Today, I want to share with you the newest release from fellow Lyrical Press author, Annie Nicholas. Although I haven't read this series, yet, I have read some of her other stories, and was completely captured by the characters and the plot.
blurb:
To defend and protect, at any cost.
Sam
is Sigma of his pack, defender of the innocent and frail. Too bad the one time
it mattered most, though the urge to guard the weak runs strong in his shifter
blood, he failed to protect his best friend from an attack. Just when his
self-confidence can't go any lower, he becomes entangled in a vampire skirmish
and is left with an injured female in his arms.
Vampire
accountant for Pal Robi, Inc., Clementine can't believe her master would ask
her to commit corporate espionage. She’s shot when discovered, but a shifter
comes to her rescue. It's as if he's made of her fantasies, and in the few
hours with him she lives more than the decades she's spent among her clan.
Hiding
with him on the streets of Chicago,
in the midst of fighting together to stay alive, can a petite vampire break
through her hero’s jaded heart?
WARNING:
Hot dominating sex, an action packed evening, and a first date gone all to
hell.
Excerpt:
Sam ground his
teeth at Clementine’s stubbornness and hovered around her in case she fell.
Blood soaked
the back of her pink t-shirt and dripped, leaving a gruesome trail as she
walked along the exterior balcony toward their motel room on the second floor.
“You paid with cash like I told you?” She weaved on unsteady feet.
“Yes, ma’am.”
He barely had enough money in his wallet to buy a soda now. “No credit card to
track.” He reached out to grab her elbow, but she swatted his fingertips.
Reflexively, he shook the sting away. “Playing tough and insisting on walking
doesn’t get you brownie points if you pass out.”
He unlocked and
opened their room door. The scent of cheap air freshener and stale sweat swept
over him. He turned and sneezed.
“Bless you.”
He wiped his
mouth. “Thanks.” Wasn’t there some supernatural law against vampires being
polite?
“It smells odd
in here.” She leaned against the door frame and pointed to the faded yellow
bed. “Can you pull off the blanket?”
“We got what we
paid for, a cheap-ass room. At least they don’t charge by the hour.” He winked
and did as Clementine asked, then watched as she crawled onto their bed, lying
on her stomach. “What can I do to help?” The deep red stain continued to spread
under his scrutiny. “When Daedalus was staked, he didn’t bleed like this.”
She twisted
around and whispered, “You were there?” With her blue eyes wide, she appeared
very young, but vampires were experts at fooling people. Clementine could be
five hundred years old, for all he knew. With a wig, Daedalus looked twenty,
younger than Sugar. He chuckled at the memory and recalled the expression of
horror on Sugar’s face. “It happened in my old apartment.”
“You’re one of
the original Omegas?”
“You make it
sound like a bad thing.” They’d had five pack members at the beginning, before
Daedalus came and changed everything. Now they numbered in the triple digits
and were called the Vasi. He pointed at her wound. “Can you bleed to death?”
She rolled back
onto her stomach. “No, but I’ll need to feed before the blood lust takes over
me. You have to remove the bullet.”
He grabbed the
edge of her shirt and tore it open, exposing her back.
She hissed and
glared at him over her shoulder. “I could have taken it off.”
Pasting mock
surprise on his face, he laid a hand on his chest. “Where’s the fun in that?”
Not waiting for her response, he went into the bathroom and washed off his
pocketknife. A pair of tweezers would have been handy. And some gauze. He
grabbed a face cloth instead. “Do I need to sterilize my knife or find some
antiseptic?”
“I’m a vampire.
Disease doesn’t plague us.”
He shrugged off
her prickly tone, betting she was as gentle as the sound of her name on his
lips. “Good, because I can’t provide either.” On his knees, he straddled her
legs and leaned forward to examine her wound. He planted his palm between her
shoulder blades.
“What--” She
struggled under him. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t want
you to move.” Using his shifter strength, he shoved her flat against the bed
and wiped the blood away. “Stop wiggling so much. It’s distracting.”
“Not like you
can do more damage.” Her words came out muffled.
“No, but you’re
turning me on.”
She went limp,
her breathing heavy and strained.
Annie Nicholas
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