File Size: 174 KB
Print Length: 106 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Midnight Engel Press; First edition (June 21, 2012)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B008DXUZ0G
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Not Enabled
Lending: Enabled
Blurb:
A Pureblood...
Julien Gasquet belongs to the notorious Lycan clan, the Gasquet Pack based in New Orleans. After a vicious argument, he storms out of the compound and decides to spend the night with his sister, Jolie, in Baton Rouge.
A Half-breed...
Martina Beauchamp is considered an abomination to the Lycans as she isn't a pureblood and doesn't have a pack to call her own. She meets Julien after a horrifying incident forces her to flee her home and her car breaks down in the parking lot next to his truck.
Destined...
The attraction Julien and Martina experience from the moment they meet isn't about lust or a one night stand. However, when the pack is involved in every decision a werewolf makes, is a happy ending at all possible?
WARNING: This is paranormal romance novella with sexy good times, smokin' hot werewolves, toned bodies and explicit language. Blood, gore and closed door sex scenes? Not this time. (Novella Word Count: 23,000)
Chapter One
“Boy, I don’t care how you feel—you goin’ to fight tonight, come hell or high water. The venue has already been booked and everyone is comin’ out to see you beat Clarence Remington from that bastard mongrel Desreseaux Pack of Shreveport.”
“Roy, just leave him be. If he can’t fight and he says he ain’t well, you ain’t makin’ it no better.”
“Shut the fuck up, Adele. I’m gettin’ tired of you taking his side all the time. Who you married to anyway, him or me? You let his pansy ass get away with murder, woman.”
Adele kissed her son’s cheek before she walked toward the door. “Listen, I have to work tonight and if I am late again, that vamp bastard is gonna fire me.”
“He should. Don’t make no sense you workin’ in one of them kind’s fancy schmancy bar anyway. You
belong with the pack, goddamn it!”
“And I would be if I had a better excuse for a husband.”
Julien “Jules” Gasquet finally got tired of the back and forth between his mother and step-father. Adele always pulled out the same tired old lines why she worked at Le Sang, an upscale gentlemen’s club in the French Quarter, but the truth was she preferred being around vampires rather than her own husband.
He gathered a few clothing items from his bedroom and took off in his Ford F-150. He could imagine his gorgeous mother now telling his no-good step-dad how he’d chased him off yet again. He didn't plan to go far, probably Baton Rouge as leaving Louisiana wasn't such a good idea. He might decide to keep driving and never grace his pack again but he couldn't leave that kind of burden on his mother.
Adele, was not only a beautiful and eternally youthful woman of Creole descent, her lineage remained pureblood Lycan. She’d also been orphaned at a young age and raised in middle-class New Orleans with a family who was not aware their adopted daughter would soon become a werewolf when she entered puberty.
When she became of age, she hunted down her biological mother and though they never became close she at least knew her kin. She’d married his father, Jean Gasquet, a first generation French-American thus he wasn’t considered Cajun, who belonged to the Gasquet Pack and was instantly accepted by them.
His father had been like him, though Alpha of the Gasquet Pack he would always be a fighter, who loved to shift and show how great his lineage as a Lycan was,how strong and tough. He’d died in a bar fight, three wolves against his one when Jules was fifteen and his younger sister, Jolie, was seven.
It had been just the three of them for almost ten years but his mother eventually wanted a lover even if he could never be her true mate. Roy had come along and their life had seemed fucked from the word “go”. His mother was so beautiful and could have any man she wanted but Roy was second cousin to their father and he was just as good looking as he possessed the same crystal blue eyes and blond hair.
Everything seemed okay in the beginning but the moment Roy married Adele, everything went downhill in a hurry. Roy couldn’t wait to prove Julien was tougher and stronger than his father. He enrolled him in the Lycan Fighter’s League where there was serious money to be made. Roy took over his life and when he wasn’t training, he was fighting. After almost eight years of this constant lifestyle, it was starting to wear him down.
He pulled the truck to the side of the road and checked his face. The black eye sustained on the left side of his head from the previous night’s bout had yet to fade completely on his ivory skin and had taken on a bluish purplish tinge around his eye. The bruise didn’t take away from his gorgeous crystal blue eyes, the same color as his father’s though the rest of him resembled his mother. He had her bone structure and dark hair though he was tall, almost 6’4” and two hundred pounds of lean muscle mass.
