This year’s Holiday Stripper stories can be found in these exciting holiday-themed anthologies:
A Very Cryptid Christmas
This holiday season it’s nice to be naughty. We’ve got some tales that are truly bawdy. In the coldest months of the year, the hottest cryptids come with holiday cheer.
Christmas Wishes & New Year’s Kisses: a wonderfully festive collection of holiday-themed novellas and short stories from some of the world’s most loved indie authors
When we last left Mary, Mary was pouting as Mary is want to do.
She spent the next several days pouting as she realized that the men in her life had done nothing but make her miserable and that the man she would want to stay with, wanted nothing but a paycheck.
The prairie grasses gave way to more rugged terrain.
“This is where I leave you,” Hanska announced. “Kim much prefers to wade through the grass than she does to wade through rocks. Plus, this is not the territory of my friends. I would not be welcome here.”
“Would we be welcome?” Mary asked.
“We’ll be safe enough,” Marshall said. “It was good to see you, my friend.”
They grabbed each other’s arms and then embraced.
Mary embraced Hanska. “Thank you, my friend. I have learned so much and I will miss you.”
She hardly knew who she was, embracing a man to who she wasn’t related to. Embracing a man who her entire life she had been fed stories of fierce warriors and noble savages. He was noble, he was fierce, and he was kinder and more generous than others she knew who thought themselves to be better men. They were not. Mary was convinced, Mr. Hanska was the better.
She rubbed she patted Kim on the flank. She couldn’t quite bring herself to embrace the sauran. But Kim too had also changed her perceptions of the world around her.
Marshall handed her her coat. “You’ve got to carry your own things now. We no longer have a beast of burden to accompany us.”
“I thought that’s what you were,” she smirked up at him.
Marshall chuckled deep in his gut. It was the kind of sound that Mary could grow to love.
Mary kept her complaints to herself as they trekked through the even terrain. Marshall found a small branch that he used as a walking stick.
After watching Marshall with the staff her day she finally questioned him. “Why do you have a large walking stick? You are hardly a feeble old man.”
“This isn’t just a walking stick. It’s going to be a handy club if needed.”
“Why on earth would you need a cudgel?”
“For the wild animals out here.”
“But we haven’t seen any. Why would you need a cudgel to protect us from any wild animals? What do you expect to be out here?”
“We haven’t seen anything because we were traveling with a sizable saraun,” Marshall started. “Big cats, wolves, foxes. There are all kinds of predators out here that think we look a lot like lunch.”
“Oh! Should I have a big stick too?” Mary scurried in close behind Marshall, not wanting one of the aforementioned predators to think she was an easy meal. “
“It wouldn’t do you no harm.”
“And how does one pick a stick?” Mary asked as she started to look at the ground they were walking over.
“You just start picking them up and you’ll find one that feels right.”
“I don’t know if I can do this.” She let he hands fall uselessly to her sides. Every time she turned around she was overcome with the enormity of their situation.
“Miss Mary, you have learned to trap and cook a rabbit. If there’s anybody who can do this. It’s going to be you.”
“I think you have more faith in my abilities than I do than I do myself.”
Marshall stopped and turned to look at her. “Mary, you’ve been leading the life of a lady but now it’s time to learn to live a life on the land. And you’ve been doing a fine job of it. You’ve done much more than I anticipated.”
She could hardly believe her ears. Marshall was paying her a legitimate compliment. She dabbed at tears that suddenly formed in her eyes. She knew exactly why his simple compliment was causing a surge of emotion in her breast. He was the first man to ever think her capable of doing anything.
Marshall turned from her. Ignoring her sudden display of tears. “Come on, Mary don’t dawdle. You see those ridges up there?” Marshall pointed out into the distance. “We need to make them by nightfall so so I need you to pick up your pace. We need to go a little faster.”
“But my stick?”
“If we find one, we find one. You’ll be fine without it. What won’t be fine is if we don’t make it. We should be able to find some caves or at least a canyon wall to shelter up against.”
