Small as she was, Shady’s weight on his hip might as well have been that of the whole world.

Cuddling his daughter, Tristan stared at the coffin as it was lowered into the grave.

Hope was gone.

She’d somehow fallen while going down the cellar steps. Betty had found her, but it had already been too late. Small comfort was had in knowing that it had been a quick death, likely over before Hope had realized what was happening.

At least it hadn’t been Shady who’d found her. Tristan didn’t know how he would’ve handled their daughter finding her mother dead.

Dead. Dear Lord, why? Eyes closing against the burn of tears, he kissed the small head resting on his shoulder while hugging Shady a bit closer.

Briefly, Tristan wished they’d adopted her out to a Wolven pack. At least then, she wouldn’t have to finish her growing motherless.

She would; Tristan hadn’t ever been able to fathom loving any woman but Hope from the first time he’d seen her. He didn’t know how to continue on without her.

Better figure it out. Eyes opening, he gently set Shady down before leading her closer to the grave’s edge. The rose she held was crumpled, but he didn’t think Hope would mind that.

It fell, and through the painfully tight grip of his daughter’s hand, Tristan felt the shudder that wracked her. Head falling back and sinking to the ground, Shady howled.

The sound was thin, wavering and caused the short hairs on his neck to rise. Dropping to one knee, gathering his daughter close, he broke down into sobs.

***

Intrigued? Head on over to ShadowConnor.com, register for free and read the rest!

Feral Intensity v2: Prologue -

A yelp of pain escaped when his fist smashed into my face. Knees hitting the ground, I caught a heavy blow to the temple and collapsed face down.

My arms were yanked back and wrists cuffed.

Man, Maureen’s going to be pissed in the morning. Fortunately, my hair hid the spreading grin.

Maureen’s my Girl Friday and best friend. She thinks I work too much and has made it a personal mission to regularly drag me out to clubs for fun. Her order is always the same: Leave work at the office and relax, Shady.

Tonight, I’d failed more spectacularly than usual, but the consolation prize was the shocked expression she’d worn, watching me leave with him. Maureen, or Reen as I call her, has an unhealthy interest in my sex life.

Okay, my lack of one.

My attacker began dragging me up the steps of an old farmhouse. His name was Charles Watson; Number Five on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, due to his hobby of rape and murder. The last count I’d seen put the number of victims at twenty-seven. He had stuck to his M.O., which was a club pick up and a drive out to a secluded location.

Too bad I was his choice for tonight’s menu.

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I spent a few days frenziedly working on covers: tweaking, completely re-doing or creating brand new.

End result included six covers for my Shadow Connor series, which I’m revamping this year. If you’re interested in following along as I rewrite the first three titles, you can hop over to ShadowConnor.com, register for free and do so. All three originally published stories are posted; there are some bits that may or may not be included in the books, plus the re-written prologue for Feral Intensity is posted.

From one comment made when I posted links to the covers on Twitter, it appears that I’ve managed to trip into ‘branding’ this series. Yay!

Without further ado, here are the covers:

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May the fourth be with you!

Okay, okay.

I actually did quite a bit of writing yesterday, mainly on Blood Stalking, but then Forsaken Ridge popped up.

Don’t ask. Well, okay, you can ask. I’m thinking it’ll consist of a collection of short stories. The first one’s finished, but I have to type it up. Which I will, and will likely post an excerpt from for tomorrow. Yay, new writing!

Boo! Another project for my list!

Today, with a little help from one of the funnest dudes on Twitter, I put up a Shady ‘wiki’. Sort of. Content’s a bit on the scraggly side at the moment, but you can go have a look around anyway.

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