Fierce Enchantment
Fierce Enchantment
A Dante’s Circle Novel
By
Carrie Ann Ryan
Fierce Enchantment
A Dante’s Circle Novel
By: Carrie Ann Ryan
Published by Fated Desires Publishing, LLC.
© 2015 Carrie Ann Ryan
ISBN: 978-1-62322-112-6
Cover Art by Charity Hendry
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the publisher at
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All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
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Praise for Carrie Ann Ryan….
“Carrie Ann Ryan knows how to pull your heartstrings and make your pulse pound! Her wonderful Redwood Pack series will draw you in and keep you reading long into the night. I can’t wait to see what comes next with the new generation, the Talons. Keep them coming, Carrie Ann!” –Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author of CRAVE THE NIGHT
“Carrie Ann Ryan never fails to draw readers in with passion, raw sensuality, and characters that pop off the page. Any book by Carrie Ann is an absolute treat.” – New York Times Bestselling Author J. Kenner
"With snarky humor, sizzling love scenes, and brilliant, imaginative worldbuilding, The Dante's Circle series reads as if Carrie Ann Ryan peeked at my personal wish list!" – NYT Bestselling Author, Larissa Ione
"Carrie Ann Ryan writes sexy shifters in a world full of passionate happily-ever-afters." –
New York Times
Bestselling Author Vivian Arend
“Carrie Ann’s books are sexy with characters you can’t help but love from page one. They are heat and heart blended to perfection.”
New York Times
Bestselling Author Jayne Rylon
Carrie Ann Ryan's books are wickedly funny and deliciously hot, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. They'll keep you up all night!” USA Today Bestselling Author Cari Quinn
"Once again, Carrie Ann Ryan knocks the Dante's Circle series out of the park. The queen of hot, sexy, enthralling paranormal romance, Carrie Ann is an author not to miss!"
New York Times
bestselling Author Marie Harte
Praise for the Redwood Pack Series…
“You will not be disappointed in the Redwood Pack.”
Books-n-Kisses
“I was so completely immersed in this story that I felt what the characters felt. BLOWN AWAY.”
Delphina’s Book Reviews
.
“I love all the wolves in the Redwood Pack and eagerly anticipate all the brothers’ stories.”
The Book Vixen
“Shifter romances are a dime a dozen, but good ones aren’t as plentiful as one would think. This is one of the goods one.”
Book Binge
“With the hints of things to come for the Redwoods, I can’t wait to read the next book!”
Scorching Book Reviews
“Ryan outdid herself on this book.”
The Romance Reviews
Praise for the Dante’s Circle Series…
“This author better write the next books quickly or I will Occupy Her Lawn until she releases more! Pure romance enjoyment here. Now go put this on your TBR pile—shoo!”
The Book Vixen
“I, for one, will definitely be following the series to see what happens to the seven.”
Cocktails & Books
“The world of Dante’s Circle series is enthralling and with each book gets deeper and deeper as does Carrie Ann’s writing.” Literal Addiction
Praise for the Montgomery Ink Series…
“Shea and Shep are so cute together and really offset each other in a brilliant way. “
Literal Addiction
“This was a very quick and spicy read. I really enjoyed reading about Sassy, Rafe & Ian. I really hope there will be more of these three in the future.”
Books n Kisses
Praise for the Holiday, Montana Series…
“Charmed Spirits was a solid first book in this new series and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.”
RR@H Novel Thoughts & Book Thoughts
“If you’re looking for a light book full of magic, love and hot little scenes on various objects, then this book is for you! You’ll soon find that tables are no longer for eating meals of the food variety … Bon appétit!”
Under the Covers
“The book was well written and had the perfect setting the steamy bits where really really hot and the story one of sweet romance. Well done Carrie”
Bitten by Love Reviews
To those who lost so much. To those who believe in second chances.
First off, I want to thank you all for reading Faith and Levi’s story! I know there is always a long wait between Dante’s Circle books, but the fact that you’re here now reading means everything. So thank you readers for being here now and for being there before. Thank you even more for being there in the future. To my rocks, Charity, Dr Hubby, Liz, Jillian, Saya, and Devin. Thank you for listening, helping, and keeping my sanity. I know I can’t do it on my own. Thank you Kennedy, Shayla, Carly, Stacy, Jenna, Lexi, and the rest of the writing crew. I couldn’t sprint without you! Thank you for keeping me on track.
Humans aren’t as alone as they choose to believe. Every human possesses a trait of supernatural that lays dormant within their genetic make-up. Centuries of diluting and breeding have allowed humans to think they are alone and untouched by magic. But what happens when something changes?
Faith Sanders sacrificed her life to save her best friend—only to find herself trapped in an endless sleep. When she awakens, a year has past and everything has changed. Her friends have not only moved on with their lives, but now she’s forever bound to a man she’s never met.
