Happy Star Wars Day!

 Yes, it's once again time to greet one another with that time-honored greeting: May the Fourth be with you!

I've been thinking A LOT about Star Wars lately--episodes 4 through 6--the ONLY episodes that exist in my world. Because they're so beautifully plotted. Individually they each follow a standard 3 act format, but TOGETHER--they also follow a standard 3 act format. Which is a technique I'm TOTALLY borrowing for my current project; a long neglected story I've titled Love Among the Runes, which features a city cop who's been accidentally possessed by the spirit of an ancient Norse god. 

I'm planning on releasing the first act (AKA the first story in the trilogy) in August and I'm soooo freaking excited about it! 

Here's a little sneak peek. 

What do a Norse god, a Dixie cup and a hot blonde have in common? They're all instruments of one man's destruction.

 

Meet Officer CJ Maclaine, currently serving a life sentence as vassal to the Norse god Loki. For the past fifteen years, CJ has had one goal in life: find a way to free himself from the trouble-making god who's been making his life a living Hel. 

 

But when he finds himself suspected of murder, and it looks like the next victim might be his partner, CJ realizes there are worse ways to go through life than with a deity on speed-dial.

Book One: The Serpent Sigil

Officer CJ Maclaine is having a rough week. He's managed to piss off nearly everybody he knows--including his commanding officer, his partner, her brothers AND his favorite bartender. Worse yet, the bully who'd tormented him when they were both kids has just crashed back into his life--and is looking for a handout. 

And that's all before the demigod who's taken up residence in CJ's head discovers the dark web and starts using it to trade in cryptocurrencies and illegal drugs.

Some days it really doesn't pay to get out of bed.

Read an excerpt HERE

Bring It Back(list) A Taste of Honey by PG Forte

 I was looking for a scene with an April theme, and I  found one here in the opening chapter of A Taste of Honey--a book I always associate with May. Go figure. 

A Taste of Honey

Oberon, Book Four 

by PG Forte 

Paranormal Romance/Romantic Suspense 

This title is currently out of print. However, I'm currently in the process of re-booting the entire series. Join my FB group for updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheCronesNest and get a FREE novella (details below).

BLURB: 

For Lucy Greco Cavanaugh, life is a dream come true. She has it all. The perfect family. The perfect husband. The perfect marriage. What more could she wish for? Other than the chance to do it all again. To experience once more the agony and ecstasy of falling in love with the man of her dreams. To recapture the joy and uncertainty that comes with starting over.

​ As far as Dan Cavanaugh is concerned, his life has become a nightmare. His storybook marriage is on the line when Deirdre Shelton-Cooper, the runaway daughter of a former girlfriend arrives in Oberon intent on proving Dan is her father. Even though he's convinced the girl's claims are false, Dan decides his only chance to keep from losing everything lies in keeping her very existence a secret from his wife and family.

But, sometimes, what you don't know can hurt you—and those you love. When Deirdre, masquerading as a surfer girl named Monica, accidentally hooks up with their son, Seth, Lucy and Dan are left to wonder: has their perfect, fairy-tale romance, turned into a classic Greek tragedy?

Sometimes you get exactly what you wish for. And it's more than you'd ever dreamed.

EXCERPT:

The present. Mid April. 

In a lot of ways, Oberon is typical of any one of several small towns to be found along California’s Central Coast. Clinging to sheer, corrugated green cliffs above a windswept strand of pale, golden sand, it lacks a little of the endless sunshine boasted by its neighbors to the south, enjoying instead a milder, more temperate climate and, for much of the year, a lot of fog.

The area surrounding the town lacks one other very important California mainstay as well: the plethora of freeways that grace most of the rest of state are largely absent here. Bounded on the west by the broad, brilliant blue crescent of San Bartolo Bay, and to the east by the majestic bulk of Mt. Totawka, the ‘sacred mountain’ of local lore, Oberon is virtually isolated. Set amid a tangled network of canyons and creeks, undeveloped wilderness and—where the landscape and the environment have cooperated—acres of agricultural fields, it’s a hard place to get to. It can be an even harder place to leave behind.

