Enchanted Hunt

by L. L. Raand

  Enchanted Hunt

  Synopsis

  Sylvan forms an alliance with the neighboring Snowcrest wolf pack after an attack on Snowcrest by creatures from beyond the veil, and sends a cadre of warriors to aid in training the Snowcrest soldiers to defend against the next attack. Trent, one of Sylvan's lieutenants, understands her duty, but can’t deny the primal call of another Were, even if Zora is the Alpha of the Snowcrest Pack and any relationship between them risks inter-Pack war. When Sylvan receives an unexpected summons—couched in the form of an invitation to parlay—from Cecelia, Queen of Faerie, she decides to cross into Faerie despite Drake’s misgivings and against the advice of her war council. The Timberwolf stronghold has never been breached, but this time the enemy is shielded by dark magic and no one is safe.

  A Midnight Hunters novella.

  Applause for L.L. Raand’s Midnight Hunters Series

  The Midnight Hunt

  RWA 2012 VCRW Laurel Wreath winner Blood Hunt

  Night Hunt

  The Lone Hunt

  “Raand has built a complex world inhabited by werewolves, vampires, and other paranormal beings…Raand has given her readers a complex plot filled with wonderful characters as well as insight into the hierarchy of Sylvan’s pack and vampire clans. There are many plot twists and turns, as well as erotic sex scenes in this riveting novel that keep the pages flying until its satisfying conclusion.”—Just About Write

  “Once again, I am amazed at the storytelling ability of L.L. Raand aka Radclyffe. In Blood Hunt, she mixes high levels of sheer eroticism that will leave you squirming in your seat with an impeccable multi-character storyline all streaming together to form one great read.”—Queer Magazine Online

  “The Midnight Hunt has a gripping story to tell, and while there are also some truly erotic sex scenes, the story always takes precedence. This is a great read which is not easily put down nor easily forgotten.”—Just About Write

  “Are you sick of the same old hetero vampire/werewolf story plastered in every bookstore and at every movie theater? Well, I’ve got the cure to your werewolf fever. The Midnight Hunt is first in, what I hope is, a long-running series of fantasy erotica for L.L. Raand (aka Radclyffe).”—Queer Magazine Online

  “Any reader familiar with Radclyffe’s writing will recognize the author’s style within The Midnight Hunt, yet at the same time it is most definitely a new direction. The author delivers an excellent story here, one that is engrossing from the very beginning. Raand has pieced together an intricate world, and provided just enough details for the reader to become enmeshed in the new world. The action moves quickly throughout the book and it’s hard to put down.”—Three Dollar Bill Reviews

  Acclaim for Radclyffe’s Fiction

  “Dangerous Waters is a bumpy ride through a devastating time with powerful events and resolute characters. Radclyffe gives us the strong, dedicated women we love to read in a story that keeps us turning pages until the end.”—Lambda Literary Review

  “Radclyffe’s Dangerous Waters has the feel of a tense television drama, as the narrative interchanges between hurricane trackers and first responders. Sawyer and Dara butt heads in the beginning as each moves for some level of control during the storm’s approach, and the interference of a lovely television reporter adds an engaging love triangle threat to the sexual tension brewing between them.”—RT Book Reviews

  “Love After Hours, the fourth in Radclyffe’s Rivers Community series, evokes the sense of a continuing drama as Gina and Carrie’s slow-burning romance intertwines with details of other Rivers residents. They become part of a greater picture where friends and family support each other in personal and recreational endeavors. Vivid settings and characters draw in the reader…”—RT Book Reviews

  Secret Hearts “delivers exactly what it says on the tin: poignant story, sweet romance, great characters, chemistry and hot sex scenes. Radclyffe knows how to pen a good lesbian romance.”—LezReviewBooks Blog

  Wild Shores “will hook you early. Radclyffe weaves a chance encounter into all-out steamy romance. These strong, dynamic women have great conversations, and fantastic chemistry.”—The Romantic Reader Blog

  In 2016 RWA/OCC Book Buyers Best award winner for suspense and mystery with romantic elements Price of Honor “Radclyffe is master of the action-thriller series…The old familiar characters are there, but enough new blood is introduced to give it a fresh feel and open new avenues for intrigue.”—Curve Magazine

  In Prescription for Love “Radclyffe populates her small town with colorful characters, among the most memorable being Flann’s little sister, Margie, and Abby’s 15-year-old trans son, Blake…This romantic drama has plenty of heart and soul.”—Publishers Weekly

  2013 RWA/New England Bean Pot award winner for contemporary romance Crossroads “will draw the reader in and make her heart ache, willing the two main characters to find love and a life together. It’s a story that lingers long after coming to ‘the end.’”—Lambda Literary Review

  In 2012 RWA/FTHRW Lories and RWA HODRW Aspen Gold award winner Firestorm “Radclyffe brings another hot lesbian romance for her readers.”—The Lesbrary