Julien decided then and there if and when he decided to go back to his parents’ house, his life would have to change. He couldn’t keep getting into these professional fights that lead to bar brawls as he was already hyped up on blood and violence; followed by casual sex with every were-bitch and sundry just because his life sucked and he hated how dead end the situation seemed at the moment.
The only bright spot in his life was his sister, Jolie, who attended LSU in Baton Rouge. He would stay with her as she lived off campus in an apartment he secretly paid for and make sure she was all right as far as money was concerned. University ended almost six weeks previously but she preferred to stay in her apartment year round as she despised Roy more than he did. Halfway to Baton Rouge, he decided to stop at Tommy’s Pizza to get some dinner. Hammond was the perfect in between place and there were some pretty good restaurants situated near enough to the interstate to make it his favorite halfway point stop. He parked
his truck and locked it with the remote as soon as he stepped out. Julien realized if Hammond had a down side, the place was firmly in “shifter” territory.
The Lycan had absolutely zero respect for shape shifters and considered them just a step above regular humans but the fuckers were crafty and usually poor as dirt. They didn’t possess the pack mentality and thatwas the main reason why they always stayed in trouble, especially with law enforcement.
Nothing would hurt his mother more than if he got involved with a shifter—Lycans weren’t crazy about vamps either but even they were better than shifters—and he decided the best defense was to be cognizant of his environment at all times.
He waited until he was safely inside the diner and seated before he pulled out his Samsung Android phone and placed a call to Jolie. She answered after a couple of rings.
“Hello?”
“He y, chère, it’s your big brother. I wanted to see you and I had to get away from Mama and Roy. Is it okay if I stay at your place tonight?”
Jolie sighed on the other end of the phone. “You need to get out of there, Jules. It’s no good for you to stay there with them…I’m gone and you did your part. Who are you staying for because if you tell me it’s Mama, I’m gonna ring your neck. She is capable of taking care of herself and she doesn’t need any help from you.”
“Okay, it is for the sake of Mama. I don’t trust Roy. You know what kind of wolf he is…he isn’t a real alpha though he likes to act the part. I couldn’t take it if he ever put his hands on her—”
“It’s a little late for talk like that, don’t you think? He’s been puttin’ his hands all over Mama for almost eight years. What are you gonna do? Stop ‘em from fuckin’? It’s really none of your business what goes on between them. You need to get out of there and find a place of your own. You can afford it so stop being cheap. By the way, I expect you in about half an hour.”
“Make it an hour or so. I stopped by Tommy’s Pizza in Hammond and you know I always get the sirloin, bloody, and a baked potato. I think I might have two tonight so let me enjoy my dinner in peace.”
She sniggered. “Okay, just don’t make me wait too long. Talk to you later and drive carefully, all right?”
“ Ye s, mademoiselle,” he replied before he ended their call.
The waitress walked over to him; she was a young shifter who looked tired and awaited anxiously for her double shift to end. By the way she kept shifting the weight of her body from one foot to the other and back again, her work day couldn’t be over soon enough.
“What can I get for you?”
“I’ll have two sirloin steaks—bloody—and three eggs over easy with a side of hash browns,” he said without consulting the menu he had memorized.
“It’ll be about ten minutes. You want anything to drink with that?”
“Yeah, I’ll take a Budweiser.”
The waitress walked away and he ran his hands through his ultra short hair. He didn’t have to be
psychic to know it would be a long night.
About The Author
Danielle Blanchard Benson is a world traveler and author of several different series. Ms. Blanchard Benson is the author of Beginnings: Book I (The Plague), Death Wish: Book I, Better off Dead: Book II and Death Lair: A Novella (all from The Vamp Saga), The Catalyst: Book One (The Pop Stars) and The Beautiful People series. She is currently working on Love Voodoo: Book I (DeGeneration), Apocalypse 2012: Book II (The Plague), Hart Attack: Book I (The Hart Family Saga), The Making of a Star: Book Two (The Pop Stars) and Queen of the Undead: Book III (The Vamp Saga). Ms. Blanchard Benson has lived abroad in Stockholm (Sweden), Manchester (England), Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Portland. She currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Email Me: mzdanibee007@gmail.com
Ten Things About Danielle
1. Your genre(s)?
My genre will always be romance or some form thereof though I have been known to do contemporary, erotic (not erotica as there is a difference), paranormal, dystopian and even -- grasp! -- horror. I am an artist so I don't limit myself and as a reader you don't have to buy everything I write. I assume most of y'all will cherry-pick anyway.
