No Light

by Hettie Ivers

  If you’d like to check out other books that I’ve written, please feel free to visit my website at www.hettieivers.com, sign up for my Newsletter, or friend me on Facebook to keep in touch.

  Warmest Regards,

  Hettie

  To my awesome professional editor big sis, thank you for taking time out from reviewing and editing critical life-saving medical publications in order to remind me when Alcaeus was walking around pantless for too long in this manuscript. I feel like my ability to recognize when I’m dangling modifiers grew by leaps and bounds this werelock installment. You are the best, and I love you dearly!

  To my amazing husband with the smiling eyes, thank you for always being so supportive of my writing hobby and for beta-reading stories in genres that I’m sure you would otherwise never in this lifetime choose to pick up. Thank you for inspiring certain characters and hilarious relationship dynamics in this book in particular. Both parenting a rogue and being married to a rogue must get tough at times. Good thing you have all those private jokes happening in your head 24-7 to keep you amused.

  To my awesome friends Sheena, Joan, Shanel, Becky, Chelsea, Jessica, Lauren, Melody, and Rachel: Thank you for being early readers/beta testers/bouncers-of-ideas at various points in this process for me. I am so thankful for your honest feedback and your kind encouragement for this story. A special thanks to Sheena for tirelessly spreading my name, banners, and covers all over Facebook on a daily basis. I don’t know what I did to deserve your support, but you’re beyond amazing, and I really appreciate you!

  To my SOAM sisters, thank you for your ongoing friendship and support, and for the countless hours of fun, laughter, and fantastic female camaraderie.

  If you have yet to read Alex and Milena’s enemies-to-lovers tale, Werelock Evolution: The Complete Trilogy, is the story that precedes No Light in the timeline of books written in the Werelock Evolution world.

  Werelock Evolution: The Complete Trilogy

  is available on

  Amazon

  He’s a spoiled Alpha used to getting whatever he wants. She’s a stubborn eighteen-year-old determined to disappoint him.

  Finding love at first sight with your fated soul mate sounds so romantic. Unless, of course, that “mate” happens to be your brother’s sworn enemy and the overbearing Alpha werewolf-warlock who has taken you hostage.

  Things get complicated in this twisty enemies-to-lovers trilogy about an American girl who stumbles upon forbidding paranormal circumstances when she travels to Brazil and finds herself at the center of a blood feud between rival South American werewolf packs.

  The task of taming a formidable, drop-dead sexy werelock has never been so hard. And so hot.

  Excerpt from SLIP OF FATE

  (Werelock Evolution, Book 1)

  I wasn’t sure what I’d expected to find when we approached the foyer, but the scene we came upon was far worse than any I could’ve envisioned.

  There were more people gathered in the semi-cylindrical receiving area than before. We entered the open room, and Alessandra deposited me on my feet in time to see Felix suspended by his throat against a wall, his feet dangling at least a foot off the ground, his broken arms hanging uselessly at his sides.

  A tall, dark-haired, formidable man in a tuxedo was holding him up by the neck with just one hand. Felix’s eyes bugged out in horror and his face went from red to purple to blue while the cruel man, whose face was turned from me, proceeded to mercilessly crush his windpipe.

  My first instinct was to scream at the faceless, heartless man to stop and let him go, but the words died in my throat and ice coursed through my veins as he leaned in closer to my dying abductor and rasped, “No deal, Felix. I’ve no need of Raul’s worthless sister. Not as bait, as a trade for your son, or otherwise.”

  He spoke in a forbidding, deep whisper, presumably meant for Felix’s dying ears, yet the words were clearly heard by everyone in the otherwise silent hall as they resonated off the stone walls.

  “Raul’s dead,” he hissed. “I saw to it myself days ago. And thanks to you, his sister will be dead soon, too.”

  Time and space ceased to exist as I sought to reconcile the meaning of his words. Raul was dead?

  “So you’ve wasted your time,” he sneered, “forfeited four lives, and shortened your son’s allotted time left by coming here and interrupting my dinner.”

