Welcome to Pucker Up Monday

 It’s not what you think, lol. Since Mondays do tend to suck, I thought I’d try to start the week off right for y’all. 

Tuesday Teaser

Suddenly it hit Kit where he’d heard that name from. “Oh wow. Oh goodness. I remember Kage mentioning you now. You’re a… a… a….”

“Yes, indeed I am,” Hudson laughed softly.

“Did you know dragons were my favorite paranormal?” Kit whispered.

“I had heard that, yes. I’m honored that I’ve been asked to see to your safety. Will you allow me to do that for you?” Hudson asked.

The fact that his ex-boyfriend was a hunter and still on the prowl out there somewhere was enough to make Kit accept Hudson’s offer. “Yes. And thank you, I appreciate it. Did they tell you I own a bookstore?”

“They did, yes.”

“Okay, good. We’re a pretty easygoing group here. Also, I don’t know if Austin told you not, but we’re LGBTQIA+ friendly. So whoever you send needs to be aware of that. This is a safe place.”

“Believe me when I tell you that’s not a problem. We’re not hung up on labels like hum—that is to say, like others are.”

Kit caught the slip. Hudson had almost said humans. Paranormals were apparently very careful what they said over the phone, which makes sense. Maybe he needed to do that too. “I’m very glad to hear that.”

“I’m sending a man called Beckett Newhouse. He’s one of mine. Beckett is roughly six-foot-tall, has collar-length golden red hair and brown eyes. Make sure you check for that, Kit, because anyone I send who belongs to me will have some color of red hair and brown eyes. It’s, ah, a trait.”

That was odd, but whatever. Kit had no idea what Hudson meant by trait. “Could you maybe send a picture of him?”

“Good idea. Um, I don’t know if I have one. Let me…. Just a second.”

Kit could hear Hudson mumbling to somebody. 

“My assistant is taking care of that. I’ll send it to you just as soon as I have it. I’ll be sending Beckett to you today,” Hudson continued. “He is there to protect you, but I promise he’ll be more than willing to help out with anything you should need.”

“Oh, well, thank you, but I don’t want to take advantage.”

“Beckett’s a bookworm.”

“Ah, I see! That’s perfect, actually. In that case, he probably will enjoy this. Maybe tell him to dress very casually too. Jeans and a shirt are fine.”

“I will certainly do that. If you need anything, anything at all, please feel free to contact me. This is my personal cell I called on, so you will get me if you call.”

“Thank you, again, and I appreciate that.” Although Kit couldn’t see a reason why he’d need to call the dragon king. 

God Almighty, he was talking to a frigging dragon king. 

“Alright, then, I’ll text you the picture as soon as Connie sends it to me. Expect Beckett this afternoon. Have a good day, Kit. It was nice talking to you,” Hudson said.

“Same to you. And thanks again,” Kit said and disconnected the call.

He placed his hand on his chest in an effort to calm his heart. He had just spoke to an honest-to-goodness dragon. A dragon! And not just any dragon, either. Oh no. A dragon king. A dragon king who seriously had the sexiest voice in creation. Was that a thing? Could their voice mesmerize humans? 

Actually, that was kinda scary.

Questions. Sooooo many questions. Which, unfortunately, he’d probably never get to ask. Would it be rude to ask the dragon coming to babysit him things? Like, all the things? Yeah, it probably would be.

Holy shit, a dragon.

Kit was pretty sure that he’d read every book, ever, about dragons. And movies. Couldn’t forget the movies. He hadn’t really cared about the human actors, all he wanted to see was the big ass dragons.

The sudden loud knock on his office door jerked Kit out of his musings. One of his employees stood there grinning.

“Hey, it’s coming up on lunch time. We’re going to place an order from that sandwich shop down the street. Do you want anything?”

“Yeah. I do. Wow, I hadn’t realized it was lunch time.” Kit gave his employee his order, fished out some money, and gave it to her. 

As he watched her leave, a thought hit him. Shit, how was he going to explain Beckett to the staff? They didn’t know about Nox and the attack. Shit. Shit. Shit. And Beckett was going to be there that afternoon. 

The only thing Kit could come up with was that he hired a new employee. The folks who worked there wouldn’t believe Beckett was anything but that. 

Kit couldn’t even say Beckett was a boyfriend because everybody at the bookstore knew Kit had recently been in a relationship that had ended abruptly and rather nastily. 

Of course, Kit hadn’t explained to his employees why his ex-boyfriend was now an ex. All he’d said was that Don had done something horrible, and Kit had dumped him.

