by Sam Hall
“What’s that?” he gasped between strokes, slowing the drag of his cock inside me.
I couldn’t answer, the feeling so strange and nebulous, I felt like describing it might destroy it. Instead, everyone clustered closer, Jack smoothing my hair back from my forehead and dropping drugging, open-mouthed kisses, Finn’s hand instinctively reaching out to stroke my stomach. I looked into their eyes as it built, a pleasure-pain of the sweetest kind, and tears formed in my eyes. It was an opening somehow, that’s the only word I could use to describe it. Like every single barrier and boundary was down, just for now.
“Hawk!” I cried, wanting, needing something, but I didn’t know what, but he seemed to know. His face twisted, his hands digging into the bed as he forced himself on, his whole body shivering as he fucked me. We moved together, faster and faster, the others wrapping around us that much tighter, until I felt it.
I floated on some kind of cloud of pleasure, a generous and all-encompassing thing that swept through the lot of us, wringing wave after wave of ecstasy from us. My body felt like it was opening, blossoming, surging up like some kind of spring, until it all stopped. Like a soprano holding onto that perfect, crystal ringing note, we were a pleasure that wouldn’t end.
And from that, she came.
Weeks later, the guys were standing in the kitchen, making coffee. None of us had gone back to work yet, and no one had made any moves to make us.
“She’s been really squirrelly lately. Maybe we should get Ophelia in to talk to her.”
“She’s been through so much. We all have. I think it's OK for her to be a little on edge. It’s only been a few weeks.”
“She’s not showing any other signs of depression and anxiety.”
“How do you know?”
“I spoke to Doc, and I looked it up on the computer. She’s a little spaced out, a bit distant, but that’s it. I say we leave it for now, see how she goes.”
I let the door creak as I opened it, holding the piece of paper Doc had just given me tightly in the other hand. The guys all looked startled at that. I’d gone for a run to get the results of my tests and had snuck in the back door when I got back.
They are your pack and they love you, I told myself, not understanding the reluctance I felt. I wanted to put a hand over my stomach, but that would have given everything away all too soon.
“I went and saw Doc, like you asked,” I said, creeping into the kitchen, my pack looking concerned as I did so. Why wouldn’t they? I was acting like I had cancer or something. “She gave me this.”
I thrust the paper out gracelessly, holding it with stiff fingers until Finn reached across and took it. His grip faltered when he scanned the results, his eyes going to the others, which led to it being snatched from his limp grip. I made myself watch their reactions, despite wanting to look away. It hurt to see those brutally raw expressions that looked just like the way I felt.
“Jules…you’re…”
“You’re pregnant?” Slade couldn’t have looked any more trashed if I punched him fair in the face, but I didn’t see that for long. He swooped in and tossed me up in his arms. “My beautiful fucking girl. You’re going to be a mum! We’re going to be dads!”
And that opened the floodgates. I don’t even know who took hold of me or kissed me, my eyes were completely filmed over with tears. All I knew was it was dizzying and overwhelming and heady. Hands went to my belly, lips to every part of my body, until finally I was carried over to the huge couch and we all collapsed down onto it. I closed my eyes and leaned back, totally limp within their group, surrendering to what had always been inevitable—my pack.
Then I said, “It’s a girl.”
What comes next?
So, what will happen with Sanctuary? Is this it for Jules and her pack? What about that vision of the baby? What about Sylvan? Is he really dead? I don’t have a whole lot of answers for you right now, but here’s what’s planned:
● A final (as far as I know) short story dealing with Jules and her pack and their child is out now. It’s a freebie in return for a newsletter sign up. Don’t want any more newsletters in your inbox? Just unsub when the first one comes through, and it’ll be all good, just don’t report me for spam!
The link for your free book is just after the teaser.
● At least two more books to resolve the White Wolf/Branwen storyline. I have Flick’s book, another ‘human’ MC who has run to Sanctuary with her son to escape a domestic violence situation, about 18k written already, so she’s coming next.
● Arelia and Kiralee will get their own book(s) There’s obviously a lot still to resolve there, so that will come.
Possible spin offs/ancillary books in the Pack Heat series:
● I am interested in doing at least a short story about Grace, Max, Rhydian, and Grey, looking at how they work through the trauma of what has happened. This could potentially be quite a sad and intense story, but I’ve definitely got ideas for this.
● A series of light and fluffy ‘human woman comes to Sanctuary and finds her pack’ romances. These would be shorter and much lower on the drama. Think Gilmore Girls rather than Lord of the Rings!
● Possibly some other spin offs for other minor characters. If there’s people you’ve liked and want to see get a HEA, let me know!
To manage expectations, I will be writing something else before the next Pack Heat book. I need a bit of a mental cleanse after this. Jules’ story was a lot of fun but also seriously draining!
So what now?
