Title: Alpha’s Fire Author: Renee Ross and Lee Savino Series: Shifter Ops #4 Genre: Paranormal Romance
I’ve waited 1000 years for my mate. If she rejects me, I’ll burn down the world.
She woke the dragon.
Every maiden dreams of being rescued by a handsome prince from a deadly dragon. But I am the prince and the dragon.
Ancient courtship rituals demand I steal my bride away. Imprison her in my high tower. Show her my treasures, my vast lands and armies.
I’ve done all that, and she still refuses me. She says she can’t see herself with a man who still thinks Istanbul is Constantinople.
I must woo her, and I don’t know how. But beneath my beating human heart, a dragon sleeps. And when he wakes, no one can stop him from destroying the world.
The chilly air nips my skin, bared by my tank top. An hour into my hike, I’ve already shed my jacket—I’m a strange combination of cold and sweaty. Weird, but it feels good.
There’s snow on the peaks towering ahead of me. It’s spring here, but snow still lingers in the long shadows of the thickly clustered pines.
This early in the morning, my breath puffs as I trek across a frozen field where a few yellow wildflowers poke their heads up over the matted grass. I’m the only tourist crazy enough to be hiking so early in the season. I haven’t seen anyone on the trail. The mountains of northern Italy are technically the Alps, but the locals call them I Dolomiti. The hike I chose isn’t as challenging as the ones that would carry me up the tallest peak, but my thighs burn from the steady incline. It’s still better than swaying down a catwalk in five-inch heels and a weird poofy dress that left most of my back and butt uncovered. When I was a model, I’d do anything for fashion but no longer. This model has officially quit the circuit.
“I don’t understand,” my mother wailed when I called to tell her. “You were doing so well. You were making such great contacts.” In mom-speak, that meant I was meeting men. Rich men who’d love to have a model on their arm. The sort of man my mom hoped would sweep me off my feet and give me a diamond ring and marriage proposal or at least a diamond watch and an extended stay in his private penthouse. Maybe even a car and a few trips to the Riviera or Seychelles.
The type of man my mother always chased after.
I didn’t tell her that it was my date with exactly that kind of man that broke me. I was at another boring after-party on the arm of a short stock broker named Paul. Perfectly nice guy, but just because I’m a model and his head barely clears my shoulder doesn’t mean that he has the right to put his hand on my ass.
I’ve stomped across the meadow and up the trail that’s disappearing between the blue-gray pines before I realize I’m muttering under my breath. A bird trills on an evergreen branch above my head, and my rage disappears.
I take a moment to clear my lungs. The air is fresh and better than any expensive cologne. The water flowing from a mountain stream is pure snowmelt and probably tastes like heaven. Tiny purple flowers peek up from the cracks in the gray rocks, and the bird above my head warbles like his sex life depends on it.
I’m far from the fashion circuit in Milan. No more crowded events that overwhelm my senses. No more clashing auras or toxic energies leaving me with a headache, desperate to get away. No more handsy businessmen who treat me like a cigar–a possession, an indulgence, a prop.
No more sharing an apartment with six other half-starved young people whose daily food intake adds up to barely half a sandwich. The first thing I did after I told my agent I quit was eat a giant bowl of cheesy pasta.
Right now, my backpack is full of the best provisions: good cheese, a local red wine, and several packs of biscotti.
I may have disappointed my mother, but I feel better than I have in a year. Like a weight lifted off my chest.
It’s been almost three months since I quit and started wandering like a vagabond. I spent a little of my fashion week earnings on a pair of hiking boots and a backpack. The rest of my nest egg has gone to reserving the little mountain huts called rifugios and a nice rental near Lake Como where I stayed while waiting for the snow to melt.
The plan is to hike Alta Via 1 and beyond. Spend the summer in the mountains. And after that, who knows? I’m eighteen, and I can do anything. This spring is the start of my new life.
Fifteen minutes of climbing, and my thighs are shaking, but it’s all worth it when I round the corner and come across a magical mountain lake. The water is a brilliant teal, an ethereal color as bright and shocking as a Lilly Pullitzer jumper.
