SHIFTER
WOODS: HOWL by NICOLA M. CAMERON
Hello, and thanks so much for
having me on today! Shifter Woods: Howl
is the first entry in my new paranormal shifter romance series Esposito County
Shifters. Howl, which is the story of
coyote shifter Laurie Rivera and her (very) unexpected mate Sheriff Caleb
Lynch, was originally supposed to be submitted to an anthology. Real Life™
promptly intervened, as it does, and I blew the deadline. I decided to go ahead
and expand the story past the antho guidelines and Howl surprised me by turning into a 23,000 word novella. Go figure.
The second entry, Shifter Woods: Roar,
which runs concurrently with Howl and
follows the story of Laurie’s cameraman Gavin and bear shifter Mike Ivanov,
will be out in mid-May.
Also, may I just say that I
am SO glad I was finally able to use this particular male model on a cover?
I’ve been faunching after him since Empress
of Storms, and I finally got the right book for him – yay!
Paranormal Romance, Shifter
Romance, MF
Word Count: 23,000
Series: Esposito County
Shifters (Book One)
Published by Belaurient Press
ASIN: B06ZZHS28T
BLURB:
Laurie wants a news story.
Caleb just wants to be left alone. But when the two coyote shifters' paths
cross in New Mexico’s Sandia Mountains, Fate steps in and gives them something
they never expected--each other.
Reporter Laurie Rivera is on the trail of a white slavery ring when she’s
forced to run for her life in the foothills near Sandia Crest. Widowed sheriff
and Alpha coyote shifter Caleb Lynch comes across the exhausted reporter and
discovers to his shock that Laurie is also a shifter—and his new heart’s mate.
But Caleb never expected to have another chance at love, and Laurie has a good
reason to fear being claimed, especially by an Alpha. As a snowstorm traps them
in the sheriff’s cabin, Caleb must find a way around the barriers surrounding
Laurie’s heart, and Laurie has to confront her past—and the humans who want her
dead—if she wants a chance at her very own “happily ever after.”
BUY LINKS:
- Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZHS28T
- Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06ZZHS28T
EXCERPT
Upstairs, Caleb stretched
out in the big, comfortable bed, remembering how Paul Sleeping Turtle, Mike
Ivanov and he had used some stout ropes and a lot of good-natured cursing to
haul the mattress and box spring and over the loft railing. Anna had stood well
out of the way downstairs, laughing at their language as they’d sweated and
lugged the damn things upward. That night, however, she’d rewarded him in the
newly installed bed, and Mike cheerfully baited him the next day about hearing
the noise from a good mile away.
He’d never brought another
woman to the cabin after Anna’s death, never even wanted to. But Laurie was
different. He could smell her even up here, her essence rising with the heat
from the fireplace and perfuming the loft with the smell of warm, sweet female
in heat and in need of a good fucking.
He had no idea why Laurie
had suddenly gone into heat while he was doing the dishes, but the change in
her scent was unmistakable. Granted, sometimes an unmated Alpha could send a
young, untried female into heat from simple proximity. But Laurie Rivera had to
be in her early thirties, and if she was a virgin he’d eat his badge. The view
he’d caught of her in the reflection of the kitchen window was of a female
openly eyeing him and liking what she saw.
He grinned at the
hand-hewn beams overhead. You know damn well what it means. She’s my mate,
whether she likes it or not.
Which, ironically, was the
problem. From what she’d told him, she was skittish as hell about the idea of
being claimed. He couldn’t blame her, considering her experiences with her
first Alpha. But it certainly messed up any chance he had with her, as well.
And he didn’t have the luxury of taking his time and courting her, letting her
get to know him over time. The moment the plows came through in the morning,
Mike and this Gavin guy would be at the cabin to pick her up. After that,
Laurie would be back in the city with her career and her life, never to return.
Albuquerque isn’t that
far, though.
Oh, yeah? When was the
last time you were there? The last time you had time to go there?
His subconscious—or his
coyote, he wasn’t sure—had a point. He had to act tonight before he lost her. So,
time to be sneaky.
He kicked off the blanket,
bracing as the cool air hit his bare skin. He usually didn’t sleep naked during
winter, but he wanted as much of his own aroma circulating as possible. He’d
made a vow, yes, and he would keep it … unless Laurie gave him permission to
break it. And the best way to make happen would be to tempt her upstairs with
the scent of his desire and the promise of fulfilling her own.
Running a hand over his
chest, he brushed the firm nub of a nipple and the crisp hair that led in a
trail down to his groin. He followed it now, wrapping a hand around his soft
cock and squeezing. It twitched at the stimulation; when he squeezed again,
running his thumb over the upper ridge of the head, it began to thicken lazily.
He started a light,
teasing stroke, not enough to get himself off but more than enough to get fully
hard. Closing his eyes, he imagined Laurie climbing the stairs to the loft and
his bed. The mattress would dip a bit as she climbed on it, moving on all fours
to him. He knew she was the kind of female who, when her mind was made up,
would stake her claim. There would be no fear, no anger, nothing but need and
the deep knowledge that they belonged together.
He pictured her straddling
his thighs, bending over to give him a deep, luscious kiss. Her breasts would
swing forward and he could cup them, relishing the firm weight of them in each
hand before he leaned up to take a nipple in his mouth. He already knew how the
salt of her sweat and the sweet spice of her skin would taste, and how to rub
the velvet flat of his tongue across the nub to make her gasp. He wanted to
learn all the sounds she made in bed, the feminine moans and sighs that were
music to a male’s ears.
His sweet female would be
eager that first time, taking him in hand and guiding his straining cock between
her legs. He groaned as he imagined the hot, wet squeeze of her sliding down
around him, a perfect fit that would drive him out of his mind. She’d start
riding him, her breasts jiggling with each rise and fall, and that perfect
friction building between cock and cunt, all hot juices and slippery softness
and his dick going deeper and deeper into her until he could feel the
electricity rising, building at that sweet spot between balls and spine…
He pulled his hand away,
half-enjoying the sparking, stuttering feeling of having his orgasm denied. Now
he just had to wait.
Please,
Laurie, I need you. Come to me.
BIO
Nicola Cameron is a married woman of a
certain age who really likes writing about science fiction, fantasy, and sex.
When not writing about those things, she likes to make Stuff™. And she may be
rather fond of absinthe.
While possessing a healthy interest in sex
since puberty, it wasn’t until 2012 that she decided to write about it. The
skills picked up during her SF writing career transferred quite nicely to
speculative romance. Her To Be Written work queue currently stands at around
nineteen books, and her mojito-sodden Muse swans in from Bali every so often to
add to the list, cackling to herself all the while.
Nicola plans to continue writing until she
drops dead over her keyboard or makes enough money to buy a private island and
hire Rory McCann as her personal trainer/masseur, whichever comes first.
