Elaina M. Roberts's Blog: News from the Between

If you’d like an early read of my new romantic urban fantasy set in Alabama’s capital city, follow the link below to get your copy! The book goes live on May 22, and ARCs will be unavailable after May 19 since this is a KU title.

Michaela scanned the report on the envelope’s ward and was surprised at how little information they gained. They’d struggled to even see the ward, much less identify the mage behind the casting. She’d never heard of a look-away spell until the dragonkin described it. She glanced up to ask and discovered Connal watching her through reptilian eyes. Dragon eyes. She froze, prey to his much larger predator.

“I won’t hurt you,” he murmured. The flickering outline of his wings made his hair shimmer in the sunlight, all the colors of his scales hidden in the ebony silk.

“Maybe not on purpose,” she said softly. “But you play in far deeper waters than I ever wished to. Small fish get eaten at those depths.”

His wing curved over her shoulder and stroked her arm. “Anyone who touches you will answer to me.”

And Alabama would have a blizzard in July. The unspoken retort wasn’t charitable of her, but she wasn’t a fool. He needed her on his side if he was to find the grenades and his missing agent. Once he accomplished those tasks, he’d be on to the next city, the next crisis, and the next impressionable woman he could use to gain information. She didn’t say any of that, however. Forcing a smile, she nodded and returned her attention to the report.

Click here if you’d like to read and leave a review!

I have a date! No, not that kind, but the release date for A Thread of Magic. It will go live on May 22! This one will be a slight experiment, as it will go into Kindle Unlimited for the first 90 days. Afterward, I’ll reassess taking it wide. It’s not scifi/space opera romance like my other two series, but a romantic urban fantasy set in my local area with dragons and magic and all the issues those powers can bring for those without them.

I’ll put out a call for ARC readers starting April 7. If you’re interested, please check the content information on the book’s page and let me know when I post the invitation.

Now, on to the snippet. This scene is from chapter 13. Michaela is slowly getting over her fear of the powerful dragonkin, while he grows evermore intrigued by her. He tempts her by offering the one thing she’s fascinated by: his wings.

“Would you like another touch?”

“What?” She snapped her gaze to his face to find him watching her with a faint smile curving his lips. Heat bloomed across her chest and crept up to her cheeks to scorch her ears. “No. That’s all right.”

He stretched one wing to its limit, the other restrained by the small bar which separated the dining room from the kitchen. “I don’t mind.”

A tempting offer she shouldn’t accept, but she wanted to. Oh, how she wanted to! Her brief touch in Ryoosk’s office wasn’t nearly enough. She wanted to run her fingers in the ghostly flames. Discover if the membrane was warm and leathery or cool and smooth. Trace each claw-like joint. Curling her hands into fists, she clasped them behind her back. She couldn’t do it. Could she?

“They’re solid?”

His smile dared her to do it. His wing curved toward her in invitation. “Touch and find out.”

She rose and took a step forward. Stopped. “Are you sure?” At his nod, she reached out and brushed her fingers along the flickering edge.

It wasn’t like that brief touch on the island. It was better. So much better. Fire and leather and warm supple skin. The ethereal flames danced between her fingers but didn’t burn. Instead, they twined around her like a cat and fueled a different sort of fire. Enchanted, she stroked her hand over a hard joint, trailed her fingertips down the tautly stretched skin beneath it. It felt intimate in a way she couldn’t describe.
The dragonkin released a shuddering breath. When she dragged her gaze from the light dancing along the edge of his wing, she discovered he’d leaned back in his chair with his head tilted and eyes shut. She snatched away her hand and cradled it against her chest.

“I hurt you.”

His lids rose and crimson fire danced in the dark depths, terrifying and oddly compelling. “Not at all. As I said before, you have a delicate touch, Michaela.” He said her name like a benediction, like it was beautiful. Like she was beautiful. She’d risk more than a touch to hear him say her name that way again. “A dragonkin’s wing is very sensitive, especially when solid.”A Thread of Magic ©2025, Elaina Roberts

One of the final editing passes all my books go through is listening to it via Microsoft Word’s text to speech option. It helps find missed words, duplicate words, repetitive words, and awkward phrasing among other things. It can also be quite unintentionally hilarious and baffling. Here are a few I’ve come across while listening to the robovoice reading A Thread of Magic (available June, 2025).