But if Oberon was ever the type of funky beach town where teenaged girls with sun bleached hair, driving station wagons with surfboards tied to the roof was a common sight, it certainly is not that way anymore. So when Lucy Greco-Cavanaugh did happen to spy one, rolling down Main Street one sunny morning late in April, followed only a few minutes later, by a longhaired young man in a VW convertible rabbit, also with surfboard, she knew something strange was up. 

 Perhaps someone was making a movie, she reasoned. Or maybe—and being a lifetime resident of Oberon this was of course the theory she favored—a sudden tear in the fabric of space-time had inadvertently allowed her to take a nostalgic glimpse back in time to the California-dreamin’ fantasies of an earlier age.

Not coincidentally, this time displacement theory was one that she found herself applying to more and more events of late. She was thirty-seven years old, and she had memories that spanned most of those years, albeit, with varying amounts of clarity. But somehow, lately, it was almost as if all those memories didn’t quite add up the way they should. 

 For several months now, she had been aware of a vague sense of dissatisfaction growing within her, coupled with a worrisome preoccupation with the past. As if some invisible anchor line that had once kept her mind tethered in the present had been cut. No matter how hard she tried to stay focused, her mind kept drifting back to places it had already been.

Perhaps it had to do with the fact that while everyone around her seemed suddenly immersed in fresh new lives and new loves, she’d had to content herself with more of the same old, same old. Not that there was any part of her life that she wanted to change, she reminded herself sternly. She took a moment to rap her knuckles against the side of one of the wooden half barrels that served as planters on the terrace of the tea shop where she and her two best friends were having breakfast. The same old everything she had was pretty damn great.

She had two wonderful kids, satisfying work, a comfortable house, and she’d been happily married to the love of her life for the past sixteen and a half years. It was just that, after all those years, everything seemed to have gotten the slightest bit stale. She couldn’t help but remember how things used to be—

“Okay, Lucy,” Marsha snapped, “What’s wrong? You’ve been sitting here sighing to yourself for the past half-hour. You’re driving me nuts.”

Lucy frowned as she reached across the table for the pot of lavender honey. “Nothing’s wrong,” she answered. She could feel both Marsha and Scout eyeing her curiously as she occupied herself for several minutes deliberately drizzling the honey over the buttered French baguette on her plate, but she refused to return their gazes. “And anyway, I was not sighing.”

“You were sighing,” Marsha insisted. “Wasn’t she sighing, Scout?”

Lucy looked up impatiently as Scout turned weary hazel eyes in her direction. “What can I say, Lucy? It sounded like sighing to me, too.” Scout shrugged, absently stroking her baby’s head. Three-week-old Cole, who was turning out to be one of those preternaturally alert infants who have to be held all the time, had finally fallen asleep at her breast.

“Well, you’re wrong. Both of you.” Lucy took a big bite of bread and honey, and stared defiantly at her friends: Marsha with her new boyfriend, and Scout with both a new husband and a new baby. There was no way she was ever going to discuss what was bothering her with either of them.

She couldn’t believe that, with everything she had to be grateful for, she could still be so petty. She couldn’t believe that she would actually begrudge her two best friends a little happiness. But the plain fact of the matter was that she was so jealous of both of them, it was a wonder she wasn’t as green as an avocado. She saw the way Sam acted around Marsha, the way Nick looked at Scout, and she knew that once, she and Dan had been that way, too. Somewhere along the way it seemed they had lost that.

And she wanted it back. Oh, how she wanted it back! But, after all these years— she wasn’t sure that was even possible.

You couldn’t recreate newness could you? You couldn’t expect to discover anything too different about the same old person you’d been regularly and intimately exploring for almost two decades. And how could anyone ever hope to recapture the exquisite torture of doubt and uncertainty that so often accompanied the first stages of love? She wasn’t even sure she wanted to--except when she remembered the way the agony transformed into ecstasy…

Be careful what you wish for, a soft voice seemed to whisper in her head. She shivered as a gust of wind swept across the terrace setting the wind chimes to tinkling in the trees around them. Lavender spikes swayed on their long stems and the tiny pink Cecile Brunner roses that covered the arbor over their heads shed a few more petals onto the table. Cole whimpered slightly. Lucy watched as Scout wrapped his blanket more snugly around her baby and Marsha picked the petals out of her teacup.

