Aiden
“AJ” Shepherd’s mistake during a Shifter Army Enforcement
rescue mission cost Ellie Ortiz’s brother, Marco, his life. Ellie
hates AJ with a burning passion until a chance encounter with him on
New Year’s Eve reveals he’s not the cold, heartless man she once
thought him to be. Her attraction to him takes her by surprise, and
she vows to ignore her feelings. When a new job puts her in contact
with him every day, the heat building between them threatens to flare
out of control. Her resolve to keep the sweet, sexy man in the friend
zone is weakening by the day.
He’s
convinced she’s his mate, but a secret could ruin
everything
Whether
they’re fighting off fanatics who target shifters or working
together to get his shifter resort, Haven Forest, ready for the grand
opening, AJ can’t get enough of Ellie. Convincing her to give him a
chance, more than the one-night-of-fun idea she’s proposed, might
be impossible, but he’s fallen too hard for her not to try. During
a disastrous assignment with Shifters United, AJ uncovers some
information that changes everything. Keeping the secret from Ellie is
killing him but he might lose her forever if he tells her the
truth.
When Ellie ends up at the heart of a reporter’s plot
to prove the existence of shifters, she and AJ must fight their way
to freedom. The survival of shifters everywhere depends on it.
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Excerpt: (action/suspense)
AJ staggered toward Ellie, holding his side. She caught him before he fell. Blood poured down the side of his face. She pulled the hood of his coat over his head to hide the blood.
People rushed over to them, asking if he was alright.
I guess they only care how he is now that the fighting is over.
“He’s fine. Just a little bruised up.”
The wolf shifter woman cleared a path to AJ and guarded his other side. “I’ll help you get him to the woods. My friend can stall the cops and do crowd control while you guys shift out your injuries.”
“Thank you. Seriously, thank you.”
The wolf shifter nodded. “No problem. Hurry.”
Ellie grasped AJ’s face in her hands and looked him in the eye. “We just have to get to the woods. It’s not far. Stay awake and stay with me. I can’t carry you. Understand?”
“Yeah.” His voice was barely audible.
An eternity later, they found a spot amongst the pine trees and bushes with enough cover for him to shift. “Hold on. Don’t shift yet. Let me pull these chunks of metal out of your head first.”
He cursed as she pulled one particularly large, jagged chunk out of his scalp. Blood poured down his face and neck. His eyes drifted shut.
“Come on! Wake up! Shift!”
He slumped over, oblivious to her yelling. She stripped him then dug her fingers into his stab wound. He growled and shifted into bear form. A sob of relief escaped her. AJ shifted back to human form, then, a split second later, he was a giant furry brown bear again. The bear walked around for a moment, dug his claws into a tree, then pressed his nose to Ellie’s cheek, making her laugh. In the blink of an eye, he was in human form again.
“You’re alright now?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You’re sure?” She ran her fingers over the places on his head she’d seen cut and gouged. No sign of any wounds. She looked at his eyes. He focused on her properly. She breathed out a sigh of relief. “I’ve seen more than one shifter be pressed for time to heal and they weren’t healed up as well as they thought.” His injuries hadn’t been superficial. He wouldn’t have made it to their room to shift in privacy without being stopped by well-meaning regulars—shifters and psy often referred to humans with no strange, extraordinary abilities as regulars—insistent on taking him to a hospital.
People who hated shifters lurked in hospitals, watching, waiting to destroy anyone they found out of the ordinary. Today, some ignorant haters had almost killed AJ, at a damn winter festival celebration. Nowhere was truly safe. She was still freaked at how close he had been to losing consciousness and never waking up. She knew damn well he would have died if he hadn’t shifted when he did. She didn’t want his light to burn out. Didn’t want anybody’s light to dim, really, but he was… She shook her head. A good guy. That was all. She didn’t want to see a good person die too young. She wrapped her arms around herself and her eyes teared up.
“Hey,” he spoke softly, “look at me.”
She met his gaze, reluctantly.