First off, the book. This is the beginning of a new series set in and around Alabama’s capital city. It’s not a rosy view of the south. This is the south’s darker side. The side full of prejudice and racism and how it collides with a new reality of magic users and mythological beings.

And if my word processor is anything to go by, it’s also where the Department of Redundancy Department thrives. I’ve removed so many crutch words in this document, I have a basket of them (JUST came out on top with almost 200 instances). As for the other errors… Well, let’s see how Word’s voice reader tackles the difficult and the easy and check out its questionable choices.

Things Microsoft Word could pronounce:Dragon Names – Ēlēlouwala, Vesuvaraeon, Axlargígurian, Virunganabi, and Alicanzuthil gave the program no problems. It pronounced them mostly how I intended (some of the emphasis was wrong), but it did so consistently and without variation. I was pleasantly surprised.Szerix – The resident imp of Mediocre Magics, the FMC’s store, was another easy pronunciation for the program. I expected the SZ combo to give it pause.Other Personal Nouns – City names (including Yakima, Montgomery), character names (Connal, Michaela, Dytasha), and other names were no problem.Things Microsoft Word could not pronounce:Par – Yes, the golf term. Easy word, used often in casual conversation. Word decided to spell it because why not, I guess.Relive – According to the dictionary, it means to live through (an experience or feeling, especially an unpleasant one) again in one’s imagination or memory. IE “he broke down sobbing as he relived the attack.” Simple, right? Oh no, Word decided ‘live’ must be pronouced as live with a long I (līv). All the pauses trying to decide if I’d spelled rely instead.Combed – Surely it got this one right, you say? Why no, no it didn’t. It decided it must rhyme with room (co͞om), because that makes sense.Petrifying – A synonym of terrifying, petrifying describes someone or something so scary it immobilizes the subject. It’s based off the word Petrify /ˈpetrəˌfī/. It should not be pronounced pee-tree-fī, but here we are.Smoothed – Yet another past tense debacle, Word decided it needed to pronounced both syllables. This made the monosyllable Smoothd sound like 2-syllable smooth-ed. It was amusing more than annoying, so there’s that.Wound – Okay, I know heteronyms/homographs (words spelled the same but pronounced differently) can be confusing, and English is just a dozen bastardized languages in a trench coat, but really? Wound the injury and wound the action are not interchangeable pronunciations! Also, pick one!PO Box – This one may be on me because I didn’t put the periods after each letter in PO, but in no world is a PO Box a po’ box. Those things cost a monthly fee!

While it’s fun to poke at the program for sounding like an ESL student, it really is a great resource for finding those errors your eyes miss after the millionth time reading over a manuscript. I caught over a dozen missed words, a few duplicates, and so many awkward sentences using the feature. Highly recommended for anyone needing a quick proof, just be prepared for unintentional laughter.

A Thread of Magic releases this June and will be exclusive to Amazon and KU for a limited time.

The Wolves of Sorrow series is winding down with the sixth book releasing today! Currently available at Amazon, she’ll stalk her way through the other retailers over the next few days until she’s available everywhere. Here’s a preview along with links of where to grab Hinata and the other wolves of Sorrow.

“Try this.”

Instead of taking the fruit from her hand, he leaned forward and bit into the juicy pear. His galaxy eyes never left hers as his lips brushed over her fingertips. She was trapped in that beautiful starscape, drawn in by the intimacy of feeding another from her own hand, by the ache to touch and be touched. His teeth never touched her skin, but she felt branded by him.

His eyes closed and he moaned, “How does it taste better than it smells?”

“Witchcraft.” She meant to tease, but it left her lips as an awed whisper. It was witchcraft, only she was the one bewitched.

When he parted his lips, she placed the rest of the slice on his tongue. His lips closed around her fingers, his tongue brushed her fingertips, and his eyes opened. Emerald green and devoid of stars, they caught her as surely as an adder’s trap. Seconds ticked by. She knew she needed to move away. She wanted to roam, see all Barif had to offer, not play house with this fascinating, gentle Rifaniir.

“You didn’t tell me to hide,” he whispered. “In the alley. You let me fight, treated me as an equal. I won’t forget that.”