  Foreword Review Book of the Year finalist and IPPY silver medalist Trauma Alert “is hard to put down and it will sizzle in the reader’s hands. The characters are hot, the sex scenes explicit and explosive, and the book is moved along by an interesting plot with well drawn secondary characters. The real star of this show is the attraction between the two characters, both of whom resist and then fall head over heels.”—Lambda Literary Reviews

  Lambda Literary Award Finalist Best Lesbian Romance 2010 features “stories [that] are diverse in tone, style, and subject, making for more variety than in many, similar anthologies…well written, each containing a satisfying, surprising twist. Best Lesbian Romance series editor Radclyffe has assembled a respectable crop of 17 authors for this year’s offering.”—Curve Magazine

  2010 Prism award winner and ForeWord Review Book of the Year Award finalist Secrets in the Stone is “so powerfully [written] that the worlds of these three women shimmer between reality and dreams…A strong, must read novel that will linger in the minds of readers long after the last page is turned.”—Just About Write

  In Benjamin Franklin Award finalist Desire by Starlight “Radclyffe writes romance with such heart and her down-to-earth characters not only come to life but leap off the page until you feel like you know them. What Jenna and Gard feel for each other is not only a spark but an inferno and, as a reader, you will be washed away in this tumultuous romance until you can do nothing but succumb to it.”—Queer Magazine Online

  Lambda Literary Award winner Stolen Moments “is a collection of steamy stories about women who just couldn’t wait. It’s sex when desire overrides reason, and it’s incredibly hot!”—On Our Backs

  Lambda Literary Award winner Distant Shores, Silent Thunder “weaves an intricate tapestry about passion and commitment between lovers. The story explores the fragile nature of trust and the sanctuary provided by loving relationships.”—Sapphic Reader

  Lambda Literary Award Finalist Justice Served delivers a “crisply written, fast-paced story with twists and turns and keeps us guessing until the final explosive ending.”—Independent Gay Writer

  Lambda Literary Award finalist Turn Back Time “is filled with wonderful love scenes, which are both tender and hot.”—MegaScene

  Enchanted Hunt

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  Enchanted Hunt

  © 2020 By L.L. Raand. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-63555-788-6

  This Electronic Original Is Published By

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, NY 12185

  First Edition: September 2020

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Editor: Ruth Sternglantz

  Production Design: Stacia Seaman

  Cover Design by Sheri (hindsightgraphics@gmail.com)

  eBook Design by Toni Whitaker

  By L.L. Raand

  Midnight Hunters

  The Midnight Hunt

  Blood Hunt

  Night Hunt

  The Lone Hunt

  The Magic Hunt

  Shadow Hunt

  Rogue Hunt

  Enchanted Hunt

  By Radclyffe

  The Provincetown Tales

  Safe Harbor

  Beyond the Breakwater

  Distant Shores, Silent Thunder

  Storms of Change

  Winds of Fortune

  Returning Tides

  Sheltering Dunes

  PMC Hospital Romances

  Passion’s Bright Fury (prequel)

  Fated Love

  Night Call

  Crossroads

  Passionate Rivals

  Rivers Community Romances

  Against Doctor’s Orders

  Prescription for Love

  Love on Call

  Love After Hours

  Love to the Rescue

  Love on the Night Shift

  Honor Series

  Above All, Honor

  Honor Bound

  Love & Honor

  Honor Guards

  Honor Reclaimed

  Honor Under Siege

  Word of Honor

  Oath of Honor (First Responders)

  Code of Honor

  Price of Honor

  Cost of Honor

  Justice Series

  A Matter of Trust (prequel)

  Shield of Justice

  In Pursuit of Justice

  Justice in the Shadows

  Justice Served

  Justice For All

  First Responders Novels

  Trauma Alert

  Firestorm

  Taking Fire

  Wild Shores

  Heart Stop

  Dangerous Waters

  Romances

  Innocent Hearts

  Promising Hearts

  Love’s Melody Lost

  Love’s Tender Warriors

  Tomorrow’s Promise

  Love’s Masquerade

  shadowland

  Turn Back Time

  When Dreams Tremble

  The Lonely Hearts Club

  Secrets in the Stone

  Desire by Starlight

  Homestead

  The Color of Love

  Secret Hearts

  Short Fiction

  Collected Stories by Radclyffe

  Erotic Interludes: Change of Pace

  Radical Encounters

  Stacia Seaman and Radclyffe, eds.

