“You can’t just make an entire town disappear.” Maximus frowned.
“Sure you can. It was already a tiny, little dying place already. All we’ve done is help take it off the maps. Now Rem and his people can live in peace.”
“And what’s your plan?” Maximus opened up the folder and skimmed the first page. “You planning to move to Eagle Ridge, Washington?”
“No. We have our island, and sending too many hybrids to one place just means there is more chance that someone nasty finds us all.” Titus chuckled. “And I don’t think a single town or island can take two leaders fighting for dominance. It’s good to know there’s another place out there safe for hybrids. I suspect there’s a lot more about what happened there that Rem’s not going to tell us, but that’s his business. If he needs help, he knows how to get hold of us. If not, maybe we’ll all meet again in the future. His people were different than ours, anyway.”
“Yours.” Maximus kept his tone calm. “My men and I aren’t Luna Lodge hybrids.”
“That’s not a problem for me if it isn’t for you.”
“Not saying it is, but there might come a day where we need to walk our own path.”
“I know.” Titus nodded. “We didn’t rescue you from the Phoenix Corps to tell you what to do. I understand what it means to be a leader, and I understand that you need to do what’s best for your people. I will never object to that. If you ever get tired of us, it’d be a good place to disappear to.”
Maximus grabbed the file, stood up, and headed toward the door. He stopped and turned around. “We already don’t live with you, and I don’t know this Rem. If we decide not to settle on Isla Luna, then I doubt we’ll be going to some tiny town in the Pacific Northwest. Let Rem and his people have their peace, just as you and the Luna hybrids have yours.”
“And you and your men?”
“We’re close.” Maximus smiled. “In a couple of years, maybe there will be three different hybrid colonies. For now, though, I think we’ll stick to our current arrangement unless something happens.”
With a final nod, he opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Titus and the Luna Lodge hybrids proved that giant organizations with massive resources and armies of Glycons wouldn’t win against the hybrids. Rem and his people had proved that again. The victories filled Maximus with hope. There might be the occasional obstacle, but he no longer had any doubts. Freedom awaited all hybrids.
Note From The Author
I haven’t done an author’s note before, but thought I would, considering the significant time gaps in my publishing the last few years. I felt you all deserved an explanation and a road map for the future.
First of all, before I get into the heavy stuff, thank you all so much for your emails, messages, and comments on posts. Everyone has been so supportive during this time, and I really can’t thank you enough. But even more than that, thank you all for reading. I love my job. I’m so incredibly lucky to be able to put my ideas down on paper and that people like reading my work. Sometimes it feels so crazy just to know this is my job. I am just so grateful to get to do this. So really, thank you.
I figure this is the point where I explain a few things about the last two years. I mentioned on Facebook that I’d been dealing with depression and severe anxiety. I didn’t go into details because we were still dealing with matters at the time, but this also has to do with my daughter.
Many of you may know that both of my children have autism. They are amazing kids and just my biggest joy. My daughter, who is almost 15, has a much younger mental age. I’d say she’s maybe 3-4 years old mentally. For the most part, this isn’t something we think about. It’s just a part of our life, and we love her to bits. There are so many amazing things she likes to do with me and is my not-so-little shadow.
That all said, the older she’s grown, the more hormone issues we’ve had to deal with. Sometimes these issues can make her severely aggressive. It’s very hard to understand and deal with PMS if you can’t mentally understand what’s going on. To her, she hurts, and I’m the one who makes hurts go away, and she doesn’t always understand why I can’t stop all of it.
We’ve been working with tons of people to help with her issues, including psychiatrists, gynecologists, and pediatricians, but last year, we hit a peak of aggression. I won’t go into what all happened, but just know it was bad. Just before her birthday, we had temporarily admit her temporarily to a child’s psychiatric ward after several days of severe violence that we couldn’t control.
It was the single worst moment of my life. I had already been dealing with her growing aggression while trying to keep the family together. When this happened, it crushed me. You don’t expect to have to put your child is a psych ward or how you will deal with life after that moment.
With the help of the professionals, we figured out some of the issues, and she was able to return home to us. Although she still has severe aggression issues, it’s more manageable, and we’ve not had to confront a difficult choice like again like we did last year.
Ironically, I was so thrilled to give 2019 the finger and make my way into 2020. I started out the year with a bang by celebrating my 40th birthday in Vegas with some amazing friends. It was exactly the sort of trip I needed... and then the pandemic hit. I honestly don’t think I could have written a book with the plot twists this year has thrown at all of us.
Because of high-risk medical issues, my husband and I have to isolate ourselves a lot more than some people. It hasn’t been easy, but we don’t have it as badly as some, and we have jobs we can do from home, so we’ve been grateful. Our kids’ schools were either canceled or remote-learning only until recently, so we’ve had to adjust, like many parents, to figuring out how to help our kids learn without being in a normal school environment.
