by Erin Hayes
Allyn shrugged off her robe. Her body became encased in the red bands as they wrapped around her, clothing her naked body in red, fueling her, protecting her, giving her strength.
The nuns told her to resist. To not let her power win. She just realized she’d been saving it up for this moment.
Maisie watched, with interest. “How are you doing that? Hey! I’m talking to you.”
Allyn ignored her, feeding her energy with all of the pent up aggression, sorrow, and suffering she’d ever felt.
Maisie was the one thing that stood between her and the man she loved. And that meant Maisie was what she’d really been brought to destroy.
To have a real purpose…this was what Allyn had been waiting for. She knew she had to break the curse. She just realized how.
She’d never been so ready to fight in her life.
She’d fight for the man she loved.
“Don’t do it, Allyn,” Maisie warned. “We are allies. We are sisters. Don’t chose the humans.”
Allyn shot her a glare, tears blurring her vision. “Don’t mess with the people I love.”
A quick snap of one of Allyn’s bands ripped through Maisie’s body.
Allyn sent them outward, like tentacles, to continue her assault on Maisie, the force that had made her entire life almost unbearable to live.
A cry from the west wing caught her attention, and she flew toward it, Maisie’s cries left behind. Allyn had always wanted to fly, and now she did, at full speed to the man she loved.
“GET BACK HERE!” Maisie shouted, pulling Allyn backward by one of the bands.
Allyn growled, spinning around to face Maisie. “I’m not playing with you anymore, Maisie,” she said, and with a surge of energy, Allyn’s body turned into flames.
Maisie’s scream filled the castle, as Allyn’s flames consumed her, burning through her defenses, through her spells, curses, through every layer of power she’d thought would protect her from…whatever Allyn was.
Allyn fought to see through the bright light that shone from within. Her light filled every dark crevice of the castle, and when it dimmed, Maisie was gone.
Allyn fell to the ground, totally spent.
She tried to pull herself to her feet, but her arms and legs had nothing left to give her. She groaned.
“Conall.”
The sound of running footsteps vibrated along the floor, but Allyn was too weak to look up and see what caused it.
The noise stopped, and Allyn was ready for rest.
Until she heard her name called.
“Allyn.”
Allyn fought to open her eyes. To her surprise, sunlight shone on the man above her. He cradled her head and kissed her.
“Wake up. Please. Don’t go.”
“Conall?” Allyn called.
He kissed her again. “It’s me. I’m back. Like I promised.”
Allyn’s eyes flickered open. She fought her fatigue and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Conall!”
Conall pulled her into his arms, and she straddled him. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “But, you broke the curse.”
Allyn sniffled and held his face. “Did I really?”
He nodded and kissed her again. He littered her face with kisses, and she tugged at his black hair.
“You’re real. You’re really here.”
“I am.”
She looked him in the eyes. “Where is Lennox?”
That question made Conall’s eyes water. He closed his eyes against the tears.
“You broke the curse, Allyn,” he said.
“Why won’t you tell me? Where is he?”
Conall opened his eyes. “He’s here, babe. He always will be. Because he is me. You made me whole. Finally.”
Allyn’s mouth parted. She never thought about what she would do once the curse was broken. Now, that Conall was back, and she was in his arms, she realized that he was right. She held onto his face, and there…she saw Lennox in his eyes.
She made both sides of him fall for her.
She fell for them both as well.
Conall rubbed her back and buried his face in the crease between her neck and her shoulder.
“What now?” she asked, noticing how a hint of white hair peeked through his hair on the sides.
He kissed her on the lips and sighed. “Look,” he said.
Allyn’s brows furrowed as she followed his icy blue gaze to look over the railing and out the large windows that faced the woods.
It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at, and when it did, she gasped and came to her feet.
Conall joined her, taking her hand into his.
The Winter Winds had stopped.
Conall stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her body. He kissed her ear. “You ended the storm. Looks like we’re going to tell the world it’s safe to leave their homes.”
Allyn turned to him, a smile on her face. She jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around him. She was rejuvenated by everything she’d gained and all that she’d learned.
Finally, Allyn knew her purpose. She never expected to wake up and save the world.
Epilogue
ALLYN AND CONALL held hands as they stood on the veranda while their twin daughters played on the swing set. It was a beautiful summer day in Elastria, and all of high society had gathered for a party at Baran Castle.
“They’re getting so big,” Allyn’s father, Robert said from his seat on the bench right before the fountain, as waiters served frozen cocktails and champagne to the guests that filled the back garden that faced the Briar Woods.
Allyn smiled. She never imagined what it would be like to have children, let alone two beautiful girls with the prince of Elastria.