Thursday Book Recommendation

 

These are books I’ve read and really enjoyed. Most of what I talk about will probably be paranormal/scifi but not always. Although it’s rare, I do read some contemporary. 

This week is:  Werewolves Hate Clogs (La Famiglia Mostro Book 1) by K.L. Hiers

Blurb: 

Othniel “Neil” Ricci has a sweet new gig working at his uncle's flower shop—good hourly pay, free room and board, and he has absolutely no idea that the city is apparently infested with monsters.

That is, until he does.

Louis Morénas-Mostro is a werewolf and an underboss in the monstrous crime family who rule over everything that goes bump in the night. When a prized magical artifact becomes inadvertently attached to Neil, Lou is determined to get it back at any cost.

...Even pretending to date him.

Neil finds himself at odds with an entire monster family, their rebellious enemies, and his own growing attraction to Lou. He hopes he lives long enough to find out if their explosive chemistry can lead to something real, but first he has to make sure he doesn’t end up as monster kibble.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C47KB3WH

(I laughed all the way through this one)

Tuesday Teaser

 

KIT COULDN’T do it. 

God knows, he’d tried, but he just couldn’t get past what happened in his office. Every time he stepped in there, his skin crawled and his heart beat faster, which made his head hurt.

People thought vampire-like teeth were sexy. People were idiots. He still had nightmares about those long, sharp fangs sinking into his neck. It felt like two large gauge needles piercing his skin. 

It hurt, and there was nothing sexy about that. At all. And there was nothing sexy about feeling that… that… thing sucking his blood, either.

Kit’s shoulders slumped. Dammit. He had to stop thinking that way. Nox wasn’t a “thing”. He shouldn’t call any paranormal that, and Kage had been quick to point that out. It was insulting. And Kit knew all about how insulting language could hurt somebody. 

He was a perfect example. He was a gay guy with a slightly fem, androgynous look who like to wear things that were not considered ‘boy’ clothes. 

Although today was the exception to the rule because of, well… reasons. 

So, he was trying to modify his language, because he knew firsthand how hating on somebody because of how they were born was simply ridiculous. But he also couldn’t get past what Nox had done to him in his office. And now Kit couldn’t stand to be in there.

Thus the “reason” why he was dressed in plain old jeans and a simple T-shirt on this bright, lovely day.

Good thing there were other empty rooms in the building. His original office might’ve had biggest window and all, but it was going to be a storage room now. Or something. What it was not going to be was Kit’s office.

It took most of the morning, and involved asking favors from his staff, but Kit got his office equipment moved to a different room. It did have a window, although it overlooked the parking lot. Meh. At least he had natural light.

Once he got everything situated how he wanted it, and plugged in again, he stood in the doorway surveying the room. Yep, it was definitely smaller. And the plain white walls offended him on a personal level. He liked color.

And speaking of color, he had the most perfect idea of what colors he wanted to do his new office in—seafoam green and apricot. In fact, outside of the office furniture, everything else had to go. He was going to start completely over.

He made arrangements for a charity to come pick up everything, then went shopping. Retail therapy was good for the soul.

SEVERAL HOURS later, he was back with all his goodies. Again, he had to ask this staff for help getting the things to his office. Which, in retrospect, he probably should’ve gone shopping then moved into the new room. But oh well. 

He wasn’t sleeping all that great, so he could blame his lack of planning on that. Oh, and he’d also gotten paint. Which, again, he probably should’ve painted first too. 

It wasn’t that large of a room, fortunately for him. He got the tarp down over the floor, threw his hair up into a messy bun, and got down to business. 

Okay, so yeah, it didn’t take long for him to figure out that he really should’ve painted the walls first, but it was what it was. At least he had two of the four walls done. Progress! 

Grabbing a bottle water, he collapsed into his office chair. Whoo wee, he was going to feel this tomorrow, especially in his arms. Maybe he should start going to the gym in his apartment complex.

He was still debating the pros and cons of that when his cell phone rang. Pulling it out of his jean’s pocket, he frowned at the number. It wasn’t one he recognized, although his phone said it was a valid number.

Shrugging, he answered it. “Hello?” 

“May I speak to Kit Meadows, please?”

Whoa. That was one sexy voice right there. It gave him a nice little tingle. “This is Kit.”

“Hello, Kit. My name is Hudson Redmond. I’m Kage and Austin’s friend. I believe Austin spoke to you about… shall we say… protection due to an unfortunate situation that involved you?”

