by Caris Roane
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Do You Enjoy E-Books?
Dear Reader
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
A Note From Caris
Coming Up Next
About the Author
Have You Read…
Find Caris At
Author of
Excerpt from BLOOD FLAME
Chapter Two – Blood Flame
Chapter Three – Blood Flame
EMBRACE THE POWER
Book #9 of the Blood Rose Series
A Paranormal Romance
By
Caris Roane
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Copyright
EMBRACE THE POWER, Book #9 of the Blood Rose Series, a Paranormal Romance Series
By Caris Roane
Copyright © 2016 Twin Bridges Creations LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced in whole or in part, scanned, photocopied, recorded, distributed in any electronic form, or reproduced in any manner whatsoever or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without express written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
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Hugs,
C. R.
June, 2016
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Dear Reader
Welcome to the final installment of the Blood Rose Series called EMBRACE THE POWER! Here’s a brief look at the story:
Mastyr Vampire Stone wants to bond with Aralynn, his battle partner, until he learns she lives a double life as a woman he despises…
For hundreds of years, Stone has lived a solitary life, serving Tannisford Realm as he battles the deadly Invictus wraith-pairs with his Vampire Guard. In recent weeks, he’s run missions with a beautiful wolf named Aralynn. Mortally wounded by the Ancient Fae, Aralynn saves Stone’s life and one taste of her healing blood confirms she’s a blood rose. He’s all set to bond with her when he learns she lives a double life as a woman he despises. But how can he cut Aralynn off when her blood calls to him like nothing he’s ever known before?
Rosamunde experienced the first real freedom of her thousand years of life when Davido the Wise taught her how to transform into Aralynn, a perfect battle partner for Mastyr Stone. But how was she to know that fighting wraith-pairs beside the Mastyr would incite every suppressed desire she’s ever had? Worse, she carries three secrets, each one of which has the power to sever her relationship with him forever. How can she earn his trust, when she’s lied to him and deceived him the whole time she’s served beside him?
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I hope you’ve enjoyed the Blood Rose Series. I had a wonderful time, though very emotional, as I wrote the last book of the series.
Enjoy!
And now, have a Wonderful Day and an Even Better Night!
Caris Roane
Chapter One
“Thinking about kissing that wolf of yours?”
Stone pulled his focus away from the large central monitor in his Communication Center. From his command station, he turned in a slow pivot to stare down his personal assistant, Delia.
“You’ve officially lost the last card in your deck. And she’s not ‘my’ wolf. Aralynn and I run missions together. That’s all.” He tried to sound both innocent and slightly offended, despite the fact he’d been thinking about the exact shape of the woman’s lips for the past half hour. Aralynn would be checking in soon.
But had he been thinking about kissing her? Hell yeah, about every other minute for the past seven weeks.
Delia’s right brow rose as she lifted her head from her laptop and stared back. She wasn’t intimidated by him, something he loved about her. “Hah,” she whispered. “The minute she appears at the door, you light up like you’ve just discovered air.”
Busted.
Despite the accuracy of her observation, he lifted his chin. “You don’t know anything about it.”
Delia ignored this comment. “She’s pretty, I’ll give her that. Hey, I’ve got an idea. You should take her as your date to the gala. I’d like to see the two of you do one of those levitating waltzes you mastyrs are famous for.”
“Not gonna happen.”
He’d thought about it, though. But taking a date to a formal event would give rise to all kinds of gossip. The gala was Delia’s idea and would be held in celebration of the Federation of the Nine Realms, a new organization to which all the ruling mastyrs now belonged.
It was an amazing time in his world. No one thought that a federation of the realms was possible, the mastyrs being supremely independent types. But the Ancient Fae had made it clear she wouldn’t quit trying to take over their world until the last realm-person was buried six feet under.
Stone had pushed for the Federation as well as the Combined Forces of the Vampire Guards, and Shifter and Troll Brigades of all the realms. Over the past several months, since Ian and Regan had almost captured Margetta in the mountains of Camberlaune, Stone had worked hard to build a buttress against Margetta. He and Ian together had organized hundreds of training sessions for the Combined Forces, running drills and shaping a real army to battle against Margetta when the time came.
As for the gala, all the movers and shakers of each realm would be there, hundreds of elected officials. The ruling mastyrs would also attend, each with his bonded blood rose. If Stone took Aralynn as his date, the question would be raised: Was she his blood rose?
Like hell he was ready for that kind of question. The blood rose phenomenon had swept through the Nine Realms, assaulting one mastyr vampire after another. He’d escaped so far, but there’d been no indication Aralynn had blood rose ability. He didn’t exactly crave her. Okay, maybe he did, but he’d been without a girlfriend for a while. It was time he hooked up with someone for a few months. He just wasn’t sure how wise it was to get involved with his battle partner.