2. How many books have you completed?
I love serials and series so I have completed one long damn serial, The Beautiful People (which consisted of eight novellas), Death Wish and Better Off Dead in The Vamp Saga (and a novella, Death Lair), Beginnings in The Plague series, Love Voodoo in the DeGeneration series, The Catalyst in my other serial, The Pop Stars,
and Forever 27, a novelette in The 27 Club series.
3. How many books are you working on now?
*Breathe* Okay, I am almost finished writing Queen of the Undead in The Vamp Saga (72k and counting),Hart Attack, the first novel in The Hart Family Saga (another paranormal series), Apocalypse 2012 in The Plague series, The Making of a Star in The Pop Stars serial and Love Game in the DeGeneration series. Plus, I am co-writing a novel with a writer friend of mine, a horror-thriller, Ties That Unbind. I'm tired just thinking about my year...
4. Are you a linear or chunk writer?
I try to work on one project at a time so it makes it easier for me to maintain consistency. That list above, that is the order of the books with the exception of the one I am co-writing. I write that one when I get it back from my co-author, write my part and then send it to him via email and Drop Box.
5. The POV (= Point of View) you’re most partial to?
I'm not. I love first person though it can definitely have its limitations. I usually stick with third person though. The HUGE exception to this rule is The Vamp Saga. The first novel is written in first person but the rest are a mix of first and third person. There are some people out there this irks but what can I say? I love Manon and I *can't* write her in third but I also love some of the other characters and thought they should get a word in too. Hence the bastard project it has become involving both POVs.
6. The themes that keep cropping up in your books?
Female empowerment, strength, change and staying true to one's self. None of these are ever easy but nothing in life worth fighting for ever is so there you have it.
7. How many days a week do you write?
Everyday. There is no such thing as writer's block for me. I began Apocalypse 2012 but my Vamp Saga muse didn't want to let go so I began the third novel. Due to my schedule, I write at least 2k each day and can finish a first draft in anywhere between four and six weeks.
8. What time of day do you get your best writing done?
The evening. I have two children under the age of ten so when they are sleeping or are about to go down, I find myself most creative. Plus, I can have a glass of wine while I write... yes, I sometimes write toasted but I do all my revisions dead sober and I have an editor just to make sure she catches all the mistakes I don't. Plus, I have some great writers who act as beta readers and guinea pigs for those other pesky mistakes neither of us catch. I will upload and re-do a book that isn't perfect countless times. I do it all the time as it is a bit easier with the e-books than print but there is no such thing as "done" for me if mistakes are found.
9. What kind of music do you listen to when you write?
I'm a child of Generation X and I listen to everything but when I write paranormal/horror, I need some hard rocking music. My favorites: Deftones (Diamond Eyes and Best Of albums are classics), Marilyn Manson (Mechanical Animals, and Eat Me, Drink Me are two of my faves but I have every album ever made), Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein...I also listen to a lot of French hip-hop (Sinik, Diam's, MC Solaar) and French music in general (too many artists to count!). And I love some good pop music so Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Britney Spears, and Madonna are never far away...neither is Mylene Farmer for the matter, my favorite French pop star.
10. What the hell is up with your love affair with France?
Yeah, la Belle France gets mentioned a lot in a myriad of my novels. Better Off Dead and Queen of the Undead take place there as does most of Beginnings and Apocalypse 2012 will be a revisit (yet again). TheDeGeneration series takes place almost entirely in France. My other love affair is French influenced even if it is in the States. Hart Attack takes place in New Orleans.
I just love France, French culture, the language and desperately can't wait until I can live there for a couple of years and write. I have lots of French friends and am partial to the Ile-de-France area of the country (though it is often cold, rainy and overcast). Plus, who wouldn't want their children to be bi-lingual? And did I mention the wine and the cheese and the food? Everything is better with a French accent! ;-)
Giveaway
E-book (10) of Darkness Rising and Print book of the double novella collection
Darkness (5 signed by author)
USA and Canada ONLY for Print Book
Darkness Rising and The Dawn of Darkness (5 signed by author)
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