“But we’ve been sleeping in the—” she cut herself off. “We’ve been sleeping in the open with Kim. And Kim scares off the beasts, the little beasties that would want to eat us.”
“Precisely.”
It was hard walking in the hot sun somewhere along the way, Marshall stooped to pick up a nice hefty branch and handed it to Mary.
It was a decent walking stick a little on the big side, which was probably important if it also needed to serve her as a potential weapon.
The sunset, just as the terrain changed yet again. And cliff walls began to form around them. The sounds of nature changed from the random buzzes of bugs and chirps of birds to a mournful lowing sound that carried on the wind.
“That’s probably a herd of cattle over yonder,” Marshal pointed somewhere vaguely North. “We don’t have to worry about cows. And if there are cows close by, we may not have to worry too much about predators.”
“Maybe they’ll go after the cows instead?” Mary asked.
“Exactly. What I’m concerned with is…” he paused and held his finger up. There was a chittering sound. He raised his eyebrows nodded and pointed at Mary. “That. That’s the sound we have to be aware of.”
“And what is that?” Mary asked.
“Well,” Marshall hemmed and hawed, drawing out his answer. “You’re not gonna like this.”
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Mary pounded into Marshall’s back with weak fists and kicked.
“Hold still.” Marshall smacked the side of her hip close to her backside.
Mary gasped, “The impropriety of it all!”
“Stop wiggling, or you’re gonna fall.”
He turned and strode back to Kim’s side. Where he lifted her up until Hanska gasped her and hauled her the rest of the way onto the sauran’s back.
“You’re gonna stay up there. You want to pout you, pout up there. I’m not gonna have you behave like this while we are out in the wild. You don’t know how to hunt. You barely know how to snare a rabbit. You still haven’t succeeded in starting a fire. You barely know how to forage for what won’t kill you. And yes, your grandfather hired me to make sure you’ve made it from Chicago to San Francisco safely. And I’m going to do my job.”
At some point in time, the steady rocking motion of Kim’s forward gate lulled Mary to sleep. When she woke it was sunset and she was no longer on the back of Kim. She was curled up next to a fire. The smell of roasting rabbit filled her senses.
She looked around and saw neither man. The familiar pervasive sent of Kim let her know that the beast was nearby. Constantly guarding her. She was safe from wild predators in the presence of the tric.
Her heart hurt with her situation. She didn’t like knowing that her family saw her as nothing more than a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. Knowing that her grandfather didn’t actually care for her wellbeing as much as he cared for how much money she could bring in. That’s all he had ever been concerned with.
He never got over the fact that he was too old and too late to have made his fortune in the California gold rush. But he was determined to make his fortune. Unfortunately, he lost a fortune just as frequently with his gambling problems and his poor judgment of speculation schemes.
Janie had gotten so lucky with Charles. He was handsome. He was as like-minded as Janie in her focus on things that were of little importance in the greater scheme of the world. They shared an interest in things of fashion and society. He wasn’t concerned with problems in the world or cattle drives or surviving on nothing out on the plains.
And yet, here Mary was stuck with, she had to admit they were honorable men, having done nothing but ensure her safety. There was not one single untoward glance, and they did not tend toward improper conversation in her presence. Marshall Hunt had proven by action alone he was more of a gentleman than Pythagoras Peterson would ever be.
She ground her fist into her eyes, and she sniffed away her tears. Crying never solved anything and feeling sorry for herself was going to help. And yet, she felt sorry for herself, sorry for the girl who was terrified of saurans because they were loud and smelly. And she felt sorry because no one had ever bothered to introduce her to an animal larger than a horse.
There was an entire population of creatures out in the world that she knew nothing about, in a world she knew nothing about. She felt sorry for the girl who thought horrible things of native men. When Mr. Hanska had been nothing but kind and protective.
She cast her gaze about, she was alone. A haunch of rabbit was set on a stone next to the fire, keeping the meat warm. Her mouth watered at the prospect of the fire-roasted meal. Marshall was right. She would never survive out here on her own.