Things with my daughter have gotten better since last year, but the aggression is still there from time to time (usually once a month during her cycle). It’s something we deal with, and is the main reason I tend to silent online from time to time. Like I said, she really is a joy most of the time and those temporary behaviors don’t define her. They are things she can’t control, and so we manage as much as we can because we love her and that’s what parents do.
So now I’ve spilled my guts on all sorts of personal drama, how about some positive. I put out a book! Not only that Rem is the final book in this branch of the series, I feel like this is the most wholesome (which is ironic to say considering how naughty Rem can be) book I’ve done in some time. It was a win for everyone! I absolutely loved this story and revisiting one of my personal heartthrobs and watching their little family get a happily ever after.
I hope you all liked the glimpse of Maximus thrown in at the end as well. Luna Lodge: Alpha Squad #1 Maximus should be out in the next few weeks. This is a collaborative project with Willow Hazel, and I absolutely love what she’s brought to the series. It’s so amazing to see my world through a fresh pair of eyes. This crew is going to have their own unique spin, and I think that’s what makes these branch-off series interesting. It’s not just rewriting the same fights every time. I know I hate writing that way, and I can only assume you all hate reading the same thing.
Okay for more book talk, aside from the co-authored Alpha Squad and Devil’s Den titles that will be arriving in the coming months, I’ll be getting back to Berserk for my solo work. This will be my primary solo focus.
Plus, I think I need to limit how far I spread myself. I’m doing much better, but I’m just trying to be kind to myself. I always have about a million projects I look forward to working on, but I don’t have to half-ass things. You get my whole ass on this series! LOL.
I think that about covers things. I hope you all are staying safe and managing to say sane during this unusual time. I’m sending good thoughts to each and every one of you!
Madison
A Note from Madison
Thank you for reading Rem. If you enjoyed this book, please consider reviewing i
t. We authors live and die by reviews.
Please keep an eye out for Maximus and his new team in the upcoming spin-off series, Luna Lodge: Alpha Squad.
You can join my mailing list at http://eepurl.com/OX9r5
ALSO BY MADISON STEVENS
Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas (Paranormal Romance)
Magnus (Hunters #1)
Nero (Hunters #2)
Lucas (Hunters #3)
Sergius (Hunters #4)
Marcus (Hunters #5)
Jace (Hunters #6)
Quintus (Hunters #7)
Atticus (Hunters #8)
Vitus (Hunters #9)
Joran (Hunters #10)
Alec (Hunters #11)
Luna Lodge
Sol (Luna Lodge #1)
Titus (Luna Lodge #2)
Lucius (Luna Lodge #3)
Marius (Luna Lodge #4)
Apollo (Luna Lodge #5)
Apollo and Val (Luna Lodge #5.5)
Remus (Luna Lodge #6)
Justus (Luna Lodge #7)
Zeno (Luna Lodge #8)
Varius (Luna Lodge #9)
Servius (Luna Lodge #10)
Cyrus (Luna Lodge #11)
Kyros (Luna Lodge #12)
Cato (Luna Lodge #13)
Lucan (Luna Lodge #14)
Rollo (Luna Lodge #15)
Nikon (Luna Lodge #16)
Tycho (Luna Lodge #17)
Berserk Series
Dog Fight (Berserk #1)
Devil’s Den (with Willow Hazel)
Caleb (Devil’s Den #1)
Malcolm (Devil’s Den #2)
Shadow Series
Shadow’s Embrace (Paranormal Romance)
Allen Securities (Romantic Suspense)
Reed (Allen Securities #1)
Kace (Allen Securities #2)
Liam (Allen Securities #3)
Ryder (Allen Securities #4)
Cage (Allen Securities #5)
Mason (Allen Securities #6)
Zane (Allen Securities #7)
Bryce (Allen Securities #8)
Kelly Clan (Romantic Suspense)
Finn (Kelly Clan #1)
Conor (Kelly Clan #2)
Noel (Kelly Clan #3)
Riley (Kelly Clan #4)
Braden (Kelly Clan #5)
Davin (Kelly Clan #6)
Special Forces (Romantic Suspense)
Trent (Special Forces #1)
Johnny (Special Forces #2)
Road House (Contemporary Short Stories)
Letting Go (Road House #1)
Holding On (Road House #2)
Standing By (Road House #3)
Privileged (New Adult Romance)
Privileged (Privileged #1)
Elite (Privileged #2)
Author Bio
Madison currently lives with her husband and two children in the Valley of the Sun in Arizona. After leaving the frozen tundra of the north, she was more surprised than anyone with how much she has enjoyed living in the desert. Seeing as she stated on more than one occasion before moving to Arizona how much she hated heat, it was an odd move, but it seems her hatred for sub-zero temperatures and ice has won out in the end.
When she’s not writing, she’s enjoying time with her family. Madison and her family frequent festivals in the area, as well as local cultural events, and spend time with family in the area. In the summer, she is most likely to be found in the pool with the family and in the winter by the fireplace. Since both her children are autistic, days can be a little chaotic, but with her husband beside her, there’s nothing she can’t handle.
She can be contacted at [email protected]
Rem: #12 (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas) Page 11
