đź“– Rogue (Curse of the Hybrids Book 1) Excerpt
Luna Lynn was flabbergasted. Honey decided she really liked that word. Bernadette was also flabbergasted.
“I can’t believe this,” Lynn said again, moving the mouse around the screen as if that was going to reveal the page Honey was showing her on the college board site was fake. “Brayton took the test three times and only got a 1420.”
A 1420 wasn’t bad, but Honey couldn’t help but be a little smug that she’d done better than head bully. “Which college am I going to go to? Do I get to choose? I want one that offers a major in chemical physics.”
“You want what now?” Bernadette asked.
“Chemical physics. It’s the study of chemical processes while thinking like a physicist.”
“Ah, well, I’m on the board of our local college where most of the wolves attend. I was thinking you could go there,” Luna Lynn said. “I’m sure they have both chemistry and physics. Maybe you could do a double major?”
“That would work. It would give me something to build off of. I could always go to another college and get a masters or PhD in the field if I needed.”
“O.M.G. You are serious!” That was Bernadette again.
Luna Lynn gave Bernadette a sour glance. “Why are you surprised by this? She’s only fourteen and she got a perfect score on the SAT. She can do whatever she wants.”
đź“– Foundling (Curse of the Hybrids Book 2) Excerpt
“Are you from India?”
“No, but my grandfather was. Now explain, please, what you were doing to my patient.”
She glanced at Zavier, so deathly pale on the bed. If she had to guess, she’d say he was only in his twenties, but he looked older with his skin so sickly pale and nearly translucent. It pained her to see someone who should have been in his prime looking that way.
She couldn’t think how to explain away the smell of magic in the room, so she told Dr. Ziga the truth, well, part of it. “You were wrong about my brain.”
“Was I?” Dr. Ziga didn’t sound at all surprised. She turned toward him again so she could watch his face.
đź“– Wolf (Curse of the Hybrids Book 3) Excerpt
Ms. Carrier made a shooing motion behind her back with her hand, then marched toward one of the shelves by the wall. Honey was curious, but by the way the librarian was acting, the two old women and thirty-something man must be important. She didn’t want Ms. Carrier to get in trouble because of her. Besides, she could watch them from above as long as they didn’t duck into a room.
“You there, what’s your name?”
Honey let her foot fall and turned. She should have moved faster. A set of bright blue eyes bored into her. The old woman had to be in at least her 80’s. Her short hair and the sharp way she was dressed screamed leader though, instead of granny, and she emanated power; not magical power, more like force of will. The woman with her was younger, perhaps in her 60’s, and softer in hairstyle, dress, and face. She had kind eyes, but there was a general feeling of sadness around her.
Honey couldn’t have said why, but she knew she did not want any of them to know her name. She gave them the name she and her mom had come up with a long time ago. It was easy to remember because it started with the same letter as her real name and said what she was trying to do, hide.
đź“– Witch (Curse of the Hybrids Book 4) Excerpt
“I’m Frederica,” the girl said.
“H..” Honey coughed and cleared her throat, then sent the girl a smile over her shoulder. “Sorry. My name is Isabelle.”
The clothes reeked of thrift store and new clothes. Honey wondered if the girl could tell. She’d taken all the labels off and opened the new packages of underwear in the car in case someone watched her unpack, but she couldn’t fix the smell. To hurry things along, she took the little bag with her new toiletries out of the duffel bag, then dumped everything else inside the washer including the duffel bag. To further cover the smell, she poured more detergent over the top.
“Have you ever done laundry before?” the girl asked.
“Yep.” Honey turned a knob and pushed a button. It started, so Jessica must not have lied about that part.
“That’s a lot of detergent.”
Honey turned her back on the washer and gave her mysterious new friend a grin. “I like my clothes to smell clean. Were you going to wash something too?”
“Oh, no. I was just…” she waved toward the door.
đź“– Fugitive (Curse of the Hybrids Book 5) Excerpt
“Turn it up.”
“Yes, Your Highness. Will there be anything else Your Highness?” Cici asked, bowing beside the big screen TV his mom had ordered hung in his room while he was in the hospital.
Brayton threw a pillow. Cici easily dodged it. Two weeks of taking it easy and he was already losing his skills.
“Why are we watching this again?” Malcolm asked, tilting precariously back in his chair and tossing pieces of Brayton’s chocolate drizzled caramel popcorn into his mouth.
“Because Nathan and Walter are making a presentation, doofus,” Cici said, plopping down on the side of the bed. “It’s not everyday people our age are allowed to appear in front of the council.”
“Over-achievers.” The next piece of popcorn flew over Malcolm’s head and bounced off the wall and into his hair.
“Stop it, Malcolm. If you make a mess Mom’s going to blame me.”
“No she won’t,” Cici said. “She’d never blame her precious, blind Brayton.”
“I’m not blind.”
đź“– Monster (Curse of the Hybrids Book 6) Excerpt
“Um, kiss me.”
“You’re going to anchor yourself to my lips?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“With your lips?”
