Just one more week until Izabel goes live! You can preorder it here or read it on Kindle Unlimited after September 20. As pack healer, Izabel has always been a steady presence in the pack until that first glorious rainstorm on their new home planet brings Security Director Ranoch Til into her life. Click through for a quick teaser of their first kiss.
This snippet is from Chapter Three. Ranoch has stumbled upon Izabel searching for a replacement for Earth Prime’s aloe vera plant and learned some background on the pack. Things get a little steamy.
“You had no communications with the Alliance?”
She snorted. “The installations with intact intergalactic comm systems are viciously guarded by the descendants of the human techs left to maintain the stabilizers. If they’re in contact with the Alliance, they don’t share that information with us filthy half-breed experiments. Mercer’s smarter and luckier than any other wolf I know to have gotten a message out.”
“So they created and then abandoned you.”
“Centuries ago, but yes. If you or your razheen are worried about loyalties, I don’t know anyone in Sorrow who has any toward the humans and their Alliance.”
“Their loss.” His voice was cold, unyielding when he gestured to encompass the plant and her pack. “If they can’t see the value in what you’ve accomplished, they don’t deserve you or your pack. You call the process of creating medications from practically nothing ‘simple,’ when there’s nothing simple about it.”
“Maybe not, but it’s necessary.”
“On Sorrow, yes, but why here?”
Once she’d repacked her gear, Ranoch stood and offered his hand. She jumped at the contact as she always did. His touch a mixture of rough skin, gentle fingers, and a searing heat which warmed her from the inside out. That jolt of heat, of primal awareness sang to her wolf. It urged her to get closer, seek the warm amber beneath the citrus tang of his scent, lick the strong line of his throat, maybe bite him a little.
“Insurance.” The word came out husky, her mouth dry from his proximity. She licked her lips and his gaze focused on the movement.
“Izabel.” He stepped closer until their clasped hands were trapped between their bodies. His heart thrummed against her fingers, and she knew hers did the same. The autumn stars in his eyes faded one by one until nothing remained but the deep green of a forest at midnight.
“Ranoch.”
He cupped her cheek with his free hand, his thumb brushing across her lips. Lowering his head until she felt the warmth of his breath, he whispered, “Yes?”
“Yes.”
If she thought his touch a sensual addiction, his kiss threatened to make her his slave. He took his time learning her. Brushes of his lips across hers. Teasing flicks of his tongue. Gentle nips with sharp fangs. He drew her deeper into him with each caress until she dug her claws into his shoulders, rose on her toes, and demanded more.
A soft trill of sound reached her ears when he deepened the kiss as if the forest creatures rejoiced in the moment with exuberant chirps and joyful clicks. She gasped when he pulled away to nip her chin, moaned when he trailed biting kisses along her jaw, and melted when he nuzzled behind her ear.
The embrace ended as slowly as it began, with soft touches and gentle caresses. He rested his forehead on hers, eyes darkest green and pulse beating an unsteady rhythm against her palm.
“I’m definitely coaxing you into more than just a kiss.”
Wolves of Sorrow: Izabel, September 20, 2022