Keely and Nora laughed together as Aude and Khia—dressed in matching black cocktail dresses— pushed them higher and higher on the swings.
“Before we know it, they’ll be bringing boys to the castle,” Conall said and Robert shook his head.
“That’s your problem,” Robert said with a laugh and went back to reading one of the ancient books he’d found in the castle library.
Baran Castle was a different place five years since Allyn broke the curse. The castle was bright and full of love and cheer now that Allyn and Conall had children and moved her father in.
There were days that Allyn would worry that all of the joy that filled her life would suddenly vanish and that it would be revealed that it was all a dream.
So far, that hadn’t happened, and she was resolute to enjoy this new life for as long as she could.
Ridding Maisie from existence reversed all of the damage she’d done to the Baran clan. It was revealed that she’d given each male descendant of the original king that scorned her their own unique form of hell. Shifting into a Wolf turned out to not be a curse at all, but their only defense against dark magic.
Allyn faced Conall and fixed his tie. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I doubt any young man will want to come to the cursed castle to meet the king.”
Conall sighed. “That still sounds so odd to me,” he said as he held her by the waist. “For some reason, I expected my father to live forever, and to never have the responsibility of ruling all of Elastria.”
Allyn touched the diamond encrusted silver circlet on her head and giggled. “I never thought I’d be queen. After the life I had before I met you, I’d say my luck has changed.”
He kissed her on the lips. “So did mine.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, and he chuckled.
“How happy are you right now, my love?”
Allyn looked him in the eyes, her heart full of joy and love she never knew she could feel.
“The happiest I’ve ever been,” she said, and the band began to play on the veranda behind them.
They turned to the band and took champagne off a server’s tray as she passed by.
Allyn’s smile faded as she watched the band play. She and Conall ruled Elastria together. They m
ade new laws, erased old ones that oppressed the citizens, and lifted the Witch’s Bounty and the ban against magic.
While she was secure in her spot as queen, a constant nagging in her belly worried her about the future for her daughters.
Allyn looked off into the woods, wondering when she’d get the courage to reveal her latest nightmares.
There was a reason the Wolves weren’t supposed to mate with sorceresses.
Now, with two hybrid princesses, Allyn worried that one day…they’d be faced with opposition from the other nine kingdoms.
She glanced over her shoulder at her daughters, and how their long black hair swayed with the summer breeze as they chased each other around the swings in their matching yellow dresses.
Keely shifted into a black wolf and barked at her sister who flew into the air with a laugh.
When that day came, they’d all be ready.
The End
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K.N. Lee is New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who resides in Charlotte, North Carolina. When she is not writing twisted tales, fantasy novels, and dark poetry, she does a great deal of traveling and promotes other authors. Wannabe rock star, foreign language enthusiast, and anime geek, K.N. Lee also enjoys helping others reach their writing and publishing goals. She is a winner of the Elevate Lifestyle Top 30 Under 30 "Future Leaders of Charlotte" award for her success as a writer, business owner, and for community service.
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Blue Moon
Megan J. Parker & Nathan Squiers
Blue Moon © 2016 Megan J. Parker & Nathan Squiers
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Blue Moon
This vampire and werewolf duo may have found their match pitted against a target with a deadly vendetta.
Zoey has never needed to use her vampiric mind-reading or telekinetic gifts to be the voice of reason, but there’s one person whose problems she’s never been able to get a handle on…
Herself.
So when she and her therion lover, Isaac, accept a new mission to take out a demented, inhuman threat with a taste for torture, Zoey’s eager to keep things strictly business. Unfortunately, with this new danger threatening to tear their world apart, the vampire-werewolf lovers find themselves in the company of a not-so-friendly pack of Isaac’s kin, and a fresh batch of problems arise.
With chaos igniting at every turn and a constantly dwindling hope, Zoey and Isaac find themselves in a struggle for survival that’ll put everything they have to the test. Between Zoey’s sinking confidence and soaring doubts, it may be impossible to find a middle ground in time to stop the impending carnage.
Prologue
Blue Moon
The violin’s chords rolled through the melody like warm honey, and Zoey started towards the lulling notes.
She needed to know where that music was coming from.
She needed to know who was playing it.
Somehow she knew that she needed to see the musician.