What perils will Mary face next on her journey to regaining the railway? Find out in the next installment…
Set the shifter romance free, the readers said… So they did.
Dragons, Bears, Wolves, Vampires, Witches, and more. Delve into the magical tales in this paranormal romance and urban fantasy collection for zero pennies.
What more could you ask for? Snag your happily ever after today!
Andra Dill, one of the authors featured in Paranormal Unbound, tells us about her contribution to this anthology: Smudged Magic
Hexed by a black-magic witch and transformed into a cat, Roseanne needs her big sister, Neva, to come through with a counter-spell. Fast.
Neva’s green-magic creates amazing protective wards, but it can’t break a curse.
As Neva delves into her treasure trove of grimoires and family archives, the black-witch is determined to breach her protective wards and capture Roseanne. It’s a battle against time and powerful magic, but Neva will do anything for her family.
Interview
Q: What book/movie was your “gateway drug” into paranormal romance?
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice. I won’t swear that was the first paranormal book I ever read but it is the one that made a lasting impression on me. Lestat’s personality, his sexuality, his charisma, and his irreverence hooked me.
Q: Is your story in Paranormal Unbound a stand-alone or does it introduce readers to other characters/ worlds of yours?
Smudged Magic is a stand-alone.
Q: What other Shifters Unleashed anthologies have you participated in/ what stories?
Shifters For A Cause—I wrote Luck of the Draw, a steamy story about cougar shifter Paige and the persistent jaguar shifter, Logan.
Q: What up-coming anthologies can we find more from you? Please tell us about those stories.
A Measure of Happiness—is a stand-alone historical fantasy book (part of The Casket Girl Chronicles) that takes place in 1728 Louisiana Territory. Mariette became a vampire the night of her mother’s murder. Alone and without her maker to guide her, everything she knows about her new reality has been learned through trial and error. She leaves France behind, seeking a new life with her trapper husband in the wilds of Louisiana. There are problems (of course) and twists, like accusations of witchcraft and dark rumors.
Overindulgence is in the Eternal Love Affair anthology. A steamy romance with a healthy serving of adventure, this story stars a sexy vampire and the hired killer who stumbles into his territory.
I’m currently writing a witch and vampire paranormal romance that will appear in the anthology A Dance of Blood and Magic.
Q: When you write do you visually base your characters off actors/famous people? Please give some examples.
No, my characters are average people put into unusual circumstances.
Q: Why should we read short stories?
Let me share with you why I enjoy reading them. Short stories allow me to drop immediately into a new slice of reality without a huge time investment. In forty-five minutes to a couple of hours I can immerse myself in a gripping story. It’s like a little vacation for my imagination. If the collection includes a favorite author, it’s a chance to delve into a side character (or main character) and get deeper into the overall series world. Or discover an entirely different side to that author’s writing style (or genre). Other times I have the pleasure of discovering a new-to-me author.
Q: Random party question: what’s your favorite pizza?
Canadian bacon and green olive.
Excerpt
“I’m worried I won’t be able to break the hex, Sagar. To transmogrify a person into an animal that takes black magic.” Rapping her knuckles on the glass, she looked over her shoulder. Sagar sat straddling the chaise; elbows braced on his splayed knees. Black tufts of hair stuck out wildly on his head. He looked ridiculous. Neva smiled, slowly stalking across the room towards him.
Grasping her wrist, he hauled her down to sit in front of him. He ran his fingers through her long chestnut hair, raking out the snarls. Neva tipped her head back and sighed. Tension leached out of her as he divided the tresses into sections, tugging gently, then began fashioning a braid.
“So, you think she was hexed over that jewelry she inherited from your crazy great-uncle?”
“Pieter wasn’t crazy. He was eccentric.” Neva squirmed back, wedging her curvy ass between the vee of his thighs.
“He was too crazy and a hoarder to boot, your Abuelita said so, and it isn’t healthy to disagree with that old gal.”
The elder matriarch wielded the dark arts expertly in the protection of her loved ones.
