Highland
Secrets
A
Dragon Lore Prequel
by Ann
Gimpel
Dream Shadow Press * 60K words
Release Date: 9/08/15 * Genre: Paranormal romance
Tumble
off reality’s edge into myth, magic, and Scottish dragon shifters
Book Description:
Furious and weary, Angus Shea wants
out, but no matter how he feels, he can’t stop the magic powering his visions.
The Celts kidnapped him when he wasn’t much more than a boy and forced him to
do their bidding. He’s sick of them and their endless assignments, but they
wiped his memories, and he has no idea where he came from.
Dragon shifters are disappearing
from the Scottish Highlands, and the Celtic Council sends Angus to investigate.
He meets up with Arianrhod, legendary virgin huntress from Celtic myth, in Fire
Mountain, the dragons’ home world.
Arianrhod prefers to work alone,
mostly because she harbors a dirty little secret and guards her privacy for the
best of reasons. She’s not exactly a virgin, and she’d be laughed out of the
Pantheon if the truth surfaced. Despite the complications of leading a double
life, she’s never found a lover who tempted her to walk away from her fellow
Celtic gods.
Attraction ignites, hot and so
urgent Arianrhod’s carefully balanced life teeters on the brink of discovery.
Angus is everything she’s ever wanted, but he’s far too close to her Celtic kin
to keep her secret safe. Angus wants her too, but she’s a Celt. He’s hated them
forever, and she’s part of everything he’s lain awake nights plotting to escape
from.
Can they risk everything?
Will they?
If they do, can they live with the
consequences?
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Excerpt:
…Excitement
thrummed through her, and she considered how to proceed once she arrived at
Fire Mountain. Mayhap she could pretend she was interested in pairing with a
dragon. She narrowed her eyes and chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip. Should
she join with Angus and the dragon, Eletea? Or pretend she knew nothing about
them. If she chose to masquerade as a wannabe dragon shifter, would the Ancient
Ones believe her?
“Why would they?”
she muttered. “I haven’t shown the slightest interest in anything
dragon-related since the dawn of time.” Perhaps she could tell them she was
bored, that her life lacked meaning, purpose. All true. Immortality held a big
downside, particularly since somewhere along the line, she’d fashioned herself
as the virgin huntress.
Arianrhod rolled
her mental eyes. Why the hell had she thought that was a good idea when Danu
suggested it? At the time, she’d hoped to escape Bran’s attentions, but she
hadn’t planned on a millennia tossing and turning in an empty bed. The god of
prophecy—Bran—was as big a pain in the ass as he’d always been, but at least he
had a cock…
She winced. It had
taken stealth and cunning to maintain her artfully crafted persona and still
have a sex life. Nothing frequent enough to draw attention, but she’d lain with
an amazing coal black dragon. He’d worried his kin would shun him if their
affair were discovered, but it hadn’t made a dent in his hunger for her.
Nothing quite like
the forbidden to fan those flames…
Truth smacked her
between the eyes. Loneliness and lust were why she’d volunteered so readily to
make the trek to Fire Mountain. And why she’d sidestepped Gwydion. The last
thing she needed was a witness if she stumbled onto Keene—or another likely
candidate. Dragons lived forever. Perhaps Keene might be interested in another
fling—for old time’s sake if nothing else.
Usually she
stopped herself from thinking about her past and what she wished she’d done differently,
but she couldn’t shut off her thoughts. If she’d had children, real children,
it would’ve made such a difference.
The two sons she’d
conceived magically were odd. But how could they have been aught else? She’d
been forced to jump over a magical rod to prove she was a virgin, and twin sons
were the result. Dylan sank into obscurity, retreating to the seas when the
strain of day-to-day life without enough power to light a candle became too
much to bear. Lleu would’ve left as well, but Gwydion subverted every single
one of Lleu’s escape plans as he grew to manhood. Lleu blamed her for Gwydion’s
meddling, and she hadn’t laid eyes on him for a very long time. She suspected
Gwydion hadn’t, either.