I can’t resist going to the edge and dipping my hand in, but instead of bracing cold, the water is warm as a freshly drawn bath. In the middle of the lake, steam’s rising off the surface.
Is this a hot spring? If so, my guidebook didn’t mention it.
I drop my jacket and my pack. Facing the clear pool, I feel extra grimy. I’m so tempted to strip everything off and jump in.
But I’m not alone.
There’s a man in the pool. His dark head is even with a rocky outcropping, which is why I didn’t see him before.
Once I see him, I can’t look away. He’s not swimming, but walking in the shallows. Water streams off his sculpted shoulders, lapping lovingly at his massive pectoral muscles. A few more steps towards the shore, and water flows away from his diamond-hard abs, cut and sculpted with the precision of a shower, not a grower. Except actually… He is a grower. Because the longer I stare at his cock, the bigger it gets. “Holy hell,” I mutter. This wild man in the wilderness with a beard like John the Baptist is making me hotter and wetter between my legs than I’ve ever been. Maybe I’m just in a dry spell.
USA Today Bestselling Author Renee Rose loves a dominant, dirty-talking alpha hero! She’s sold over a million copies of steamy romance with varying levels of kink. Her books have been featured in USA Today’s Happily Ever After and Popsugar. Named Eroticon USA’s Next Top Erotic Author in 2013, she has also won Spunky and Sassy’s Favorite Sci-Fi and Anthology author, and Romance Reviews Best Historical Romance. She’s hit the USA Today list ten times with her Chicago Bratva, Bad Boy Alpha, Wolf Ranch books, and various anthologies.
Lee Savino has grandiose goals but most days can’t find her wallet or her keys so she just stays at home and writes. While she was studying creative writing at Hollins University, her first manuscript won the Hollins Fiction Prize.
he lives in the USA with her awesome family You can find her on Facebook in the Goddess Group (which you totally should join).
I’m just a human, standing in front of the devil… …trying not to succumb to my darkest desires.
The truth is, all a girl really needs is chocolate and a lifetime supply of AA batteries.
Well, that and revenge on the ex that destroyed my career as an investigative journalist.
Which is why the devilishly handsome dark angel that saved my life is nothing more than a means to an end. Getting close to him will resurrect my career.
But when he looks at me like I’m his greatest desire, I can’t resist the temptation of knowing what forbidden fruit like him would taste like.
After all, I’ve learned my lesson. This time it’s just pleasure, no attachment.
Because men like him were made to break hearts, and mine can’t afford anymore cracks.
The way he looked at me, as if he were nervous but at the same time, wanted something from me. I knew his reputation, of course. And though I had zero desire to be one of hundreds, I had to admit that it felt good to think that a man who could have any woman here was choosing me.
Maybe Alexis is right. Maybe I need a one-night stand.
A glance at his lips had me wondering if he was as talented with that mouth as his reputation said he was. The thought flashed through my brain and straight to my clit so fast that I couldn’t breathe for a second.
And that’s why I should’ve gotten those batteries for my vibrator last week. I’m way too horny to think straight.
“Listen,” I said, shifting away from him with an iron will, “I have no judgment on what you do with the copious amounts of women you’ve pursued over the years.”
“Funny, it doesn’t sound that way,” the words were spoken more bite than before.
“I just don’t want to be one of them.”
“And who says you would be?”
I leveled a look that said I could see right through him and shook my head.
“You know,” he said, closing the distance I’d created a moment ago. “maybe you’re not my type.”
“Oh dear, I’ve wounded your fragile ego.”
He laughed.
“Hardly.”
Now it was my turn to lean in. I knew that, in this dress, such a move would show more cleavage. I was playing with fire. But for once, I wanted the upper hand when it came to a man, and I had a feeling showing Nathan what he couldn’t have was the way to do it.
“You’re not the kind of man that likes to lose, are you?”
“I don’t experience it very often, let’s put it like that.”
“Oh, so you’re saying this is new for you?”
