5 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway Day 4
5 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway
Day 4 December 29, 2022
Take a peek at today’s FREE book
Check out the rest of the books in this giveaway HERE
Dragon Missing:
The world is guarded by dragons. Lurking in the shadows and keeping out of sight, they keep evil at bay.
Or do they?
Scarlet lives an ordinary life in LA. She is going about her life as normal when she finds out the hard way about the creatures that go bump in the night.
With her guardian missing and strange events happening wherever she goes, she is forced to confront the truth and accept her true nature.
Will she become what she needs to be?
Hunted and adjusting to a new reality, can Scarlet find her friend and companion? Or will she be too late to save him?
Merry and Bright $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway
A New Frontier in This Snippet of Free Worlds Book 1
Free Worlds Book 1: Deadly Fathoms
The glory days are long past for Colonel Dane, longer than expected, over 100 years longer in fact.
Deadly Fathoms snippet –
Darkness stretched on for more than a lifetime. Then, light.
George Dane didn’t want to go into that light. He feared what it meant. He still had work to do. He had lost so many people in the war, and he didn’t want to join them. Not yet. He might be approaching sixty, but that didn’t mean what it used to with the rejuvenation treatments the Space Force had developed. The Alliance of Democratic Nations had defeated the Coalition, but considering the state of the world, there was no guarantee peace would last. He shouldn’t have retired. He could still help…
“Colonel Dane! Time to wake up…er, sir!”
The light grew brighter. Dane had to face it. Funny, he thought the afterlife would be more chill.
Knuckles rapped on glass, immediate and uncomfortably present.
“I’m going to open the pod.”
Memories swirled in Dane’s head. Alone in the cockpit of a tiny star fighter, dogfighting in microgravity and zero atmosphere. A medal being laid on his neck for the people he couldn’t save in those damned unnecessary skirmishes. Standing on the bridge of what the grunts in the Space Force called a rock dropper, knuckles white as he stared down the captain of a Coalition ship built for the same distressing purpose. Another medal, this time for the millions of people who had lived, thanks to him.
Still, there were craters where cities had been. Ash choking out cropland. Both sides had suffered too many losses. Dust in the atmosphere blocking out the sun and making climate change go the other way. Wearing a jacket in July and complaining about the cold. His retirement announcement. The media wanting to talk to him. Politicians wanting him not to talk. Laying his gloved hand on the hull of the ADN Cosmos before it got underway.
A hiss of air, the smell of coffee, and the light strengthened.
“You’re going to feel disoriented for a while. That’s normal.”
He knew that voice now that it was less muffled. It belonged to a man named Eric Winters.
George Dane opened his eyes. The lid of his hibernation pod rose, and the gasses inside spilled out onto the floor of the first colony ship humanity had ever built. He took a deep breath and filled his lungs with the artificial atmosphere of the ADN Cosmos. His head still swam with memories, but the relatively fresh air helped. Though he could have used another few seconds to collect his thoughts before Winters popped into view.
“Vitals are looking good, sir. Not that we should be surprised about that, of course. Give yourself a minute, then try to step from the pod. I have some fresh clothing for you when you’re—”
Dane stepped from the pod. There was a slight resistance as the various pieces of monitoring equipment suction cupped to his chest and neck popped loose, then a decidedly more uncomfortable tug as the needle in his arm reached the end of its tether.
He gritted his teeth and pulled the IV out of his arm.
“Protocol is to leave that in for a few minutes, but I guess I should have told you that sooner,” Winters remarked with a wry smile. Dane knew Winters well, though at times, he felt the XO knew him better than he knew himself. If Winters had told him not to touch the needle, he would immediately have grabbed for it. If the XO truly didn’t want him to take it out, he would have explained its purpose.
“Where are we?” Dane asked, trying to force his mind from the past and into the present.
“I’m pleased to say humankind’s first foray into the stars was a success, sir. We have arrived at Teegarden’s Star, twelve-point-five light years from Earth. We’ve been braking for a while and should be dropping into orbit before too long.”
“Twelve and a half years? Shit. Does that mean I’m technically seventy-three now?”
