The Fury (36 page)

From exile to queen-whom can she trust?

Tiger by the Tail

© 2008 Kaye Chambers

An
On the Prowl
story.

Alexandra “Sasha” DeStephano has long been exiled from her own kind, thanks to parents who had no wish for her to grow up in the “tiger mafia”. Now that she’s been issued an engraved invitation to appear before the society elders, she finds herself plunged into a dangerous battle for power, urged on every side to give up her birthright to make room for a new regime.

On every side, that is, except Colton Reyes, a rogue alpha. Cole plants the idea in her mind that, under the current leadership, the tiger society is headed down a one-way street to disaster. And she is their only hope.

Spurred on by a man who flips all her sexual switches, Sasha steps up to the plate-and finds herself promoted from Tiger Princess to Queen. The resulting consequences are far more than she ever imagined.

In this game of danger and intrigue, almost no one can be trusted. Cole’s best chance to protect her? Pretend to claim her as his mate.

Except pretending is the last thing on Sasha’s mind.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Tiger by the Tail:

“Thank you, all. I understand I’m allowed to choose some advisors to help me?”

“You are, madam.”

Lord DeLuca was entirely too smug for my liking and I wondered how much of a dissention factor was running in the crowd tonight. If this went to hell in a hand basket, I was blaming him, personally. I hoped he understood that. I read the house badges on the young men who were edging to the top of the crowd. Blinking, I realized the nagging little detail that had bugged me when I’d arrived. Cole had been announced as a lord, but his coat was lacking the golden embroidered badge that signified his status. In fact, his coat was lacking any adornment, at all. He wore a plain black tux in lieu of the formal dinner jackets around him. Of course, that made him stand out like a sore thumb.

“Lord Reyes, please step forward for the honor.”

Why did I give him what he wanted? Simple. I didn’t know anyone else there and I could always disappoint him, later. Besides, he was part of the reason I was in this mess, so he might as well be part of the solution. Power was a wonderful thing. If I’d not appointed anyone, the speculation would have been that I was going to try to muscle my way through things or that I was ignorant of the ways things were run. I wasn’t brave or hungry enough to want to muscle my way through anything tonight, and I couldn’t afford the weakness of assumed ignorance. I knew enough to get me killed. I was going to trust Cole not to let that happen.

Unfortunately, Cole wasn’t the one who stepped forward. I watched a blonde young man about my age start up the steps with a frown.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Lord Thomas Reyes, Lady Alexandra.”

That he neglected to give me my title meant that he thought he was my equal. The look on his face said he wanted to be my superior. I disliked that and him. Raising my hand, I shook my head. Two could play at that game.

“I didn’t mean you, Mr. Reyes. I meant Cole.”

His face flashed with temper and I knew I didn’t like him for a reason. I rarely went wrong when I trusted my instincts.

“I am the legitimate heir to the Reyes House. You called for me.”

“My oversight, Thomas.”

“Thomas, step aside.”

Lord DeLuca was gaining a lot of bonus points with me tonight.

“I refuse to step aside for a Spanish whore’s bastard.”

Well, if the jury had been out on my opinion of him that would have settled it. I watched Cole’s face still. Stepping up on the steps, he walked across them until he stood opposite Thomas. Standing side-by-side, the resemblance was striking. While they were polar opposites in coloring and manner, they had the same sharp, aristocratic bone structure.

“My lady, I ask your permission to address this insult.”

There wasn’t any asking in his tone, but I understood the point. The formality of the situation made him say the words. I don’t normally approve of violence to solve a problem, but I had a suspicion that Thomas wouldn’t settle it any other way. Some boys just had to have the sense beat into them.

“Go right ahead.”

“So it’s challenge for the right to her, then?”

Did every man here think I was a prize to be won? I had always understood my parents’ decision to leave society to live their own life, but for the first time, I sympathized. If this was what my mother had gone through, it was a wonder I’d been born at all.

“No, Thomas, the challenge is for the slight to my mother. Lady DeStephano can answer her own challenges, if you’d like to issue one? You’ll still have to face me in the challenge circle, though.”

“You’re awfully sure of that, Cole. What have you been doing when the rest of us haven’t been watching?”

The way his gaze slid over me let the insinuation be all the worse. That some of the people in the crowd followed it and whispered behind their hands really made it worse.

Cole’s temper flared and it washed hot across my skin. The tiger liked anger and mine responded. It took all of my control to keep my power from washing out to meet his. I had enough problems without advertising that my parents had bred true and my tiger was begging to join in the fun.

Without looking at me, Cole stalked away with Thomas behind him. From my seat, I saw the crowd part and ring a marble circle set in the middle of the garden. It was gorgeously arranged as a focal point with paths branching off into the deeper recesses of the garden. Until the people ringed it, I wouldn’t have called it a challenge circle. Whoever had designed this garden had been a genius.

I was fascinated with it all to the point I didn’t notice the two men slowly undressing. By the time I realized it, Cole was turning his back to strip off his pants. It took a moment for it to register and I had to look away. The guy already hit my radar and the last thing I wanted to do was gawk at him. I did see enough to know that his coloring was absolutely natural. Well, either that or he tanned in the nude. That thought alone reinforced the urge to jerk my gaze as far away from him as I could manage.

“Don’t turn away.”

I blinked and found myself in company I’d not even sensed. Hot embarrassment flooded through me and all I could do was blame it on the hormonal overload. Grinning at Lord DeLuca, I waved him to the bench to sit beside me. Instead, he dropped to sit on the cool marble, heedless of his elegant slacks.

