Mating Behavior (9 page)

“Katie.” Alan titled her head back and
stared down into her eyes. “I love you.”

The air around him lit with an electric
charge. Alan found himself being yanked off his feet and tossed
onto the bed by nothing more than power. Katie climbed up and over
him before letting the quilt fall away. The sight of her naked body
bathed in moonlight nearly did him in as his cock fought to break
free of his jeans.

“I love you too, Alan. For all eternity.”
She leaned forward and ran her tongue down his stomach. “Now, let’s
get started on making up for lost time.”

He couldn’t have agreed more. He bit back a
grin. “So, now that everyone is gone, want to peek in the
drawer?”

THE END

Mandy M. Roth grew up fascinated by creatures
that go bump in the night. From the very beginning, she showed
signs of creativity. At age five, she had her first piece of
artwork published. Writing came into play early in her life as
well. Over the years, the two mediums merged and led her to work in
marketing. Combining her creativity with her passion for horror has
left her banging on the keyboard into the wee hours of the night.
Mandy lives with her husband and three children on the shores of
Lake Erie, where she is currently starting work on her Master’s
Degree. She was nominated for Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine’s
Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Paranormal Erotic.

Mandy has topped the Amazon bestselling
charts more than once and has a loyal and steady following. She
does cover art under the brush name Natalie Winters and is very
involved with helping authors learn to market their books. In 2009
she and fellow author Michelle M. Pillow started their own
self-publishing endeavor named The Raven Books. It spawned from the
name of a nightclub in Mandy’s wildly popular Daughter of Darkness
Series. In July 2010 they opened The Raven Books to third party
distribution and by Dec 2011 had sold WELL over 150,000 ebooks.

Mandy writes for The Raven Books, Samhain
Publishing, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Harlequin Spice, Pocket Books
and Random House/Virgin/Black Lace.

To learn more about Mandy,
please visit
www.mandyroth.com
or send an email to
[email protected]
.

For latest news about
Mandy’s newest releases subscribe to her announcement list in
Yahoo! groups.
http://groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/Mandy_M_Roth

The following material is free of charge. It
will never affect the price of your book.

Sheriff Jonathan MacSweeny is in charge of
keeping the peace in Prospect Springs. Frontier living isn’t what
it used to be. It’s hard to survive in the New Old West and it’s
even harder when your area doesn’t exactly embrace
supernaturals—and you howl at the moon. That being said, he’s good
at his job and has a reputation with the ladies. When he learns his
childhood sweetheart is to be married off to the town sleazebag, he
goes in guns blazing to see to it she’s his. Problem is, Molly
isn’t the same girl he remembers from ten years prior. Now she’s a
gun-toting, foul-mouthed, vixen with a badge of her own.

Special Marshal Molly Cogan never planned to
set foot back in Prospect Springs. When her friend gets the
harebrained idea to steal her identity in an attempt to protect her
from the bounty the outlaws have on her head, Molly finds herself
standing right smack dab in the middle of chaos—or home in her
case. It isn’t long before Jonathan is there, flashing that famous
MacSweeny boy smile and tempting her in ways she wasn’t prepared
for. This heart-hardened Marshal has her work cut out for her if
she plans to face her past fears and her past sweetheart.

Warning: This novella contains strong
language and shape shifting cowboys who will melt your socks off.
This novella also has explicit, graphic sexual content and is not
for the faint of heart.

New West Frontier, Prospect Springs, New Earth,
2807

“Jon, what the hell do you think you’re
doing? You can’t go riding into town, kicking up a row and laying
claim to another man’s property.”

Jonathan MacSweeny glared at his best friend
and cousin, Eli MacSweeny. Jonathan’s temperament had been bad to
start with. It only worsened since he’d gotten up and this wasn’t
helping it along any. At the current rate of progression, he’d be
likely to shoot fire from his eyes and tear a man limb from limb
before the night was out. The first was out of reach even for
someone like Jonathan, but the second was a distinct
possibility.

