Wicked Odd
Virginia Nelson
A Wicked Tale
ARe Books
Genre: M/F, Werewolves,
PNR
About the Book
Best way to tame a bad
wolf? Be a little wicked yourself…
Carmen finds it hard to
trust—then again, her father went mad and had to be put down by her
current Alpha. Carmen might hold a position of power within the pack,
but part of her always wonders if they could turn on her as quickly
as they did him. When she finds a man who she’s pretty sure the
current Alpha failed on a lot of levels, she decides to take matters
into her own hands and prove Dara isn’t as perfect of an Alpha as
everyone thinks.
Seth lost his mate, but he
survived. He can’t stand to watch other wolves happily carrying on
with their lives and mates after he’d failed to protect his own.
Dara allows him his privacy and ensures that he survives, even if
there are days when he wishes otherwise. When one headstrong and
opinionated she-wolf decides she’s going to end the unique hell of
his isolation, Seth has to make a choice…
Kick her butt to the curb
or answer the call to claim her. But can he dare claim another mate
when he knows he failed once to be the man his mate needed?
Available
at ARe
Excerpt:
The stink of humans
slathered in too much cologne and perfume competed with the smell of
open beers and possible promiscuity in a cloud of inevitable shame—at
least to Seth. He wasn’t sure why he still bothered to come down
from his hill to visit the dance hall, but it was a ritual he
practiced on one specific night of every year.
“Seth!” called Alex
Jewel. “Good to see you, man.”
Seth grunted and nodded as
he passed over the cover charge. “’Sup, buddy?”
“Not much. Haven’t
seen you in ages. How the hell have you been?”
With a shrug, Seth headed
past him and down the hall that led to the bar and dance floor. The
ritual must be completed exactly for him to feel satisfied, which
meant one beer on the outside patio, one inside, then he could go
home.
Not that fulfilling the
pattern actually made him feel any better at the end of the day.
Still...
He ordered the first beer
and headed outside with it. Few were out on the patio, but then again
that was typical, too, for this time of year. Only the really
dedicated smokers or secret lovers looking for a quiet dark spot
would bother to brave the humid, still summer air—filled with tiny
and annoying biting bugs—to sit outside.
Watching a single
large-wing katydid perched on the fence helped him pass the time. He
ignored the humans with their clouds of smoke and lust. The katydid
busily cleaned his wings while Seth sipped the beer. It wasn’t as
cold as he preferred, and he never drank this brand any other time of
the year, but that, too, was part of the tradition.
Soon, his beer had been
emptied and the katydid had flown to do whatever important insect
tasks awaited him in the darkness.
Heading back inside, Seth
caught the scent of a wolf and scanned the dance floor to see if he
recognized whoever it might be.
He pinpointed the
direction of the aroma to be near the stage, which meant the smell
must be coming from one of two women dancing near the speakers. He
couldn’t help the half smile the sight brought him. One of the
women wore silver leg braces, yet danced with carefree abandon and a
smile. Her movements might be restricted by her obviously weak legs,
yet her joy flowed as effervescent as anyone else’s in the room, if
not more. Next to her dark haired beauty, her dance partner looked
particularly mundane. The other woman had boy-short blonde hair and
seemed just as happy. Something about the pair caught his wolf’s
attention, but he wasn’t sure what other than the fact it was good
to see an obviously crippled woman having a good time with a friend.
Shrugging off the oddity,
he moved to the bar to order the second ritual beer. Once he had it
in hand, he headed for the small booth at the back of the dance hall
as per routine. From there, however, he broke the pattern a bit.
Instead of staring at the Elvis cut-out hanging on the wall below a
clock with only fives—because it was always five o’clock
somewhere—he watched the girls dancing.
At one point, the blonde
went and got them both drinks, so they backed away from the dance
floor to cool off then went right back to dancing. His wolf stirred
again, but he disregarded it. But then the blonde looked in his
direction, a flash of yellow in her eyes. His wolf more than stirred
at the glance, practically clawing him from the inside. Unsettled, he
stood to leave. He’d finished the beer and therefore the dance hall
portion of the ritual.
At the door, someone
caught his arm. “Hey, do I know you?”
About the Author:
Virginia Nelson, USA Today
bestselling author, likes knights in rusted and dinged up armor,
heroes that snarl instead of croon, and heroines who can’t remember
to say the right thing even with an author writing their dialogue.
Her books are full of snark, sex, and random acts of ineptitude—not
always in that order.
For more information on
other books by Virginia, visit her website: www.virg-nelson.com
Giveaway
2 ARe Imprint ebooks
Love the cover. Thanks for the giveaway.
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