“Having a woman play hard to get when what she really wants is to climb me like a tree?”
My lips parted with surprise, because while I was rehearsing why I should run away, I was indeed wanting that.
Now Nathan leaned in again, which brought him very close to my lips. He stared at them with a hungry glint in his eye that stole my breath. When was the last time a man had looked me like that?
He’ll use you and throw you out with the morning trash, don’t forget that.
I pressed my lips together and stood up a little straighter, barely getting an inch more space between us.
“It happens sometimes,” he continued.
“And let me guess,” I said, proud of the fact that my voice was still hard as granite, “they always give in?”
He grinned at me like I was the prey and he was going to savor every square inch of me. It sent heat pooling in my core, which I grit my teeth against.
“If you’re not going to tell me your name,” he said, “I’ll just call you Red.”
I frowned at the change in subject. What the hell was he talking about? Then I looked down at the dress and blushed.
“My name is Tessa.”
“Too late, Red suits you. And on the subject of women giving in. Yes, they do.”
I swallowed.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, and do you want to know why?”
Before I could answer, Nathan continued. His voice took on the feel of molten chocolate on my skin, all sweet, dark seduction.
“Because they want to know what it’s like, just once, to be thoroughly explored like the delicious specimens of beauty they are.”
My lips parted and I took in a surprised breath.
Nathan’s eyes zeroed in on me, his body so close to mine that I could feel the heat radiating from him. His smile faded and he brought his lips to my ear. The feather touch of his breath on my cheek sent shivers down my spine. I was frozen in place, helpless against the power of the lust he’d stoked in me. “I bet no one’s ever taken the time to do it properly, have they?” he whispered.
Trish has been obsessed with stories about female heroes ever since she put on her first pair of Wonder Woman under-roos and spun around. After realizing that fear of failure had been holding her back, Trish became her very own hero and participated in National Novel Writing Month in 2015.
Since then, Trish has braved the constant attacks of her nemeses Inner Critic and No Time, in order to achieve the impossible: An artistic life with two kids!
Trish was one of the co-creators of the super hero comedy web series “The Collectibles”. She’s also one of the masterminds behind Superhero-Fiction.com, a one stop shop for superhero books, and one of the hosts of the Geekorama podcast.
Her first novel “Serpent’s Return” was re-released in 2019 and is the first book in an Urban Fantasy Superhero series, The Vigilantes: The Rise of Heroes. She writes Superhero Urban fantasy under T.L. Heinrich, and Superhero Romance under Trish Heinrich You can find her and her superhero series at www.trishheinrich.com
Biochemist Talya knew what she’d discovered was too dangerous to reveal. After two months as a captive of the mob, she’s broken…until she’s rescued by two devastatingly sexy men.
Relentless billionaire Henri Fortin gives Talya a safe place to recover…after purchasing her at a forbidden auction. It wasn’t the most traditional rescue, but now that she’s in his home, Henri will do anything to protect her.
Milo wasn’t able to save Talya before. He’s haunted by the fact that he had to walk away and leave her captive. Now that she’s secure he should leave…but he doesn’t want to. Because he’s drawn to Talya and Henri.
However the past, and the promises they made to Europe’s most powerful secret society, aren’t the only things standing in their way. They’re all keeping secrets…and the Camorra isn’t finished with Talya.
Virginia native Mari Carr is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller of contemporary romance novels. With over one million copies of her books sold, Mari was the winner of the Romance Writers of America’s Passionate Plume award for her novella, Erotic Research. She has over a hundred published works, including her popular Wild Irish and Compass books, along with the Trinity Masters series she writes with Lila Dubois.
Lila Dubois is a multi-published, bestselling author of erotic, paranormal and fantasy romance. Her books have been nominated for many awards including RT Book Reviews Erotic Novella for Undone Rebel and the Golden Flogger. Having spent extensive time in France, Egypt, Turkey, Ireland and England Lila speaks five languages, none of them (including English) fluently. Lila lives in California with her own Irish Farm Boy and loves receiving email from readers.