She didn’t move. Not when he took her hand and brushed his thumb over her racing pulse. Not when he licked the remaining juice from her fingers. No, she didn’t move. Couldn’t move. Heat shot from each sensitized digit and crackled along her nerve endings like a pulse blast at close range. She cupped his cheek and let her claws emerge to dent his skin. She wouldn’t hurt him, never would she hurt him, but if he wanted to play with a stronger predator, she wouldn’t hold back.

“You play a dangerous game, Aeraiph Niphan,” she whispered huskily.

“Perhaps.” He nipped the tips of her fingers, and she felt the first sting of his fangs. “Should I stop?”

She tilted her head, the wolf rising to look out her eyes. “What do you think?”

“That I should learn how to court a wolf.”

Oh, he didn’t need to learn. He was doing just fine on his own. She brought his hand to her lips and pressed a kiss to his palm. This was such a bad idea. Aeraiph didn’t seem the type of man to indulge in casual romps. He’d want a relationship. He might even want forever. She wanted those things, too, eventually, but she also needed to roam.

Someone’s heart would get broken before this mission was over. She only hoped it’d be hers alone.

Hinata is available at all major ebook retailers, as well as Kobo+ (a subscription service similar to Kindle Unlimited). Pick up a copy. Leave a review. I’ll love you forever!

Buy it now at Amazon, other retailers coming soon!

The end is nigh! No, no, not that one or even that one, but the end of a series. The Edgeworld Chronicles, my mlm scifi romp which started with Petri and his irreverent smuggler, comes to a close with the upcoming release of The Ravyn’s Revenge. The series finale brings old and new characters together to right many wrongs, rescue the Ravyn’s brother, and maybe do a bit of kissing (and more) along the way.

First, look at him! Isn’t he absolutely swoony? The moment I saw this model, I knew he was my Ravyn. He’s so close to how I pictured him in my head, it’s kinda scary (like the Ravyn).

The initial writing for this was a slog, I’m not gonna lie. I either made the plot overly complicated (and it may still be) and the relationship suffered, or the relationship got too convoluted and the plot suffered. I’m pretty happy with where it’s at now – in the hands of my beta readers – and await their judgment.

Now, for the back cover summary. Drum Roll…

Vigilante. Murderer. Hero.

Kittryk Ravyndaar has searched for his brother for over five long years. Each scrap of information, from Pietro’s patient identifier to Kasseus Minshaar’s experience, brings him one step closer to victory. Now, all he needs is someone with enough skill to break into a secure research facility and obtain his brother’s last known location.

What he needs is Cpl. Ricardo Jackson.

Broken legionnaire. Dishonored Misfit. Traitor.

Haunted by his actions during interrogation and believing Larimore dead, Jackson avoids his squad mates and drowns his past in the bottom of the bottle. Until his former NCO contacts him and asks him for a favor.

Now Kit and Jackson must evade the Alliance, uncover an unknown enemy working against them, and race against time to rescue the pirate’s lost brother. As a larger plot unravels and new enemies appear, they don’t have time to succumb to temptation.

But even the Ravyn can’t evade love.

Here’s a snippet to hopefully get you as excited about the Ravyn as I am:

The unlocking program he’d built years ago for the Misfits ran slower on the ancient unit than the sleek device issued by the Legion, but it got the job done. The access panel flashed green, the cypher lock disengaged, and the door slid open. His mama didn’t raise any fools, however. He didn’t step into the room. Instead, he slid away his comm device and stared into two pairs of crimson-ringed eyes. They glowed in the muted light of the room and promised death.

“Sarge tells me you need a comm spec.” He leaned against the doorway and folded his arms over his chest. No sudden moves. Nothing hidden or shady. Voice as deliberately casual and relaxed as his posture. “If he’s right, and Sarge is annoyingly on the nose about this shit, then I’m your man. Ricardo Jackson of the Misfits.”

The man he knew only as Kit stepped forward, the other man shifting to keep a clear line of sight between them. The leader carried a pair of wickedly curved blades crackling with energy and stood like he knew how to use them. “Do you always court death when you respond to job opportunities?”

“If necessary.” Damn. A voice like that should be illegal. Smooth and rich but with a bite of danger to make things interesting. He’d be a potent lover, the kind who liked a bit of pain with his pleasure. Too bad he was the lead on this mission. Jackson didn’t mix business with pleasure. That got a man killed. “Sarge’s brief said this mission’s important. You don’t know me or my skills. A suitable demonstration cuts through a lot of bullshit.”