Such Fleeting Pleasures
An Oberon Prequel Novella, 0.5
by PG Forte
Paranormal Romance

BLURB:

Love wasn't always strawberries and cream for Lucy and Dan Cavanaugh...or was it? In this Oberon prequel, we travel back in time to see how it all began. 

Most of the material in this prequel novella (which is set some eighteen years before the series begins) also appears as flashback scenes in A Taste of Honey. But you can download it (and read it NOW) for FREE when you join my Facebook group: The Crone's Nest

Read an excerpt HERE

10 WAYS TO BECOME A WEREWOLF by Dani Harper

Wolfen shapeshifters have definitely been on my mind a lot lately. This summer finds me in the middle of a whole bunch of "RE's" — RE-editing and RE-vamping my Changeling series for RE-release into the wild.

I've also been REviewing a lot of notes and bits of REsearch, plus REreading many of my collected folktales and legends. That's when I came across a post I'd written in 2016 that shared some of my favorite werewolf mythology. So now I'm RE-sharing!

 Ask anyone on the street how to become a werewolf, and the number one response (besides sidling away from you with one finger hovering over 911 on speed dial) is “get bitten by a werewolf”. Believe it or not, this method is a fairly modern invention. Ancient myths and legends show many different paths to werewolfery, and here are just a few of them:

1. Your parents were werewolves
This is an easy one. If Mom AND Dad were lycanthropes (that’s the ten-dollar word for werewolves), you would probably inherit the tendency. Apparently it’s a recessive gene, and having just one furry parent might not do the trick.

2. You’ve been cursed by a priest
From Russia to France, if you didn’t go to church, you could be officially cursed with lycanthropy by your local religious leader. This was also rumored to be the fate of those who failed to attend annual confession – if you did this 10 years in a row, you risked spontaneously becoming a werewolf. In 14th century Normandy, excommunicated persons were believed to turn into werewolves during the Christmas season. During this time, each sinner was either redeemed or doomed to belong to the devil and run as a wolf forever. 
(PS - In Finland, if you were lucky enough to break the spell, you were still stuck with a wolf’s tail for the rest of your life!)

3. You’ve offended the Devil
Yup, in some stories, being TOO good would get you a lot of excess hair too. Apparently it was safest to be not too bad, not too good, but “just right”. It's unclear where the sweet spot is, however.

4. You’ve been captured by a witch
A Polish legend says that if a witch lays a belt of human skin across the threshold of a house in which a marriage is being celebrated, any member of the wedding party that steps over it is immediately transformed into a wolf. The wolves are forced to serve the witch for a year, then regain their human form and return to their lives.

5. You picked the wrong flowers
Legend says that a “lycanthropic flower” grows wild in the Balkan Peninsula, with a sickly death-like scent. If you pick these flowers, you become a wolf! Simply brushing against wolfsbane blossoms (aconitum or monkshood) was believed to cause you to shapeshift as well—but it’s NOT a myth that the flowers are dangerous. The plants contain neurotoxins that can be absorbed through the skin. An unfortunate man died in 2014 from multiple organ failure after contact with these poisonous purple perennials!  (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11213530/Gardener-died-after-brushing-past-poisonous-plant-in-millionaires-garden.html) 

6. You were born on the wrong day
Seriously, what were you thinking? In Italy, it was bad luck to be born on the winter solstice, December 20-21, and a surefire way to become a shapeshifter. In many other European countries, it was believed that children born on December 24th, Christmas Eve, were destined to become werewolves when they grew up. Apparently it was a divine punishment for competing with the Christ child! In Romania, however, this legend went a step further. Children conceived on Christmas Eve were cursed to become werewolves because their parents were supposed to have abstained from sex at that time!

8. You drank the wrong water
In some European legends, especially in Scandinavian countries, accidentally drinking from a "lycanthropic" river or stream would cause you to become a werewolf. This water is said to possess a "lurid sparkle" and a faint smell that is like nothing else. Other legends say that drinking from any body of water where a wolf pack has recently satisfied their thirst will cause you to change. As for drinking the rainwater that collected in a wolf’s paw print? Honestly, becoming a werewolf might not be your only problem….