“Smart man.” Neva patted his leg.
“I’ll never forget her hexing me with fleas back when we were dating.”
“Lita did not hex you with fleas.”
“So you say.” Sagar pulled her back to recline against him. His soothing, familiar scent, musk, and summer sunshine surrounded her, and she melted against him.
When not daydreaming about plot lines and characters Andra practices yoga, reads voraciously, and drinks too much coffee. She loves road trips and going off on wild tangents. Andra writes in multiple genres—including but not limited to—urban fantasy, steamy romance, paranormal romance, and occasionally horror.
I write spicey heat-level paranormal romance. I love a good shifter romance, but what I love is romance. This is my open invitation to come follow me and join my reader groups.
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One lucky winner gets the Duke and Daphne wristlet. This is handmade with leather accents. (international shipping included)
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Set the shifter romance free, the readers said… So they did.
Dragons, Bears, Wolves, Vampires, Witches, and more. Delve into the magical tales in this paranormal romance and urban fantasy collection for zero pennies.
What more could you ask for? Snag your happily ever after today!
J.A. Bellfield, one of the authors featured in Paranormal Unbound, tells us about her contribution to this anthology: Called
Jem Stonehouse dreams of running free. She closes her eyes on her mundane life as a suburban housewife and is whisked to a realm where she races through trees under the silvery glow of moonlight. Jem shrugs it off as overactive imagination, until a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger leaves her wondering if there’s more to it than that.
Sean Holloway’s inner wolf recognizes Jem the second he catches her scent. With a single glance, he knows her to be the woman that comes to him in his dreams. While the two have never met-in this lifetime, at least-the bond he feels for her is intimate and unbreakable.
But when their dream encounters become reality, a series of events is set in motion. Apart, the two are safe. Together, they awaken a centuries-old rivalry that could cost them their lives.
With history repeating itself, Sean must teach Jem who and what she truly is. Their survival depends on her embracing her heritage and fighting alongside him.
Can Jem stand firm in the call of destiny, or are her instincts buried far too deep?
Interview
Q: What book/movie was your “gateway drug” into paranormal romance?
Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
Q: Is your story in Paranormal Unbound a stand alone or does it introduce readers to other characters/ worlds of yours?
It can be read as a standalone, but it does lead into further stories for the Holloway Pack
Q: IF it is a lead into another world please tell us about that world/those books.
The first two books are told from a female POV and focus around her romance with one of the pack members, but from book three onwards, they change to showcase different pack members (male POV) and their stories and struggles. Depending on the character, some are more romance focused, others more urban fantasy/action.
Q: What other Shifters Unleashed anthologies have you participated in/ what stories?
I’ll be among the awesome authors releasing in a few months’ time with Shifters Ever After.
Q: What up-coming anthologies can we find more from you? Please tell us about those stories.
You can find a prequel to the Holloway Pack, Beginnings, in the upcoming Shifters Ever After
Q: When you write do you visually base your characters off actors/famous people? Please give some examples.
I don’t actually. I rarely get solid visuals of my characters, more an essence of who they are as a person. Physically, I just have small snippets in my mind, like I might know their hair colour and length, their eye colour, height, etc, and then I’m left to kind of fill in the blanks, which can make it hard for finding the right images to portray them. I’m more likely to base character relationships on those I’ve experienced or witnessed.
Q: Why should we read short stories?
Because why limit yourself? And just think how many more stories you could be experiencing within a year!
Q: Random party question: what’s your favorite pizza?
Ham and pineapple. Pineapple DOES belong on pizza.
Best known for her Holloway Pack Stories and The Therapist, J.A. Belfield lives in Solihull, England, with her family, a spoiled dog, and a cat who likes to vomit in unfortunate places.
Once upon a time, she was a little girl with a vivid imagination. Not much has changed in the last forty years.
J.A. Belfield writes paranormal romance, with a second love for urban fantasy. And now she writes saucy romance, too. Because she can. 😉.