  Erotic Interludes Vol 2—5

  Romantic Interludes 1—2

  Breathless: Tales of Celebration

  Women of the Dark Streets

  Amor and More: Love Everafter

  Myth & Magic: Queer Fairy Tales

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to everyone who pitched in at the last minute to finish this novella and to put this storytogether with the previous novella, Rogue Hunt, as a paperback edition of two self-containedromantic adventures with Sylvan and Drake, the Timberwolves, and a brand new Pack with itsown new Alpha—and new enemies: senior editor Sandy Lowe for rearranging schedules, puttingtogether a great cover, and generally putting up with my midnight hour brainstorms; editors RuthSternglantz and Stacia Seaman for somehow fitting this in; and Toni Whitaker for compiling theeBooks in such stellar form

  For Lee

  Chapter One

  Cresthome

  Far reaches of the Appalachians on the Canadian border

  Alpha Zora Constantine stalked the shadows that stretched in long fingers across Cresthome’s central Compound as the moonlight shimmered and broke in the face of the distant dawn. The stark silhouettes of guards flanked the east and west gates, the only entrances through the eight-foot fences into the Clan sanctuary. Cresthome had never been breached in the centuries since her grandfather’s father’s father had led his Pack south from the Alaskan wilderness to settle along the US–Canadian border and the waterways linking the wilderness to the growing human settlements. Looking now at the modest security afforded by walls any Were could jump easily, she couldn’t help but think of the stockade fences and battlements surrounding the Timberwolf Compound. Cresthome had not been constructed to withstand a siege, but to provide safety and security for the Pack in the far north woods where none but traders and trappers traveled.

  Generations later, Zora had inherited a Pack of hunters, trappers, and merchants, not warriors. Her Weres would be completely vulnerable if another tear in the veil between realms should occur in the skies overhead, belching more monsters into their midst. In the wake of recent attacks on her outposts by enemies she still couldn’t identify, warriors were what she needed. She growled, her dusky pelt rolling to cover her arms and lightly dust the center of her bare chest and abdomen. She’d awakened agitated and uneasy, sensing something amiss even though she knew nothing could be, without her wolf having alerted already. Still, she’d pulled on a pair of black jeans and bounded down from her second-floor quarters above the main dormitory in search of whatever had her wolf ready to burst free.

  Enemies threatened from all sides.

  Her Snowcrest Pack had been under subtle attack along their borders for weeks. She’d been present for the major assault her soldiers had managed to rebuff with the aid of the Timberwolf warriors and the Fae Master of the Hunt. She’d seen the abominations that had come through the rip in the veil. Reanimated wolf Weres, deformed and mindless, and mild-mannered herbivores, ensorcelled and transformed into beasts hungry for flesh and blood. Someone had unleashed these creatures of dark magic and malicious intent against her Pack. She still didn’t know why.

  The air within the Compound pulsed with the scent of foreign Weres—powerful, dominant, aggressive Timberwolves in the vulnerable heart of her territory. Her wolf bristled with the primal urge to drive out the threat to her supremacy, to erase the invaders in her territory. Fury rolled through her, and she growled again, her skin shimmering with battle lust she could not release. The Timberwolves were not her enemies—not yet—and her wolf would have to suffer their presence. If she hadn’t seen the devastating power of her foes, she would never have considered inviting a cadre of out-Pack Were warriors into the heart of her Clan. She’d had no choice but to ask for an alliance along with combat support from Alpha Sylvan Mir and the Timberwolf Pack. Another attack could destroy everyone she’d sworn to protect.

  Her rage at the attacks on her territory and the deaths of her sentries—Weres who were hers to keep safe—was a constant storm roiling within. She could not sleep, waiting for a faceless enemy to strike again. Instead, she prowled the Compound or vaulted the fence and ran in pelt until her limbs burned, scouring the forest for signs of intruders. Her personal guards and her imperator beseeched her not to put herself at risk, but if not her, if not the Alpha, then who? The hours she spent outside the security of Clan home did nothing to dampen the inferno consuming her body, or ease the ever-present gnawing hunger in her depths that grew more vicious every day.

  She strode to the nearest
gate, and the guards snapped to attention at her approach.

  “Alpha,” the young male guard exclaimed, briskly tapping his fist to his heart beneath his khaki uniform shirt. He carried no weapon. He was young and eager and not ready. Their guards were dominant by nature but not trained for battle.

  Knowing that must change, and why, Zora snarled inwardly. She saluted the guard and his female partner. “Reas, Dinea. Stand easy.”

  The two young Weres maintained their rigid attention. Zora consciously tempered her power, knowing her unsettled energy transmitted to all her wolves and created anxiety and hair-trigger tempers. She needed her wolves alert and prepared for battle, not ready to explode into aggression with each other at the slightest provocation. A camp full of Weres seething with battle lust and dominance hormones was not what she wanted, and not what her wolves needed. She had to be strong enough to keep them secure and unafraid. She had to find a way to control her rage.

  “All quiet?” Zora asked, knowing it was.

  “Yes, Alpha,” they replied in unison.

  “Good.” Zora passed on into the dark, putting distance between herself and the sleeping Weres in the dormitory. All the unmated Weres who were not assigned to the outposts or actively securing trade with their customers along the borders roomed there. And now there were the others—a dozen warriors seconded from the Timberwolf Weres to train her Snowcrest soldiers in the art of war. Twelve dominants whose foreign scents teased the air with new enticements and the promise of challenges to come. Her Snowcrest wolves might not be warrior class, but they would defend their territory and their potential mates from outsiders just as fiercely as any other wolves.