Friday and Saturday, May 17-18, I’ll be at the Capital City Author Event in downtown Montgomery, AL. This is a big author event with over 80 authors and vendors. Entry is free, so if you want to come get some books and swags and meet some old and new favorite authors, please come to the Renaissance Hotel. Don’t forget to say hello!

During the event and the two weeks following it, I’m running a free promotion through Draft2Digital on the first books in my two scifi series as well as the urban fantasy standalone. From Thursday, May 16th to Sunday, June 2, the ebooks for The Fox’s Mate, Shoba, and Subject 5691: Petri will be available for free (Amazon/Kindle might have a slight delay).

I hope to see you at CCAE!

Hello (hello…hello…)! Hmm, I think there’s an echo in here. So, hi! How have you been? I’ve been rather busy lately with various signing events, working on books, and querying. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and have a seat. We’ll chat and catch up.

First off, what have you read lately that really knocked your socks off? I’ve swan-dived into T. Kingfisher’s works, and can’t recommend Bryony and Roses enough. It’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a very down-to-earth heroine and her beast. It has several twists on the theme and was just absolutely amazing.

Next up by the same author is the Clocktaur War duology. Slow burn secondary romance in a fantasy setting, the main characters are all wanted criminals sent on a suicide mission. No one expects them to survive, least of all them, but Slate, Brenner, Caliban, and Learned Edmund are nothing if not incredibly determined and outstandingly lucky. I don’t feel either book would work as a standalone. It feels like a single story cut into two books for length, but both halves are lovely.

Querying – I’m still waiting to hear back from several agents about A Thread of Magic. I love this book so much, and I’ve been extremely happy it gained the interest it has, but it’s future remains in limbo.

Books! Yes, I’m working on books! The final book in the Edgeworld Chronicles series, The Ravyn’s Revenge, is currently going through an intense edit. This has resulted in some deep revisions of sections, so it’s taking longer than I’d like, but I wasnt it done right. Once the initial edit is complete, I’ll know how long before it’s ready for release.

After Ravyn, I’ll be tackling Hinata, sixth in the Wolves of Sorrow series. Currently, my plan is for Hinata to be the penultimate book in that series, but depending on how the story unravels it may become the final book.

Beyond these two series, I want to explore more of the hybrids remaining on Earth Prime, write another book with an eye toward querying for tradpub, and do some edits on A Fox’s Mate as I’ve seen so many issues in it. That latter one irritates me to no end as it’s the only book to have a professional edit through a small press. So, new edit, possibly alternate covers for Wolves of Sorrow and Edgeworld Chronicles, and new stories! Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me.

But wait! There’s more…

If you reach the blog via the main page, you might have noticed a new tab along the top: Appearances. Sounds fancy, huh? I’ve started going to in-person book events (Sumiton’s BookFest 2023 being my first), and have several planned for the rest of the year.

Capital City Author Event (May 17-18) is the main event (heh) for the year. Hosting over 80 authors and vendors at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel, we’ll have a Dancing through the Decades/Meet-n-Greet on Friday night, and signings on Saturday. I do know there are other events happening in the city that weekend, so you can keep having fun once you’ve bought ALL THE BOOKS and met all the folks! Come see me and say hi!

After that, I’m attending Prattville’s inaugural Pride event at Cooter’s Pond Park on June 23 as an author/vendor. The Edgeworld Chronicles will be front and center, and I hope to debut some of my book-related goodies then as well. There’ll be live music! Food trucks! And lots of goodies!

At this time, I have two months in the heart of summer free of events only to have two back-to-back weekends in October. Yay! The melting months are for huddling in my AC.

October 5th is the Howlers Art and Literary Fest at the Union Station Train Shed. There’ll be food trucks, visual and textile arts, and books! I adored the first one and can’t wait to have a table at this one. Come see me (please).

October 12th, I’m back at the Sumiton Book Fest and I. Can’t. Wait. That’s it. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Keep an eye on the Appearances tab. If you can make it, I’d love to meet you. You can also preorder books from me so you don’t have to carry them with you.

So, that’s been me since (checks the blog) last October. Oh, except a fall resulting in a broken nose which I’m still battling with insurance over. But that’s a whole other box of crap. I’ll try not to be a stranger. Tell me how you’ve been.