  He’d died just days ago?

  Raul was dead?

  I’d never borne witness to much violence in my lifetime, let alone seen a man murdered right before my eyes, and yet I barely registered the visual of Felix’s eyes rolling back and becoming lifeless as the final vestiges of his very being were squeezed from him.

  I don’t know how long I stood stock still, my own eyes wide and glazed over with terror, before the dark-haired devil whom I knew had to be the infamous Alex turned away from his fresh kill to visibly sniff in my direction like some depraved, wild animal honing in on his next unfortunate prey.

  As his cold, dark eyes alighted upon me, they widened perceptibly. Felix’s dead body was dropped like a sack of trash a millisecond later as the dinner party host I’d so erroneously assumed would be civilized turned his imposing frame in my direction.

  He was darkly handsome like Alcaeus, with facial features that more closely resembled Remy’s, but with none of the playfulness or boyishness of either of the two men. And his eyes were unlike any of his siblings’. They were a deep, dark shade of brown. His jet-black hair was cropped short, and he was expertly groomed and outfitted as if he’d stepped off the pages of GQ.

  On the surface, he appeared the perfect male specimen. I was certain many of the girls I’d gone to school with would’ve fallen all over themselves just to gain a moment of his attention. But beneath his polished veneer, I knew he was just a monster. A brute who had murdered my brother. And never before in my life had I wished more horrific, fatal harm upon another human being as I now fervently hoped to befall him.

  As he breathed deeply in and out, audibly inhaling as if to suggest he could actually smell me from across the foyer, he seemed to regard me much like Alessandra first had—as if he was encountering an apparition.

  Then his eyes widened further, and I could’ve sworn the most unfathomable expression of pure elation and inconceivable rapture transformed his confused, horrified features for the briefest of moments.

  Strangely, it reminded me of the expression on the face of this lost little boy I’d helped once at the mall—his look upon laying eyes on his mother when they were at last reunited. It was an odd amalgamation of unmitigated joy mixed with relief juxtaposed against the profound terror of realizing one’s own supreme vulnerability for the very first time. The face of one who’d just been saved but would never be the same again for that rescue.

  Only in this case, the man before me still appeared hopelessly lost. And judging from the way his expression swiftly morphed into that of unadulterated rage, I wasn’t sure he’d wanted to be found at all—much less saved.

  “Fuck,” Alessandra swore under her breath at my side.

  Fuck was right. I was sure if eyes could spit fire, Alex’s would have charred me alive already.

  And then they did. Either I was going completely mad or his irises had turned a bright golden yellow color as they glowered wildly at me.

  Alessandra whisper-swore again as every single pair of eyes in the room seemed to fixate upon me in marked disbelief.

  Alex’s lips pulled back into a snarl, and a deep, unearthly growl vibrated up from his chest and ricocheted off the walls.

  “No,” he ground out in a low, deathly grim rumble that sounded more animal than human. “Not mine!”

  I hadn’t a clue what he’d meant by that proclamation, but I was pretty sure any small chance I’d had of surviving the night had just evaporated.

  “This … can’t be happening,” Alessandra stammered cryptically. “You’re … human … you’re Raul’s sister … ”

  “Fuck
me sideways!” I heard Alcaeus’s voice buoyantly exclaim. “No wonder she smells so good and I feel so protective.”

  My eyes darted to where Alcaeus stood a few feet from Alex. He was grinning from ear to ear like a man who’d just won the lottery. Earlier he’d wanted to save me from Alex. And now, right as I was about to be murdered in cold blood, he looked ready to celebrate.

  “Well, isn’t this just a juicy slice of poetic justice?” He chuckled, slapping a thoroughly unamused Alex on the back.

  “Alex, please meet Raul’s little sister and my new best friend, Milena,” Alcaeus introduced with a flourish.

  “She’s injured,” he added happily to the otherwise silent, tension-saturated room. “Head trauma,” he informed the incensed-looking Alex with glee. “You might want to get right on that, in fact, because Remy and I weren’t able to get her to cooperate long enough to heal it.”

