with Nicola Cameron and
Hello, and thanks so much for
having me on today! Shifter Woods: Howl
is the first entry in my new paranormal shifter romance series Esposito County
Shifters. Howl, which is the story of
coyote shifter Laurie Rivera and her (very) unexpected mate Sheriff Caleb
Lynch, was originally supposed to be submitted to an anthology. Real Life™
promptly intervened, as it does, and I blew the deadline. I decided to go ahead
and expand the story past the antho guidelines and Howl surprised me by turning into a 23,000 word novella. Go figure.
The second entry, Shifter Woods: Roar,
which runs concurrently with Howl and
follows the story of Laurie’s cameraman Gavin and bear shifter Mike Ivanov,
will be out in mid-May.
Also, may I just say that I
am SO glad I was finally able to use this particular male model on a cover?
I’ve been faunching after him since Empress
of Storms, and I finally got the right book for him – yay!
Paranormal Romance, Shifter
Romance, MF
Word Count: 23,000
Series: Esposito County
Shifters (Book One)
Heat Level 4
Published by Belaurient Press
ASIN: B06ZZHS28T
BLURB:
Laurie wants a news story.
Caleb just wants to be left alone. But when the two coyote shifters' paths
cross in New Mexico’s Sandia Mountains, Fate steps in and gives them something
they never expected--each other.
Reporter Laurie Rivera is on the trail of a white slavery ring when she’s
forced to run for her life in the foothills near Sandia Crest. Widowed sheriff
and Alpha coyote shifter Caleb Lynch comes across the exhausted reporter and
discovers to his shock that Laurie is also a shifter—and his new heart’s mate.
But Caleb never expected to have another chance at love, and Laurie has a good
reason to fear being claimed, especially by an Alpha. As a snowstorm traps them
in the sheriff’s cabin, Caleb must find a way around the barriers surrounding
Laurie’s heart, and Laurie has to confront her past—and the humans who want her
dead—if she wants a chance at her very own “happily ever after.”
BUY LINKS:
- Amazon
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZHS28T
- Amazon
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06ZZHS28T
PG-13 EXCERPT
Caleb Lynch slammed the cabin
door closed with his foot, depositing the woman in his arms on the couch. Her
eyes were still closed, her full lips turning a faint shade of blue, and her
heartbeat was worryingly slow. That and the fact that she wasn’t shivering
meant she was well into hypothermia.
At least he knew how to
handle that. He stepped to the hallway closet and grabbed a bundle of blankets
and the heavy old quilt his grandmother had made. Dumping them next to the
sofa, he started stripping the cold, wet clothes off his guest.
Peeling off the waterlogged
cloth revealed sleek limbs, smooth tan skin and some mouthwatering curves that
made his palms tingle with the urge to touch. Worse, each new inch of exposed
skin let more of her heavenly scent come to his nose. He’d thought he’d made a
mistake out near the creek, that it had been some sort of olfactory
hallucination, but this close it was impossible to miss. He struggled not to
throw his head back and howl.
No.
You have a responsibility, dammit. Get her warm and dry first.
When she was down to her
underwear he opened one of the blankets and covered her with it, then reached
under to strip off the damp scraps of nylon and cotton. She moaned in complaint
and he bit his lip, trying to come into contact with as little skin as
possible. What he did touch, however, was silken.
He pulled the bra and panties
free, tossing them on top of the rest of her clothing,
then set to piling more blankets on her, topped with the heavy quilt. She’d
get warmer faster if you slid in there with her, part of his brain
suggested. Just strip down, crawl in, take her in your arms and—
He cut
that thought off. He had never laid a finger on an unwilling female in his
life, and he damn well wasn’t about to start now. Even if she did look like sun
and sin in one gorgeous package and smelled like—
Mine.
She smells like mine.
Damn it
all. It was getting harder to tear his mind away from that thought. Gritting
his teeth, he sat back on his haunches and considered. Wet clothes removed and
dry blankets applied, check. Next was warmth.
Along
with the blankets he’d grabbed a bunch of chemical hand warmer packets. He
cracked a few, shook them up to get the exothermic reaction going, then tucked
them under the blanket by her feet. She shifted, toes automatically stretching
towards the heat.
Her eyes
fluttered open, revealing irises the color of a rich sherry. “Wha’ happened?”
“You tell
me, honey.” Caleb swallowed a smile, wanting to stroke the tangled black silk
away from her face. “I found you in Bollan Creek. I’m guessing you fell in?”
“Creek?”
One slender hand emerged from the blankets, pushing her hair back. “Yeah. Fell
down a hill—” She blinked, her gaze sharpening as she took in the blankets
covering her. Her other hand groped under the blankets, confirming her
sartorial status. “Where are my clothes?”
He
expected confusion, even anger, but the strength of the fear pouring off her
made him feel both guilty and a little annoyed. “They’re right here,” he said,
nodded at the pile of wet cloth. “I’m sorry, but you were going into hypothermia.
They had to come off.”
She
clutched the blanket closer as she peered over the edge of the sofa at her
clothes. A flush spread across her cheekbones, and the fear scent kicked up a
notch. “Who took them off?”
He
sighed. “I did. And to answer your next question, I covered you with a blanket
first,” he tapped a drape of the quilt, “and I didn’t take any liberties.”