Whatever tingle Kit had going on, dried up like water in the desert. Suddenly it all came flooding back—his boyfriend’s betrayal, Nox’s attack, beings who looked like demons and used the shadows to travel, the werewolf, Austin struggling to breathe… all of it.

“Kit?”

Kit yanked himself back to the present. Now was not the time to take a side trip into that nightmare. “Yeah, yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to…. I had a moment there.”

“Completely understandable. I’ve had several moments here lately too. Now, as I was saying, I’m friends with Kage and Austin. Actually, Kage is my best friend.”

Suddenly it hit Kit where he’d heard that name from. “Oh wow. Oh goodness. I remember Kage mentioning you now. You’re a… a… a….”

“Yes, indeed I am,” Hudson laughed softly.

Welcome to Pucker Up Monday

It’s not what you think, lol. Since Mondays do tend to suck, I thought I’d try to start the week off right for y’all. 

Tuesday Teaser on a Wednesday

THE NEXT evening Raven contacted Hudson and updated him on what happened at the club. Connie was in Hudson’s office and overheard the conversation. 

The hunter they’d nabbed in the club? Wasn’t actually a hunter. He was a human who smelled like a hunter because the two of them had gotten busy in the bathroom. The hunter had rubbed himself all over the human, thus scent-marking him. Raven had questioned the human and found he’d just left the hunter in the bathroom when shit went down. 

The human had not been harmed before they found out the truth. Of course, the poor human had to be compelled to forget the entire incident. Several of them had to be. 

Cops found the dead bodies and had questioned Raven about it, not that they could tie the deaths to the attack on the club. It all seemed like a rather elaborate undertaking just to kidnap some people, not to mention Raven was now thoroughly annoyed. 

The only good thing, if one could call it that, was that they had proof the hunters were still active in San DeLain even though Nox was dead, and two of the hunters had perished. Hudson had apparently killed the one he threw against the van. 

Oh fucking well.

Hudson emailed the rest of the San DeLain leaders and updated them on what happened. Kage and Austin had left for Greece, and Hudson had arranged for them to borrow his private jet, which included members of his court as the crew.

Before Kage left, he reminded Hudson they needed someone to keep an eye on the human that Nox had attacked.

Seeing no sign that Hudson planned to stop working anytime soon, Connie ducked down to the kitchen and grabbed the plates of food left for them. 

Taking the plates back to Hudson’s office, he placed the two trays onto the conference table in Hudson’s office. It was dinnertime, and Connie was starving. 

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize it was so late. Thank you.” Hudson joined Connie at the table. “Pizza?”

“Homemade pizza,” Connie corrected. 

Since all of Hudson’s court lived in the compound, Hudson employed a full-time staff to cook in his home. All the dragons on Hudson’s land had their own homes, but several of the single ones ate at the main house. In a very loose way, Hudson’s residence functioned like a werewolves’ packhouse.

Hudson took a bite and groaned softly. “This is excellent.”

“Did you expect anything less?”

“Nope. Stella and her staff excel in all forms of cooking. To say otherwise would be to tempt Fate,” Hudson quipped as he took another bite of pizza.

“Yeah, Fate in the form of your head cook. She’d probably whack you on the ass with one of her wooden spoons. Stella doesn’t play.”

“No, she does not.” Hudson picked up the soda that Connie had brought and took a sip. “Kage and Austin are on their way to Greece. He reminded me that the human who owns the bookstore needs protection.”

“What was the guy’s name again?” Connie asked.

“Kit Meadows. He’s the owner of The Book Spot. His ex was the hunter who let Nox into Kit’s office.”

Connie grimace. Talk about a betrayal. “Ouch.”

“Yeah. And the ex is missing too, so Kage and Austin are worried about Kit’s safety.”

Kit owned a bookstore that Austin had done a book signing at. The two had hit it off and had started to become friends when Austin had suddenly backed off. 

Austin had mainly done that because he didn’t want to draw Nox’s attention to any friend of his. Not that it had done good. Nox attacked Kit, assumed his identity, and lured Austin into a trap.

“Any idea of who you want to use to babysit the human?” Connie asked as he bit into his pizza.

“I think Beckett would work nicely. He’s pretty nonthreatening for an Ancient—which is good for Kit’s peace of mind. Plus, Beckett’s a bookworm. Doing guard duty in a bookstore should be right down his alley.”

“I’ll check with him and see what he’s got going on. You do realize, of course, that saying Beckett is nonthreatening for an Ancient is all kinds of wrong, right? He’s damn near as powerful as you,” Connie pointed out.

“This human is important to Kage and Austin. That makes him important to us, which is why I am assigning a Grand Lord to watch after him,” Hudson said.