Hello! Yes, I meant this to go out last week, but my brain is currently a sponge that’s been squeezed for all it’s worth. There’s just no words remaining in there. I managed to soak up a few over the weekend, so I’m going to do a recap of the book festival I attended. Let’s hope this makes sense!

Sumiton is a small town in north central Alabama west of Birmingham. When I say small, I mean “population 2500, city size of approximately 5.3 square miles*” small, so I truly had few expectations. I was wrong!

We had a lovely fall day, a little overcast in the morning then clear the rest of the day which turned breezy in the afternoon. My tent tried to wander off back home once or twice until a fellow author, Christine Roberts (no relation lol), kindly loaned me her tent weights.

As this is my first time having a booth of any sort barring the library’s local author spotlight, I’ll run through what worked and what didn’t. Maybe it’ll help someone else at their first event, or at least serve as a warning to others. I’m good either way.

What Worked:Getting a hotel near the site. Set-up was between 0630 and 0830, and I live an hour and a half away. I didn’t want to get up at stupid o’clock and risk traffic jams trying to arrive on time. We stayed at a lovely Holiday Inn Express in Jasper just 15 min away. Much more relaxing.Bringing along an assistant. The event ran all day – 9am- 4pm – so food and bathroom breaks were a must. Much easier to do when someone else is at the booth chatting with passing attendees.Trope list for each book. I had the main plot tropes for each book on a table flag and received a lot of comments on the idea. I’m not an author who writes by trope, and usually I have to ask my beta readers to identify the ones I use. Still, a lot of folks read by trope, so I printed off the main tropes, laminated them, and placed them in card stands my hubby 3D printed for me. It definitely helped sell my Edgeworld Chronicles books. A few folks were looking for LGBTQ+ content, and there weren’t many on offer. (for reason, see: small town, Alabama)Electronic payments. I purchased a Square reader for this event, but I failed to prep other electronic forms of accepting payment. While a lot of buyers had cash, the Square, Venmo, and CashApp were requested. I now have those three set up and ready for next time.Multiple book discounts. I priced my paperbacks at $12 (which meant I needed to have a stack of one dollar bills on hand just in case), but offered any two for $20. All but one paying with cash bought two. I also had a larger discount option of five for $40, and surprisingly enough had someone purchase all five Sorrow books that way.Candy. Candy always works, especially for folks with kids. A fun sized Snickers often turns a maybe into ooooh yes!Unique table scatter. Maybe this was just the area, I don’t know, but the single thing most people seemed to love were my miniature book table scatter. They’re an inch tall, open like a standard book, and have my book covers on them. They’re stupidly easy to make, cost very little, but the comments and chatter and utter delight they engendered made them well worth the time and effort to make. If anyone is interested, I’ll post a tutorial on how to make them in the future. Everyone needs tiny books!Eclipse glasses. Okay, this one is very specific to the day, but the event was during the lunar solar eclipse. I brought glasses and let potential buyers use them to check out the eclipse. Great for non-pushy interaction, and they had to step into the booth area to give them back.What Didn’t Work (or didn’t work as well as expected):

Some of these may not have worked well due to the first point – lack of cohesion of the table set up. It was too cluttered, perhaps overwhelming folks. Also, the free stuff wasn’t specifically marked as such which might have caused hesitation again. Things I’ll remedy moving forward.

Lack of pre-planning the table set up. Bad move. It was a hot mess of too much stuff. I had more stuff left over that never got put anywhere. Just stuff everywhere! Next time, I’ll set up the table and figure out the placement beforehand. Also, don’t be afraid to wander during set up and borrow other’s ideas. I have a few I’ve snatched up and will alter to suit my particular genre.Button/pins. I brought a ton of buttons/pins/whatever you want to call them and very, very few went home with folks. I wasn’t selling them, but they didn’t move. No one wanted the buttons, they just wanted the tiny books!Bookmarks. Oddly enough, the bookmarks didn’t move, but the business cards did. It could be a one-off, but folks seemed to prefer things that easily fit in their wallet/pocket.Stickers. Another surprise as I love me a good free sticker. They simply didn’t garner as much interest as the tiny books. I think if they were more generic rather than branded, they might have moved better, but I’m not willing to become a sticker vendor.Single level display. There was nothing bringing the books to a different level. Everything was on the table. Working retail taught me that folks buy more things if it’s at eye level, but I ignored that. Next time, I’m going to have multiple levels for items. Bring the good stuff up, get folks interested, let them actually see the books rather than having to look down and rummage.Signage. I had a sign with prices hanging from the edge of my canopy but nothing on the table. It must be on the table or hanging off the table somehow.