Her empty life
mocked her, but she was damned if she could figure out what to do to change it.
It wasn’t as if she could march up to Ceridwen and the others, clear her
throat, and say, “Sorry, but I’m sick of being a Celtic god. Think I’ll be a
mortal for a while. And hey, if that doesn’t please you, I’ll take to my owl
form and be done with the lot of you.”
“Oberon’s balls!”
She crashed one fist into an open hand, taking care not to jostle the traveling
portal. “I have to pull my head out of my ass. Ceridwen handed me a fascinating
problem. I need to focus on it. No dragon fucking. No diversions. Go in. Put my
head down. Get the job done.”
Nice lecture, but
can I do it?
Arianrhod stroked
the shiny bow draped over her shoulder. It was a work of art. She’d made it
herself from yew wood, not cutting any corners, so it took months for the wood
to shape and cure. She twisted her mouth into a wry smile. The huntress part of
her title was fine. It fit, and she enjoyed the cunning, planning, and
forethought it took to outsmart prey. If she was sick of the pretend-to-be-a-virgin
part, who could blame her?
The rhythm of her
traveling tube shifted. Arianrhod glanced at a node to check her location and
understood her journey would be over soon. She rotated her shoulders to relax
and ready herself, thought about her virgin huntress title once more, and
laughed.
“The virgin part
may grate, but I adore being a huntress. Fifty percent isn’t bad,” she told the
gray-pink walls as they shuddered to a stop. “Most people don’t even get
that.”…
**************************
To
Love A Highland Dragon
Dragon
Lore, Book
One
by Ann
Gimpel
Dream Shadow Press * 75K words
Release Date: 9/22/15 * Genre: Paranormal romance
Tumble off reality’s edge into
myth, magic, and Scottish dragon shifters
Book Description:
A dragon shifter stirs and wakens
in a cave beneath Inverness, deep in the Scottish Highlands. The cave’s the
same and his hoard intact, yet something’s badly amiss. Determined to set
whatever’s gone wrong to rights, Lachlan Moncrieffe ventures above ground—and
wishes he hadn’t. His castle’s gone, replaced by ungainly row houses. Men
aren’t wearing plaids, and women scarcely wear anything at all, particularly
the woman who accosts him with unseemly banter. What manner of wench is she to
dress so provocatively?
In Inverness for a year on a
psychiatry fellowship, Dr. Maggie Hibbins watches an oddly dressed man pick his
way out of a heather and gorse thicket. Even though it runs counter to her
better judgment, she teases him about his strange attire. He looks so lost—and
so unbelievably, knock-out gorgeous —she takes a chance and stands him a meal.
Lachlan’s shock when he picks up a local newspaper at a pub is so palpable,
Maggie jumps in with both feet.
She knew something was off, but the
hard-to-accept truth bashes gaping holes in her equilibrium. He looks odd,
sounds odd, acts odd because he’s a refugee from another era. Her half-baked
seduction scheme takes a hike, but her carefully constructed life is still
about to change forever. Born of powerful witches, Maggie runs headlong into
the myth and magic that are her birthright.
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… He detached the
last thorn, finally clear of the thicket of sticker bushes. Where could he find
a market with vendors? Did market day still exist in this strange environment?
“Holy crap! A
kilt, and an old-fashioned one at that. Tad bit early in the day for a costume
ball, isn’t it?” A rich female voice laced with amusement sounded behind him.
Lachlan spun,
hands raised to call magic. He stopped dead once his gaze settled on a lass
nearly as tall as himself, which meant she was close to six feet. She turned so
she faced him squarely. Bare legs emerged from torn fabric that stopped just
south of her female parts. Full breasts strained against scraps of material
attached to strings tied around her neck and back. Her feet were encased in a
few straps of leather. Long, blonde hair eddied around her, the color of
sheaves of summer wheat.
