My Fair Monster

by Lila Dubois

  “I know, I know, I’m a complete philistine, but I hate beets.”

  Luke looked down at his own bowl and started pushing his off to the side. Beets. He made a mental note to avoid those in the future. “I don’t like them either, but I didn’t know if it would be appropriate to remove them.”

  “I promise not to tell on you, if you don’t tell on me. It’ll be our secret.” Lena smiled again, and this time there was something else in the smile, something a bit naughty, as if the word “secret” implied things he couldn’t even guess at.

  They made it through salads and the start of entrees before the conversation turned to business matters.

  “So, Luke, can you tell me a little bit about what you’re looking for?”

  What’s a werewolf to do when she finds her soul mate…twice?

  Total Eclipse of the Heart

  © 2008 Crystal Jordan

  An In the Heat of the Night story.

  In a world where all magical creatures are out of the closet, Rachel and Jerrod’s bar, Eclipse, is still considered unconventional. Under the uneasy eye of their werewolf pack elders, Eclipse is the culmination of a dream—neutral territory for weres, vampires, and everything else that goes bump in the night.

  That’s not all that’s out of the ordinary. Though Rachel has been faithfully mated to Jerrod for five years, she suppresses a lingering longing for multiple partners—both male and female. And when Lena walks into the bar one night, Rachel’s carefully balanced world turns inside out.

  Lena senses Rachel is her mate, and nothing will stop her from claiming what’s hers. Not even the fact that no werewolf has ever had two mates at the same time. Rachel is terrified, not only of her love for Lena, but also of hurting and losing Jerrod.

  His possible reaction is not her only worry. The council could use her transgression to destroy their dream—by closing down Eclipse for good.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Total Eclipse of the Heart:

  My hand shook as I slid a frosty glass and a bottle of Corona onto a small round table. Unease wound through me, and I didn’t know why. The feeling skittered up my back and made my skin crawl. I knew this feeling, but I couldn’t place it. Some instinct within me was kicking into high gear and I was drawing a big fat blank as to what I was supposed to be getting. It was damned annoying, and inconvenient. I woke this morning to a lead ball in my stomach, and it had only gotten worse all day. I’d done everything I could to ignore it, to hide it from Jerrod, but it hadn’t helped.

  “Thanks, Rachel.”

  “No problem.” I tucked my hair behind my ear and flicked another glance around the bar. The place was packed, but that was normal. Everything appeared…normal. So why couldn’t I shake this feeling? I rolled my shoulders to try and ease the tension.

  Fifteen more minutes and I’d be off for the night. I could drag Jerrod upstairs to our big apartment and let him screw my brains out. I’d wake tomorrow and everything would be fine. It had to be or I was going to go nuts. Rubbing my temple, I tried to massage away a headache that began to form.

  “It hurts because you’re fighting it.”

  The woman’s voice had a whiskey kick to it, soft and rough at the same time. I spun to face her, needing to see the person attached to that voice. Werewolf definitely, I could smell the wolf on her. She had the smoothest cocoa skin I’d ever seen. Her black hair fell in a riot of curls around her face and emphasized her ebony eyes. They were fathomless, beautiful. They drew me in, and I stepped toward her. Our gazes locked, heated and my heart lurched. All the instincts I’d been suppressing today jumped up to bite me in the ass. Something snapped inside my chest, some deep pull of recognition.

  Mate.

  “No,” I gasped the word, stumbling back and lifting my tray like it was a shield. Shock roared through me. My heart squeezed, and I couldn’t breathe. Oh God. Oh. God.

  “Yes.” Possession flashed hot in her gaze. “I’m Lena.” She stepped forward, reaching for me.

  And I wanted her to touch me, stroke me. Lust twisted inside me, fire licking my veins. No. I turned and fled for the stockroom. Jerrod would kill me. How could this happen? Was it even possible? I’d heard of werewolves having two mates in one lifetime before, but after the first mate died, not at the same time. No one would believe this was possible, especially not other werewolves. But, there was no denying what I felt. It was just like the first time I’d met Jerrod, the instantaneous kick to the heart and loin. Everything inside me wanted her. To know her, to love her, to possess her.

  “Oh God,” I breathed. My stomach pitched, and my palms grew slick. Clamping a hand over my mouth, I fought back the need to vomit. What was I going to do? I couldn’t lose Jerrod. Infidelity was unheard of among my kind. Matings were for life, forever. Jerrod was my mate, my everything. A soul mate fashioned just for me.

  So was Lena.

  Stomping down on the inner voice, I leaned against the wall and bent to stick my head between my knees. My heart hammered against my ribs as all the blood rushed to my head. I just needed to breathe, to think clearly.

  Being bisexual, I never thought I’d have just one person forever, but life was full of surprises. And Jerrod was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I couldn’t fuck this up. Fisting my fingers in my hair, I pressed on my skull in an attempt to ease the shrieking pain. The need to mate was there, ripping into me with the fierce jaws of the wolf within.