  “Alcaeus, please stop?” Remy’s distressed voice implored. He was standing on the other side of the room. He didn’t seem to find the situation as funny as Alcaeus did. “This is not the time to antagonize him. Think of Milena.”

  My eyes darted back and forth across the room from Remy to Alcaeus to Alex. Remy was right. Whatever Alcaeus was doing seemed to be exacerbating the situation and escalating Alex’s level of ire. His face was flushed and he’d begun growling at the mention of Remy and Alcaeus’s failed attempt to heal my head injury. But Alcaeus waved off Remy’s warning.

  “I mean, sure,” Alcaeus broadcast to the room as he absorbed Alex’s every strained reaction with relish, “she enjoyed me licking her inner thighs all right, and she most definitely enjoyed Remy kissing her,” he said with a mischievous wink in Remy’s direction, “but in general she doesn’t much care for warlocks creeping around inside her head. Isn’t that right, my dear?” He looked to me for confirmation.

  I shook my head in bewilderment. Alessandra was now swearing like a sailor next to me. Alex hadn’t ceased growling; his unearthly yellow eyes raked over me as he fisted his hair and his whole body shook with barely suppressed fury—the personification of a geyser ready to blow.

  “Alex, please?” Remy beseeched, “I beg you, please don’t hurt her. None of this is her fault. Take your anger out on me.”

  Alcaeus snorted. “He’s not going to hurt her. He might be a stubborn, bitter asshole, but he’s never been stupid.”

  I didn’t know what the deuce was happening or what they were talking about. All I knew was that Alex had begun cursing a blue streak and yanking at his tie until he’d torn it to shreds in frustration from his neck. He’d just managed to shrug out of his fancy tuxedo jacket when suddenly with an angry roar he burst from his own skin before my very eyes!

  Buttons went flying and expensive-looking fabric was torn to shreds as an enormous, viciously snarling black and grey wolf took the place of the enraged man faster than I could blink.

  Werewolf!

  Almost all the other occupants in the room parted and backed away, bowing their heads in deference to the beast and affording him greater space as with hackles raised he took his first horrifying step forward in my direction.

  My mouth fell open and I instinctively took a miniscule step backward. Alessandra’s hand shot out and captured my wrist.

  “No! Don’t move,” she warned.

  The beast increased his growling and snarling the moment she grabbed me, prompting Alessandra to swear and release my wrist.

  “Don’t make any sudden movement,” she cautioned, speaking slowly and clearly, her voice never rising above a whisper as she began to sidestep away from me.

  “And no matter what, do … not … run,” she stressed. “When he comes at you, don’t panic, okay? Please, please, listen to me, Milena?” she appealed. “Alex won’t hurt you; just let him scent you.”

  She didn’t want me to run from him? Wouldn’t hurt me?

  He’d just announced to the whole room that I was dead meat next!

  Not only had he freely claimed credit for the murder of the only family member I had left, but I’d just witnessed him crush a man’s throat with his bare hand after heartlessly denying Felix’s dying request to spare his son’s life.

  What’s more, now that the room had cleared, I noted that Felix’s compadres seemed to have suffered even worse fates, as their bodies lay lifeless on the marble floor, their chests torn open and their un-beating, bloody hearts strewn thoughtlessly beside them.

  And now, when Alex was snarling at me in his true monster nature form—that of a vicious, oversized, supernatural killer dog—Alessandra expected I wouldn’t run? If she thought I was going to stick around and let some cross between Cujo and Hannibal Lecter get close enough to sniff and lick my hand, she was out of her goddamned mind.

  I didn’t run. I pivoted on my heel and flew!

  Available on

  Amazon

  Love sexy, possessive, alpha aliens?

  Check out my erotica release about a NYC reporter who becomes entangled with an alien sex club owner!

  Vair: Beyond the X-Club is a short novel (45K words) set in the world created by Anna Zaires in her Krinar Chronicles, featuring characters introduced in her novelette/short story, The X-Club.

