Friday, April 1, 2016

Excerpt & Giveaway - Alpha Bear by Bianca D'Arc

 
Alpha Bear Synopsis:
A man with a plan…

John is the Alpha bear of Grizzly Cove, a town built to his own design, made up mostly of bear shifters. He brought them all together, so it’s on him when the community comes under attack.

A woman of power…

Ursula is more than she appears, and when her secret comes out, she’s afraid the shifters aren’t going to take it well, but John surprises her. He needs her help to combat the evil targeting the town, but there seems to be more to their relationship.

A battle to the death…

When evil attacks from the ocean, can John afford not to utilize Urse’s skills to protect the town and people in it? Better still, can John reconcile his inner bear’s demand that she is his mate, with his lifelong dream of leading his people into a new way of living—in a town built just for them? Or will he have to give up Grizzly Cove in order to keep the woman he loves?
 
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Excerpt:

“What the hell?” John felt the earth shake as he sat at his desk, contemplating how he was going to approach the Ricoletti sisters.

He stood and rushed out front to the reception area. The sheriff, Brody, was already there, talking on his radio to Zak, his deputy. From the sound of the transmissions, neither of them knew what was going on.

“Earthquake?” Brody offered as he finished speaking with Zak.

“Too short. That was something hitting the ground,” John replied as he headed to the window. What he saw when he looked out had his jaw dropping, and then, he sprang into action.

He leapt toward the door and opened it just as Ursula Ricoletti reached it. She ran through without stopping, and he slammed it behind her, looking out at the mess in the water some distance away. No doubt about it, she’d riled something up out there, and it wasn’t happy.

But first things first.

“Are you okay?” John snapped out. Ursula was leaning heavily against the front desk, breathing hard. She was definitely winded but looked otherwise whole. “Did it touch you?”

She shook her head, still unable to form words as she tried to recover. John breathed a small sigh of relief, quickly replaced by anger that she’d come so close to being hurt.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from the water? Dammit, Ursula, that thing would have loved to snack on you. It’s attracted to magic!”

She glared up at him, bent over and breathing hard.

“Nobody said there was a fucking sea monster in the cove!” she rasped out between heavy breaths.

The profanity washed over him and made him step back. She must be really riled to use such language, and that fact apparently wasn’t lost on Brody either. John met the sheriff’s raised eyebrows and jerked his head, ordering him silently to vamoose.

Brody took the hint and headed outside. “Just going to check the perimeter,” he said needlessly as he left.

“Sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to berate you,” John said gently as he calmed down. She was safe. He had to keep reminding his inner bear, she was safe.

“Well, it would have been nice to know why we were being warned off,” she added, starting to catch her breath. “I’m sorry. I was upset with my sister, and I just wanted to take a walk. I didn’t think it would be dangerous. Not like that.” She straightened and wiped the light sheen of sweat on her forehead with one hand. She smelled of fear and delicate exertion.

While John didn’t like the scent of fear on her, his inner bear wanted to bask in the warm scent of her sweat. She smelled like honey and spice to his wilder side, and that kind of thing could easily get addictive.

“It’s okay,” he said, walking closer to her as they both calmed a bit more. “We argued about what to tell you and your sister when we thought you were human. Now that we know you know about magic…” he trailed off.

“Yeah, now we really need to know about the really pissed off magic sea monster in the cove. In fact, it would have been good to know about this about an hour ago,” she quipped, regaining a bit of the humor he’d come to expect from her in their brief encounters.

“I’m sorrier than I can say,” John said softly, coming to stand right in front of her. “And I’m glad you’re okay. Are you sure it didn’t hurt you?”

She chuckled. “You probably should ask if I hurt it,” she surprised him by saying, some of her spirit returning. “Give me another crack at that bastard when I’m prepared, and I’ll do my best to kick its ass.”

John had to chuckle with her. She looked so ladylike, it was kind of nice to learn she had a temper. With the long, wavy black hair, deep brown eyes and a light complexion, she had a sort of Snow White thing going on. She looked very regal and delicate, and absolutely stunning. In fact, John thought she might just be the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in real life.

Finding out that she cussed when she was scared was amusing. It also made her seem a little more approachable. As did, perversely, her temper. John liked a woman to have fire, and Ursula was showing not just fire but white-hot incendiary flames burned within her, just waiting for an occasion to let loose.

He liked it. And his bear wanted to rub up against her silky long hair and drown in her luscious scent. Down, boy.
 
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Bianca D’Arc Bio:
Bianca D’Arc is the USA Today bestselling author of over 50 romance novels. She has twice won EPPIE Awards for her work, along with the Australian Romance Readers Favorite Erotic Romance eBook of 2008 for her first werewolf romance, Lords of the Were. She is a native New Yorker who worked as an executive on Wall Street during the summer of 2001. She changed careers after the tragic attacks of 9/11 and started seriously pursuing publication in 2005. She has a Bachelors degree in Biochemistry, a Masters in Library Science, and a Juris Doctor, but she doesn’t take herself too seriously. She loves her garden and plays the piano, ukulele and guitar.
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 Giveaway:
$50 Amazon Gift Card

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