As her feet followed her ears through the forest, the canopy of trees and shrubs parted like a gateway to some other world and revealed a tall, handsome stranger. He stood, either unaware of Zoey’s arrival or simply unhindered by it, leaning on a tree and drawing a worn-out bow across a beat-up violin. He wasn’t singing—he didn’t need to—but the lyrics sounded all the same in Zoey’s head as she drew closer with bated breath. Closer: the music—his music—beckoned her closer, revealing more of him as she advanced. His hair, the same rich brown as the earth around him, was long and unkempt; falling over his brow and eyes, which danced to his own tune behind a pair of lazy lids. She needed to see those eyes. A tug of longing and need hastened her step as impatience washed over her body, and she pressed her hands over her chest, unsure what to do with the new sensation.
She watched him lift his head from the chin rest, and the curtain of chestnut hair parted to reveal a bestial gaze that locked on his fingers as they prowled across the neck of his violin. As the lyrics continued to echo inside Zoey’s head, she watched as his mouth silently reflected the words; she couldn't help herself as she continued towards him, needing to be closer to this man. She felt as if she would die if she couldn't close the distance separating them.
Only then, once she was close enough to touch him, could she sense what he truly was:
A theriomorph!
A savage!
Or so she’d been taught…
She knew the rules. Her clan wouldn’t allow her to pursue such thoughts. Lusting after one of his kind was an act of abandonment; of betrayal. She’d be siding with a creature that was more animal than not! They were simply too dangerous to be trusted; too dangerous to love.
But at that moment she couldn't seem to bring herself to care.
She was in a dangerous sort of mood.
The kind of mood that led to trouble.
Nothing that played music like that could be her enemy—no savage, cold, uncaring monster could create such beauty—and she was prepared to risk her life to prove it. There was such sincerity in the melody; such a loneliness in the sound that she wanted to reach out to him. She wanted to be the one to end his loneliness, to be the one to adore him. Her eyes followed his nimble fingers as they caressed the strings before they finally came to meet his own…
A beam of moonlight cut through the trees as a gentle breeze parted their branches and cast the two of them in its glow. She couldn't look away; couldn't break their stare even as his eyes narrowed. His dark-green aura rippled and then violently flared around his body, and she realized that he wasn't feeling at all like she was.
“Who are you?” he growled.
Recognition and panic burned in Zoey’s mind. She’d been here before—done this all before!—but it wasn’t supposed to be this way!
“Isa-Isaac!” she gasped around his grip, “It’s… it’s me! It’s Zoey! S-stop…”
Malice burned in the therion’s eyes as Isaac sneered up at her, tightening his grip.
“Zoey…” he said the name like it was a bad punchline to an unspoken joke, “Who will save you now that it’s my hands around your neck?”
“Isaac…” Zoey felt her heart shatter as her windpipe collapsed.
Reunion
“Isaac, no! Please!” Zoey jumped out of her dream and back into the passenger seat.
Her therion lover jumped beside her, swerving the Jeep momentarily before regaining control and steadying them.
“What?” he asked, his voice still shaky, “Was that the wrong exit?”
Zoey inhaled and then breathed out the last of the haunting visions. “No,” she replied, feeling a wave of guilt, “No, I just… I had a bad dream.”
“About me?”
She could see Isaac’s aura tighten from his rising concern, and she shook her head as she let her left hand rest on his
own. “No,” she told him with a reassuring smile, “not about you.” Looking out across the passing landscape, she hurried to change the subject. “Are we close?”
Isaac, though his aura gave away that he wasn’t completely convinced, nodded. “I think so,” he told her. “Probably only ten minutes or so.”
It had been three days since they’d left the Vailean Clan—three days on the road in their little Jeep—and Zoey was beginning to feel restless. Staring out into the distance, she saw the glimmering lights of the city ahead of them. If the intel that The Council had sent them was accurate, there was an escaped mythos with a history of violence lurking amidst those lights. Shivering at the thought, she popped open the glovebox and retrieved the rolled-up file for possibly the hundredth time since they’d left. What had been detailed in the report was, as Isaac had phrased it, “laughable,” and though Zoey had never been one to question The Council’s methods, even she had to agree with him. Nonetheless, she was hopeful that this read-through would offer more than any of the others.
NAME:UNKNOWN
therion both?
SPECIES:UNKNOWN (presumed sangsuiga)
ORIGIN:EUROPEAN (?)
APPEARANCE:SPECULATIVE: MANY DOCUMENTED SIGHTINGS DESCRIBE SUSPECT AS BEING A MALE WITH BROWN HAIR (VARIOUS LENGTHS), DARK EYES (VARIOUS COLORS), AND VARYING DEGREES OF SIZE AND BUILD ???
SOMETIMES DOCUMENTED AS TWO ASSAILANTS, THOUGH THESE REPORTS ARE INFREQUENT AND QUESTIONABLE.
VARYING REPORTS MAKE ANY DEFINITITVE CLAIMS DIFFICULT