  VAIR: BEYOND THE X-CLUB

  A Krinar Chronicles Kindle Worlds Novella

  What happens in an exclusive alien sex club stays in an alien sex club, right?

  Well … not when you pen an exposé on said alien sex club—carefully omitting the fact that the experiences detailed therein are yours rather than based on the firsthand accounts of nameless interviewees, as your article claims.

  And not when the alien club owner you had the wildest night of your life with shows up bearing video footage of your most intimate moments together that refute this.

  Amy has two choices: Be exposed as a fraud just as her journalism career is taking off, or agree to Vair’s wicked blackmail terms in exchange for his silence and protection from Krinar authorities.

  For a young journalist on a mission to prove her worth, it was always about landing the next big story. Until it became all about playing sex games with a possessive extraterrestrial.

  Excerpt from VAIR: BEYOND THE X-CLUB

  I forced a calming breath as a cool evening breeze whipped my auburn-blonde hair, and I inched closer to the curb, peering around the side of my boxes as best I could to avoid colliding with another pedestrian. Twilight was waning, and while the street was active, I was grateful that there were far more popular spots than lower Manhattan’s financial district to seek early entertainment on a Friday night.

  Tires rolled to a stop a few feet from the curb in front of me, and I craned my neck enough to make out a black stretch limo—not the cab that I had been hoping for. I started to amble on farther down the sidewalk to where a cabbie would be better able to spot me, when I heard the sound of several car doors opening.

  Sure, rapid footsteps fell smoothly upon the concrete in my direction.

  Too smoothly.

  Some innate self-preservation instinct made my pulse quicken. I had a mad compulsion to drop my boxes and flee. I was wearing my practical two-inch heels paired with a very impractical pencil skirt. It was doubtful I’d be able to outrun a K.

  A second later it was too late entirely as I sensed his heat at my back—running along the entire length of my body, blocking out any trace of evening breeze. I froze as the familiar, unnatural scent of inhuman male perfection assaulted my olfaction, bringing with it the memory of the most carnally gratifying night of my life.

  Oh, fuck.

  My stomach clenched. My nipples hardened. The rest of my body seemed to have a vivid memory of that night as well, judging by its immediate—and mortifying—Pavlovian response to Vair’s mere presence. My inner muscles fluttered in anticipation—slick heat rushing to lubricate my sex.

  I reminded my stupid sex that this was the same alien who had just destroyed my career and my life. He was the enemy who had invaded my planet. An enemy who was pos
sibly now here to kill me as well.

  Or worse—turn me over to Krinar authorities.

  But when warm, long fingers encircled my right bicep, it sent another jolt of sexual electricity through me. And when his other hand latched onto my left hip, it felt oddly reassuring, momentarily calming and centering me as a second set of unseen hands pulled the file boxes from my grasp.

  “This way, darling,” Vair’s deep voice instructed from above my head as he bodily steered me in the direction of the stretch limo.

  To the person who had confiscated my file boxes, Vair spoke rapidly in a foreign, guttural-sounding language that I couldn’t place. Over my shoulder I just managed to glimpse a tall, beautiful male K dressed in a black suit nodding in assent as he effortlessly hauled my boxes back in the direction of the building where I worked.

  Had worked. Wait …

  “That’s my stuff,” I protested a little too late. “Where’s he going? Why’s he taking my stuff?”

  “Get in the car, Amy.” The command was accompanied by gentle pressure at my crown as Vair physically maneuvered me into the limousine before I had sense enough to put up a fight.

  He followed closely behind, folding his huge form gracefully into the luxuriously upholstered passenger cab and taking the seat across from me. The car began moving while I remained stock still—frozen in place amid a mixture of heart-pounding shock, fear, and anticipation.

  The moment Vair was settled and his full attention was fixed upon me where we sat, face to face, I blushed. And not just a little flush that could pass for nervousness or be attributed to recent exertion from the heavy boxes I’d carried, either. It was the kind that made my insides flame, my head dizzy, my skin feel sun-blistered. The kind that screamed “guilty” in a court of law.