8. You looked a wolf in the eye
This is a bad idea on several levels, but in some old stories, locking eyes with a wild wolf could cause you to turn into a wolf yourself within a few days. Handy hint – Stay away from the zoo!

9. You slept outside during a full moon
In Germany, Italy, and France, it was said that both men and women could become shapeshifters by sleeping outside and allowing the full moon to shine on their faces for the entire night. This was especially effective on a Wednesday or a Friday. (There’s a reason why friends don’t let friends pass out on the front lawn after a party.)

10. You drank magic beer
Really? The warning about the water wasn’t enough? In 1555, bishop Olaus Magnus penned a collection of Nordic folklore and history. In it, he reported that you could become a werewolf by sharing a mug of specially crafted beer with a known shapeshifter while repeating the words of an ancient spell. According to Magnus, the werewolves of Livonia held a huge gathering every year in which they would drink a great deal of beer before going out to ravage the countryside.

"Werewolf" Novels by Dani Harper

As a paranormal fantasy and romance author, I have a passion for shapeshifters, and my very first series centers around the Macleod family.  Long-lived and able to become wolves at will, they call themselves CHANGELINGS.  Centuries ago, they were forced to flee the wolf exterminations in Scotland and start a new life in the wilderness of northern Canada.

The Changeling series centers around the Macleod family, four brothers and two sisters. Long-lived and able to become wolves at will, their kind call themselves Changelings. Centuries ago, they were forced to flee the wolf exterminations in Scotland and start a new life in the wilderness of northern Canada.

Today, that wilderness has been largely settled, and an entire community has sprung up around the Changelings. The Macleods and their pack live as humans most of the time, hiding in plain sight. They have jobs and pay bills and go to school and mow the grass and do all the things that humans do. But don’t make the mistake of thinking they’re tame. There are sacred places in the hills, and wolves rule the forests at night.

The Macleods seem to have the best of two worlds — yet there are still dangers lurking for their kind. And love, when it arrives, brings dangers and complications of its own. The two highest laws in the Changeling world are never harm a human and never turn a human against their will. The wolf within, however, has its own primal rules. If a Changeling’s life is in danger, the wolf will emerge to defend it. It will also rise to the surface, unbidden, to defend a mate at all costs. Because Changelings mate for life!

.......

LEGEND. LORE. LOVE. MAGIC.

From ghosts to faeries to shapeshifters, 

you can check out all my stories at

www.daniharper.com

More Adventures in Rebranding: Cover Reveal

One of the things keeping me busy lately has been the challenge of re-releasing twenty books. That’s just this year’s total, by the way. Which, coming on the heels of last year’s ten titles, has meant an overhaul of my entire backlist—less one.

It’s been an interesting experience. I’m basically re-inventing myself as an author; and I’ve been learning a lot in the process.

One of the lessons I learned from last year’s bulk re-release was that rushing books back into print en masse, isn’t always a good idea. Book birthdays should be celebrated—and that’s hard to do when you’re releasing several at once. In fact, having tried it that way has kind of made me appreciate what parents of quintuplets (and other multiples) must go through. So this year I’ve been taking things more slowly. I’ll be releasing books individually and with (hopefully) a little more attention than last year’s books received.

With that in mind, I’d like to show off my new cover for IRON.

IRON (which I plan to re-release next month) is the story of a mortal man—a blacksmith, by the name of Gavin O’Malley—who reluctantly comes to the aid of a faery princess. I remember the exact moment the story presented itself to me. I was taking part in an online chat and someone posed the question: “What unlikely pairing would you like to write about?” 

Given that the Fae are well known to have an aversion to iron, and blacksmiths make their living with the stuff, I thought crafting a Happy Ever After for the two of them was pretty damned unlikely.  And, in fact, some people have argued that what I gave them didn’t count as an HEA at all. I disagree, of course, but everyone’s entitled to their opinion.

