This book is over 58k words
Guarded and grounded is a book about two different couples.
Gargoyle Dultyn has the heavy burden of his past to bare.
What seems like a cruel hand of fate, his mate is Alphy’s little sister,
Havana. The only way he can bare to wait for her his to not talk to her at all
until her eighteenth birthday. But what she doesn’t know is that he plans not
to mate her. She is too young, just starting out in her life. He could only
hold her back and that would cause her to resent him. But when she gets
abducted, just how much resolve does he truly have?
Havana Kaska knew the moment she first met Dultyn that he
was her mate. Since she was still underage, she followed his lead and avoided
him…when he was awake. She copes by taking frequent trips out to the barn when he roosts.
There, she talks to her mate’s petrified form. Even though he can’t hear her,
it helps her through the pain she suffers keeping her distance. However, she
expects him to claim her just as soon as she blows out those eighteen candles.
She’s usually pretty strong, but taking several emotional hits, she discovers
when it comes to her mate, she loses control.
Falcon shifter, Phoenix Savage was orphaned just after he
learned to shift. A racist culling by his own childhood cast. Adopted by Enzo’s
family, he stayed by the wolf shifters side all these decades. But in the past
years, he never really got enough time in his fluff so after settling into the
pack, he was happy to spend as much time in his falcon form as he could. He
wasn’t in any hurry to get a mate…until she appeared from the clouds, sharing the
same airspace as him. Now he wants her and will do anything to get her.
Bronya Webber is a human recovery pilot working for her
father, repossessing planes for the bank. When her most recent repo starts to
lose power, she has no idea the whiplash life she was about to be thrown into
when she made an emergency landing in a field of wildflowers. Three days later,
she’s endured a volatile introduction to the paranormal world, a plane crash,
several hot claiming’s by her mate and an encounter with her crazed stalker who
shoots her new mate. Oh, and another eye opener, her parents knew about
paranormals all along. When Seamus had told her things happened fast in the
paranormal world, she’s finding her breath hard to come by with the
understatement of his words.
Excerpt for Barely Winging It
Dultyn landed with his weight thundering through the ground
at his impact. He flung his arm out and around, and the water coating his arm
splattered into the shifter as Dultyn backhanded him. Before the shifter could
finish sliding across the muddy ground, Dultyn was standing over him. Pulling
his fist back, he let it fly forward and pummeled the downed shifter into
unconsciousness.
Whipping around, he quickly spotted the woman sitting on the
ground. Water soaked into her ebony curls and ran down past her widened eyes,
into and around her opened mouth. She was leaning back against her hands and
her knees were bent, ready to crab walk backwards away from him. He had to hand
it to her. She wasn’t running away screaming in panic. That was a common
reaction.
“I am Dultyn. I am friends with Nix and Enzo. I will not
hurt you.”
The shocked human slowly nodded, then placed herself in a
slightly more comfortable position. He could scent she was exceptionally leery
of him, but not quite afraid, like she didn’t know what to make of him.
The rain started to let up just a little bit, and he soon
heard a falcon screeching through the air and paws beating the earth drawing
near. Enzo’s wolf came into view and slowed down. His wet and muddy paws
splashed against the soggy earth while he trotted towards Dultyn. His fur was
smeared with blood. It ran off his coat and dripped onto the ground.
Dultyn motioned to the shifter. “This is Enzo. He won’t hurt
you. Nix is here, too.” He looked up, and the woman followed his eyes to a
falcon landing on a low branch.
He heard her draw in her breath. “The falcon I saw.”
Nix spread his wings and glided to the ground. Enzo trotted
over and sniffed the unconscious attacker and stood guard over him. Nix shifted
in front of the woman. Once he was fully formed, kneeling on the soggy ground,
he held his hands up. “I’m not going to hurt you. I am so terribly sorry you
had to find out about us like this. I wanted to wait for a better time when I
felt you would be more ready for me to show you.” Nix inched forward, but
Dultyn could see her eyes roam Nix’s naked flesh and after viewing what was in
between his legs, her brows drew up. He couldn’t help chuckle. Just about all
shifters were bigger … everywhere.
Her eyes darted to him, then Enzo’s wolf, then back to Nix,
who stopped advancing after he was right in front of her with his hands held
out to her. “Let me hold you, please. I promise we aren’t going to hurt you,
especially me. You are very special to me.”
“You were the one in the field that day?” Her voice was
tentative.
“Yes. I’ll explain everything to you, but right now I would
really appreciate it if you would let me hold you. I promise not to do anything
else. I just need to hold you to assure myself and my falcon that you are all
right.”
After a moment of thought, she nodded. Nix’s relief was
noticeable. Dultyn saw his chest heave in a relieved sigh, and his shoulders
relaxed. The woman placed her hands in Nix’s, and he drew her to him. Both on
their knees, he held her securely. Dultyn could see Nix’s eyes were closed as
he slightly relaxed, and a fully relieved look passed over his features.
Dultyn’s heart ached. He wanted that with his mate. They’d both made mistakes,
but he wasn’t going to focus on who did what. He was determined just to fix
them. It was well past midnight though, and with this new mess, he wasn’t sure
if he could fix his mistake tonight, but if not, he vowed he would tomorrow.
Even if he had to fly through hell and face the beast, he would.
A growl drew everyone’s attention to Enzo. The unconscious
attacker was coming to. When the offender opened his eyes, Enzo placed a heavy
paw on his chest and continued to growl in the man’s face. The man tilted his
head and bared his neck in submission to the more dominant shifter.
Nix stood up, taking his mate with him, and led her to stand
by Dultyn. “Bronya, this is Dultyn. Dultyn, this is my mate, Bronya. Would you
watch her while I back up Enzo?”
Dultyn nodded. He watched Nix place a slight kiss on the
woman’s cheek then turned to help the beta. Rain spattered off his naked
shoulders creating cords of water that streamed down his body, pulling stray
droplets down with them as they connected.
Dultyn spread out a wing and held it over the woman, hoping
to keep her sheltered and slightly warmer.
Nix directed his anger at the man. “Get on your feet!”
Before the man sat up, Slate, in his lion form, leaped into
the tiny clearing and slid in the mud to a stop. Dultyn heard Bronya gasp next
to him. “Do not worry, that is Slate. He is part of our pack and won’t hurt you
or Nix. The shifter on the ground, however, might get a little roughed up if he
isn’t careful.”
Bronya didn’t respond, but she slightly relaxed. She
remained silent as they watched the offending shifter slowly rise, keeping his
neck exposed the entire time. Popping joints and ligaments added to the sound
of the rain as Slate shifted.
Looking down at the wolf, Slate addressed the beta, “Matteo
stayed in the room waiting for us.” The wolf nodded his head, then nipped at
their prisoner’s heels to get him moving. “Why aren’t you shifting?” Slate
asked.
“Because he knows how pissed off it would make me for
someone else to be naked in front of my mate,” Nix bit out irritably. Dultyn
saw his jaw twitch as he clinched his jaw and the look on his face mirrored
what his own had when he had seen Havana undress and stand naked on the porch
the night before.
Slate looked around and nodded his head towards Dultyn and
Bronya. Then looking back, he raised a brow at the irritated falcon shifter.
“I’m mated, thus, I don’t want her, so get over it.”
