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Monday, May 7
Staring
Into the Eyes of Chance
by Kay Dee Royal
Releasing March 2012
Book one in the LIIA Series (Lycan International
Investigation Agency)
Tagline:
Olivia swears off men until she meets
Chance, a Lycan alpha. He ignites an undeniable hunger they can only sate
together.
BLURB:
Olivia endures a thirty-four year
passionless marriage, discovering her dead husband’s philandering history at
his funeral. She devotes her energy and life-long sensitivity with animals to
her wildlife refuge and preserve.
Chance, a Lycan alpha and leader of the
Lycan International Investigation Agency (LIIA) throws himself into his investigations.
He chooses to neglect his duty of finding a primal-mate after watching his
father become an empty shell over the loss of his.
A murderous rogue pack draws Chance onto
Olivia’s wildlife preserve, sending Olivia’s animal sensitivities into overdrive.
Chance and Olivia discover a sizzling force driving them together.
Will they succumb to its enticing tether,
or fight to resume their loveless lives apart?
Muse It Up
Publishing: http://tinyurl.com/6rubdud
Short Excerpt:
Where the
hell is it?
Sharp prickles raced up Olivia’s spine as
the deepest, longest, eeriest wolf howl she ever heard echoed through the
forest. Her body froze and her fingers clung white-knuckled around the tranq
rifle. A longer ominous howl answered. It came from the back side of the barn.
She took a deep breath, stood up with gun ready, rounded the corner, and ran
the length of the barn. Olivia paused for another breath before dashing around
to the backside of the structure.
Nothing.
She stepped away from
the building, intent on walking her yard perimeter, head pivoting in all
directions, scanning the short grass and fallen leaves. Movement to her right
alerted her too late as she pivoted toward the motion.
“Oomph!” She took a hit,
like a truck slammed into her front side. A flurry of black and silver fur,
claws, and teeth. She fell flat on her back, her head bouncing off the ground.
The rifle flew from her grasp. No footfalls, no heavy breathing, but a pungent
scent of musty dog fur lingered in the air. Olivia lay there, afraid to move,
afraid the wolf had just called in his pack.
Longer
Excerpt:
Olivia closed her eyes,
calling up her animal sensitivity ability, while shoving down her own panic.
After years of psychically working with animals, she knew they sensed panic and
fear. Her breathing needed regulating.
Olivia relaxed as best
she could and opened her mind. She sensed the wolf; masculine. He came across
with an urgent need to protect, more like helping her feel safe. Another howl,
with a deep and sinister timbre, shattered her concentration. A stab of
electricity zipped through her, pumping adrenaline and tightening every muscle.
This howl came from farther inside the forest than the first one. She sensed
aggression in the wolves within the forest, ready for battle. Her heart drummed
against her ribs in anticipation of an answering call, and she couldn’t stop
the tremors running rampant in her belly.
Instead she saw the
lights go out through her closed eyelids. She opened her eyes and saw nothing
but blackness.
Nine o’clock on a September evening, what did she expect? Damn power company! Hopefully Lacey sat in the Jacuzzi and wouldn’t
come running out.
She lay listening for
any sound. Her own breath, the loudest panting she’d ever heard, came in at a
close second to her heart banging against the walls of her chest. Slowly, she
sat up. The back of her head throbbed, her spine hurt, and the front of her
body ached, especially her breasts. She bent her legs to stand and in that same
moment a jet of hot mist coated her face.
Wolf breath.
Olivia froze, tamping
down the run-for-your-life urge. Her mind reached toward the beast beside her,
searching his energy markers, his emotions, urges. She read him as curious,
stimulated. Maybe a misread of…sexually stimulated? She sat back on her
haunches, figuring if she stretched at least four feet of her five-foot ten
frame, maybe she’d appear larger. His breath assailed her from above, she
remained squatted.
Damn, this thing is huge!
He sniffed the top of
her head, down by her ear, licked the length of her neck and up the side of her
face. Another howl close by, echoing near the tree-line, got the wolf’s
attention. He raised his head from her and shoved her body back with his own.
She went down on her butt, folding her legs sideways. Fur from his backside
pressed into the front of her, including her face. Olivia turned her head away
and took a breath. A shiver began in her belly and inched through her arms,
legs, and up her neck. She sensed his urgency, he must move and his need…again,
to keep her safe and again something else, another misread?
He moved back, his head
next to hers. A growl vibrated, harsh and deep, beside her ear. Olivia jumped
when he yipped instead of howled. He circled her, stopping behind her. A sudden
scratch of claws and pebbles from rain washout near the barn pelted her. Air swirled
around her as the wolf leaped over her head in the direction of the woods.
Olivia’s breath whooshed
out like a balloon being released. Tears welled and trickled down her face. The
wolf’s size was about as abnormal as it got. She’d never heard of any wolf
being that large. She’d done plenty of research on the species, brushing up for
the wolf pup she rehabilitated and released back into the wild years ago when
Ray and she first opened the refuge, before they owned the preserve property.
Olivia pushed herself up
onto wobbly legs, her stomach lurched, and before she could blink, vomit
spewed. She retched hard, falling onto her hands and knees, weak and crying,
something she hadn’t done since Ray’s funeral. As if on cue, all the lights
popped on, illuminating her shadow against the barn wall.
Oh, that’s lovely. Damn power company.
A howl, and then another
and another, echoed from different locations in the forest. Her forest, her
wildlife preserve, not a place for a beast like her visitor, and most
definitely not a place for the aggressive lot in the forest. She swiped her
face with the bottom of her shirt and looked toward the woods.
About thirty yards away
in the mowed meadow, her wolf circled with another, close-in-size, milky-eyed
wolf with a deformed face, both spot-lighted in the yard light. They flashed
razor sharp teeth and glowing eyes, with the exception of the one’s coated eye.
Their vicious growls and snapping jaws filled the air. Olivia found her tranq
gun on the ground and grabbed it. By the time she turned for a shot, she saw
the tail end of both wolves leaping into the woods, her wolf chasing the other.
Olivia leaned against
the barn, adjusting her position in accordance with her pain. She thought of
the curious readings she sensed from her wolf, not sure of their meaning. She
never questioned first impressions from readings anymore. Years of experiences
proved first intuitive readings rang as authentic truth in almost every case.
She closed her eyes and
pictured her wolf looking at her for the first time, the way his head snapped
in her direction and how their gazes met and connected. She touched her neck,
sliding fingertips up her cheek where his tongue touched her skin.
Her breath caught, heart raced, and her
eyes opened wide. She laughed out loud, maybe in relief, maybe in a small fit
of hysteria, or maybe because she consider that wolf as “her” wolf. Her
“stimulation” readings from him threw her off, knowing it wasn’t a possibility.
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