 In any case, I have always loved this book. It was the first truly stand alone book I wrote. However, I think I must really hate the idea of my books being lonely, or something, because I immediately had to invent a series for it to belong to. The four books in the so-called Celtic Legends series are all standalone stories that have nothing to do with one another other than having a vaguely similar setting: Ireland in the late 1800s; and sub-genre: somewhere along the fantasy/paranormal spectrum.

Book two in the series, OAK, which was previously released as The Oak King, is the story of a mortal woman who falls in love with both the Oak King and the Holly King—two Celtic deities that I’ve re-imagined as tree spirits.  That will also probably be re-released this year.

The other two books I have yet to write, but I hope to have at least one of them out by early next year. Selkie features a reclusive fisherman who rescues a wounded seal shifter; while Flight involves two childhood friends who are finally forced to confront their feelings for each other when they become involved with an owl shifter.

Covers for the other three books are also in the works—which is very exciting. One of the best parts of re-branding is the need for yummy new covers.  Such a hardship!

Nineteenth century Ireland. Blacksmith Gavin O'Malley is a bitter man, with a heart as hard as the iron he forges. He wants his life back—the one that was stolen from him the day his wife died in childbirth—taking their firstborn son with her.

When Aislinn Deirbhile, an immortal, shape-shifting fae, arrives on his doorstep, he knows he's in luck. For Aislinn can give Gavin everything he's been missing: A devoted-seeming wife in the image of his beloved Mairead, and children who are sure to outlive their father. Now, all he has to do is find a way to keep her—without losing his immortal soul in the process.

But Aislinn has an agenda of her own. On the run from a vengeful fae lord who's vowed to either make her his or end her existence, she knows the iron that allows Gavin to take her captive will also keep her pursuers at bay. In order to put herself permanently beyond her enemy's reach, however, Aislinn will need something more. She'll need to win Gavin's heart and convince him to willingly part with a piece of the very soul he's trying to save.

Iron was selected as a Finalist for the EPIC 2011 ebook Awards in the Paranormal Erotic Romance category. 

Late to the Party

I love urban fantasy and paranormal romance. With the recent publishing drought in these subgenres and (sniff) many of my favourite series wrapping up (Kate Daniels, Charley Davidson, Kara Gillian, Hearstriker, Iron Druid…)  I’ve started actively looking for new series. Or rather old series that I missed when they started years ago and had a successful run with a long backlist.

The good news is there are lots of great series out there that I missed!

But I definitely have a late-to-the-party feeling where I want to rave about my new discoveries--but they’re only new to me.

Just in case I’m not the only one who missed them the first time, here are some of my new gloms:

1/ Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Magic series featuring Gin Blanco, the assassin known as the Spider.  I bought book one when I saw the author at the When Words Collide convention. I was a little leery of an assassin character, but Gin quickly won me over and I’ve just finished book seven with lots more to go. 

2/ Ann Aguirre’s Corine Solomon series about an antique dealer with a talent for psychometry. While I enjoyed book one, I didn’t truly get hooked on the series until the seriously creepy book two. 

3/ Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress series featuring Cat and Bones. I really do feel like I’m the last person to discover this series. I just read book one and plan to go on to book two very soon.

Any recommendations?  I have yet to try Karen Chance or Chloe Neill.

Here Be News

New Releases:

TWO AGAINST THE STARS by Veronica Scott
The story:

Empathic priestess Carialle has escaped the evil Amarotu Combine, but she's hardly out of danger. Not when she risks everything to rescue a drugged man from a crooked veterans' clinic. By lulling the clinic staff to sleep, she reveals her powers. And once again, criminals are after her and her rescuer.

Marcus Valerian, a wounded Special Forces veteran, never expected to have his life threatened by the clinic that's supposed to help ex-soldiers like him. But when he wakes from a drugged state to find a lovely woman urging him to run--he does. In his family's remote fishing cabin, he suffers the agony of withdrawal, soothed only by her powers.

In their idyllic hideaway, the two also discover a nova-hot attraction flaring. But can they stay alive long enough for it to become more? Not if the Combine has anything to say--they are not giving up until Marcus is dead and Carialle is their tool.

Buy Links: Amazon     iBooks     Barnes & Noble  Kobo

CHILDREN OF NIGHT series by PG Forte

The first six books in the series are being re-released through Entangled Publishing--with pretty new covers. These "deliciously dark" tales of undying love and vampire family values are currently on sale for .99 each.