Not that
he hadn’t wanted to. “Now, I’d appreciate some answers to my questions,” he
said, allowing a hint of sternness to show through. “What are you doing in Big
Rock territory without my permission?”
She
stared at him, biting her lower lip. “I didn’t mean to, Alpha, I swear. I’m
here on business.”
“What
kind of business?”
“I’m a
reporter with the Albuquerque Sun—”
The
growing lust generated by her scent evaporated. “You’re a reporter?”
Just what
he needed, one of those snoopy bastards poking around Esposito County. Except
she’s a shifter, too. What the hell is she doing in a city, anyway?
NC-17 EXCERPT
Upstairs,
Caleb stretched out in the big, comfortable bed, remembering how Paul Sleeping
Turtle, Mike Ivanov and he had used some stout ropes and a lot of good-natured
cursing to haul the mattress and box spring and over the loft railing. Anna had
stood well out of the way downstairs, laughing at their language as they’d
sweated and lugged the damn things upward. That night, however, she’d rewarded
him in the newly installed bed, and Mike cheerfully baited him the next day
about hearing the noise from a good mile away.
He’d
never brought another woman to the cabin after Anna’s death, never even wanted
to. But Laurie was different. He could smell her even up here, her essence
rising with the heat from the fireplace and perfuming the loft with the smell
of warm, sweet female in heat and in need of a good fucking.
He had no
idea why Laurie had suddenly gone into heat while he was doing the dishes, but
the change in her scent was unmistakable. Granted, sometimes an unmated Alpha
could send a young, untried female into heat from simple proximity. But Laurie
Rivera had to be in her early thirties, and if she was a virgin he’d eat his
badge. The view he’d caught of her in the reflection of the kitchen window was
of a female openly eyeing him and liking what she saw.
He
grinned at the hand-hewn beams overhead. You know damn well what it means.
She’s my mate, whether she likes it or not.
Which,
ironically, was the problem. From what she’d told him, she was skittish as hell
about the idea of being claimed. He couldn’t blame her, considering her
experiences with her first Alpha. But it certainly messed up any chance he had
with her, as well. And he didn’t have the luxury of taking his time and
courting her, letting her get to know him over time. The moment the plows came
through in the morning, Mike and this Gavin guy would be at the cabin to pick
her up. After that, Laurie would be back in the city with her career and her
life, never to return.
Albuquerque
isn’t that far, though.
Oh,
yeah? When was the last time you were there? The last time you had time to go there?
His
subconscious—or his coyote, he wasn’t sure—had a point. He had to act tonight
before he lost her. So, time to be sneaky.
He kicked
off the blanket, bracing as the cool air hit his bare skin. He usually didn’t
sleep naked during winter, but he wanted as much of his own aroma circulating
as possible. He’d made a vow, yes, and he would keep it … unless Laurie gave
him permission to break it. And the best way to make happen would be to tempt
her upstairs with the scent of his desire and the promise of fulfilling her
own.
Running a
hand over his chest, he brushed the firm nub of a nipple and the crisp hair
that led in a trail down to his groin. He followed it now, wrapping a hand
around his soft cock and squeezing. It twitched at the stimulation; when he
squeezed again, running his thumb over the upper ridge of the head, it began to
thicken lazily.
He
started a light, teasing stroke, not enough to get himself off but more than
enough to get fully hard. Closing his eyes, he imagined Laurie climbing the
stairs to the loft and his bed. The mattress would dip a bit as she climbed on
it, moving on all fours to him. He knew she was the kind of female who, when
her mind was made up, would stake her claim. There would be no fear, no anger,
nothing but need and the deep knowledge that they belonged together.
He
pictured her straddling his thighs, bending over to give him a deep, luscious
kiss. Her breasts would swing forward and he could cup them, relishing the firm
weight of them in each hand before he leaned up to take a nipple in his mouth.
He already knew how the salt of her sweat and the sweet spice of her skin would
taste, and how to rub the velvet flat of his tongue across the nub to make her
gasp. He wanted to learn all the sounds she made in bed, the feminine moans and
sighs that were music to a male’s ears.
His sweet
female would be eager that first time, taking him in hand and guiding his
straining cock between her legs. He groaned as he imagined the hot, wet squeeze
of her sliding down around him, a perfect fit that would drive him out of his
mind. She’d start riding him, her breasts jiggling with each rise and fall, and
that perfect friction building between cock and cunt, all hot juices and
slippery softness and his dick going deeper and deeper into her until he could
feel the electricity rising, building at that sweet spot between balls and
spine…
He pulled
his hand away, half-enjoying the sparking, stuttering feeling of having his
orgasm denied. Now he just had to wait.
Please, Laurie, I need you. Come to me.
BIO
Nicola Cameron is a married woman of a
certain age who really likes writing about science fiction, fantasy, and sex.
When not writing about those things, she likes to make Stuff™. And she may be
rather fond of absinthe.
While possessing a healthy interest in
sex since puberty, it wasn’t until 2012 that she decided to write about it. The
skills picked up during her SF writing career transferred quite nicely to
speculative romance. Her To Be Written work queue currently stands at around
nineteen books, and her mojito-sodden Muse swans in from Bali every so often to
add to the list, cackling to herself all the while.
Nicola plans to continue writing until
she drops dead over her keyboard or makes enough money to buy a private island
and hire Rory McCann as her personal trainer/masseur, whichever comes first.
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Happy reading,
love Raven x