It sounds like far more went wrong than right, but it was an incredibly successful festival for all involved. All the authors I’ve see post about it said they had a blast and sold many books. The hosts stated they had a lot of fun and are already planning the next one with their own lessons learned.

I’m excited about returning next year with a better grasp of how I want things to look. Doing this event plus another in December will hopefully help me iron out my issues before CCAE in May. If you have any questions about anything, please place them in the comments below or contact me. I’m more than happy to answer them.

Population/size according to Wikipedia

I’ve been working on an exciting new project, and it’s just about ready for release. This one is completely disconnected from my other series. It’s romantic urban fantasy set in the deep south – Montgomery, AL, to be exact – with the city’s beauty and its ugliness. It’s in final editing now, so I’m hoping for a winter release. Stay tuned for ARC opportunities!

Isn’t it lovely? Fire and magic and a hint of… could those be dragon scales? Yes, yes they are! I decided on a different style of cover for this book due to changing market preferences, and I love it. If this book becomes a series (and I’ve been informed by one of my beta readers that my life hangs in the balance if I don’t make it so), they will all have similar designs.

Michaela Richardson is one of the magic touched, those blessed with magical abilities after the rise of dragons returns magic to our world. Connal Pierce is one of the kin, a child of dragons, and powerful.

Together, they must find a missing agent and the dangerous cargo he was sent to retrieve before a human-only hate group plunges North America into a senseless unwinnable war.

Official backcopy blurb to come. Read on for an excerpt.

“A kin’s wing is very sensitive, especially when solid.”

“Would you like to touch them?”

“What?” She snapped her gaze to his face to find him watching her with a faint smile curving his lips. Heat bloomed across her chest and crept up to her cheeks to scorch her ears. “No. That’s all right.”

He stretched one wing to its limit, the other restrained by the small bar which separated the dining room from the kitchen. “I don’t mind.”

A tempting offer she shouldn’t accept, but she wanted to. Oh, how she wanted to! What would they feel like? Did the ghostly flames burn? Would the membrane be warm and leathery or cool and smooth? She bit her lip, battling between foolish desire and common sense. She couldn’t do it. Could she? “They’re solid?”

His smile dared her to do it, the wing curving toward her in invitation. “Touch and find out.”

She rose and took a step forward. Stopped. “Are you sure?” At his nod, she reached out and brushed her fingers along the flickering edge.

It was fire and leather and warm supple skin. The ethereal flames danced between her fingers but didn’t burn. Instead, they twined around her like a cat and fueled a different sort of fire. Enchanted, she stroked her hand over a hard joint, trailed her fingertips down the tautly stretched skin beneath it. It felt intimate in a way she couldn’t describe.

Connal released a shuddering breath. When she dragged her eyes from the light dancing along the edge of his wing, she discovered he’d leaned back in his chair with his head tilted and eyes shut. She snatched her hand away and cradled it against her chest.

“I hurt you.”

His lids rose and crimson fire danced in the dark depths of his eyes, terrifying and oddly compelling. “Not at all. You have a delicate touch, Michaela.” He brushed the edge of his wing along her back. “A kin’s wing is very sensitive, especially when solid.”

A Thread of Magic, Elaina Roberts, 2023

For this month’s flash piece, I’m returning to Barif and the Wolves of Sorrow series. A Successful Mission Gone Wrong follows Jelayan on a retrieval mission of a well-protected green gem (August’s peridot). This story occurs after Jelayan’s book (#4) but before Hinata’s (#6) when Jelayan is still fitting into her new duties with her mate’s covert operations organization. There are no spoilers for the series’ overarching plot.

For this flash short, Kellan and Jelayan are still a relatively new couple still learning how to be in a relationship. Add in a boss/subordinate situation, and you get what happens here. A wolf who does whatever’s required to succeed on her mission, and her mate’s fury when it comes at the expense of her health. Sometimes even the most successful mission is still a failure.

