Hunters and Prey: These Alpha Females Don’t Need Saving, page 1
Hunters and Prey
These Alpha Females Don’t Need Saving
May Sage
Yumoyori Wilson
Domino Taylor
KN Lee
Erin Bedford
JC Andrijeski
Emma Dean
Debbie Cassidy
Contents
May Sage
Blood From a Stone
About
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
Yumoyori Wilson
Witch Me Not
Acknowledgement
WITCH ME NOT BLURB
1. In Your Dreams!
2. Who The Hell Are You?
3. Everyone's Insane
4. Failure Is Not An Option And Destiny
5. Hell Nah
6. Give Love A Chance
7. Witch Me Not?
About the Author
Also By Yumoyori Wilson
Domino Taylor
Turning the Tide
About
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
About Domino
KN Lee
Legacy of Oath and Blood
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Erin Bedford
Phoenix Awakened
About
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
JC Andrijeski
Black Dreams
Synopsis
1. What’s The Last Thing You Remember?
2. Bad Dream
3. Bad Wife
4. Bad Woman
5. Let Them Eat Cake
6. Not A Damned Thing I Can Do
7. Running
8. The Nearer Side
9. Skin To Skin
10. Black Dreams
11. Mirror
12. Family Man
13. Dragon
14. Gathering
15. Pantheon
16. Big Brother
17. Truth
18. Wisest Of The Gods
19. Ritual
20. Traveler
21. Coming Home
A Note from JC Andrijeski
Emma Dean
Warrior Prince of Hai
Warrior Prince of Hai
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Debbie Cassidy
Dragon Trial
Dragon Trial
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Blood From a Stone
May Sage
About
Viola Wild has spent the last hundred years tending to the Eirikrsen family holdings. Many wish to get their paws on the fortune of the noble family, amassed since around 50AD, but the magically sealed vault that opens up to successors recognizes no new master.
She doesn’t expect her latest inquiry to be fruitful. Thomas Miller is just a human. How could he be linked to the most ancient and terrifying line of vampire this world has ever known?
She soon realizes, some stones are better left unturned.
Chapter 1
The midnight motorcycle came to a halt at the bottom of a hill, stopping right before black gates guarded by a troll.
An actual troll—or the closest thing still roaming on Earth. Bill towered over the rider, almost twice as tall and with a head that looked like an overgrown pumpkin.
The woman wearing black and purple leather gear removed her helmet and smiled at the giant, one of the only people who didn't hate her on this hill.
"Hey, Billy boy."
"You're back." He stated the obvious with a grin that split his misshapen face in two. "It's been a while."
A year, to be exact.
Bill remembered the times when she went up that hill every day. She used to live in Adairford, the village at the base of Night Hill, hidden within the Oldcrest territory, a land that had belonged to supernatural creatures since the beginning of time. Viola had been told Oldcrest had been claimed by gods, in another age. She believed it. There were no wards made on Earth that could have hidden this valley quite so well. No one, sups or regulars, could see it unless they were invited.
But it had been a long time since Oldcrest had ceased to be home. Now, it was a duty. A duty everyone resented, her included.
For the last five centuries, she'd only stepped foot on this hill once a year.
"Missed you too, Bill." She winked at the troll, pulling a keychain out of her jacket. "Hey, look what I have for you!"
It was but a trinket, but the troll's eyes widened in delight.
"The Eiffel Tower!"
He always recognized the landmarks, although he'd learned everything he knew from books, at first, and the last few years, from the Internet.
Trolls, like many creatures, did not step foot in the regular world. It was one thing that the humans tolerated shifters, vampires, and other things that looked like them, but if the existence of things like Bill was discovered, they'd panic. Again.
When regulars panicked, blood spilled freely in the street. Viola wasn't, per se, against bloodsport, but a real open war between regulars and sups would have one outcome: the destruction of humanity.
It wouldn't do to lose her principal food source. Thankfully, most vampires agreed, and the rest of the sups did defer to her kind.
"You were in Paris?"
She nodded. "For a bit. I've moved to Vienna now, though."
She'd started traveling the world five hundred and seventeen years ago, remaining in the shadows for the better part of those years, but just under fifty years ago, sups had revealed their existence to the world. Now she could come out in the day and order a Bloody Mary with actual blood in it from a cocktail bar at the beach. Life was good.
Except once a year.
It wasn't like Viola had hated the days back when she lived here and served the family settle at the summit of Night Hill. She hadn't. The Eirikrson were her makers, her lieges, her clan. Serving them had been an honor, a duty she'd done with pride.
The problem was that coming back here reminded her of everything she'd lost. Everyone who'd died in the great black marble halls.
Her rental Suzuki flew up the hill with so much ease she wished she could buy one for herself, but she never stayed anywhere long enough to purchase anything permanent.
Going up the one road carved on the hill, Viola could feel eyes on her. Intense, searching, hateful gazes.
This day wasn't just a reminder of the old times for her; her presence also jogged the memory of the rest of the inhabitants of the hill. They hated her for it, with good reason.
When she remembered the Eirikrson, Viola felt useless. She remembered she'd failed them, that she hadn't been there to even try to protect them. The Eirikrson were a large clan, with a patriarch and over twelve families. There had been children, too. Very young children.
None had survived.
Those watching her from their ornate windows in their elegant manor house, pulling silk and velvet curtains an inch, hiding in the shade, didn't feel like failures. They remembered that they were butchers.