“I’m all right,” he assured her. “The important thing is, a group of angry men didn’t get the chance to beat the living hell out of a shifter teenager.”
She nodded.
He gently stroked her cheek and his hand came away bloody. “Your turn to shift.” She hadn’t felt any pain in her face. Probably because several of her ribs were cracked and her stomach had a fist-sized knot in it where she’d been punched. She stepped behind a tree, undressed, and shifted. B shook out her thick black fur and walked around a few paces in the woods. After a moment, she reluctantly shifted back to human form. Ellie stopped still when she caught AJ staring at her.
“Damn, you’re beautiful.” His appreciative tone wrapped around her. She gulped and ducked behind the tree to put her clothes back on. She emerged, wrapped back up in her bloodstained winter coat and clothes. At least the blood wouldn’t show up since everything she was wearing was black.
Excerpt: (this involves a kiss but is pretty PG-13)
“You’re pretty amazing. I hope you know that.”
Her cheeks got hot at the compliment. She popped the last bite of cherry pie into her mouth to keep from saying something stupid and gushy back to him.
The opening chords to R.E.M’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” played and spotlights hit the screen behind the stage. Colored lights all around the courtyard lit up in time with the music. She and AJ stood and cheered with the rest of the crowd. The drum beat and guitar notes of every song reached out to fire up the courtyard. The music washed over her and she forgot for a moment every other care she had as the light show dazzled her.
After the show ended, they both agreed it was time to call it a day and head back to the hotel room. AJ made some chamomile tea in the coffeepot and she sat down next to him on the sofa. They were halfway into an episode of The Twilight Zone when he turned to her. “Thanks for looking out for me today, and getting me into the woods so I could shift out my injuries. I would’ve hated to have passed out and been forced to go to a hospital by some well-meaning regular.”
“I wouldn’t have let that happen.”
He brushed a curl from her face. She didn’t back away. His lips brushed hers, softly, as if he just meant a sweet, gentle kiss, but his grip on her hips was anything but gentle. If only their circumstances were different, then she could kiss him all night long if she wanted to. Still, she couldn’t stop herself from leaning into the kiss. Guilt and desire went to war inside her mind and he drew back, as if he understood.
“Night, Ellie.” His hands were gone from her body but his voice rumbled around her, reaching for her.
“See you in the morning.” She stood up and walked down the hallway, refusing to look back.
What is wrong with me? Kissing him was not okay!
The quilt and soft sheets on the bed made a nice nest for her to hide inside while she forced herself to think about anything except for AJ and how he’d touched her with more tenderness than any man ever had. Including Darien.
Excerpt:
He held on to the door, shocked, nearly certain she could be his mate, and there was nothing he could do about it because when she left Willow Hill, she’d be lost to him, forever.
“Bye, Ellie. Take care.”
“You, too.” Her sad brown eyes shone with a hint of tears but held no promise of a possible future for them.
“If you ever need me”—he cleared his throat— “I mean, if you ever need anything, you have my number.”
She nodded and closed her car door. He wanted to exist in some alternate reality where the reason for Ellie’s sadness was because they were both going their separate ways, and the only way to fix the tears threatening to spill from her eyes would be to sit down in the car next to her. They could spend the whole ride back to her house talking like they had before about music and career plans and favorite foods. When they reached her house, he would to take her into her bedroom and spend hours discovering what made her hot and what made her scream for more.
But in this reality, Ellie didn’t want him. She’d made a mistake in the heat of the moment, kissing him. He knew she regretted the kiss, even if she was kind enough not to say it out loud. He watched her leave the parking deck and drive out of sight. Forgetting her was going to be hell.
Excerpt:
Ellie stirred at the feeling of strong hands under her back. AJ gently picked her up off the sofa.
“Sorry. You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to wake you.”
She accidentally gave a little sigh at the sound of the growly bass of his voice.
“I’m gonna put you in the bedroom and I’ll take the sofa.”
“Okay,” she murmured. She must have fallen asleep before the movie ended. The warmth of his arms encased her, and she was so tired, she gave in to the urge to snuggle into his embrace as he carried her down the hallway. He laid her down on the bed then covered her up in blankets. He paused, stroked a hand down her cheek, then abruptly backed away from her.