Winters bit his lip for a second. Laser eye surgery had rendered glasses irrelevant, but Winters still wore a pair. They no doubt had a heads-up display. Yet Winters removed them and polished the lenses on a corner of his shirt. “There’s bound to be some confusion. You might want to get dressed before I attempt to clear some of that up.”
Dane grabbed pants and pulled them on. He reached for a shirt and caught his reflection in the glass of another sleeping pod. His broad chest and shoulders had not atrophied despite being asleep for more than a decade. The rejuvenation treatments helped prevent decline, but an affinity for resistance training laid the foundation for a healthy physique. Though he might have preferred his chest hair to remain black instead of peppered with gray.
“I don’t know, Winters. I don’t think I look that bad for a seventy-three-year-old.”
“Fair enough, but you look positively fantastic for someone poised to celebrate his two hundred and tenth birthday.”
Dane chuckled at the odd compliment before the gravity of the statement made him sit back down on the edge of the sleep pod.
“What are you saying, Winters?”
“Teegarden is twelve and a half light years from Earth, sir, but the ADN Cosmos can’t travel anywhere near as fast as light. Even with the nuclear pulse engines performing better than expected, it took us one hundred and forty-eight years to arrive.”
“One hundred…forty-eight?” The number took Dane’s breath away, but even as he struggled to comprehend it, he remembered agreeing to it. He remembered the speeches, the promise of their mission, and making contact with Earth after reaching their destination in two hundred years. With so much of the Earth devastated by the war, everyone needed something to look forward to.
The Alliance of Democratic Nations had promised several things. New food technologies for the colder world, to share the rejuvenation treatments those in the Space Force had needed simply to maintain their bodies for extended times in zero-G, and to do something with their fleet of spacecraft besides knocking things down onto Earth. They had even promised an end to warfare, though that last one had been tricky considering the political clout of the world’s most famous war hero.
Dane had understood all this. He had seen the writing on the wall despite a lifetime devoted to the military. He had first met Eric Winters after agreeing to serve as “security chief” for the Cosmos. The role seemed a little symbolic and mostly like a decent way to get rid of a political pawn who’d nearly reached the end of the board. Dane had half-expected never to wake up from the sleeping pod. But now, one hundred and forty-eight years in the future, he had.
“I know it’s a lot, and I’d say you’d get used to it, but I certainly haven’t yet. Though there is coffee, which helps.” Winters raised a cup and took a sip. Dane remembered liking the XO and being especially impressed with how quickly he learned people’s working habits. He likely remembered exactly how Dane took his coffee and that he would be desperate for a cup of it.
So Dane reached for his shirt and pulled it on.
“This way to the bridge.” Winters gestured.
“That’s where the coffee is?”
Winters nodded. “Also where you’ve been ordered to go once capable.”
“Well then, by all means.” Dane followed Winters on shaky legs that had not been used for nearly fifteen decades.
He followed Winters across floors made of metal lattice to save weight, past sleeping pods still foggy with the mix of gas needed to protect human lungs. He marveled as Winters led him down a ladder. He had traversed these pathways before, but never in gravity.
The Cosmos had been built in orbit to save the fuel costs of launching it. Dane had been given a tour and even made token recommendations about offensive and defensive capabilities, but all that was accomplished in free fall. Now that the ship had activated its engines, there was the impression of gravity. It made the ship feel like an entirely new space.
“This is my first time actually walking these hallways,” Dane announced.
Winters nodded. “I know. Walking in a spacecraft feels weird to me, too. I’d say it gets better when you realize our feet are actually pointed at the planet right now, and the ship is actually decelerating, but that would be a lie.”
“We’re slowing down?”
“Have been for years. Only way to trim the speed and not crush all of us squishy humans.”
Dane had not even begun to fully wrap his head around the geometry of the situation before they reached the bridge.
“Colonel Dane, good morning, and welcome to the bridge,” the ship’s captain, Kelly Adams, greeted over a cup of coffee. “This is Darrin Thompson. Former Space Force pilot and the best helmsman we have. Don’t let his age fool you.”
“Oh, and how old are you, Thompson?” Dane asked.
Thompson glanced up from the screen and control panel in front of him. “One hundred and seventy-four, sir.” He looked young enough to be a cadet, though his hair was completely shaved.