  I sucked in a deep breath and pulled Lena’s scent to me. Somehow, I already knew it. It was imbedded in my psyche already, just like Jerrod’s. Just her smell was enough to make me want, make me wet. The muscles in my thighs locked, shaking with the need to go to her. Tears pressed against my lids. Jerrod. Where was he? I needed his steady strength. But Lena was out there, between me and my mate.

  The door to the stockroom swung open and then closed with a solid thunk.

  It was her. Lena. I didn’t need to look up to know. My instincts cried out in recognition, rioting within me. My nipples tightened, my pussy dampening with the hot need to claim and be claimed. No. Please, no. I dug my nails into my scalp, welcoming the pain. Anything to distract me from the pulsing want clawing at my flesh.

  “Why do you run?”

  My mind scrabbled for any excuse to make her leave. “You can’t be in here. Staff only.”

  The heat from her body enveloped me as she stepped closer. I snapped upright, pressing my back against the wall. There was no escape. I couldn’t get away. I didn’t want to. My breath panted out, logic and instinct warring inside me. I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the inevitable.

  “Rachel.” Her breath fanned against my ear.

  I moaned. The sound of my name in that husky voice made my body ache with lust. “How do you know my name?”

  “That’s what the men you served called you, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yesssss.” She flicked her tongue against my neck.

  I shuddered, molten heat rolling through me. I was so wet I couldn’t stand it. My legs felt too weak to hold me up. I tilted my head back, swallowing hard. My breath bellowed out.

  Her hand lifted to cover my breast, tweaking the tight nipple. A soft cry ripped from my throat. I arched into her caress, lust clouding my mind. Nothing mattered right now but the mating ritual, taking what was mine. I needed it—her. Now.

  Jerrod’s face flashed through my mind. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t hurt him that way. I couldn’t.

  A night of brutality destroyed her innocence…can the love of two people heal her wounded spirit?

  Bound by Steel

  © 2008 Kirsten Saell

  An Emissaries of Belthalas story.

  “I’ve been thinking about Kaela…”

  There they are—the words that lead Gil to suspect his wife Lianon is falling in love with Kaela, the beautiful, traumatized young woman they rescued from certain death six months ago. Gil has no idea how to compete with a woman for his wife’s affections, and par
t of him ceases to care as Kaela begins to work her way under his skin.

  Kaela’s sweet innocence fills a chasm in Lianon’s soul she hadn’t even realized was there. As she gently helps Kaela rebuild her shattered confidence, Lianon begins to believe healing the young woman’s wounded spirit could be the key to wholeness for all three of them. If Gil agrees to follow her lead and help Kaela discover her own feminine power.

  But even as they all succumb to their growing desire, Gil and Lianon are drawn against their will back into the intrigues and vendettas of Belthalas’ elite. With Lianon’s life at stake, Gil must weave a dangerous path between one adversary’s ambition and another’s lust for vengeance.

  Success will save Lianon…but could cost them Kaela.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Bound by Steel:

  “So have you worked for the chancellor before?” Lianon asked, dipping a dampened cloth in a bowl of menthol and soda and lifting it to her mouth.

  “The old one, yes,” Gil said, loosening the laces at the neck of his shirt. “Fat old bastard with a sick sense of humor. I don’t know about this new fellow, though. He’s only been in office a few months. Take off your clothes.”

  Lianon’s stomach flipped over. His tone hadn’t changed in the slightest—gods, he wasn’t even looking at her—but at his words her heart started to kick against her ribs. She gave her teeth one last scrub and set her cloth down. Slowly, she turned to face him.

  “Do it quickly, would you?” he said lightly, his eyes finally coming to rest on her. The heat in them turned her knees to water. Without a word, she began to work her laces loose and pulled her shirt off over her head. His gaze fastened on her breasts, too small to really warrant binding of any sort, but his favorite part of her body, she knew. Smiling to herself, she drew her fingers across her pebbling nipples to tease him. One glance told her his cock was hard and straining against the confinement of his clothes.

  “Trousers,” he said, no lightness left in his voice now. He tugged his shirt free of his waistband and began to work it up his torso, but seemed reluctant to disrupt his view long enough to pull it off over his head. Smiling wider, Lianon unbuttoned her trousers and untied the drawstring of her drawers, and let them slide down her legs to rumple at her feet. Slowly she lifted one bare foot free, then the other.

  His throat-knot worked visibly as he swallowed. “Every day I forget how beautiful you are,” he whispered. “Get on the bed.”

  She obeyed the letter of his command, if not the spirit, sitting primly on the edge of the mattress with her knees together, grinning up at him. “Kiss me.”

  His answering grin was wolfish, and he dragged his shirt the rest of the way off. “Open your legs, and I will, love.”

  Her belly tightened, her nipples were aching points, and the place between her legs throbbed with awareness. Gods, she was on fire and he hadn’t even touched her yet. Glancing slyly up at him, she opened her legs a hand’s breadth. He dropped to his knees in front of her, reaching up to cup the back of her head and draw her to him. His lips toyed with hers, his tongue flitting between them. Her own joined his, chasing and playing until she was filled with his taste, salt and wine and an undercurrent of earthiness that was just him. His other hand crept up her torso and began to tug on her nipple, twisting and plucking, each touch sending a bolt of pleasure snaking down to her pussy.

