The Lord of Near and Nigh: Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 2) (48 page)

It’s true, what they say about beauty’s transience.
 

How it can’t survive long in this hard world.

I’m in love with the man who murdered my mother.
 

If there is a god I hope the fucking bastard is laughing.
 

“Goodbye, Aaron.”

“Lily no—”

I open my mouth and scream. White flame pours from my lungs, tearing into my bloodmate. I smell Aaron’s skin burning. Hear the dying screams of the man I once loved. Then his screams fade, and I realize he’s fallen over the railing and plunged to the rocky shore below.
 

“You fucking bitch!” Mia shrieks, then a wispy slithering sound as the snake flees into the bushes, and I scent Tate following close behind.

“You did the right thing,” Trish says once they’re gone.

“I must have,” I say, leaning forward and bracing my hands on my knees as the first sobs hit. “You know why?”

“Why?”

“Because it feels like shit.”

“I know, Lil,” Trish says quietly.
 

“If you ever see the Pureblood Predator MC again,” I say to my pack, “kill them and bring me their hearts.”
 

Red or black blood. It no longer matters.
 

A new species is rising.

END BOOK 2

THE ONE WE ANSWER TO

PUREBLOOD PREDATOR MC BOOK 3
 

AVAILABLE NOW!

EXCERPT BOOK 3

THE ONE WE ANSWER TO

PUREBLOOD PREDATOR MC

The mountain animals are starving.
 

I am starving.

The Blood Moon rises crimson against a rocky ridge deep in the Cascades. The night far too warm for early spring. I lift my nose to the breeze and scent the air.
 

There’s a forest fire raging in the next valley.
 

More fires arrive every evening, with black-bellied storms that roll in from the west, barreling across the Pacific like cavalry in the churn and scream of war, slamming into the mountains and cutting the night with lightning. Flickering red flames follow in their wake, consuming cedar and fir in this place that was once known as a rainforest.
 

The time of rain has ended.

This is the Age of Discord.
 

I know this like I know I will die this evening unless I succeed in a kill.

Starvation lives deep in my marrow.
 

I growl and paw at the dry forest loam, releasing a sharp whiff of decay.
 

With any luck the fire in the next valley will drive game into the exposed terrain along the ridge. The deer will be frenzied, panicked, oblivious to the lone wolf waiting to pounce.
 

Ambush.
 

Once, when I commanded a Pureblood pack, I would have scoffed at such a tactic. I preferred to announce my presence to my prey. Preferred the thrill of the chase. Enjoyed running my prey down, watching exhaustion overtake them as they staggered and stumbled onward.
 

Enjoyed toying with them.
 

I was tireless then. We all were.
 

Ambush is a strategy for the weak and desperate. For those unwilling confront their kill straight-on. For cowards.
 

Is that what have I become?

A coward?
 

Everything I once loathed?

Or is this what survival is, the will to keep on hunting when every fibre of your being is screaming at you to stop, lie down, rest…and never stand up? Is survival simply stubbornness, the blunt refusal to admit you’d rather be dead than go on living?
 

I pace back and forth within a stand of stunted balsam and huckleberry, the hunger a living demon in my belly. The pacing is foolish; I should lie down. Rest. Conserve energy. Even now I’m not certain I have the strength to give chase. The seeping, unhealed burn on my chest refuses to heal, its pain a lesson and a reminder: trust no one.
 

They will turn on you. Every single one of them.
 

Lily
.
 

There’s that strange word. Repeating in my wolf-mind whenever the pain of my burn becomes too sharp to ignore. One of the few Skin words I’m left with. For some reason the burning pain reminds me of that word, but I’ve lost all sense of its meaning.

Lily
.
 

T
HIS
BOOK
IS
dedicated to my family. Forever.

ABOUT AUTHOR MAY ELLIS DANIELS

Hello everyone. First, I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to my family and fans for making this writing life possible. I write contemporary and paranormal romance with smoking hot bad dudes, strong females and lots of action. When not writing I enjoy hiking in the Pacific Northwest with my beautiful family, craft brews, and fast bikes. Stay sane!

- May Ellis Daniels