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The End.
For now….
Coming Soon
Fated
A Mermaid’s Curse Novel
Other Books by Daniele Lanzarotta
Academy of the Fallen Series
Wide Awake
Nephilim
Sins of the Fallen
Forsaken (Coming soon)
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Imprinted Souls Series
Imprinted Souls
Bloodlust
Divine Ashes
Blood Bound
Shattered Souls
About the author:
DANIELE LANZAROTTA
is the author of fantasy/paranormal novels, including Imprinted Souls Series, Academy of the Fallen, and Mermaid’s Curse. She enjoys reading and writing young adult novels with just about any sort of paranormal or supernatural bent ... vampires ... ghosts... Daniele currently lives in Virginia Beach, VA with her husband, daughter and two lovable puppies (who are not really quite puppies anymore), Stitch and Gizmo.
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http://danielelanzarotta.blogspot.com/
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You may also purchase this book at Rocket Science Productions’ online bookstore, www.rsplaunchpad.com
If you would like a free consultation about publishing your book or music, you can contact us at the following:
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Author’s Note:
I’m honored to share a sneak preview of Devyn Dawson’s
Sapphire – A Werewolf Love Story
This book is NA 17+
It contains explicit language and sexual situations
Sapphire
A Werewolf Love Story
By Devyn Dawson
Prologue
“Shut up! Stop talking to me!” He yells in my face. His teeth are neon yellow, and his breath reeks of coffee and cigarettes. “Are you the one that did it? Did you send those bastards after me?” He pushes the metal folding chair I’m tied to until it almost tipped sideways. “Look at me when I’m talking to you!”
“I thought you wanted me to stop talking.” He glares at me with his demon-like eyes. I turn my head towards him…don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry…stay strong. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know you,” I proclaim for the hundredth time since this morning when he kidnapped me.
“Stop playing dumb…you bitch!” Spittle sprayed on my face as he shouted at me. “I’m sick of girls like you thinking you’re better than me. Was that your boyfriend?”
I take a deep breath to keep my words steady. “Listen, I don’t have a boyfriend. Whatever the problem is, I can help you. Do you need money? I have money, take me to the bank and you can have however much you need.”
Without warning, he backhands me across the face. “Money? I don’t want your money…slut!”
My face stings but he won’t see me play victim. “Please tell me what’s going on. My family needs me, please don’t kill me,” I plead. My sensei would tell us to bargain with our assailant if we’re ever attacked. Keep them engaged until we can get in a position to disarm the person. This guy doesn’t have a weapon, but he’s strong as hell. He’s Hispanic, but talks like he’s lived in the United States for a long time. His accent isn’t strong, it’s watered down. Take inventory of every feature on his face.
Two moles near his right temple.
Flat nose, wide nostrils.
His top lip curls down when he talks, as if he’s disgusted from every word from his mouth.
Chickenpox scar on his left eyebrow.
The most noticeable flaw, the burn marks on his right hand. He’s been burned severely in his past.
My mom and Storm are spending the day together so I left her my car. I rode my bike to work, happy to get out in the April sunshine. I pulled up to work and started to get off my bike when I was assaulted from behind. I’m praying someone will notice my bike at work and how I’m not. How long before they call the police is debatable.
“Your family? You’re going to beg for mercy for your family? Right, I’ll care if you have a family.” He enunciates every word with venom. “I can’t have a family because of you. He might not be your boyfriend now, but he was at one time. He still follows you, did you know that? He watches you, and I watch him watching you. I wouldn’t have figured it out, but one night I saw him parked on your street. What a surprise he’s going to have when he finds you when I’m finished.” He takes a folded up piece of notebook paper and stuffs it in my front pocket of my pants. “There’s a reason he never turned you into a monster. What was the reason Sapphire? What. Was. The. Reason. Bitch!” He does know my name. I’m not random, that changes the rules of the game. He’s out for vengeance for some reason, and he thinks I know why.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about! Tell me what’s wrong.”
Like a crazed lunatic, he drops to his knees in front of me, and he starts unbuttoning my button down blouse. Before I can register what he is doing, he bites my side.
Chapter 1
SAPPHIRE
Three years ago
“Ruby, you’re getting on my nerves. I told you already, I’ve been volunteering at the hospital all day,” I complain. A few weeks ago, I was sentenced to community service at Mercy hospital after my sister Ruby got into a minor disagreement in the movie theater parking lot. I intervened; and my fist was caught making contact with a mouthy girl’s cheek. The security officer called the police.
“You were there for four hours, how does that make it an all day event?” Ruby asks. She comes into my room to admire herself in the full length mirror. One thing Ruby doesn’t lack…confidence. “How are my girls?” She says and turns sideways to see her profile.
“Your girls look fine. There is more to you than your boobs.”
Ruby busts out laughing. “Okay Phire, I don’t need a lecture about how I’m so much more than my rockin’ body. I picked this shirt up at a yard sale last weekend. I love when I find a name brand bargain.” The red lipstick she carefully applied accentuated the fullness of her lips. “Come on, Erwin will be there with his boys.”
“I know Erwin, and his boys are nothing but trouble makers.”
“Says the girl who just got finished with her community service,” Ruby quipped.
She did not just go there. “Oh, says the girl who started the fight.” The whole fight was over a girl flirting with Erwin. The girl threw a punch at Ruby and I turned and knocked her out.
Ruby crosses the room and kneels next to the bed, “I might be a pain in your ass, but we’re going to go strut our stuff. Get up, throw on your jeans and boots, it’s time to get rowdy.” She holds her hands up in prayer and pouting.
“If I go, you’re going with me to the casino after the game. You promised me that we’d do karaoke when I finished my community service. Keep in mind; as soon as Erwin’s boys start acting like horn-dogs, I’m out. Got it sis?”