“Just because the man had a hand in fatherin’
her doesn’t mean he owns her,” Jonathan stressed. “And if I feel
like making a scene, I will.” He fisted the reins of his horse—the
need to be on their way was great for Jonathan. Every second they
delayed was a second he could have had with the woman who turned
him inside out with nothing more than a glance.

“According to the law, her daddy does own
her. Least ‘til she’s married off, then her husband does.” Eli
tipped his head slightly, sending dark strands of hair over his
shoulders. The jet-black hair was a MacSweeny trait, one the ladies
seemed to adore and the church-going elderly women seemed to take
as a sign of the devil. Probably didn’t help much that the boys had
inhuman eyes. They weren’t exactly human so it sort of went
hand-in-hand.

Thankfully, over the years, the religious
people in Prospect Springs had come to understand that although by
all outward appearances the MacSweeny family was touched by the
devil, they meant no harm and were honest boys. Who and what they
were wasn’t a total secret because the rumors floated. The boys did
nothing to stop the scuttlebutt.

Almost all of them had remained in the area.
None had started families yet. It was probably a good thing since
there were so many of them. Hell, there were four in his immediate
family alone. Eli had two brothers. That had them up to seven
already and Jonathan hadn’t even begun to think about his other two
uncles and their boys.

All boys.

All rowdy.

All different.

All special.

“The law is wrong, Eli,” Jonathan said.
“Plain and simple, the man has no right to force his daughter to
wed a lecherous bastard just because it’ll get his parish bigger
donations. Gerald Wilson is a snake who has raped more women than
not and I’m not about to let him get his hands on Molly.”

Again.

He didn’t voice his last concern but it was
evident from the tension that filled the area. Jonathan would rot
in the pits of hell before he ever allowed Gerald Wilson near Molly
again. He’d spent a decade regretting having been foolish enough to
leave her accessible to Gerald to begin with. He should have
claimed her as his mate the minute he’d realized that’s what she
was to him.

It was an absurd thought and he knew it.
They’d been too young for him to go with his gut. Gerald hadn’t
cared a bit about Molly’s innocence. For that alone Jonathan had
watched the bastard from a distance, waiting for him to step out of
line so he’d be justified in killing him.

“Yap, yap, yap,” Parker, Jonathan’s older
brother, said, as he rode up next to him. He steadied his horse and
nodded out toward the night. “I hear ya talkin’, little brother,
but I don’t hear you saying what it is you’re going to do to
rectify the situation.”

“Rectify?” Eli grinned. It didn’t take much
to figure out he was in the mood for mischief. “Trust the doctor to
swoop in and start up with fancy words. We might need to stop by a
Frontier Stall and look that there one up.”

Parker put his middle finger in the air and
offered a cocky smile. “Doctor that, asshole. And seems to me the
lawyer in the family would have some pull in regards to changing
the laws but it’d appear you are as worthless as your last
girlfriend claimed you to be.” He let his middle finger droop
slowly as his gaze slid to Eli’s groin.

Eli shrugged. “Seein’ as how I had her
screaming my name out in ecstasy behind the General Store I can’t
see how I’d be labeled worthless. A bit randy maybe, but worthless?
No.” He rubbed his chin, doing his best to conceal a wicked grin.
They got entirely too much joy out of poking fun at one another.
“As far as laws go, I don’t get to change ‘em. I only get to twist
the already existing ones to my advantage.”

Jonathan’s ears perked as he fingered his
sidearm and then his badge. The silver burned slightly as he
touched it but still, his hand remained. It was a reminder of not
only who he was but what he was. He was the sheriff but was also
more than a man. The beast, who suffered a sensitivity to silver,
swore an oath to protect Molly and the man supported the decision
wholeheartedly. The two had come to a conclusion long ago—she was
not to be harmed and, one day, she would be his. “Got any
law-twisting planned, cousin?”

“A whole lot of begging, Jon. That’s ‘bout
it.” Eli chuckled. “Well, that and I told Parker to bring along
some aspirin. You might need it after you go and get yourself hung
over a woman. Be thankful a hangin’ won’t kill ya. Just make your
head and neck hurt for a few days. Now, if they decide to run
silver spikes through your heart or chop your head off, well,
that’s another matter.”