Delia, who seemed to be full of all kinds of ideas about Aralynn, pressed on. “And all these unattached Guardsmen, they try not to look at her, but they do. You might want to put a wolf-mark on her. Just sayin’.” Because she was a wolf, sex and a good bite at the back of the neck would help keep unwanted suitors away, if temporarily.
Yup, he’d thought about biting her as well, and in more than one way. He had to take a couple of deep breaths, because the thought of his fangs tapping into the woman—
Still, he had no intention of talking this over with his executive assistant. “How about you keep your troll nose out of my affairs.”
He wished especially that she hadn’t spoken of the other men in his Communication Center. This place was alive with some of the most eligible ba
chelors in all the Nine Realms. A couple of the Guardsmen were even approaching mastyr status and all the warriors were built as hell.
Worse, he’d seen Aralynn checking them out.
He leaned close to Delia and growled. “And if you know what’s good for you, I suggest you don’t bring up these men again.”
“Jealous?”
“No,” he snapped. Like hell he would admit to anything so absurd, especially when what he really felt went way beyond jealousy. To put it simply, he was ready to kill if anyone so much as touched Aralynn, even if by accident.
Her lips quirked. “Ease-down, Mastyr. You’ve got your battle power ramped up and it’s throwing off the monitors.”
He shifted his gaze to the battery of flat screens that encompassed the main north wall of his center. Half the monitors were flickering and several of his men had turned to stare at him.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself down. The Nine Realms was a world of frequencies not unlike the way electricity and light moved. Lately, this had been happening a lot, that his emotions would charge his battle energy and afflict the screens.
He took a couple more deep breaths until the flickers and sparks began to subside.
Once he had his battle energy under control, the monitors resumed their placid response to the usual input. He saw the main streets of a number of his villages, rolling surveillance that watched for any sign of the Invictus enemy throughout Tannisford Realm.
Delia leaned close. “Apologies, Mastyr. I only meant to tease you, not destroy the electronics.” She chuckled.
Delia was like a sister to him. He’d been raised by adoptive troll parents, so he understood troll-ness really well. They loved to gossip, that much was true, so he forgave Delia most of her indiscreet comments and questions.
She was a troll of some power with flowing blond hair and beautifully shaped hands. Her species was short and she ranged on the short side of squat. But she sat on a really tall stool in front of her workstation, in order to meet him eye-to-eye, which she reached through levitation.
“Yeah, well, no harm, no foul.” He was way too on edge about Aralynn. He wished he could get the wolf out of his mind, but he’d been running missions with her from the night she showed up ready to serve almost seven weeks ago. For a powerful wolf, she also carried an unusual secondary fae ability of prescience.
She’d come out of nowhere, which at first had made her suspect. But when she’d told him that Davido had sent her, he’d contacted a man he considered to be the wisest realm-person in their world. Davido had vouched for Aralynn and had informed him that she had special abilities that would help to predict Invictus intrusions in Tannisford.
Davido, had been right. From the first, damn if Aralynn hadn’t matched Stone in power as well as in her love for doing battle. More than once, she said she was glad to be ‘doing’ after all this time. When he’d asked her what she meant, she’d talked about not liking her previous job as a castle guard very much. She preferred to be active and the Ferrenden Peace castle staff just didn’t have a lot to do.
He’d never known someone who’d lived in Ferrenden Peace most of her life, so he’d learned a lot about the place that Queen Rosamunde had kept secret from the Nine Realms for the past thousand years. Everyone had thought the place a myth until Mastyr Quinlan and his woman, Batya, had somehow found their way to her kingdom.
Surprise. Queen Rosamunde was real.
He’d paid her a state visit, of course, as all the mastyrs had. But he didn’t like her very much. She’d kept her secret by sustaining a veil of mist around Ferrenden Peace, a veil that Aralynn insisted had but one purpose: To keep Margetta, the Ancient Fae, away from Rosamunde’s kingdom. Apparently, if Margetta ever found her way inside, she’d gain some kind of additional power that would make it possible for her to take over the Nine Realms.
He thought it sounded like a lot of plain-old horseshit. From his perspective, he considered Rosamunde a coward, pure and simple. She’d lived an indolent, secluded life, safe in her stone castle, claiming that her protective mist had somehow served to keep the Nine Realms safe.
Hogwash.
But Aralynn was cut from a different cloth. She had a warrior’s heart, one more reason he kept thinking about putting his lips on her mouth and all other kinds of places.