Beyond this page you will be able to read a teeny, tiny cliffhanger related to the next phase of this series. If you hate cliffys and they make you cranky, don’t read it. You’ll just one star me, and then we’ll all be unhappy, so proceed at own risk!
Teaser
Sylvan
You only notice nothingness when it starts to recede. The first thing I felt when the void began to drain away was pain. Every nerve, every muscle sang its own particular dirge of agony. My body, now that I could feel it again, twitched and spasmed in response to coming back into existence.
Then came the subtle changes in the black around me. Total nothingness bled away to various shades of darkness. I started to make out vague shapes and slight movements, but none of it was comforting.
Then came the voice.
You must return, it said. Calm, even, yet holding such a terrible certainty that the thought to argue didn’t even occur to me. How could it? This was a voice that remade me from nothing.
And from nothing I came. As the light formed on the horizon, slowly reaching out with its fingers of illumination, making more and more details clear, I looked down at my limbs with dumb awe. It took me a bit to remember—hands, fingers, legs, feet, but with those words came the accompanying pain.
Your task is not finished, the voice said. There is more to do. Rise, little black wolf, and serve me.
Free Extended Epilogue Novella
Get it here
Jules' story is over, but what about the boys, Sanctuary, Branwen and the baby?
Some of those questions will be answered in the continuation of the Pack Heat series and some will be answered right here.
Jules is home, safe and with her pack, so nothing could go wrong, right? Of course, nothing is ever that simple. Pregnancy has always been described to Jules as this magical time, so why is she more scared of becoming a mother than the bloody Volken and why are her mates being so weird?
Join Jules and the pack as they enter a whole other world: parenthood.
Away with the Faeries
I have a new series coming out soon! Preorder is live!
Get it here!
Everyone sees from their own perspective, they say. But I’ve always seen things that aren’t there. As a child I called them fairies.
I didn’t know how right I was.
My parents tried to cure me by giving me a new lens through which to see the world: a camera.
My nan thinks she has the answer
with herbal concoctions and effigy’s to ward off evil.
The doctor calls it mental illness and tells me to eat right and take my meds.
But none of them work.
The world jumps and shifts and changes, showing me things no one else sees.
I think I’m mad, until the day I photograph a friend’s lavish party - where rules and inhibitions are tossed aside along with clothes. Nothing had prepared me for these sights or for them: the Changelings.
A group of bad boys who glimmer in my messed up vision. I’m irresistibly drawn into their web. Into their musical world of debauched sensuality where I am called to document their band's tour.
Nan’s warnings of the fair folk don’t even cross my mind. Swept up in their fairy ring my crazy vision finally makes sense, and I’m not sure I ever want to leave. Or should I want to leave?
Author note: This is an RH tale so one woman, multiple love interests. 18+ only for adult content.
Stalk me!
Stalk me!
Facebook author group: Sam’s Hall of Heroines
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2356697491274667/
Come and see teasers and me explain what the hell was going on in my head when I was writing that.
Instagram:
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Teasers, WIPs and pictures of my animals here!
Acknowledgments
As always, love and appreciation to my partner, Matt. He had to back away from this one, especially when I was writing M/M and multiple partner scenes, but as always, he wholeheartedly supports my creative endeavours, encouraging me to get this out earlier rather than later and asks no questions about why I’m writing pervy stuff.
Editing was done by the lovely Meghan Leigh Daigle. She was able to wrangle my bloody tense shifting habit into a much more readable, grammatically correct form.
https://www.facebook.com/Bookish-Dreams-Editing-105567517555119/
Cover was created by the amazing team at Mibl Art
https://miblart.com/
Thanks to Katie, Robin and Jess for doing the alpha reads. This was a big, intense book and you kept me on the straight and narrow, so thanks again. Seriously, could not be done without you.
To the amazing betas, Rebekah, Teresa, Robin and Richelle. Your eagle eyes and careful read through has made this as close to perfect as we could get it and you did it quickly, cheerfully and during a damn pandemic, so kudos, people!
Also by Sam Hall
Book Lover 1: Not My Fantasy
When Ash and her sister inherited their grandmother’s magic shop, they figured they’d be selling crystals and smudge sticks to ageing hippies. Instead, they find themselves dealing with a failing business and a revolving door of tinsel-haired elves and fairy-tale princes.
And that’s not even the weird part.
Cursed in some sort of freakish loop, Ash wakes up every morning next to her sister’s latest book boyfriend, or fangirl crush. Frazzled by her unwanted nocturnal visitors, Ash fights for the focus needed to save the shop from bankruptcy. Then, in walks Gabe. Looking like a biker wet dream, Ash immediately dismisses him as another of her sister’s lusty manifestations. But this hottie is real and may hold the key to saving their business.
Things appear to be looking up, until an inter-dimensional gateway is discovered in the store that allows characters from every multiverse imaginable to cross over. Can the sisters learn how to control the portal before it destroys the line between fact and fiction?