“A haunted shack, that’s really a magic portal to the magic realm where some warlock has the answers,” I poked at the dirt with the shovel some more. I hadn’t put it back, even though I really didn’t need to use it.
“I don’t know about shack, but by magical portal, you mean shimmering lights and a floating disco globe in the middle of the meadow?” Yuki sounded a little off.
I looked up at her, and a reflection from something bounced across her face. Her arm was outstretched as she pointed to the middle of the meadow.
My gaze followed the direction of her point. Oh. Oh fuck.
“Well, I’d say that might be a magical portal,” Roosevelt said. He crossed his arms and nodded. “Yep, definitely magic.”
Approximately two yards off the ground, where Gage had been standing, a flashing, throbbing, glowing blob appeared. Sparks like diamonds flashed and pastel-colored clouds roiled. It emanated drops of rainbowed lights on the ground around it and reflected light in small patches everywhere. It looked like a sparkling discotheque nebula in the air. Definitely a party, more than a storm.
The magic was between us and the wolves. Max stood his ground and growled at it. Oz seemed to not be bothered by it at all as he rolled around in a patch of wildflowers snapping at bugs.
Gage took a step forward.
“Don’t get near it,” I said. I stood up and I stepped past Gage.
“What part about not getting near that thing, are you doing right now?” Roosevelt asked as I continued to walk toward the thing.
“The part where I’m a witch, and you’re not.” My confidence grew as I got closer. The energy it cast out felt familiar.
“It’s the same energy source I use,” I called back.
As I got closer I could hear it crackle and fizz. I realized the birds and insects had stopped making noise at some point earlier. Maybe they knew this was coming? It didn’t move from where it hung in space.
I didn’t get any closer before I started to circle around. I sent out feelers to detect if this was being generated from any direction.
“Hey,” I said as I reached Max. “It’s worrisome isn’t it?” I asked the growling wolf. He was ready for a fight. But he couldn’t fight energy, and that’s all it was in front of us.
“I don’t think it’s anything you need to worry about. I mean look at Oz, he couldn’t care less.”
I walked over to my boyfriend, the wolf, completely ignoring the situation. He was snapping at bees, and other flying bugs. I could hear birds again, but only over by the rocks. I looked back to the situation, and it was gone. Everyone was focused on something in the middle of the field, but I couldn’t see what they were looking at, at all.
I crossed the space back to Max, and suddenly there it was. And no bird song.
I contemplated calling out to Oz. He would want to see this, and he’d be pissed if I just let him be oblivious to the situation.
As I opened my mouth to say something, a blur of gray fur rushed passed me. Max snapped at his legs but missed.
Oz ran forward and leaped. He sailed right into the middle of the disco storm of magic.
Set the shifter romance free, the readers said… So they did.
Dragons, Bears, Wolves, Vampires, Witches, and more. Delve into the magical tales in this paranormal romance and urban fantasy collection for zero pennies.
What more could you ask for? Snag your happily ever after today!
Lulu M Sylvian, one of the authors featured in Paranormal Unbound, tells us about her contribution to this anthology: Fallen
She meets the perfect hero for her plot, but is he the perfect hero for her?
Demi is supposed to be enjoying a writer’s retreat. Only everything is going wrong. Everything, except meeting the local hottie fireman. Moments after picking her up from the pavement, she plots an entire fantasy surrounding the handsome Eli.
After telling him about a couple of bear cubs, Eli mysteriously disappears on her. Demi plots the demise of the character she has based on him after she realizes that maybe he wasn’t as taken with her as she thought. Only when Eli returns does he reveal all to her, including a rather surprising plot twist of a secret.
Interview
Q: What book/movie was your “gateway drug” into paranormal romance?
I read the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicle books back in the day, but I don’t think they were my true gateway into paranormal romance. That honor goes to a friend who handed me Sherrilyn Kenyon’s, Fantasy Lover.
Q: Is your story in Paranormal Unbound a stand-alone or does it introduce readers to other characters/ worlds of yours?
