Moon-Kissed

by Amelia Hutchins

  Moon-Kissed

  By Amelia Hutchins

  Copyright ©December 2020 Amelia Hutchins

  ISBN: 978-1-952712-06-7

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book in its entirety and in portions is the sole property of Amelia Hutchins.

  Moon-Kissed Copyright©2020 by Amelia Hutchins.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic, paperback or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

  This eBook/Paperback is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the place of purchase and buy your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  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 federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Authored By: Amelia Hutchins

  Cover Art Design: Eerily Designs

  Copy edited by: Melissa Burg

  Published by: Amelia Hutchins

  Published in (United States of America)

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Disclaimer

  This book is dark. It’s sexy, hot, and intense. The author is human, as you are. Is the book perfect? It’s as perfect as I could make it. Are there mistakes? Probably, then again, even New York Times top published books have minimal errors because, like me, they have human editors. In this book, some words are not in the standard dictionary because I created them to set the stage for a paranormal-urban fantasy world. In this novel, words are common in paranormal books and give better descriptions of the story’s action than other words found in standard dictionaries. They are intentional and not mistakes.

  About the hero: chances are you may not fall instantly in love with him. That’s because I don’t write men you immediately love; you grow to love them. I don’t believe in instant love. I write flawed, raw, caveman-like assholes that eventually let you see their redeeming qualities. They are aggressive assholes, one step above a caveman when we meet them. You may not even like him by the time you finish this book, but I promise you will love him by the end of this series.

  About the heroine: There is a chance you might think she’s a bit naïve or weak, but then again, who starts out as a badass? Badass women are a product of growth, and I will put her through hell, and you get to watch her come up swinging every time I knock her on her ass. That’s just how I do things. How she reacts to the set of circumstances she is put through may not be how you, as the reader, or I, as the author, would respond to that same situation. Everyone reacts differently to circumstances, and how she reacts to her challenges is how I see her as a character and as a person.

  I don’t write love stories: I write fast-paced, knock you on your ass, make you sit on the edge of your seat wondering what is going to happen next in the books. If you’re looking for cookie-cutter romance, this isn’t for you. If you can’t handle the ride, unbuckle your seatbelt and get out of the roller-coaster car now. If not, I have warned you. If nothing outlined above bothers you, carry on and enjoy the ride!

  FYI, this is not a romance novel. These characters are going to kick the shit out of each other, and if they end up together, well, that’s their choice. If you are going into this blind, and you complain about abuse between two creatures that are NOT human, well, that’s on you. I have done my job and given you a warning.

  No babies that occur or are conceived because of this work of fiction are the author’s responsibility. Blame the penis mojo that you rode like a bronco, not me.

  Dedication

  The world is a shit-show, and we’re all stuck in it together. Remember, you’re one person in a sea of assholes, and we’re all swimming in the same direction. If you see someone in need of a lifeboat, don’t let them drown, not when you can help them. Kindness is free, and so is being a decent human. One world, one race, one chance to be the best you can be in this lifetime. Don’t be the problem, be the solution.

  Other books by Amelia Hutchins and reading order for series

  LEGACY OF THE NINE REALMS

  Flames of Chaos

  Ashes of Chaos

  Ruins of Chaos

  Crown of Chaos – 2021

  THE FAE CHRONICLES

  Fighting Destiny

  Taunting Destiny

  Escaping Destiny

  Seducing Destiny

  Unraveling Destiny

  Embracing Destiny

  Crowning Destiny

  Finished Series

  THE ELITE GUARDS

  A Demon’s Dark Embrace

  Claiming the Dragon King

  The Winter Court

  A Demon’s Plaything

  More coming – To Be Announced

  A GUARDIAN’S DIARY

  Darkest Before Dawn

  Death before Dawn

  Midnight Rising – To Be Announced

  PLAYING WITH MONSTERS

  Playing with Monsters

  Sleeping with Monsters

  Becoming his Monster

  Becoming her Monster Spring 2021

  WICKED KNIGHTS

  Oh, Holy Knight

  If She’s Wicked

  If He’s Wicked – To Be Announced

  MIDNIGHT COVEN BOOKS

  Forever Immortal

  Immortal Hexes

  Midnight Coven

  Finished Serial Series

  BULLETPROOF

  Bulletproof

  Fireproof Damsel – To Be Announced

  Silverproof – To Be Announced

  MOON-KISSED

  Moon-Kissed

  KINGDOM OF WOLVES

  Alpha’s Claim – Spring 2021

  If you’re following the series for the Fae Chronicles, Elite Guards, and Monsters, reading order is as follows.