When Levi Hughes created a mating bond with the raven-haired, fiery woman, he knew he’d have to face the consequences. Not only does the woman in question bring with her a new battle he might not be ready for, but his past has finally caught up with him. It will take more than the strength of their bond to not only survive their new worlds…but each other.
Warning: Contains a drop-dead sexy wizard with more than simple magic tricks up his sleeve, a lightning-struck, fierce woman who finds her paranormal half more shocking than she’d dreamed, an ex-wife who wants nothing but pain and death, and a mating bond so combustible that the world will be speaking of their seduction for an eternity.
Death wasn’t supposed to be easy. It was supposed to drown the senses until there weren’t any senses left. Yet Faith Sanders could
feel
. She couldn’t feel everything, but she could feel…something. What it was, she didn’t know, but it was there.
And it wasn’t making this being dead thing work for her.
Death was but a memory. A memory of pain, fire, and loss. So odd that Faith would feel the loss of something she never knew she had, but that ache, that
longing
, was there. Why she’d have that particular feeling, she couldn’t figure out, but whatever pulled at her
had
to be close to her. It was the only thing that burned when the fragment of memory faded away below the murky waters of her mind.
Nothing made sense in this new world of hers. She wasn’t quite awake; no, she wasn’t sure she’d ever wake up again. That didn’t sit well with her, but it wasn’t as if she knew what she was doing. However, she also wasn’t asleep. She floated in a sort of in-between stage where she pulled at herself, trying not to drown in the myriad of dulled emotions and fading dreams.
Faith wasn’t a weak woman. In fact, most people thought she was a bitch.
Or at least she had been.
She honestly didn’t know what to think now that she was dead.
And because she was dead, she knew it was okay to be a little afraid. Fear would help her get through whatever the hell was going on because that was an emotion she could taste, bitter as it was. If she had enough of that, then she didn’t feel quite as dead.
She didn’t want to be dead.
Faith’s mind followed this loop over and over, her brain going fuzzy and then clearing up, only to see the bright pain that had been her life before she fell on the battlefield.
The cavernous labyrinth that was her mind tugged at her again, and she fell into another memory of a time she’d rather forget. Whenever she fell into a fragment of who she’d once been, it was as if she was truly there again in the flesh. Things were slightly blurred at the ends, frayed memories that would never truly be hers again. But whenever she was in the dream, it was always the same. She felt every cut, every blade of steel against her palm as she fought. It was as if she was alive again, only she couldn’t control the outcome.
Because death always won.
Always.
Instead of being a casual observer of the war and her subsequent death, whatever held control over her thrust her mind into her body, and she fought just as she had on that dark day. She could feel every brush of wind, every cut and scrape when she fell.
She could feel
everything
—just not the emotions other than the pain and fear that came with knowing she was dead.
Even if it all dulled a bit after awhile, she could at least feel the pain to know something was there. She opened her eyes, knowing what she’d find.
The battle raged on, and a dragon flew over her. From the dark blue and black of his scales, Faith knew he was her friend…Dante. Yes, his name was Dante, and he had mated her best friend Nadie. The two of them had another mate, a bear shifter named Jace. She wanted to feel happy at that, wanted to remember the joy, and even the envy, at her shyest friend finding her future. Yet Faith couldn’t feel that—only pain of knowing what would happen next.
A sharp pain lashed her temple, and her dream self clutched at her head. She pushed thoughts of what could have been and what she wanted to feel away. The harder she fought these dreams, the harder it would be when she fell.
Instead, she looked away from the dragon overhead and stood by Nadie. Only the Nadie she knew before wasn’t there anymore. This Nadie was in her new, true succubus form, her hair whipping around her head in the wind, her curves sexy and dangerous as hell. Since Nadie was now mated and had these new powers, she wasn’t as weak as Faith was.
And there was nothing Faith hated more than being weak.
Nadie lashed out at a demon that came toward them, fangs and knives bared. Her friend’s power shocked them like the lightning that had brought Faith and the others to this new world in the first place. The demon in front of them—so unlike her friend Balin who was also a demon—screamed, frozen in place from Nadie’s power. That was when it was Faith’s turn to do what she did best.
She was her father’s daughter after all.
At least she had been.
She shook her aching head, focusing on the scene at hand, not what was going on in her brain. She stepped forward, her blades spinning as she sank them into the demon’s flesh. The demon screamed yet again as she took its life, her skill with a blade unlike most on the battlefield—human or not.
It didn’t hurt her to take a life. It should have, but when that life was threatening those she loved, she made the only choice she could.
Another creature that Faith couldn’t recognize came at them, and she turned, only to be pulled back behind Nadie. It grated that she had to wait for Nadie to protect her because she was only a mere human. It wasn’t her fault she hadn’t found her true half, her mate in all ways that mattered, so she could unlock the paranormal within her.
Faith was just a human.
Just a friend who shouldn’t have been on the battlefield of heaven and hell.