As the werewolf invasion continues, I have several writing projects in the works. This excerpt is from ‘Claiming the Wolf,’ a paranormal romance featuring werewolves.
About Claiming the Wolf
One night when Alyssa Andrews ventures too far into the Dark forest, a place her grandmother told her never to explore, she discovers a mysterious stranger. His mission becomes her own as they flee the evil force destroying the forest. Soon Alyssa realizes she’s in danger of losing her heart, and more perhaps, to this werewolf shapeshifter if she joins him in his fight. Will she walk away from true love again?
EXCERPT
When the man on top of her finally woke up, Alyssa Andrews wasn’t sure she had seen what she thought she had seen. However, she knew better than to try to move. Being under his weight, it was certainly impossible to do so. He had been out maybe ten or fifteen minutes. Now as he gazed at her, rubbing his head, she noticed how undeniably good looking he was. Alyssa scoffed at her immediate attraction to the guy. She knew how to pick the wrong sort of man every time and this dude had tall, dark, yet totally dangerous written all over him. “This is what I get for taking a midnight drive,” Alyssa said to herself.
Despite her immediate defenses to wiggle her way out from under him and run like hell, she watched as he sat up on his knees in front of her. Alyssa stayed very still, waiting to see what he’d do next. Alyssa was no dummy, but she couldn’t help but admire his attractive frame and body. He was lean, yet muscular with amazing wavy brown hair and pale blue eyes. His blue jeans fit snuggled on him, but he wore no shirt or shoes. Perhaps he was her age, she wondered. Maybe late 20s or early 30s? It was hard to tell because his eyes suddenly turned dark and stormy, despite the light hue as he grew accustomed to his surroundings. His eyes even seemed to glow in the lowlight of the street lamps near the edge of the forest where they had fallen. He had extraordinary eyes that now were darker than sapphires. He seemed agitated, glancing left and right and running his hand through his hair like his skull was on fire. “He’s probably a psycho,” Alyssa said to herself. Her grandmother’s words zoomed into her head. “Most shifters are ‘unbalanced’ at best, but they mean well and they protect us.”
This man before Alyssa looked like he had been through a lot, despite his young age. That she could tell already. And she knew the stories her grandmother had told her about the evil lurking in the Dark forest, how the shifters kept the peace and protected the city from the Draconians, a clan of vampires who wanted to claim the city and deplete it of its natural resources. Alyssa thought it was all just fairy tales her grandmother had conjured up until now. What she had witnessed tonight was no fairy tale.
The fact she had met this man only moments ago didn’t bother Alyssa. She knew he’d probably return to the forest and be out of her life as quickly as he had fallen into it, quite literally. The fact that he had shifted from a massive wolf into a human and had landed on her didn’t bother her either. Her grandmother had prepared her long ago and had educated her about the Dark forest and its secrets. Instead, this stranger intrigued Alyssa, and that worried her more than the fact a shifter was outside the Dark forest. When their eyes finally met, Alyssa knew the real danger she was in. His eyes had suddenly revived her hollow heart. His presence radiated a vitality that drew her in like a magnet. And for the first time in a long time, Alyssa felt alive.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I think so,” Alyssa replied.
“Good, we’ve got to go.” Grabbing her up like a ragdoll by her small wrist, the man brought Alyssa to her feet.
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” Alyssa attempted to wrestle herself out of the man’s grasp. “Go back where you came from.” She pointed at the tall trees at the edge of the park.
“You want to live?” His blue eyes blazed at her and Alyssa nodded in agreement before her mind had a chance to object. “Great,” she thought to herself. “I’m already saying yes to this guy.”
When a high-pitched scream shot out from the forest, what seemed only a few hundred feet from them, Alyssa froze. The man moved close to her, pulling her into his arms and close to his chest. He towered over her some four or five inches and Alyssa felt the cool skin of his naked chest envelope her face.
“They’ll kill us both, so I suggest we leave now. I barely made it out alive,” he growled under his breath.
Dazed yet amazed, Alyssa gazed up at the tall, dark, and handsome man before her. His sudden invasion of her space made Alyssa’s mouth go dry. “What do you mean?” she whispered.
“No time to explain. They’ve killed the others. I’m the last one.”
Realizing the full weight of his words, Alyssa squeezed his hand. If he was a protector of the forest, as all the shifters were, and the others were dead, then that meant they all were in danger. “My bike.” Alyssa nodded toward an Elm tree, standing alone in the forest not far from the forest edge. She prayed her motorcycle bike was still there.
“Can that carry both of us,” he asked.
“You got a better idea?”
Another high-pitched scream pierced the night air.
Both Alyssa and the stranger froze in each other’s grasp. His body was hard as a rock. Alyssa couldn’t tell if it was fear or a call to action that made him rigid and she didn’t care. If those screams where from a clan of vampires about to descend upon the city, it didn’t matter. They had to move fast and find a place to hide. Alyssa knew just the place.
“Follow me,” Alyssa whispered as carefully turned around in the stranger’s arms, pulled him close, and led him to her bike.
She tossed him an extra helmet and cranked up the refurbished Ducati race motorcycle her father had left her.
The man wrapped his arms around her tightly and Alyssa felt her heart lurch. The motorcycle lurched too and off they fled to her grandmother’s house.
***
Series title is currently unknown. Learn more about upcoming releases by Ally Thomas at My Books. Blood of the Gods (Part 5) is still in development. A Summer 2014 release is expected.
Ally Thomas 