  Fighting Destiny

  Taunting Destiny

  Escaping Destiny

  Seducing Destiny

  A Demon’s Dark Embrace

  Playing with Monsters

  Unraveling Destiny

  Sleeping with Monsters

  Claiming the Dragon King

  Oh, Holy Knight

  Becoming his Monster

  A Demon’s Plaything

  The Winter Court

  If She’s Wicked

  Embracing Destiny

  Crowning Destiny

  Prologue

  250 years ago

  Staring out the large window in my bedroom, peering over the kingdom, I watched as the morning sun rose. Turning back toward the room, I studied the white eyes of the seer. In her hands was the ancient tome, one that no other creature had held in a millennia.

  Long black curls flowed do
wn her shoulders in waves, invitingly. Candlelight swayed with the wind in the room from the powerful magic she created from her soul. Watching her, I folded my arms over my chest as her eyes returned to the soft violet that promised heaven and yet delivered no comfort.

  “Your mate will be born soon,” she announced through a husky, rasp-filled tone that spoke of seduction. “She will be born into the moon-touched clan, and once you read from the tome, she will be brought to you by the power of the book. Your mate will be fire and ice. She will be beautiful and strong. Everything you crave will come to you, but only if you read from the Book of the Dead.”

  “That book is known for taking away what you want,” I argued, watching her full mouth curve into a sardonic grin. “It never gives you what you crave.” Noting the way she tensed, I hesitated.

  “Everything comes with a price,” the seer stated, her shoulders slumping before she placed the book onto the table, opening it to the page in which she wanted me to read. “All magic has a cost, and all knowledge comes from that cost. You asked me to find your true mate; after losing who you had assumed was yours already, I would think you’d want to take this chance. The universe only allows us to have one mate in a lifetime. That you have another chance at finding her if she’s reborn, well, few can find them twice. If you ignore what I have foreseen, then that is your choice. Considering who you are and what she will be born to be, I doubt your paths ever cross naturally. You are of the night, and she is of the light. She will be born of the same clan as her first birth. Would you give it all away to another man? Or will you pay the price to know her taste and to feel your cold, deadened heart beating again?” she pried, her pretty violet eyes watching me with a burning need.

  “What is the cost?” I demanded, watching the sparkle shining within her eyes.

  “I can’t tell you that. A life? A thousand lives? What do you care? You’re no saint, and the taint of lives lost won’t bother your soul. You forced a king’s hand, and he sent his daughter away where you could never find her, and she connected her life to that of another. Will you chance to lose her again? Will you risk your true mate meeting another and falling in love before you can find her?”

  “No.” I swallowed past the lump those words caused. Moving toward the seer, I watched her tense from my nearness. “How will I know my true mate when I see her?”

  “You won’t, not until it is time. Mates are tricky things, and only something unique between you will forge the bond. It could be as simple as a look or a kiss that makes you feel her within your soul. Why you would even want to find her is beyond me. Once you do, you will never feel another’s touch because your heart will only beat for her.”

  “Your mate died, and when he did, what did you feel?”

  “Nothing, which is what I prefer,” she returned icily, and I smiled, nodding. “There was freedom in knowing my husband was dead. There was also a numbness that began and has yet to stop growing in my soul.”

  “I know that numbness well. I feel nothing, nor have I for a very long time. Three hundred years ago, they sent my mate away, far beyond my grasp. I was too young to understand what it meant back then. I taste no food or wine. I take pleasure, but it is muted at best, and I never feel satisfied. I have an endless hunger to know the feeling of my mate and to experience the true pleasure of living…” I slid my fingers over the book’s pages, smoothing them out with my fingertips. “I am merely an endless night that hungers for her pleasure and to know her touch. I tire of the cold, eternal chill that aches deep into my bones. I wish to know the warmth of my mate and to feel it shining upon my face.”

  “Then read from the book and find her. Fuck the consequences,” she laughed coldly. “Read from it, and I will tell you how to find your mate.”

  I focused on the text inked across the parchment, whispering the words. I watched as the glowing letters left the pages and danced onto my fingertips that still touched the ancient tomes. More words slipped out, pulled from my throat until it forced me to finish reading all that was on the parchment. The moment the last syllable danced from my tongue, the tome closed, slamming shut.

  Spinning toward the seer, I watched her smile go colder, evil. Her eyes turned to white, and her lips moved strangely, as if someone was controlling her. “Where the mountain touches the sunlight, and the night reached between, claim your young mate when the sickness is finally seen. She will enter your life as a warrior, with fire untold and fury in her bones. Your moon-touched mate will be born in two hundred years. When the sickness begins to consume her clan, and the warriors pass through the mountain in search of a cure, retrace their footsteps, for she will follow them in search of her destiny.”