Amazon |  Barnes & Noble  |  Kobo  

Other News:

Now Available as an Audio Book!

THE CHARM
Sweet Sci-Fi/Fantasy Romanceby Linda Mooney
Word Count: 60K
$3.99 e / $9.99 p / $19.95 a

Narrated by Barbara Nevins Taylor
Length: 6 hrs, 28 min
Hear a Sample.

She sold herself to a dark and angry master. 
He bought her, hoping she would save his world, and himself.

Tired of letting his people down time and time again, Egan Pri, costell of Unurit, has decided to do whatever it takes to save his people. A Charm is coming to town, and if he can scrape up enough money to buy her, his people could reap the benefits…but he's skeptical. Still, he'll try anything. The only rule? Keep her happy. He could do that.

Genesee ii Duuru, a magical gypsy of sorts, is ready to be sold. She feels the pull of a planet desperate for her help. The sadness, the hopelessness—it's time for her to do her part, what she was born to do. With two offers on the table, does she go with her heart, or the betterment of her tribe?

Genesee finds herself wanting to heal more than just the land and the people. But with this being her first sale, she fears she's gotten in over her head. What had started out as answering a call for help had morphed into her becoming a pawn in a political game she had no business being a part of.

Forgotten enemies, unexpected allies, and a love forbidden.

Warning! Contains puffy balls of light, drought, glass weaving, near starvation, budding knives, internal conflicts, revenge years in the making, and one woman's attempt to revive one man's cold and lifeless heart with her own warmth and love.

NOTE: This is a sweet romance, but you can get the love/consummation scene IN E-Format for free by clicking this link. This scene is NOT included in the print or audio edition

Bring It Back(list) Feature

X-TROLLER by Linda Mooney http://bit.ly/2hayNwB

"BRING IT BACKLIST" - Changeling Moon by Dani Harper

Usually I'm bringing ancient faery legends to modern-day America. But today I'm pleased to revisit a world both real and imagined that holds a special place in my heart...

Image credit Bigstock.com 

Several years ago, I owned a small farm in northern Canada. One morning I was stunned to see a pack of wolves – about 7 or 8 – lope across my yard! They ran with ease and grace, seeming to float along rather than touch the ground. Teeth gleamed white from grinning black lips, their tails were great plumed banners. Strangely, I was overwhelmed with a powerful sense that these wolves were happy.

And then they were gone. They vanished like smoke into the timber that flanked my property. I have never felt such a wild yearning in my life. A wish that they would come back? A wish that I might go with them? I didn’t know. I still don’t. 

Since that life-changing experience, I’ve run with the wolves on paper. And one of the results has been my Changeling series.

The Peace River region of northern Canada is a unique place where raw wilderness exists side by side with farmers’ fields. And in the quiet rural community of Dunvegan, human beings unknowingly exist side by side with those who are something more than human. They call themselves Changelings, and they have the ability to become wolves at will.

Changelings live as humans – they have jobs and pay bills, go to school and mow the grass. They view their wolfen side as a wonderful gift but it also complicates their lives, sometimes dangerously so. Especially when it comes to relationships... 

2012 RITA Award finalist

CHANGELING MOON is the first book in this paranormal series, which centers around the Macleod family of shapeshifters. It was selected as a RITA Award Finalist in the Paranormal Romance Category in 2012.

EXCERPT ONE:

The wolf wanted out.

Heavy clouds obscured the moon and washed the night with icy rain. The cold, damp air brought a myriad of intriguing scents.  The man slunk along the sidewalk, his limbs tingling as his body instinctively drew energy from the earth.

The wolf wanted out now.

Full of hunger and rage, the wolf writhed under the man’s skin in anticipation as he turned into a familiar alley behind the town hall. It was dark here, overgrown with trees and bushes, flanked with leaning fences, sagging garages, and numberless garbage cans. There was a spot where no light reached, a perfect spot to—

The wolf snarled its impatience and he cursed back. He was trying to hurry, dammit, but his body refused to cooperate. To human eyes, he was just an old drunk, sixty going on eighty. In reality, he was far older than even those like him could guess. When his wolf wanted out, he could no longer keep it leashed for long. And truth be told, he didn’t want to. Because once he took on his lupine form, all his aches and pains would disappear and he’d be strong and powerful again. 