Sweet Goddess, Aralynn. She was tall, which he loved because he topped out at six-seven these days, having added another half-inch during the past few months. She was also pretty, with soulful brown eyes, full lips, pronounced cheekbones and an unusual perfume, like an herb found deep in the woods that worked him up. When he was around her, he had a hard time keeping his cock in a respectful position.
Delia was right, though. He’d been thinking about kissing her. A lot. And like the hot-blooded vampire he was, he’d almost taken her in his arms only last night when they’d been on patrol. It had been just before dawn and as usual, they’d battled at least a half dozen wraith-pairs and saved a whole lot of realm-folk.
By the time dawn had started sending warning signals down his spine, he’d returned Arralyn to the gates of Ferrenden Peace. He’d leaned in to kiss her, but she’d pulled back, then vanished before he could get his arms around her. The woman had power.
He was taking it slow because he could sense her resistance like a steel rod running through her. Maybe she’d been badly hurt in the past, he didn’t know. Yet he didn’t know her well enough to ask.
He knew she wanted him, though. Her woodsy, herbal scent was laced with so many come-and-get-me pheromones, he’d almost jumped her then and there.
The trouble was, the woman could teleport so he’d have about as much chance of holding onto her as flying to the moon.
The last thing he wanted to do, however, was to share any of this with Delia.
He changed the subject. “How’s that husband of yours?”
“Mm. As stubborn as ever—”
Something in the tone of her voice caused Stone to glance at her once more. He watched her shake her head, her three forehead ridges compressed together, her lips forming a tight line. The words were right, but they didn’t match the concern he saw. He knew something was wrong.
He leaned in her direction. His Communication Center had doubled the staff from a year ago and there were so many ears listening to anything either of them said that he switched to telepathy. What gives and you’d better tell me now.
In all the decades she’d been with him, he’d never seen Delia shed a tear, not even when her favorite dog got slain by a wraith-pair. But she had tears in her eyes now. Elias is missing, Mastyr.
How long has he been gone?
I shouldn’t be bothering you with this.
He reached over and took her arm gently in hand and repeated the question. How long? Please, tell me. And don’t think I’ll let this go. You’re important to me.
Delia’s lips turned down, but she squared her shoulders. Two days and a night.
That length of time during the war against the Invictus wraith-pairs might as well have been a week.
Any word from him during that time? A text? Anything?
No.
Sweet Goddess, why didn’t you tell me sooner?
At that, she turned to glare at him then swept her hand from one side of the room to the other, encompassing the battery of images that each monitor displayed constantly. Forty realm-folk, half of them Guardsmen, manned the various stations. You have something far more important on your mind than whatever might have happened to my husband. Maybe the Invictus got him, hauled him off to force him into a wraith-pair bond or maybe they slaughtered him. That makes me one of how many tens of thousands this has happened to? So why should I get any special treatment?
Stone knew she was right. She shouldn’t get special treatment. But she’d been the best assistant he’d ever had, she never let him get away with his usual bullshit, and dammit, she was family.
He looked around and seeing that one of his lieutenants had just come in
, he called to him. “Harris, I need you on this.”
Delia shook her head at him. “But Mastyr—”
He turned to her. “This is my call. Don’t worry. All we’re going to do right now is gather more information. I promise, I won’t jeopardize any part of the war effort. Okay?”
She put a hand to her chest, her soft blue eyes stricken. “I couldn’t live with the guilt if you did.”
“Understood.” One more reason he valued Delia. She knew the meaning of sacrifice.
Harris levitated swiftly to Stone’s station. He was a full six-five and muscled and had long blond hair that he wore pulled tight into the woven Guardsman clip so that his cheekbones stood out like blades. He wasn’t a mastyr yet, but damn near close.
When Harris reached Delia’s workstation, Stone told him the gist then added. “We need more information.”
Harris frowned slightly and glanced at Delia. “You and your husband live on a farm, out by Rutland, right?”
“We do. But Elias left there day before yesterday. He and a friend heard about this old gold mine southwest of Charborne. He’d gone there to see if the claim was worth re-opening.”
The mention of Charborne set Stone back on his heels. Though it had been a long time since he’d lived in the area, the memories rushed forward as though having a life of their own. His chest tightened painfully. His parents had died near the village in one of the worst Invictus attacks of the Nine Realms during which half the villagers had perished.
He still owned his family’s property on the outskirts of Charborne, some three-hundred acres, in the southwest quadrant. But for a long time now, he’d leased it out to a fae-troll couple who had lived on the land for the past two hundred years. He should have sold it to them long ago, but every time he got the process started, something stopped him. The past would always rise up to haunt him, tearing his peace down bit by bit, until he had to let the sale go.