She felt herself turning red again. “I have to touch each of you with a unique part of my body that I don’t use to anchor to anything else so I know who I’m going to. I don’t plan on kissing anyone else so…”
He cut her off with another kiss so outstanding, she nearly forgot to plant her anchor. It didn’t help her oddly weak knees at all when he whispered “That is the sexiest thing anyone has ever said or did to me. You can anchor yourself to my lips any time.”
“That gives a whole new meaning to lip-locked,” Luca commented.
“Just stop,” Nathan said.
“Do you have to touch a body? Could it be a thing?” Walter asked.
đź“– Fated (Curse of the Hybrids Book 7) Excerpt
Honey yawned and poked her head out from under the sagging bed to swivel her ears unimpeded. Someone was inside the house. She crept out of the sleeping bag and, shivering at the sudden loss of warmth, sent the bag to the nether with the tip of her tail. Being careful to avoid the creaky part of the floor, she padded to the top of the staircase and peeked down. Whoever it was hadn’t made it to the steps yet. The beaded curtain she’d found elsewhere in the abandoned house and nailed up in the middle of the stairs was hanging quietly.
The musty scent of wolves wafted up the steps. Darn. She wouldn’t be able to hide here anymore. Wait, she recognized that scent. A familiar furry head appeared at the bottom of the steps and looked right up at her. Tongue lolling, eyes wide with excitement, the wolf charged up the stairs and right through the beads, pulling the whole curtain down. He didn’t even slow. A moment later he was all over Honey, yipping and licking and bouncing around her like a pup.
đź“– The Beastly Prince (Royal Book I) Excerpt
“Royal, come! Your bride has arrived,” King Belos called out in a grand fashion.
My heart jumped from nerves. Where was he? I scanned the people before us, but only a few were dressed like nobles and none of them looked like the portrait I’d seen. Maybe he wasn’t here. Maybe he’d suffered a horrible accident while his father was away and I was free. No, I didn’t want that. Maybe he’d suffered a horrible accident and was unconscious and therefore couldn’t say the words to bind us together. Yes, that would work.
Abruptly, the crowd parted and my hopes crashed. A cloaked man with dark hair stalked toward us between all the other strangers. He looked nothing like the prince’s portrait except for the dark hair and broad shoulders. Maybe he was just an adviser. Whoever he was, he was much taller than the king, at least a head, with a well-defined jaw, sharp cheekbones, and his eyes…I couldn’t look away. I have never seen eyes that color on a human. They were golden with little stripes of brown and green. He couldn’t be the prince – the prince in the portrait had brown eyes.
đź“– The Beastly Spy (Royal Book II) Excerpt
The carriage lurched to a stop. Hilda and I were perched on the backwards facing seat so we only crashed into the wall behind us. Jans nearly launched into us.
“Everyone all right? There’s a tree blocking our path,” our guard Silas said just outside the door.
My eyes met Jans’. Any second now.
“Hello wealthy travelers,” a rich, jovial voice called from somewhere behind the carriage. “We have come to collect the toll for using the king’s highway. There are six of you and twenty of us. Lower your swords. If you remain calm no one will be harmed.”
“Word?”
That was Royal’s voice.
“You have my word as the king of thieves.”
“For whatever that is worth,” Jans said under his breath.
“Who is in the carriage. No, don’t bother. I’ll get it.”
đź“– The Lost Prince (Royal Book III) Excerpt
Our guard, Silas, and Royal’s valet, Jans, were waiting for us when we stepped outside. Silas put his hand to his sword, but Royal stopped him with a wave of his finger. Jans walked beside us, but far enough away that the guards’ swords wouldn’t reach him. “What has happened?”
“King Rupert…” I stopped when I felt the point on my back. “We have been arrested for the murder of the baron.”
“But it was in self-defense!” Silas protested.
“I told Prince Hestian that. He would not listen.”
“I’ll figure out a way to get you free,” Jans promised.
Royal shook his head. “No. Go. Father.”
“Royal, your father would have my head if I abandoned you. Just give me a couple of days. Don’t do anything foolish.”
đź“– The Beastly King (Royal Book IV) Excerpt
About twenty of his paces later, we entered a small rocky clearing with a little creek running along the edge. I quickly took in the remains of a fire and a pile of date branches, but what really caught my attention was the man asleep on a pile of grass. Royal roared.
Ricardo sprang awake and scrambled to his feet.
“Your Highnesses.” He dropped down on one knee and into a bow.
“Rise,” I said. I shifted over to slide off Royal’s back. He lowered himself so I wouldn’t have to drop so far.
Ricardo rose with a grin. “I knew it was you, Your Highness,” he said to Royal.
Royal growled and looked at the fire and pile of grass and the dates, of which several had been eaten. Ricardo’s face fell. “I-I’m sorry, Your Highness. It was late when I found this spot. I sat down to wait and I must have gotten cold and hungry and tired because the fire got lit, the dates went into my belly, and the grass fell under my head.”
I laughed, a real laugh, for the first time in weeks. Ricardo smiled again, but at me this time. “It is good to hear your laugh again, Princess.”
Royal snorted.
I reached up and he put his jaw in my hand. “Now why are you out of sorts?”