Dragons had titles that correlated with age. Hatchlings were dragons from birth to ninety-nine years old. Younglings were one hundred to four hundred ninety-nine years old. 

Dragons who were five hundred to six hundred ninety-nine years old had the title of Sir/Mistress. Connie fell in that category. Any dragons who were seven hundred to nine hundred ninety-nine years old held the title of Lords/Ladies. 

Dragons over a thousand years old who was not born a King or Queen held the title of Grand Lord/Lady, like Beckett, and also considered an Ancient. 

A King/Queen was a solid color of whatever court they belong to. In Hudson’s case, since he belonged to the Fire Court, he was a completely red dragon.

Welcome to Pucker Up Monday

It’s not what you think, lol. Since Mondays do tend to suck, I thought I’d try to start the week off right for y’all. 

Tuesday Teaser

 

Fuck, it stunk of hunter in there. Now to deal with the humans who’d been kidnapped. Opening the door again, he got out and started around the back. 

The vampire appeared next to him suddenly. “Need help?”

“Possibly. It depends on if they saw something they shouldn’t have had. By the way, what’s your name?”

“Felix March of the St. Clair coven.”

“Thank you for your help, Felix. I’ll make sure Raven knows,” Hudson said as he reached the back of the van.

“Glad I could be of assistance, King Hudson. Fucking hunters.”

“Fucking hunters indeed.” Hudson opened the van doors. The one girl the hunters had managed to kidnapped ran at them, clutching one her high heels in her hand.

“I do love a fighter,” Felix said, staring at the woman. “Relax. You are safe. Lower your weapon.”

Hudson heard the power in the vampire’s voice. Impressed, he watched the human woman stumbled to a halt and slowly lower her shoe. She stared at Felix, her face blank. 

Felix held his hand out, and the woman took it. He gently helped her out of the van, then took her shoe from her. Kneeling, he instructed her to brace her hand on his back while he helped put the shoe her back on.

For some reason, the gesture touched Hudson.

Standing, Felix gently took her chin and stared into her eyes. “You were kidnapped, yes, but you saw nothing unusual. No claws. No red eyes. Nothing a human would not have. A blond-headed guy with blue eyes and of average height helped save you, but he disappeared before you could get his name. Do you understand?”

The woman nodded slowly. “Yes. I understand. I saw nothing unusual and a blond-headed guy with blue eyes who is of average height helped save me.”

“Now go back toward the club and find a group of people to stand with. There is safety in numbers.”

“I will go back to the club and find a group of people stand with because there is safety in numbers.”

Hudson watched the woman walked back. He glanced at Felix and grinned. Hudson had long red hair and brown eyes. Felix had short, dark brown hair. They were both tall. He couldn’t tell the color over his eyes because they were currently red.

“Smart.”

Felix bowed his head slightly. “Thank you, King Hudson.”

A few seconds later, fire trucks and cop cars came screaming up to the club. 

Hudson smelled Connie before he saw him. Connie stopped next to him and nodded to Felix.

“Connie, this is Felix, one of Raven’s vampires. Raven? This is my right hand, Sir Conrad. Felix was very helpful.”

“Hey, Felix. Thank you. I’ve noticed several of Raven’s people helping. Is everything okay?” Connie asked as they moved into the shadows.

“One dead. I’m not sure about the other there on the ground. He hasn’t moved since I threw him against the van. At least two escaped. The humans are unharmed,” Hudson said. “Any more attempted kidnappings?”

“No, fortunately,” Connie said.

“That’s good to know,” Felix said. “King Hudson? Sir Conrad? I must take my leave now. I’m sure the human police are going to want to talk to Raven since he owns the place.”

“I did see a female vampire capture what I think was one of the hunters inside the club. Once everything calms down, will you ask Raven to update me on what happened, please?” Hudson asked.

“Absolutely. I didn’t know about that. Interesting.” Felix nodded to both of them then walked back toward the club at a human speed.

“Making friends, are you?” Connie asked.

“Never can have too many,” Hudson joked. “But Felix was a great help. I do envy their ability to compel humans.”

“It would definitely be a nice talent to have,” Connie agreed. “But I’ll take being a dragon any day.”

“Can’t argue with that. We really are the best.” Laughing, Hudson threw his arm around Connie’s shoulders. “Come on, let’s go home. I’ve had enough excitement for the night.”

Welcome to Pucker Up

It’s not what you think, lol. Since Mondays do tend to suck, I thought I’d try to start the week off right for y’all.