A Successful Mission Gone Wrong

The gem hung suspended in a rotating case, the light sparking off its yellow-green facets. The walls of the case were a transparent alloy of intergalactic grade aramidium rated to withstand a planetary barrage. There wasn’t an obvious access point to the gem, no door latch or visible hinges. It was as if the gem formed within the case instead of being placed there.

She stalked around the case on silent feet and studied it from every angle. The iridium light wands chased the shadows from the room, but a moment of tampering caused one to flicker in erratic bursts. During one of those flickers, her shadow revealed a shimmer of light surrounding the case. She bared her fangs in a triumphant smile. Clever, but not clever enough to defeat a cat. Sneaky was in her DNA.

The shimmer indicated a complex security system. An alarm was a given as were offensive capabilities. Her first task was identifying each type of offensive attack woven into the security measures. Her real challenge, of course, was to deactivate them all without triggering the alarm.

Removing a small diagnostic bot from her pocket, she pressed her thumb to the scanner to activate it. With a soft whir, it rose to hover three inches from the shimmering barrier. It barely made a quarter way around the case when the screen flashed blue signaling the alarm. A particularly obnoxious one, too. The kind which sent silent notifications to the authorities long before it blared an audible warning for all to hear. Her growl rumbled in her chest, but she didn’t let it rise. Stealth was critical, and the Rifaniir’s hearing was keen.

Another quarter turn, and the screen flashed again. A brilliant crimson. That meant a fire or heat-based defense. She reached for her comm device, and the device flashed again. Purple, a paralyzing agent. Shit. Another flash. Another offensive color. Then another. And another.

Sand and sun, why was this gem so protected? It’s just a colored bit of rock. She drew out her comm device and read the reports. A wasteland tumbleweed had fewer layers than the case’s security programming. Disarming all the defenses would take more time than she had. She needed a shortcut.

Reading through the report again, she curled her lip in a silent snarl. This… was going to suck. Jelayan returned the diagnostic bot and her comm device to her pocket and withdrew a communications jammer. A marvel of Rifaniir technology, it scrambled all comm devices in a ten-meter radius—the holovid recorders, her personal unit, and the alarm built into the gem’s case. A three-minute window to grab the damned gem and run. It would have to be enough.

The ceiling vent remained open, the metal cage over the air duct pushed aside during her entry. There’d be no impediment to leaving the room. Leaving the building, however, might prove problematic, but she’d worry about that later. For now, she had to retrieve the gem.

She pulled on the gloves and drew the dagger she’d brought along for just this scenario. She’d get only one chance at this. Shaking her shoulders to relieve the tension, she drew in a deep inhale, released it in a slow exhale. Now.

She pushed the button on the jammer and sank her blade into the corner of the cage. For a brief heartbeat, nothing happened. Then heat crawled up her arm, searing her skin through the tactical material of her glove. Cold followed the heat, so sharp and bitter it burned almost as much as the heat. She hissed through the pain, plucked the gem from the ruined cage, and sealed it inside one of the cargo pockets of her trousers.

The knife fell from her nerveless fingers as the paralyzing agent seeped through glove. It was a blessing in disguise as she no longer felt the agony of the dual hot/cold defensive attacks. It also rendered her hand useless for her escape. An acceptable trade-off.

Jumping into the air duct, she maneuvered the grate back into position and retraced her path to the outside. The cool autumn air chased away the musty staleness of the air duct and brought a familiar and welcome scent to her nose. The wood and leather of the purest vetiver oil. The cool, refreshing bite of mint. Freshly polished teakwood warmed by the summer sun. A beloved scent. The scent of her mate.

She looked at the arm she’d secured in her shirt and grinned. He was going to be so angry with her. Gripping the rope he’d dropped from the roof with her working hand, Jelayan pulled herself toward the roof using her clawed toes in the cracks and crevices of the building’s façade. The higher she climbed, the better she heard Kellan’s mating song. The subvocal melody meant for her ears alone was a disjoined, angry buzz against her senses.

Yep. He was spitting mad. He might even bite her. She hoped she could get him naked first.

Once on the roof, he took one look at her tucked arm and bared his many fangs. “What did you do?”

“Succeeded.” Jelayan patted the pocket containing the gem. “Let’s go. We have forty-five seconds.”