The wolf within whispered: Tonight we will hunt. And become even stronger.

EXCERPT TWO:

The truck glittered strangely as she approached and her heart sank. Thick glass-like sheets of ice coated every surface, sealing the doors. Near-frozen herself, she pounded on the lock with the side of her fist until the ice broke away and she could get her key in. “Come on, dammit, come on!”

Of course, the key refused to turn, while the cold both numbed and hurt her gloveless fingers. She tried the passenger door lock without success then walked gingerly around to the rear cargo door. No luck there either. She’d have to call up a tow – 

Except that her cell phone was on the front seat of her truck. 

Certain that things couldn’t get any worse, she tested each door again. Maybe one of the locks would loosen up if she kept trying. If not, she’d probably have to walk all the way home, and wasn’t that a cheery prospect? 

Suddenly a furtive movement teased at her peripheral vision. Zoey straightened slowly and studied her surroundings. There wasn’t much to see. The streetlights were very far apart, just glowing pools of pale gold that punctuated the darkness rather than alleviating it. Few downtown businesses bothered to leave lights on overnight. The whispery hiss of the freezing rain was all that she could hear.

A normal person would simply chalk it up to imagination – but she’d been forced to toss normal out the window at an early age. Her mother, aunts and grandmother were all powerful psychics – and the gene had been passed down to Zoey. Or at least a watered-down version of it. The talent was reliable enough when it worked, but it seemed to come and go as it pleased. Like right now. Zoey tried hard to focus yet sensed absolutely nothing. It was her own fault perhaps for trying to rid herself of the inconvenient ability.

No extrasensory power was needed, however, to see something large and black glide silently from one shadow to another near the building she’d just left. What the hell was that? There was nowhere to go for help. Only the two bars would still be open but they were several blocks away, as was the RCMP detachment. There was a rundown trailer park a block and a half from the far side of the arena, but Zoey knew there were no streetlights anywhere along that route. 

A dog? Maybe it’s just a big dog, she thought. A really big dog or a runaway cow. After all, this was a rural community. And a northern rural community at that, so maybe it was just a local moose, ha, ha…. She struggled to keep her fear at bay and redoubled her efforts on the door locks, all the while straining to listen over the sound of her own harsh breathing.

The rear door lock was just beginning to show promise when a low, rumbling growl caused her to drop her keys. She spun to see a monstrous shape emerge from the shadows, stiff-legged and head lowered. A wolf? It was bigger than any damn wolf had a right to be. Jesus. Some primal instinct warned her not to run and not to scream, that the animal would be on her instantly if she did so.

She backed away slowly, trying not to slip, trying to put the truck between herself and the creature. Its eyes glowed green like something out of a horror flick, but this was no movie. Snarling black lips were pulled back to expose gleaming ivory teeth. The grizzled gray fur around its neck was bristling. Zoey was minutely aware that the hair on the back of her own neck was standing on end. Her breath came in short shuddering gasps as she blindly felt for the truck behind her with her hands, sliding her feet carefully without lifting them from the pavement. 

She made it around the corner of the Bronco. As soon as she was out of the wolf’s line of sight, she turned and half skated, half ran for the front of the truck as fast as the glassy pavement would allow. Don’t fall, don’t fall! It was a litany in her brain as she scrambled up the slippery front bumper onto the icy hood. With no hope of outrunning the creature and no safe place in sight, the roof of the truck seemed like her best bet – if she could make it. Don’t fall, don’t fall! Flailing for a handhold, she seized an ice-crusted windshield wiper, only to have the metal frame snap off in her hand. 

She screamed as she slid back a few inches.

.......................................................................

Published by Kensington Books, New York, Changeling Moon is available on Amazon (USA), Amazon (Canada), and Amazon (UK).  You can also find it on Barnes and Noble, Indigo, and Book Depository

See all my books and more by visiting my Author Page on Amazon.

Dani Harper