  The seer grinned at me, and a familiar expression took hold of her face, twisting her features into an evil I have searched to destroy. “One kingdom has become two. The Kingdom of Light ruled by the moon, and the Kingdom of Night ruled by you. Reading from the Book of Death has broken free a plague of darkness that will spread through both kingdoms, killing and consuming all that it touches.”

  “Did you honestly think I wouldn’t figure out who you worked for before considering your lies, Seer?” I exhaled, watching her features shift and eyes return to violet once more. “Tell your mistress I am still hunting her. Once I find her and the Book of Life, I will end her once and for all. She can bathe the world in darkness, but her time is near for what she did to my father in her rage. Tell my mother that I am coming for her head and that nothing will stop me from taking it this time.”

  “She hears all we speak and isn’t afraid of a child cursed by his own hand. You have brought this upon yourself. I suggest you find the one you thought worthy of cursing this land, bathing it in eternal night just for a taste. You have your mother’s hair and her face, but your soul is as dark as the one we took from your father before sending him to his grave.”

  “How do I reverse the curse?” I asked carefully, tone filled with ridicule.

  “To end this eternal night, and the plague of darkness, you must claim your mate and give birth to a new life. If you cannot produce a child, everything will have been for nothing, and darkness will consume both kingdoms. As there was a cost to read from the Book of Death, the same is true for the Book of Life. To counteract the curse, your mate must read from the Book of Life, the price for which will be life. Once the life price is paid, the world will be freed, and eternal night and the plague of darkness will recede.”

  I laughed coldly, shaking my head at the plan my mother had put into place. “In other words, my mate has to give me a child, and then her life will be sacrificed to the book in which she reads?”

  “The sacrifice of life is the only way to end the curse that you just placed upon the land. I warned you that there was a cost,” she hissed, and I smiled cruelly.

  “Kindest regards, mother,” I said while holding the seer’s stare.

  My sword swung before she could respond, sending the seer’s head sailing against the wall before bouncing across the stone floor. The male behind the tapestry in my room’s hidden alcove stepped out, turning to see the moon rise in the middle of the morning.

  Moving to where he stood, I pushed my bloodied blade into the sheath on my hip. Outside, the sun had begun to vanish, and in its place, night slowly spread over the land. I swallowed down unease, dropping my stare to the people in the street watching the shroud of midnight settling on the kingdom. I turned, staring at my best friend, who frowned.

  “What the hell just happened?” he asked in confusion, his brows drawing together to crease his forehead.

  I glared at the people rushing into their cottages, hiding from the night and the plague of darkness, creeping over the mountains toward the castle. I’d done this. I’d craved the ability to touch, taste, and indulge in everything that I’d missed out on when I’d lost my mate.

  I’d pay the price. The first thing I had to do was locate where the Sacred Library was hidden and destroy the Book of Life. A
fterward, I’d figure out another way that didn’t include my mate reading from a book that would end her life.

  “The endless night has begun.” I smiled, staring out over the darkening skies. “Our kingdom will survive it, but others won’t. It’s a gift from my mother. It’s what she craved when she killed my father and ensured that I would never have my mate. My mother thinks she can prevent me from living a life with my true mate as she unleashes her plague and the creatures that live within her darkness. She has underestimated my determination to get what I want.”

  Chapter One

  Present Day, Alexandria

  Carefully, I studied the quiet town below. My lips curled into an uneasy frown as I watched the spread of darkness. Torches burned brightly, yet no sign of life had appeared. We’d been on the cliff for over an hour, standing silently while watching the town for any proof of life. No sounds of merriment came from the usually jovial tavern in the middle of the tiny village, frequented by travelers making their way through the two kingdoms. We’d been in this town a hundred times before and never had the darkness spread through the passes to bathe it in its murderous grasp.

  My eyes zeroed in on something that blew across the street, and my heart sank deep into my stomach, tears swimming in my eyes. What I thought to be paper was the husks of the inhabitants of the village. When darkness consumed the light of the living, it spat out a withered husk that looked like leather. Swallowing past the bile as several husks were strewn across the path leading through town, I exhaled.

  My team of moon-touched warriors was tasked with retracing the steps of another group who hadn’t checked in or returned in months. My brother, Landon, had been among the party of warriors who had gone to investigate the clues regarding the Sacred Library’s whereabouts. If they discovered it, they’d failed to send word back or to return to the Kingdom of Light.