Here's the cover for the anthology I'm in that's coming out in October. :) Yep, Emily's in there with me. Woo-Hoo! Can't imagine how I got so lucky. Shoot. I thought I had a blurb written up somewhere, but it must be on my computer at home. Or else I told myself I needed to write one and never did..lol.
But I thought I post an excerpt from Understanding Forgiveness...my story. It's a sweet story...no sex really. Just tension. Having my heroes have sex didn't really seem to fit in the overall story. I did write UF after I finished Stealing Life and I couldn't keep those two guys away from each other. I think I went into overload...lol. ;)
Here you go:
The buzz of conversation had quieted when he arrived. He silently counted the seconds waiting for someone to get the nerve to approach him. Five minutes later, someone sat across from him.
“Hi, I’m Basil.”
Mason looked up to see a thin young man sitting in front of him. Shooting a glance over his shoulder, Mason saw Lisa watching them with a worried expression. He wondered if she was afraid he’d attack or hurt Basil in some way. Mason frowned. Being isolated from human or shifter contact made him gruff and unable to deal with idiots, but he still knew enough to be polite to people when he needed to be.
Basil’s shoulder length hair gleamed black as a raven’s wing. Bright shiny black eyes stared at him with curiosity. Those eyes combined with the prominent nose and tilted head conjured images of a crow.
“Mason.” He didn’t offer his hand. Basil looked so fragile, Mason was afraid he’d break a bone by shaking hands with the man.
“Right. The new one Zev and Doc brought in.” Basil’s head bobbed.
“Guess so. Where are they?” He wondered why they weren’t eating with the rest.
“Zev stopped by earlier. He doesn’t like all the noise. Too many people. Too much talking.” Basil shrugged. “Doc had a rough night. We won’t see him until lunch or maybe even supper.”
“Rough night?”
Basil leaned in as he was sharing a classified secret. “He’s sick and sometimes he has bad nights because of it.”
“Sick? What illness?” Mason thought of how he’d breathed in the doctor’s air last night. Shifters were pretty immune to most diseases, but he didn’t want to risk catching anything.
“No one knows, but it isn’t communicable. At least no one’s gotten sick since coming here.” Basil plucked an apple from Mason’s plate. “What kind are you?”
“Kind?” Mason felt a hiss rise in his throat. He didn’t like sharing, but he fought the urge to rip the apple out of Basil’s hands. There was more food and the man didn’t know how possessive Mason was.
“Animal? Breed? Species?” Basil pointed to himself. “I’m a raven.”
“I’d never have guessed that,” Mason said with a slight smile.
“It’s pretty obvious. Jess, over there, is a monkey.”
Mason looked over to where Basil gestured. A brunette woman nodded to them both as she grabbed a bowl full of fruit. Aside from the fruit though, there was nothing to hint at what she shifted into. A petite woman pulling wiggling bugs from a pan and swallowing them caught Mason’s gaze. He gagged.
“Yeah, it takes a while to get used to watching Fern eat.” Basil lobbed the apple core at Fern.
The woman flipped them the finger as she stuck a cricket in her mouth. Mason turned around before he lost his appetite.
“Fern’s an amphibian. Hey, what kind are you, Fern?” Basil yelled at the lady who calmly flipped them off again. “Fern’s not much of a talker. Oh right, she’s a green tree frog.”
“A tree frog? What the fuck was Von Mertz smoking when he mixed those genes?”
Mason turned to his right as a huge man sat down next to him. The stranger stuck his hand out and said, “I’m Boris and I’m a bear.”
“Yes, I can see you are.” Mason shook the large hand and managed not to whimper as Boris squeezed his bones together.
“Boris, you’re doing it again.” Basil tapped Boris on the arm.
“Oh sorry. Sometimes I forget.” Boris released Mason’s hand.
Mason wiggled all his fingers, making sure they all worked. “No problem, man. What are you doing here? I can’t see a lot of naturals messing with you.”
“I don’t have any control over my change. When I get mad or excited, I tend to shift and then things get nasty. It’s easier here. Less pressure and if I make a mistake, my hide’s not likely to end up spread out in front of someone’s fireplace.” Boris’ moustache twitched as the man chuckled.
Mason couldn’t believe how brown and hairy the man was. It looked as if the bear genes almost overrode the human genes in Boris’ body.
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Mason is the shifter and the doctor mentioned in this excerpt is Heinrich Gunther, a doctor with an interesting secret himself. :)
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blog to check out the other poetry train stops.
Labels: Covers, Excerpts, Poetry Train