“Night, Elena. I’m glad I ran into you today.”
“You can call me Ellie.”
“Ellie.” He spoke her name softly, almost reverently.
She closed her eyes against the desire to sit up and kiss him, to see if he tasted as good as he smelled. If she’d met him in another lifetime or in a parallel universe, then she would have guided his head down so she could taste his lips. Instead, she murmured, “See you in the morning,” and pulled up the covers.
What can we expect from you in the future?
I am working on book 2 in the Haven Forest Resort series. This book will feature Rob, the leopard shifter Head of Security at the resort who had a small part in book 1. I will also be working on completing my Stranger Creatures series as well as publishing some poems in different magazines and anthologies.
How did you come up with the idea for Bear’s Dream (Haven Forest Resort book 1)
Aiden “AJ” Shepherd and his brother Greg were both a small part of Bear’s Edge (Stranger Creatures book 2) and the characters stayed on my mind. Eventually I decided that the Shepherd brothers needed their own series so I had the brothers open up a shifter resort in the Haven Forest Resort series. The first book in the series is AJ and Ellie’s story.
Tell us about your main characters.
Ellie makes decisions quickly and sometimes worries that she’s being impulsive. She is an amazing cook and kind-hearted. She has a giant dog named Curtis who she found tied to a tree and starving when she was on a hike with a friend.
AJ is quiet and serious. He spent a lot of time in the Shifter Enforcement Army and saw a lot of horrible things which have weighed on his mind. He and his brother work on opening the resort so shifters can have a place to celebrate things and run free without worries.
How did you come up with the title of the book?
Bear’s Dream is about two bear shifters who would never have chosen to spend time together if it weren’t for a chance meeting in a hotel bar on New Year’s Eve. AJ’s dream of opening a shifter resort is what leads Ellie to end up working for him as an Events Manager. She wants to help AJ and his brother have a successful grand opening and make their dream a reality. Meanwhile, when a relationship between Ellie and AJ seems impossible, she has a recurring steamy dream about him that just won’t leave her alone.
Who designed your book covers?
Fantasia Frog Designs is amazing and they have done the covers for all the books so far in my Stranger Creatures series as well as for Bear’s Dream.
If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
No. I would leave it alone. I love the way Ellie and AJ met again on New Year’s Eve and how she learned he was a much better man than she originally thought.
What is your favorite part of this book and why?
I love the way AJ tells Ellie how he thinks she’s amazing and a good cook. He tells her a lot of really nice things not because he wants to please her but because he sees the truth of her wonderful personality and is honest with her about what he thinks.
If your book had a candle, what scent would it be?
Ellie’s Kitchen - The scent of cinnamon roll cake drifting onto a back porch to mingle with the breeze on a spring night.
Fun Facts/Behind the Scenes/Did You Know?'
Ellie has a terrifying time trying to drive a moving truck to Haven Forest Resort. She has difficulty with depth perception and hit a bush while trying to park the truck.
AJ has a black cat with white tipped ears named Opal. Opal prefers fresh salmon and likes ice cubes in her water.
I wanted to throw my computer out the window several times while writing this book because my kids were in virtual school for almost a year and a half and I couldn’t get any peace and quiet to work.
Before
I had the wild idea to write a book, I worked in a few different
fields. I was in sales for a while, and after I finished college, I
worked as a case manager. When my children were little, I was a
personal trainer and running coach. During the evenings, when I was
supposed to be studying for another fitness training certification, I
started writing a story. Finally, I gave in and acknowledged that
writing is what I’m meant to do. I love creating imperfect
but determined characters who find the courage to love and the
strength to survive in a world where there are no guarantees. My
stories include a fair amount of sarcasm, suspense, steam, and
violence. When I’m not writing, I enjoy spending time outside and
finding ways to avoid cooking. I live in beautiful Virginia with my
husband, two daughters, and a sweet, hairy monster of a dog.
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