Guest Post – An Excuse to Read by Kiki Howell

Years ago I came across two books on dragon magick in a bookstore. The idea of spells that take you to a realm where dragon live fascinated me. Beyond belief or disbelief in these books labeled as non-fiction, I had to have them. Of course, with my schedule, family, writing, and all, they sat on my book shelves yellowing. But, when I was asked to write a story for a shifter paranormal romance boxed set, I knew I’d found my excuse to finally open them up and read.

Part of the books is a listing of all of the dragons that the author had met with the spells. Their names and clans and a little about what they revealed to her is there. Given I read the books in the summer, and I’m not a fan of the heat, the snow white dragon caught my eye as my shifter. I didn’t read the books in their entirety, but I never found a description of what the realms themselves were like. So, I mixed this black abyss with the lore of them guarding treasure to create a place where one floats in a gem-lit sky of sorts. To be honest, I wanted the challenge of writing a hot sex scene there *winks*

A happy accident in reading the books was finding a spell to heal auric wounds. Like many spell books, there are always spells or parts of spells that prepare the witch, clearing energy and such to give him or her a clean slate in which to practice, free from the trapping of this world that could interfere. Since I prefer to write the damaged hero or heroine, I gave my human the auric wounds in the story, creating yet another obstacle between her and her dragon mate. You know, as if being a dragon shifter from another realm in love with a human wasn’t enough.

Regardless, I had a lot of fun both researching and writing my dragon shifter story. I hope you will enjoy reading it. It has never before been published, so it’s releasing first in the Alpha Shifter Seductions Paranormal Romance Box Set alongside many other fantastic shifter stories that I’m dying to read myself.

Below is a little information on the Alpha Shifter Seductions Box Set and an excerpt from my contribution.

****WARNING: HIGH HEAT LEVEL**** 

Alpha Shifter Seductions features your favorite NYT, USA Today, International Bestselling and Award Winning Authors bringing you a scorching ***ALL NEW*** book collection of never-before-seen page turners filled to bursting with seductive shifters.
These hot Alphas will seduce you as you follow dragons, wolves, big cats, and other shifters behind closed doors and between the sheets toward that happily ever after every romantic at heart secretly craves.
Find out what pleasures these Alphas can offer when the temperatures shift!

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013TJQW82

All Romance Ebooks:https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-alphashifterseductionsshifterparanormalromanceboxedset-1870326-166.html

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/alpha-shifter-seductions-kiki-howell/1122537289

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/alpha-shifter-seductions

Apple/ibooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/alpha-shifter-seductions/id1030951708?mt=11

When the Snow Flies by Kiki Howell Excerpt:

She couldn’t shake her head and make it go away. No amount of rubbing her eyes with gritty hands made it any different. Even blinking didn’t change anything. She didn’t need to pinch herself to know she was awake, given the tiny cuts she had on her body that stung with the dust and debris that had landed on them. She had no choice at some point but to believe that this dragon above her was real, even though some part of her still fought the idea as ridiculous.

After some time of patrolling, the white dragon landed gracefully on the ground. She got up on her knees to keep him in view. In a swirl of lights filled with sparkling snow—not stars as she had originally thought—the dragon seemed to literally melt into a human. As soon as the light died down, this completely naked man ran into the cabin, took the stairs, and ended up in the doorway to what was left of the room.

Now, her breath really caught. Her heart and lungs failed her for a minute as she took him in. His unnaturally white locks hung in longer waves, framing his face, playing off of the glittering scruff of hair over his lip and lining his jaw. Her eyes trailed down over him, his pale skin covering tight muscle that bulged over his shoulders and chest, leading to a perfect cut of abdominal muscles. At the base of his stomach, just below his belly button, a patch of glistening hair led her eyes to a handsome package, already getting excited just by seeing her.

Her heart did a flip in her chest. She glanced at his hands in fists, appreciating the way his veins on his lower arms trailed over the muscles there. Her body begged to be touched in an undeniable hunger that she though permanently dormant inside of her. He looked at her, as filthy as she was from the fall of the roof, as if she were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, with a hunger of his own glistening in those ice-blue eyes that she swore pierced through her to her very soul.

“We have to go,” he said suddenly. “You need to follow me out. Once I turn, you will climb onto my back, and I will take you away with me. I know it is a lot to ask, but he will come back. This is what he does, takes off and returns. He’s not done with me tonight, or trying to get to you. Especially now that he knows you are my mate, or I would not have been here protecting you. You have to trust me. I can hide you in another realm, get you cleaned up, and we can talk all you want.”

“Fly away with you, on that white dragon into another realm?” she cried, choking on each word she managed to get out.

“Yes. He can’t get to us there. We have dragons that protect the realm. But, we can also be alone and talk. I’m sure you have more questions.”

“Questions? Right. But, get on an animal, I guess for lack of a better term, one that I’m still having trouble even believing exists and let it take me away to another realm, whatever that means, that is so far beyond a leap of faith I don’t know what to call it.”

“I know. And, I’m sorry. I haven’t hurt you. You must trust me. He is going to come back any minute, and I have to protect you. I will take you by force otherwise; grab you and fly away. I don’t see as if you have a choice. Sorry. Again. It is all I can do to keep you safe, keep you alive.”

“You do realize that you are not only asking me to trust you, but you are asking me to accept a world of myths and legends. Of things that kid’s books or sometimes nightmares are made of?”