His cock jumped to
attention. He itched to make a grab for her breasts or her ass. She had an
amazing ass: round and high and tight. What was expected of him? The lass was
dressed in such a way as to invite him to simply tear what passed for breeks
aside and enter her. Had times changed so drastically that women provoked men
into public sex? He glanced about, half expecting to see couples having it off
with one another willy-nilly.
“Well,” she urged.
“Cat got your tongue?” She placed her hands on her hips. The motion stretched
the tiny bits of flowered fabric that barely covered her nipples still further.
Lachlan bowed
formally. He straightened and waited for her to hold out a hand for him to
kiss. “I’m Lachlan Moncrieffe, my lady. ’Tis a pleasure to—”
She erupted into
laughter—and didn’t hold out her hand. “I’m Maggie,” she managed between gouts
of mirth. “What are you? A throwback to medieval times? You can drop the Sir
Galahad routine.”
Lachlan felt his
face heat. “I fear I doona understand the cause of your merriment…my lady.”
Maggie rolled
midnight blue eyes. “Oh, brother. Did you escape from a mental hospital? Nah,
you’d be in pajamas then, not those fancy duds.” She dropped her hands to her
sides and started to walk past him.
“No. Wait. Please,
wait.” Lachlan cringed at the whining tone in his voice. The dragon was correct
that the Moncrieffe was a proud house. They bowed to no one.
She eyed him
askance. “What?”
“I’m a stranger in
this town.” He winced at the lie. Once upon a time, he’d been master of these
lands. Apparently that time had long since passed. “I’m footsore and hungry.
Where might I find victuals and ale?”
Her eyes widened.
Finely arched blonde brows drew together over a straight nose dotted by a few
freckles. “Victuals and ale,” she repeated disbelievingly.
“Aye. Food and
drink, in the common vernacular.”
“Oh, I understood
you well enough,” Maggie murmured. “Your words, anyway. Your accent’s a bit
off.” His stomach growled again, embarrassingly loud. “Guess you weren’t
kidding about being hungry.” She eyed him appraisingly. “Do you have any
money?”
Money. Too late he
thought of the piles of gold coins and priceless gems lying on the floor of
Kheladin’s cave. In the world he’d left, his word was as good as his gold. He
opened his mouth, but she waved him to silence. “I’ll stand you for a pint and
some fish and chips. You can treat me next time.”
He heard her
mutter, “Yeah right,” under her breath as she curled a hand around his arm and
tugged. “Come on. I have a couple hours, and then I’ve got to go to work. I’m
due in at three today.”
Lachlan trotted
along next to her. She let go of him like he was a viper when he tried to close
a hand over the one she’d laid so casually on his person. He cleared his throat
and wondered what he could safely ask that wouldn’t give his secrets away. He
could scarcely believe this alien landscape was Scotland, but if he asked what
country they were in, or what year it was, she’d think him mad.
Had the black
wyvern had used some diabolical dark magic to transport Kheladin’s cave to
another locale? Probably not. Even Rhukon wasn’t that powerful.
“In here.” She
pointed to a door beneath a flashing sigil.
He gawked at it.
One minute it was red, the next blue, the next green, illuminating the word
Open. What manner of magic was this?
“Don’t tell me you
have temporal lobe epilepsy.” She stared at him. “It’s only a neon sign. It
doesn’t bite. Move through the door. There’s food on the other side,” she added
slyly.
Feeling like a
rube, Lachlan searched for a latch. When he didn’t find one, he pushed his
shoulder against the door. It opened, and he held it with a hand so Maggie
could enter first. “After you, my lady,” he murmured.
“Stop that.” She
spoke into his ear as she went past. “No more my ladies. Got it?”
“Aye. Got it.” He
followed her into a low ceilinged room lined with wooden planks. It was the
first thing that looked familiar. Parts of it, anyway. Men—kilt-less men—sat at
the bar, hefting glasses and chatting. The tables were empty.
“What’ll it be,
Mags?” a man with a towel tied around his waist called from behind the bar.
