't behave appropriately around these children. Then daring me to
go stare at their nude bodies. I pivoted and planted my tail on the end of the
bench farthest from the doorway and Hostillian's glowing Wolf stare.
Banked coals never warmed a
space as much as they did now. Or I'm about to explode from pent-up
frustration.
"Just a minute,"
Hostillian said with his authoritative timbre.
Not to me. To the teens. Or he
would have been as asshole.
The floorboards creaked behind
me.
Under the weight of his
six-foot-five steely mass of perfectly-chiseled muscles. Why, oh, why, can't I
be normal? Just be a woman who makes men fall at their feet? Not gush into
puddles. Men don't gush. But just have them writhe at my boots. Just
Hostillian. Why? Is it too much to want something so desperately? I'd wasted
half of my life on that stupid desire. Trying to prove I wouldn't be in his
way. That I'd be safe walking across the compound if he wasn't around. That he
wouldn't have to worry about me. But he still doesn't want me.
My heart sank.
Foolishly betraying my warrior
façade if Hostillian had his Wolf in his ears.
My cousin planned this. Yes.
Stuck his snout in my business again. But I'd leave in the morning. Beat
Augustus at his game. Survive this night.
The floorboards creaked again.
More softly though. Farther
away.
The door snapped shut.
Hostillian probably took pants
to his boys.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
My pulse in my skull. Pounding
out a death march. Beat by agonizing beat. Ticking off the moments before
they'd all come inside. Stare at me like I'm the main course. Or worse. He
probably told them who I was by now. Oh well. I'd just pull myself together.
Make due till morning. Prove all those years I studied how to survive hadn't
been wasted. Maybe on a foolish fantasy about Hostillian. But not with learning
to defend myself.
No. I hadn't wasted a moment
on self-defense. And nobody would make me think I had. Not Hostillian. Not a
pack of wet-behind-the-ears youths. My sire might have wanted me to be more of
a daughter than a woman who could stand up to Hostillian. But he never once
told me I was a failure or an embarrassment to the clan. So, to hell with
Hostillian's lack of interest. I'd show this lodge of mangy wolves that I
deserved respect.
The door creaked.
A floorboard answered.
One by one, they trickled
through the doorway, silently, except for the bitching planks. Hostillian must
have told them to be respectfully quiet. Or threatened them with their lives
for any misbehavior. I remember the days in school when all the young males
feared Augustus. Knew there would be hell to pay if anything went wrong. Hence,
their accepting me and my little need to prove myself to whoever doubted I
could take care of myself. So, my cousin taught the males of his clan how to
demand the same respect from youths.
A final creak of flooring and
one snap of the door noted the noisy parade's end.
Surely he stood behind me.
About Skhye Moncrief:
Website: http://skhyemoncrief.com
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3 comments:
Thank you for sharing your review. I enjoyed and the excerpt and am curious for more :)
THanks, Denise and Sapphyria!
I loved this excerpt, it was awesome.
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