“Thank you, but I’m not exactly in the habit of watching men strip. I’ll preserve my modesty, thank you very much.”

My tone was tart enough to make him laugh, which brought an answering smile to my face.

“Modesty. I didn’t realize it still existed.”

My mouth dropped open and I laughed with him.

“Well, maybe if you started asking everyone not to strip out in packs to go running under the moon, there might be a little bit more of it.”

“Ah, too late for that.”

I followed the direction he was looking and saw what I’m sure Thomas wanted me to see. He stood facing me, letting me get an eyeful. Putting on a bland face, I looked directly at his face and waited. I wasn’t sure what upset him more, the fact I didn’t check out what he was offering or that I didn’t turn away in embarrassment. Either way, he snarled and shifted in a flow of magic and blinding light. One moment, he stood as a man, the next, as a tiger in burnished orange. I was surprised to see his color, though. My mother had platinum blonde hair like my grandfather and they were both whites. My father had passed on his dark hair and his golden color on to me. Genetics are a wonderful thing. I’d have expected Thomas to be a white from the fairness of his skin and hair, too.

Cole earned a few extra points in my book by not making a display of himself. Instead, he shifted with his back to me and his color surprised me, too. He was the rarest color of them all—black. I wondered if I’d be able to see the black stripes on the black coat in the daylight like the black jaguar I’d seen in the zoo, but let the fascinated thought pass.

He turned to me with a graceful twist of his body, bending a knee in salute. I’ll say this for the guy; he certainly had flare and style. Guess some guys are just born with it.

In size, the two cats were in the same class. They began to circle one another in a slow stalk. Thomas swiped a claw out, but Cole dodged back easily. I suddenly had the horrible realization that this could turn ugly, fast.

“Tell me they’re not going to…”

I waved my hand, trying to find words that didn’t sound so, well, fatal.

“First blood, only, princess.”

In their fight for survival, the layers come off—body and soul.

Parallel Fire

© 2008 Deidre Knight

A
Midnight Warriors
story
.

Anna Draekus is a soldier wrapped up in secrets, one of which has just been blown. As a member of the shadowy Madjin Circle, she was marked and trained from childhood to protect the king, even without his knowing. And now that her superior officer Nevin Daniels has discovered her allegiance to the Madjin, another secret is in serious danger of exposure.

The one where she fantasizes about cracking the taciturn Refarian’s composure and making him scream her name in passion.

Nevin has tried everything to exorcise Anna from his mind and body, once and for all. Nothing works. He’s long lusted after the free-spirited and plainspoken soldier, but her mere presence ties him in knots and drives him to the brink of insanity. Something a man in his position can’t afford. Something a man of his maturity could never hope for.

Then a routine patrol finds them wrecked and marooned deep in the Wyoming backcountry. And Anna unwraps Nevin’s deepest secret of all: Beneath his tightly controlled exterior beats the wild heart of a tiger.

This book has been previously published.

Warning: This title contains explicit, rutting-like-a-stallion sex and graphic language.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Parallel Fire:

Every face in the meeting room was turned toward her, every leader, every lieutenant staring at Anna in cool appraisal. She sucked in a steadying breath as the meeting room doors were closed behind them, and came to attention in front of Lieutenant Nevin Daniels, giving him a crisp salute that he returned. After seventeen years as part of her king’s most elite band of royal protectors, the Madjin Circle, it seemed almost impossible to believe that she was on trial before their top security advisor.

Well, it wasn’t precisely a trial, not really—her king had forgiven her deception, as well as that of the other protectors who had been fighting in their king, Jared Bennett’s, midst, never revealing their true identities to him. She’d hated that secretive existence, but she’d been pledged and branded as a royal protector at the tender age of twelve; that meant you obeyed your Madjin unit leader implicitly, didn’t ask questions. You followed directives in order to protect your king and commander—even without his knowing, if need be.

Oh, yes, her king’s advisors expected debriefing; they anticipated answers and revelations. With a glance across the table before her, she wondered how this meeting would go, with her in the proverbial hot seat. There were too many people gathered; too much pressure rode on this single moment. If only the long table weren’t populated with so many of those from their top leadership.

Nevin Daniels, the highest-ranking officer in the room—the fourth within their overall command, to be exact—glanced down at an open dossier spread on the table before him, and without looking up said, “At ease, Lieutenant.”

She released a tense breath, one that she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding.

“You know why you’re here before us today, correct?” Daniels continued.

“Yes, sir. To describe the activities of the Madjin, and in particular my role within the Circle.”

“Very well.” He closed the folder, glancing upward. “Let’s begin.”

And so it was that Anna found herself staring into the darkest, most arresting pair of Refarian eyes that she had ever seen. Eyes she’d known for much of her life; ones that belonged to a man who was her chief interrogator this day.

Lieutenant Nevin Daniels had first come to the palace back on Refaria when she was only a girl. Powerful, absolutely radiating authority and privilege, he wasn’t exactly the sort who put you at ease. Because he and Anna lived in the same lodge, ate at the same table, served beside one another daily here in the Wyoming compound…well, his untouchable beauty had always left her edgy and uncomfortable.

“Lieutenant,” he started calmly, a semi-scowl on his face, “please explain the details of your initiation into the Madjin Circle.”

Nevin kept talking, but she couldn’t seem to hear a word he said. And it was completely his fault, no question about it. Those ridiculously long-lashed eyes of his, the swarthy skin that contrasted exotically with the silver in his hair, the high cheekbones—the man’s looks were enough to distract even the toughest of female soldiers.