Ruby leans over and kisses me on the nose. “You’re the best, I owe you one.”
“Yeah, yeah, about fifty…who’s counting? I hope it doesn’t rain tonight. I can’t wait until tornado season is over.”
Ruby graduated high school last summer but she couldn’t give up soccer games. She played soccer until her junior year when she had an ACL injury. Her coach and doctor agreed her soccer days were over. At nineteen she not only looks older than she is, but she knows she’s an expert at prowling. She never had a shortage of boyfriends but she couldn’t stay committed when Erwin came around. He’d been a senior her freshman year. I was a senior too, but I took classes online so I could work during the
day to help with bills. He was the quarterback, and she was smitten, they were picture perfect to the average eye. It wasn’t long before his personality proved he was after one thing and would stop at nothing. They dated off and on for the last couple of years. With every break-up, I loathed him more and more.
I tucked in my black button down blouse, making sure the top two buttons are left open. I turn around and check my butt, making sure the pockets make it look fuller. Black Ariat cowboy boots, and a rhinestone belt, yeah I’d turn heads, with any luck…the adult male ones.
“Ooo girl, wow, for someone that hates outdoor soccer games, you look smoking hot.” Ruby says as she shimmied into her denim jacket.
We’d no sooner walked through the gates for the game, when we were bombarded by a group of screaming girls. Ruby has never had a shortage of so-called friends. I never trusted them; they only seemed interested in our half-brother Stone. His father is from Spain, mixed with our full-blooded Native American mother Pearl. His exotic look and big smile turns heads wherever he goes. He works as a ranch hand, which made him big and bulky, the kind that teen girls and cougars find sexy. Ruby would bring someone home and they’d no sooner walked in the door, and would ask where Stone slept.
Knowing Ruby would be gossiping for another ten minutes, girl can talk! I decide to bite-the-bullet and stand in the concessions line. I stand there staring at my cell phone, pretending to be engaged in an important text conversation. I glance up; my gaze lingers into amber-colored eyes. He’d been looking down at his phone a second ago, now, his eyes boring into me. My heart flutters as his eyes locked with mine.
Don’t stare Sapphire, that’s rude. My mom’s words running through my head. I drop my gaze, but not before he gives me a crooked grin. He is not walking over here. Oh yes he is. I take mental inventory of my surroundings. Habits die hard with me, especially since I was attacked during my sophomore year. I left the library one night after dark, but my car was parked right in front of the building so I didn’t pay much attention to the parking area . I didn’t hear him sneak up behind me until it was too late. It wasn’t until the librarian closed up and she saw me face down in the parking lot. My shirt had been ripped and I had my throat slit open. The weeks that followed consisted of me in the hospital and police guarding me day and night. They were concerned the person would come back to finish the job since he thought I could identify him. Truth is, I don’t remember anything about the attack.
“Hey there, did I catch you at a bad time?” The deep voice startled me out of thoughts. He put his hands up, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Have you ever looked at another person and known that you were in trouble? Not in the bad kind of trouble, the kind of trouble that is sinfully good. I couldn’t help but smile at him. “Oh, sorry, I was thinking about something. Do I know you?”
He put his hands half-way into his front pockets of his faded Levi’s. He was making red flannel the sexiest material I’d ever seen before. My eyes dropped from his gaze and I snuck a peek at his chest. Only fair since I caught his gaze drop to mine too.
“No, I’d remember you if I’d met you before,” he replied. Even though it sounded like a line, it came across as if he meant what he said. “I saw you come in with your friend, and couldn’t help but notice she ran off.”
I’m not used to guys walking over to talk to me, at least not good looking sober ones. “Yeah, that’s my sister Ruby; she still has friends that go to school here.”
“I’m Parker, my friend Collin’s younger brother is playing tonight. He’s told me he’s been training for the Olympics for the last two years.” He holds out his hand for me to shake.
“Next,” the woman in the concession stand says.
“Excuse me for a second,” I say to him and turn to face the PTA mom. I order a bottle of water and some peanut M&M’s. Before I had a chance to dig two dollars from my pocket, Parker has handed the lady the money. “No, you don’t need to pay for my junk food.”
His eyes smiled at me and I knew he did it out of kindness and nothing expected in return. “If I can’t buy a pretty girl a bottle of water, what’s the point of working?”
“You’re good at this,” I grin at him as he holds a hand out to me. “I’m Sapphire, but my friends call me Phire.” We shake hands as we walk away from the concession stand. I look around checking if I can see Ruby, but of course she has disappeared.
“Ruby and Sapphire, I like the names and I love that you’re called Phire.” His five o’clock shadow was a couple of days old and I watched as the sun glinted off his auburn whiskers.
All around us were cheers and the sound of gravel as we crossed over towards the bleachers. His friend stayed next to the chain link fence, and was yelling out with the rest of the crowd.
“Yeah, my mom has always said she’d never have anything more precious than her children, so we ended up with names of gems. My brother didn’t get as lucky, his name is Stone.”
He and I walked up the metal bleachers; he puts his hand on my elbow and guided me to the top seats. A couple of girls nudged each other as we walked past. I didn’t blame them at all; he was nothing short of a younger, healthier, better looking Marlboro man. I’d almost expected him to smell like tobacco, he was that sexy.
Sitting down next to him gave me the feeling of belonging to someone, I feel protected.
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Table of Contents
Praise for the Mermaid’s Curse
Credits
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Other Books by Daniele Lanzarotta
About the author:
Author’s Note:
Table of Contents
Praise for the Mermaid’s Curse
Credits
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Other Books by Daniele Lanzarotta
About the author:
Author’s Note:
Insatiable Page 15