Kellan returned the rope to his belt, scooped her into his arms, and ran. They raced along the rooftops, leaping from building to awning to outer staircases. As she’d trained with the Rifaniir, they’d learned from her. The members of Kellan’s covert operations incorporated many of the wolves’ sneakier tactics such as maintaining the high ground whenever possible. The ambush predators of Barif cloaked themselves in their natural camouflage and took down their prey from the shadows rather than strike from above. Jelayan taught them to rethink that strategy more than once during training.

Her device gave a quiet ping just as Kellan slowed his run. His chest heaved from the exertion, his hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, but they’d reached their destination. She slipped from his arms and unlocked the roof’s access door with her code and palm print. Together, they stepped onto the lift platform.

“You need a medic.” Kellan’s voice was hard, the obsidian stars in his beautiful eyes fading to leave a barren landscape of fury. “How, exactly, did you circumvent the security around the gem?”

“Stop snarling at me, Kellan.” She bared her own fangs and hissed. “The mission brief said quick and quiet, so that’s what I did.”

“Fuck the brief! Tell me what happened.”

A low growl rumbled in her chest. She might love him more than life itself, but she wouldn’t tolerate that tone. Still, he was not just her mate but her superior on this mission. She told him and finished with, “Remember when I asked for a copy of the cage’s scan? I had the tech team scrub it of all identifying information then took it to Talish. He has an artist’s soul, but he also built Sorrow’s best weapons. He saw a weakness in the design.”

Kellan pinched the bridge of his nose. “You punched through the defenses?”

“Yes. Hit the weak spot, grabbed the gem, and got the fuck out. Mission accomplished.”

An hour later, Jelayan was able to remove the glove and feel each of her fingers again. Movement remained jerky as the nanos sought and neutralized the last of the paralyzing agent. There’d be no permanent scarring, though the doctor had berated her almost as much as her mate. This, the medic had told her, was how stupid people died. Now that she was no longer hopped up on adrenaline, she had to agree.

And she finally saw through Kellan’s anger to the soul-deep worry beneath it. She’d scared him. Scared her beautiful, playful predator so badly he hadn’t let her out of his sight since the rooftop, his subvocal song a constant hum of anger, fear, and a love so deep it still stole her breath at times.

“I’m sorry,” she said in their quarters that night. He’d made love to her that night with excruciating tenderness. Her heart broke at the realization of how much she’d wounded her beautiful predator. “I should’ve discussed the plan with you first and found an alternative. I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”

“That much energy, that much pain could’ve killed you.” He held her tightly against his body, his face buried in her hair and his legs trapping her, but it was the faint tremors she felt against her back which shattered her.

“I read the reports,” she whispered, covering his hands with hers and lacing their fingers together. “I brought the glove to mitigate the effects, chose a non-conductive blade from the armory. I hadn’t expected that much power in such a small target.”

“If you were one of my operatives,” he said harshly, “you’d be busted down to novice in Ray’s security division. I don’t sacrifice my people for a mission, Jelayan, and you’re not just an operative. You’re my mate. My fucking heartbeat.”

“I know, honey, I know.” Tears stung her eyes at the anguish in his voice. “I’m so sorry.”

“A month.” His fangs sank into her shoulder, the bite possessive and commanding. A dominant predator reprimanding his mate. “You’re now riding a desk for a month. No training. No teaching. No fieldwork. Maybe during that month, you’ll learn you have value.”

“Okay.” No part of her fought the punishment. Her wolf whined at hurting this Rifaniir who’d stolen her heart. Her cat retreated deep inside her mind leaving only her human self. “I truly didn’t know it’d be that bad, Kellan. I never meant to scare you.”

“I know, kitten.” Something relaxed inside her at the familiar, loving endearment. She hadn’t shattered them completely, hadn’t caused a permanent crack in their relationship. Anything else could be fixed. “Just, take better care of yourself. If not for you, then for me. I’d be lost without you.”

Rolling over when his hold relaxed, Jelayan wrapped her arms and legs around him and held him as tightly as he’d held her. “I promise.”

She sealed the vow with a kiss. And when he demanded her total surrender, she gave it to him. Sated and sleepy, she pressed her lips to his chest over the steady beat of his heart.

“I’m yours, Kellan Avelaño. I won’t forget again.”