“Wonderful.” He didn’t bother to hide his
sarcasm. “And thanks for the show of support. It warms me to know
my kin are positive I’ll get my neck snapped before the day’s
out.”

The tiny snort that came from Eli wasn’t lost
on him, neither was the piercing gaze the man gave him. Those
lavender eyes always seemed to know the truth.

Eli stated the obvious anyway. “Jon, this is
an awful lot of trouble to go through for a girl you ain’t even
seen since she was but knee-high. What’s it been? Ten years
now?”

It was the truth. Jonathan hadn’t seen Molly
Cogan since she was sixteen but that didn’t matter any. When word
of her father’s plans reached him, he’d been blinded by rage. Molly
had been a free spirit, a female renegade. So much so, her father
had sent her away, shamed by her even though there was nothing to
be ashamed about. Molly was a rare treasure, or at least she had
been.

And damn well always will be, MacSweeny.

He smiled as his inner voice chastised him as
quickly and as sharply as Molly would. He held tighter to the reins
of his horse. It would’ve been faster to take his steel steed. They
were built to look like real horses except for the legs. Steel
steeds had none. They hovered just off the ground, six to eight
inches. Jonathan had mounted handlebars on the neck of his. They
helped to steer better and allowed him to lean forward more,
cutting wind resistance. All the MacSweeny boys had steel steeds
but the damn mechanical beasts tended to be unpredictable and since
they ran on both fuel and solar power, one needed to be sure one
had plenty of both. Fuel wasn’t an issue, it was sunlight. There
wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of it left for the day and there was
no way in hell Jonathan was gonna chance anything ruining him
getting to Molly. No, he’d take what was tried and true, his
mare.

“Let’s ride.”

END EXCERPT

www.ravenhappyhour.com ~
www.theravenbooks.com

Paranormal Vampire Shifter Romance

A witch by birth, Francy Montgomery feels
she's merely a fledgling in the eyes of the supernatural world.
Only one man believed in her abilities, a man who ignited a magical
fire within her that burns for his touch, despite his rejection.
Now she has to face him again, and tell him of her intent to marry
another rather than wasting her life wanting what she can never
have.

Dante Guerrasio's patience has just run out.
The mate he's waited centuries to find is now at a point in her
life that's she's ready to be claimed as his. In fact, she'd be his
already if some meddling magic hadn't interfered and kept him at
bay when she was eighteen. The wolf inside him needed her then, but
the man he is knew that Francy needed to taste her freedom before
he could taste her. How did his suggestion that she experience life
for herself lead her into the arms of another man—his sworn
enemy.
Rating: Contains graphic adult material, multiple partner
sex, adult language, and explicit sexual content not suitable for
sensitive readers
.

Francy Montgomery pulled her
silver sedan to a stop outside of the three-story cream-colored
home and killed the engine. It was strange being back after so long
but it was necessary. A strange calm surrounded her as she stared
up at the house her longtime friend, Dante, insisted wasn’t a
mansion. With nine bedrooms and ten bathrooms it counted as one in
her book. Trust Dante not to think so. The man had been born in the
lap of luxury.

Getting out of her car, she took
in a deep, fresh breath of country air. The very sight of the place
took her breath away. It was both overwhelming and exhilarating to
see it again. Part of her wanted to get back in her car and drive
away. Another part wanted to lay down roots and never leave again.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t do that. Running wasn’t an option
either.

Letting her power rise, Francy
let it run out and over the grounds in search of Dante. A witch by
birth, she had only learned to control her powers in the last
several years. Being under thirty years of age made her a fledgling
in the eyes of the supernatural world. Her lack of control and
five-year span of trying to harness her powers was unacceptable by
many, but not Dante. He made controlling supernatural gifts look
simple and always made her feel good about what she’d accomplished.
The minute she sensed his magik, Francy drew hers back quickly. Her
entire body tingled from the rush of power and from the thrill of
having brushed against Dante, even if it was only mystically.