  “Wider,” he muttered against her lips. “Wide so I can put my mouth where you want it. Wide so I can push my tongue all the way inside you.”

  Gods, that he could say such things and not even blush. She inched her legs another notch apart.

  His lips left hers and kissed a path down her throat, pausing briefly on her collarbone before taking her nipple in his mouth. He sucked hard, his tongue flicking over the already rock-hard bead and she couldn’t suppress a moan as the pleasure hovered briefly toward the edge of pain.

  “Wider,” he insisted. He pulled back and stared down at what he could see of her sex, his eyes dark and his face set. His chest was heaving, and she thought of teasing him a bit more. “I want to see your cunt. Show it to me, Lianon.”

  All thought of teasing fled. Her sex was pulsating, her clit a straining, yearning bud that needed to be touched. Slowly she lowered her back to the mattress and spread her legs. Wide. She was as flexible as an acrobat, and by the time she reached her limit, her pussy was open to him like the petals of a freshly cut orchid. The cool air of their bedroom kissed her slick, heated folds. His gaze fixed on her swollen nether lips and he leaned in, his hands coming to rest on her inner thighs. Dipping his head close, parting her inner labia with his thumbs, he blew a stream of air across her, then licked her slowly from opening to clit. Her whole body jerked as his tongue hooked under the hood of her nub and wiggled, sending delicious ripples of sensation all the way to her toes.

  She grabbed his head with one hand, her fingers tunneling through his dark waves, and tried to pull him closer, but he would have none of it.

  “Greedy wench,” he scolded. “It’s bad manners to wolf down a meal.” His tongue slipped back between her folds, circling her clit. “A gentleman should take his time.” He sucked the hard nub into his mouth and nipped it with his teeth, and she bit her lip to keep from screaming as the walls of her cunt tingled and wept. “Savor.” God help her, he was savoring, shoving his tongue up into her channel and lapping up her juices.

  She thrust herself toward him, scooting her bottom right to the edge of the mattress, but he only chuckled. Pulling his mouth away, he smiled up at her, his lips and whiskers glistening. “Such eagerness is hardly becoming in a lady.”

  Gods, he could be infuriating! “Gil, please, god, just put your mouth on me. Make me come all over it. Please.”

  He grinned from one ear to the other. “You ask so nicely,” he praised, then dove back in in earnest. Pressing his whole mouth onto her sex, he sucked and licked and teased and flicked and swirled and bit until she was writhing and bucking and moaning. She couldn’t control her movements, couldn’t control her breath. Inside she was coiling like a spring, tighter and tighter. Her clit was as hard as a pebble, standing straight up, and his tongue lashed at it, over and over. Every touch added to the pressure building just inside the swelling, seeping walls of her cunt, and she knew he was purposely keeping her just at the threshold, damn him.

  Opening her eyes, she looked down at him as his mouth worked her pussy. His gaze was almost worshipful as his eyes met hers. She felt her throat start to close at the sight, at the understanding that he was hers and always would be, and the light of the candles began to fragment amid a haze of tears. Blinking rapidly, she made herself look away.

  And saw Kaela standing in the part-open doorway, peering in, her face a combination of horror and fascination. Her eyes met Lianon’s and held, widening at having been caught peeking. But Lianon wasn’t angry or embarrassed. God, no. The other woman’s gaze on her was like pitch poured on a flame. Lianon’s stomach clenched, her pussy began to pulse and without taking her eyes from Kaela’s she was coming.

  “Ahhhhh, god, Gil!” she hissed between her teeth, her hand pressing his face hard against her as her cunt spasmed and wept. And the bastard just pushed two fingers up into her and began to stroke the bundle of nerves on the upper wall of her channel, even as he sucked her clit into his mouth once more. Before the first orgasm had time to dissipate, she was plunged into another harder one. A high, keening wail reached her ears. In burgeoning mortification, she realized it was her own voice, a long, wordless cry of agonized pleasure.

  In the doorway, Kaela watched silently, her face flushed a becoming pink, her lips parted on swift breaths, one hand raised to touch her scar as if to anchor herself in reality. Lianon saw her through a haze of pleasure that threatened to engulf her, to wring the life right out of her and leave her a limp and wasted scrap of flesh.

  Gil stood and stripped off his trousers. Lianon’s gaze briefly left Kaela’s to smile up at him. His cock sprang free, pointing skyw
ard, bedewed with a pearlescent droplet of fluid. Reaching up, she pulled him close as he settled between her legs and thrust. She felt her body mold itself to the shape of him, as if his cock belonged inside her, as if she carried the precise contours of him in her female flesh. His mouth seared a path from her throat to her shoulder, then his teeth sank gently into the rounded muscle there as his rhythm increased. Her gaze lifted to the door again.

  Kaela was gone

  My Fair Monster

  Lila Dubois

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  They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

  577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520

  Macon GA 31201

  My Fair Monster

  Copyright © 2008 by Lila Dubois

  ISBN: 978-1-60504-265-7

  Edited by Bethany Morgan

  Cover by Scott Carpenter

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: November 2008

  www.samhainpublishing.com

  Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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