“Couple of pints
and two of today’s special. Come to think of it…” She eyed Lachlan so intently
it made him squirm. “Make that three of the special.”
“May I inquire
just what the special is?” Lachlan asked, thinking he might want to order
something different.
Maggie waved a
hand at a black board suspended over the bar. “It’s right there. If you can’t
read it—”
“Of course, I can
read.” He resented the inference he might be uneducated but swallowed back
harsh words.
“Excellent. Then
move.”
She shoved her
body into his in a distressingly familiar way for such a communal location. Not
that he wouldn’t have enjoyed the contact if they were alone, and he were free
to take advantage of it…
“All the way to
the back,” she hissed into his ear. “That way if you slip up, no one will
hear.”
He bristled.
Lachlan Moncrieffe did not sit in the back of any establishment. He was always
given a choice table near the center of things. He opened his mouth to protest
but thought better of it.
She scooped an
armful of flattened scrolls off the bar before following him to the back of the
room. Once there, she dumped them on the table between them. He wanted to ask
what they were but decided he should pretend to know. He turned the top sheaf
of papers toward him and scanned the close-spaced print. Many of the words were
unfamiliar, but what leapt off the page was The Inverness Courier and
presumably the current date: June 10, 2012.
His heart thudded
in his ears, deafening him with the roar of rushing blood, as he stared at the
date.
It had been 1683
when Rhukon chivied him into the dragon’s cave. Three hundred twenty-nine years
ago, give or take a month or two. At least he was still in Inverness—for all
the good it did him.
“You look as if
you just saw a ghost.” Maggie spoke quietly.
“Nay. I’m quite
fine. Thank you for inquiring…my, er…” Lachlan shut up. Anything he said was
bound to be wrong.
“Good.” She nodded
approvingly. “You’re learning.” The bartender slapped two mugs of ale on the
scarred wooden table.
“On your tab,
Mags?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Except you owe me so much, you’ll never catch up.”
Still
shell-shocked by the realization hundreds of years had slipped past while he
and Kheladin slept, Lachlan took a sip of what turned out to be weak ale. It
wasn’t half bad but could’ve stood an infusion of bitters. Because it was
easier than thinking about his problems, he puzzled over what Maggie meant
about the barkeep owing her so much he’d never catch up. Why would the barkeep
owe her? His nostrils flared. She must work for the establishment—probably as a
damsel of ill repute from the looks of her. Mayhap, she hadn’t been paid her
share of whatever she earned in quite some time.
Protectiveness
flared deep inside him. Maggie shouldn’t have to earn her way lying on her
back. He’d see to it she had a more seemly position.
Aye, once I find
my way around this bizarre new world.
Money wouldn’t be
a problem, but changing three-hundred-year-old gold coins into today’s tender
might prove challenging. Surely banks existed that could accomplish something
like that.
One thing at a
time.
“So.” She skewered
him with her blue gaze—Norse eyes if he’d ever seen a set—and took a sip from
her mug. “What did you see in the newspaper that upset you so much?”
“Nothing.” He
tried for an offhand tone.
“Bullshit,” she
said succinctly. “I’m a doctor. A psychiatrist. I read people’s faces quite
well, and you look as if you’re perilously close to going into shock.”…
***************************************
About
the Author:
Ann Gimpel is a national
bestselling author. She’s also a clinical psychologist, with a Jungian bent and
a vagabond at heart. Avocations include
mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography and, of course, writing. A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she
began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction
has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Her longer books run the
gamut from urban fantasy to paranormal romance. She’s published over 30 books
to date, with several more planned for 2015 and beyond.
A husband, grown children,
grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her family.
Thanks so very much, Sue, for inviting me back to your blog. Gosh, I've been here so much, it feels like my second home. I truly appreciate your support for my books.
ReplyDeleteAnn I am a huge fan of yours and you are welcome to visit my "home" anytime you want! psst.....I have cupcakes too!
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