Fallen is a related story to my paranormal romantic suspense series Legatum. This story introduces some new ideas that the shifters from the previous books did not know about. The characters are all new.
Q: IF it is a lead into another world please tell us about that world/those books.
The Palatine family can trace their history back to the time of the founding of Rome.
Descendants of Rhea Silvia, the first wolf shifter, and the war god Mars, this modern family of shifters is used to protecting their secrets. Now science has caught up with their myth. DNA evidence that can identify shifters is appearing on ancestry tests. And if that isn’t causing them enough troubles, an old long thought dead vampire has mysteriously resurrected and is causing problems.
Legatum is currently at the sixth book in the series. It starts with Protective.
Q: What other Shifters Unleashed anthologies have you participated in/ what stories?
I’ve been lucky enough to participate in several Shifters Unleashed anthologies.
I have a menage vampire story called Mist Chances that appears in Immortal Legacies.
Seal with a Kiss, which features a selkie hero is in Shifters Do It Better.
Loaded for Bear appears in Alpha Shifters Furever
Q: What up-coming anthologies can we find more from you? Please tell us about those stories.
I have a mini-series I’m really excited about coming up. Berserker Boys, the first one Bear is appearing in Cocky Alpha Shifters, with the following stories Wolf and Boar in Shifters Furever After and Shift Happens.
Q: When you write do you visually base your characters off actors/famous people? Please give some examples.
All the time. It helps me to better describe the physical aspects of them, not just what they look like, but how they move, how their face shows expression.
Q: Why should we read short stories?
Short stories give you a sense of completion with a smaller time commitment.
Q: What’s coming next for your readers?
This year I’m in a handful of anthologies, plus in the fall I will be releasing Witches of Wet Waterfalls, the second mini-series in the Wet Waterfalls paranormal reverse harem world.
Excerpt
There was a sudden warble of a siren. Demi closed her eyes with embarrassment. She tripped, she didn’t need an ambulance. The siren was off seconds later and the rumble of a truck engine idled in the street nearby.
“You okay there?”
Too many emotions battled in Demi’s mind. Unable to properly focus around the pain and humility, she breathed deeply before seeing if her eyes would work and cracked them open. The face that greeted her was breathtaking. She was mesmerized the most by his sage green eyes.
His brows were lifted as he looked at her questioningly.
Demi managed to nod. Truth was, she wasn’t okay. She had embarrassed herself epically by stubbing her toe, and now she was having heart palpitations because the rescue hero they had to call in was distractingly handsome. No, not handsome, he was beautiful with darker skin and paler eyes, and bone structure that artists had been trying to capture for centuries.
His fingers caressed the inside of her wrist, and the breath she had struggled to reclaim left her again. It wasn’t fair that a dashing smile and good cheekbones could inject butterflies straight into her bloodstream.
“What’s your name? Can you tell me what happened?” He was professional, didn’t he realize how much worse he was making everything? “Matty said an elderly lady fell and broke her hip. Your pulse is elevated.”
“Matty has greatly over-exaggerated the situation,” she finally managed to say. And of course, her pulse was elevated, he was touching her.
Bio-engineered to be the only redhead in a generation of blonds, Lulu feels that “aliens” may actually be the best answer for a lifetime of being asked, “Where did you get that red hair from?” Lulu cannot ride a horse, hula hoop, or play roller derby, but she can make pictures. Encouraged to make those pictures out of words Lulu began writing just to see what would happen, and words happened, so many words. She writes sexy hot paranormal and ridiculous contemporary romances. She embraces the crazy that comes with that one little genetic mutation, and attempts to live up to the reputation of being a redhead.
Dragons, Bears, Werewolves, Demons, Witches, and more, we have what you need between the pages of this anthology.
Fall in love with the paranormal romance and urban fantasy tales of these USA Today bestselling, award-winning authors, and new-to-you talent as they deliver those sexy-as-sin shifters you hate to love in this limited edition collection.
You know you want to…fall in lust with a Cocky Alpha Shifter today!
This is the only place you can read Berserker Boys: Bear!
