Lena Austin

Blurb:

“Never anger a woman’s sense of wrong.”

The Herd Stallion, Talamar wants revenge on Tanne for humiliations in the past, and is aware that Tanne is the only serious rival for the “throne” of Herd Stallion. The Valley is outraged by the coming birth of Kella’s unicorn-vampire child, and the introduction of a human into the Valley. The opportunity he’s been waiting for is at hand.  Tanne will be exiled, leaving a pregnant Kella to face the anger of the vampires and the unicorns.

What is the most dangerous creature in the world? A female predator, defending her offspring.  What’s the most dangerous creature in the Valley? A very angry vampire sorceress defending her children.

Excerpt:

Author’s note: While this book will stand alone, this is a sequel to After the Flood 1: Blood & Magic. Some of the more subtle nuances may escape you without reading Blood & Magic first.

Kella paced around the room, snarling in frustration. “I don’t know what to do, Nina! How do I tell Tanne I’ve accidentally killed his offspring before this?”

“You don’t know that, Mama.” Nina laid her hand on Kella’s shoulder, her voice gentle. “Sometimes the bald truth is best. Hunt your prey openly, this time. He’s loved you for this long. I doubt it will change.”

Nature and Tanne finally forced her hand. Her darling stallion was wiser than she, for all he was quiet and unassuming. Late one evening, they sat alone in the main cavern. There were no injured taking advantage of their hospitality on that night, and somehow the hoard of their children disappeared. While Kella reveled in the silence, Tanne approached with two glasses of wine and sat on the rug next to her in front of the fire.

“You have been restless of late, my love,” he began as he stroked her hair. “Is it because you are about to go into heat?”

“Partially,” she answered. Kella bit her lip while he waited and sipped his wine. Gathering her courage, she plunged in, going immediately to the throat of the problem. “Tanne, I may have discovered the way for me to bear your offspring.”

For the first time ever, elegant Tanne sprayed his wine into the fire and choked. When he began to cough violently, she pounded on his back until he regained his breath. With his silver hair falling in one eye, he turned to her, wide-eyed, and rasped out, “How?”

“We have been very foolish, my darling, that’s how.” Kella smoothed his hair, so reminiscent of his forelock she could not help but smile. “We always assumed that because we came from different races, we had no ability to share ourselves, and we never questioned it. But we do share a few forms. Did you not teach me that when you become a form, you become it utterly?”

Tanne nodded, with light dawning in his eyes. “But we have shared forms and mated many times. Why have you not borne fruit before?”

Oh, how very vegetarian, to compare her to a tree. She grimaced. “Because I never knew I was pregnant. If I ever was, I changed form without making sure to change the life within with me to the new form. If I did not change the life within, then it went away, as if it never existed. I must stay in the form I get pregnant in, until I am sure. Perhaps even remain in that form until I give birth. It would be wise to choose the form I get pregnant in most carefully. I would not wish to remain in some forms very long.” She chewed on her lip and waited for him to sort that out for himself, and hoping he would forgive her for perhaps losing his offspring before now, in her ignorance. She would never forgive herself, but perhaps he would. She stared into the fire, waiting for his wrath.

Instead, he displayed his strength and yanked her into his lap. She lay there, looking up into his smiling face. “I can see that. It would be hard for you to be mother to our many children or see to our lives as a wolf, bat, or unicorn.” He began to stroke her face and body, making her shiver with anticipation. “A vampire you must be, and because of that, I too must be one for a night. I love a challenge and cannot resist. Just as I cannot resist you, and I never have.”

Her hair, spilling over his knees, was fisted in his hand, pulling her head back to expose her throat. Tanne grinned down at her, exposing his fangs for Kella to see and revel in. Lust welled up inside of her with the roar of a dragon, and she growled her answer. This would be no gentle lovemaking, but the true and violent mating of predators. Her right hand clawed a furrow in the carpet that would have to be repaired later, but at that time, she did not care.

She was spilled onto that carpet while he flipped out from beneath her to free his body. Kella caught a brief glimpse of his hardness through his trews, and longed for it. It pressed against her thigh as he settled beside her trembling body for a long stroke with his right hand, while his left remained tangled in her hair.  Kella’s growls took on a higher pitch to reflect that longing.

“Oh, no, not yet,” Tanne rumbled softly in her ear. “Much as I wish it, we will have a full night of this, in private.”

She felt the energies gather, and waited. They would teleport, but where? It was his choice.

Instead of their bedroom and the soft bed, Kella found herself looking at the altar of her private chapel, deep in the cavern. Long ago, Tanne had constructed this room, far from the rest of the complex and near an outer wall. There, a thin marble wall provided a great deal of sunlight for her worship, and a skylight was open to the night’s stars. A thick rug softened the floor, and it was on that rug she found herself.

Tanne’s voice whispered in her ear from the darkness. “It seems appropriate to lay you before your gods and ask for their assistance. Your complete surrender is an appropriate sacrifice, hmmm?”

The candles in their sconces and on the altar blazed up, lighting themselves. The door slammed shut, and she heard the bolt turn without Tanne having left her side. His free hand cupped her breast and stroked a nipple to hardness through the cloth of her bodice. “And you will surrender, totally, this night. Let’s see what blood and magic create.”  Kella’s bodice and dress were ripped from her body in one long, quick tearing movement, reminding her of his power, so rarely used.

Past words, Kella arched up and offered her neck. He nibbled, but did not break skin, teasing her. Her arms wrapped around his great shoulders, suddenly bare.

“No,” he murmured softly in her ear while he nibbled on the lobe. “Not yet, my wife. Tonight, you will be fully devoured and shrieking before I take the ultimate prize.”

Panting with anticipation and lust, Kella felt him skim her jaw with his lips, nipping gently from time to time as he moved slowly along toward her mouth before taking it violently and nipping her lips to swollen fullness.  

Her hands moved down along his naked body, stroking the muscles and clutching what she could reach of his firm buttocks. Her claws dug in at one strong nip, causing him to raise his head in surprise.

His sapphire eyes blazed for a moment, and then he smiled. “Naughty, naughty … you will pay for that.”

Kella squirmed beneath him, begging with her eyes and almost past reason. The heat of him, pressed firmly against her thigh, belied his calm and told her he, too, wished for culmination, and she marveled at his control. Kella pressed her thigh against him and watched his eyes half-close for a few moments. A viselike hand clamped around her wrists and brought her hands up over her head.

“I can see I’m going to need all the help I can muster to control you,” he purred.

A wisp of magic reared up from the floor and clamped her hands to the carpet. She now lay stretched out before him in the tatters of her dress. Kella could have broken that tiny thread of magic with a mere flex of her mind, but that was not the point. It was symbolic. She was not to interfere with his pleasure or hers. She bared her fangs again and snarled the challenge.

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