If you love paranormal romance and urban fantasy tropes, but want to have a bit of fun with them sometimes, this is your book. If you watched a lot of bad 80s fantasy with papier-mâché props, noticed all romance guys have massive wangs or checked the back of a wardrobe to see if there was a portal to another realm, this is your book. If you like snarky, sex-positive female characters, this is your book. If you still have a total soft spot for talking animals and really wish you could have one of your own, this is your book.
Book Lover 2: As You Wish
Tess is over being a sidekick.
After experiencing life as a dragon rider, doing inventory at the shop is a mundane nightmare. Unfortunately, Ash continues to insist she live a normal life, staying safe on their side of the inter-dimensional portal.
Of course, Flea could be a welcome distraction... if he would speak to her. They shared one truly amazing night and then dark-haired hottie popped through an inter-dimensional portal to save her, but now, he barely manages a hello when he comes into the shop.
As if responding to her unspoken need for a little action, dragon riders suddenly appear and demand her presence before their court. What she thought was going to equate to a traffic fine for having an unregistered dragon quickly morphs into a life-or-death journey.
Join Tess and the gang as they rampage through the land of Aravisia, on a quest to discover the truth behind Nan’s curse!
Book Lover prequel: Read You Like a Book
Everyone wants to wake up next to a hot book boyfriend, right? Well, not Ash.
Her grandmother has just died and she knows the service tomorrow is going to be a hard one. She has to say goodbye to the one member of her family who always had her back and her mother’s perfumed steamroller tendencies seem to get out of control each time there’s some kind of family emergency.
The last thing she expected was to wake her was the Big Bad Wolf, particularly one as hot as Fenrir Vanguard. Big, muscular and ready to eat her all up, it becomes very difficult for Ash to focus on the fact he thinks she’s his fated mate and a woman called Red. Oh, and the fact he’s the lead character in her sister’s favourite paranormal romance.
What will Ash do with a sexy beast who’s ready to bond with her, promising an eternity of hot paranormal sex and his whole heart? How will Ash break it to those she loves that she has a fictional character who can’t bear to be more then two feet away from her in her life? How will she deal with her own fear of being hurt, by him and by the passing of someone she loved?
In the Lap of the Gods 1: The Bottom Rung
I may have been born in the Quarter, but I refuse to die here.
I live in the Quarter, the societal cage where all of Cremorne’s paranormals have been locked up, but I’m neither vampire, werewolf nor witch. I’m the lowest of the low, doomed to be one of two things: junkie or vampire’s pet.
Desperate to escape, I’ll do whatever it takes to get out, to get all of us out, even if that means shaking my country and the gods themselves to the core to restore the balance. I’m collecting allies so I can start a revolution and finding power my kind would never dream of, but this game has been in play for a lot longer than I’ve been breathing and there’s a chance I’m just another pawn.
That’s OK, because I am determined to win.
Author’s note: This book is an RH tale, so the MC does not choose one partner, but the romance angle is definitely pretty low key in some instances and is a bit more complex than girl meets multiple boys and falls in love. It takes a lot of its inspiration from 80s urban decay films like The Warriors and Blade Runner, so is kind of dystopian in tone. Politics and how power is used to control is a big theme, though hopefully the reader isn’t bashed over the head by it!
In the Lap of the Gods 2: Rise to the Bait
I’ve got the powers of a goddess and I’m not afraid to use them.
Being the avatar of Lyra should have made my life easier. Instead, it painted a target on my back. Thrust into a werewolf camp, I was forced to run in a brutal ritual, for the gods themselves to decide who my mate should be. Never one to take things lying down, I refused to let that decision be made for me.
But my troubles didn’t end there.
Hesse has set aside his casual brutalisation of the captive anomalous population. His focus has become far more personal when he realised exactly who has been stripping him of his assets. It wasn’t blood banks or wolves he wanted. It was me.
Now, to stay out of
his clutches, I must face my greatest fear and learn... to trust. Only with the help of allies do I hold any hope of defeating Hesse. Will it be enough to free our people? Or are we doomed to crumble beneath his tyrannical reign?
Upcoming Releases
In the Lap of the Gods 3: Fight to the Top
To be released early 2020
The Wolf At My Door 2
To be released in 2020
From the desk of the amazing Belle Harper!
Rescuing Harlow: A Post Apocalyptic Reverse Harem Romance (Seeking Eden Book 3)
**Rescuing Harlow is part of the Seeking Eden world, but can be read as a STANDALONE**
“In 2041 the world experienced the largest solar flare in history. It took out all the world's satellites and caused the power grid to overload. Causing a worldwide blackout. With no power to contain it, a virus was accidentally unleashed. The release of the NEX virus spread rapidly. Many people died within the first month. Most of the female population was wiped out. Those who survived the virus had fled to make shift cities, but even then, no one was safe.”