Most vampires were
killers, predators, but they killed to eat, or to defend their land, their territory, their family. The massacre in Skyhall had been nothing short of a slaughter, born of greed and fear. They'd used the one day the Eirikrson gathered to celebrate every year and, descending upon them with an army, they'd killed them all.
Viola parked her bike in front of Skyhall, attempting to hide her irritation. A man was waiting for her. Before she'd even smelled him or seen him from a distance, she'd known who it was.
"Punctual as usual, slayer."
She ignored him altogether, pretending his six-foot-three of muscles and sexiness didn't exist.
In another life, she'd seen every single piece of his skin, kissed it, touched it, claimed it. He'd done the same to her, and worse.
"Come on, Vi. You lived with those monsters for a mere hundred years. It's been five hundred years since they've been taken care of. Time to let it go, don't you think?"
Most years, she managed not to say a thing. This time wasn't one of them.
"Taken care of," she repeated, baring her teeth.
Her fangs came out, sharp and pointed.
Alexius wisely held his hands up in surrender.
"Easy, darling."
"I'm not your darling, I'm not a slayer, I'm not anything. Leave me the fuck alone."
Alexius sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"True. But you could be. I don't know one family on this hill who wouldn't sell their heirs to have you defending their banners. You were spectacular, Viola. You still are."
Viola snorted. Yes, she was very good at killing, like anyone trained and turned by the Eirikrson.
"So, that's what you want? For me to serve you?"
She should have guessed.
Alexius's jaw tightened.
"I want you back in my bed, and at the head of my table, and on the council, where you belong. But you swearing to another house—any house—would be a start."
Viola snorted. "I don't think you understand how vows work, for those of us who have honor."
She's sworn to the Eirikrson, and that was that, end of story.
"You swore to serve them until death. Theirs or yours. Well, newsflash: they're dead, Viola. All of them are dead."
"You cowards saw to that."
He ignored her jibe. "Which releases you from that vow."
It should have. The mark at the nape of her neck should have disappeared as the last of the Eirikrson bled out on the marble of Skyhall.
But the mark was still there. Wordlessly, she turned, lifting her hair to show him. His eyes darkened.
"You know why this is still there. It doesn't mean a thing. He's as good as dead."
Alexius was talking about the monster locked deep inside the hill to their right, the creature who'd founded the Eirikrson house.
He didn't understand. Viola's vows had been said in private, and he'd never heard them, but they'd been very specific.
She was tied to her word unless the Eirikrson heirs were all dead. The heirs, not Eirikr himself.
It meant that somehow, somewhere, in this world or the next, there was one person still living with the blood of Eirikr in their veins.
"Is that what you're planning, Viola? You want to serve him? Free Eirikr?"
She laughed out loud, striding past Alexius, toward the entrance of Skyhall. The vampire prince moved to grab her hand, make her stay and confess all of her evil plans, but his hand hit an invisible wall.
Alexius swore, and she turned to have the pleasure of seeing him clutch his burned hand.
No one could enter Skyhall's grounds, except for those with Eirikrson blood in their veins. Viola might have been turned by them rather than born into the family, but she qualified.
Alexius's suspicion amused her. The ancients were all terrified of her, terrified that she'd truly consider awakening Eirikr, the monster haunting Cosnoc.
She wasn't stupid. The Eirikrson themselves hadn't sought to free their patriarch. Her duties were simple: renewing the wards around the house—her presence did that—and checking on the Eirikrson affairs. They had money invested all over the world, in anything profitable; every year, she sorted through their finances and ensured that the house remained one of the richest on the planet. They might be dead, but there were a dozen slayers sworn to them who'd been dispatched around the world on the day of their massacre. Those were carrying on the work of the Eirikrson, and it was only fair that they'd get paid for it. That was only possible if the Eirikrson remained wealthy.
After two restless days in the study, the only room in the house that had been occupied for centuries, Viola was done with the bulk of her duties. There was only one left.
Every year, she received a list from the best investigators in the world. A list of people she needed to hunt down and check on. It was a fool's errand; there were nine worlds she knew of, and she'd long ago come to suspect that the liege she responded to lived in another dimension. Maybe he or she ate grapes and ambrosia on Olympus with the gods. But five hundred and seventeen years later, she was still looking for the Eirikrson heir.
This time, there were just three names on the list.
Padma Adah.
Tom Miller.
Lucy Crane.
She paged through the files on the three potentials.
Padma was a witch who lived in Germany. She had no memory of who she was, and could perform some strange blood magic. Promising, but she'd seen others do as much.
Lucy Crane was a vampire who'd recently freed herself from a six-century imprisonment. She was currently insane, and held by the huntsmen on an island to contain her rage while she chilled. More promising.
The last file was intriguing and disappointing all at once.
For the first time in five hundred and seventeen years, Knox's investigators had seen fit to add a plain, regular human to the list.
Viola skimmed the file. Boring, boring, boring. The dude worked in a bank, for heaven's sake. A bank! He did volunteer as a firefighter, so there was that. She found her eyes going to his picture, and frowned. He was handsome, for a human, with short dark hair and darker eyes. But there was something familiar about him. She couldn't pinpoint what, exactly.
Viola checked the notes about him. Why had he been included at all?
Then, she stilled.
Knox's PI had written: "Took complete blood tests to check allergies. Results came up on our radars. No human would have noticed, but this is a fledgling. Bloodline, undetermined."