“There’s coffee in the pot.” Captain Adams gestured toward a machine with a mostly full pot of coffee steaming happily. “I’m about an hour ahead of you coming out of the pod. Believe me, the coffee will help.”
“You take it with one sweetener, sir?” Winters checked, already shuffling over to pour a cup.
Dane blinked as he watched the XO. Now that was something he had never seen. A liquid being poured inside a spacecraft. The Cosmos really was something special. When he had worked on the rock droppers, coffee came in bulbs with straws. There was certainly no adding sweetener or whitener if you picked the wrong bulb.
“Thank you, Winters.” Dane graciously accepted the steaming cup. “And thank you, Captain, for brewing enough to share.”
The captain dismissed his gratitude with a curt gesture. “I didn’t summon you up here to talk coffee. I need you at your sharpest.”
From what Dane’s still-hazy memory could recall about the captain, she was always at her sharpest. She wasn’t former military, but she had a decade of experience at NASA as an astronaut before the war. Once the fighting broke out, she managed to get elected and worked as a politician throughout those troubled times. Dane couldn’t remember if she was a senator, a congresswoman, or what, but he remembered she was one of the few politicians who wouldn’t shy away from talking about the big losses.
Not that her rhetoric had ever been particularly friendly toward the military. He recalled her giving an impassioned speech from Miami, or from where Miami had been, anyway. There had been talks of her running for president or chief of the ADN, which was arguably becoming more powerful than the president.
Becoming more powerful, Dane thought bitterly. It was a hundred and forty-eight years later on Earth. They must have settled that particular squabble for power long ago.
Dane recalled that her authority extended beyond the Cosmos, though. She would be the colony’s first governor and would serve until they set up elections, which would take…some time. That was the best Dane’s brain could currently give him.
She needs you at your sharpest, his brain told him. That meant bad news.
“What seems to be the problem, Captain?” Dane asked.
That earned him the tiniest of smirks from Adams. “First, the good news. We didn’t miss the planet.”
Dane had taken a sip of his coffee and thus had the honor of performing the first spit-take under simulated gravity on a spaceship.
“We didn’t miss?”
“I know you were brought on as chief of security, so I’m not sure how much you actually read about the mission’s logistics. The engineers gave us a three percent chance of missing our destination completely.”
“But we didn’t.”
“Correct. Better yet, our readings of the atmosphere look good. The long-range scopes put our target world’s atmosphere as mostly nitrogen with plenty of O2. They were right about that. Should be breathable down there.”
“So the planet’s there, and we can live on it. Compared to those issues, we should be able to solve the bad news easily enough.”
Adams frowned. “It’s difficult to tell at this range, but it appears this world is covered by water. We can’t be certain yet since we’re still too far out. We have already determined that there are no large continents. When we get closer, we’re hoping to find some islands, but we need to prepare for the possibility that there is no land. We may have arrived at a true water-world.”
“What’s the plan for that?”
“Well, step one was to have Winters wake you up. I want your help to come up with one.”
“Me?”
“And all the colony’s senior staff. After everyone is up and adequately caffeinated, we’ll discuss options. I want you to consider as many as you can.”
“Along with the security implications of each one, of course.”
The captain’s expression possibly said he was too paranoid, but that might have been the lack of caffeine.
“The first thing that comes to mind is going home. Has Thompson run calculations for using the sun as a gravitational slingshot to send us back to Earth? We should be able to get close enough to the planet for a good look, and we could bake in an exit strategy.”
Captain Adams clenched her jaw and glanced at Winters before answering. When she spoke, she chose her words carefully.
“I know you just woke up, and the doctors said it could take up to seventy-two hours to get back all of your memories. You should know the one thing we can’t do is go back. Not easily, anyway. The ship was a one-way trip, despite what you heard on the news or from my political allies before we left. The sleeping pods worked better than expected, even for the people who rotated through waking up to run maintenance. Maybe we could put ourselves on ice for another hundred and fifty years. To do that, we’d have to find a fuel source and mine enough of it before we could even begin to plan a return voyage. Not simple or easy.
“I’m saying this is our new home, Colonel Dane. I would like your help figuring out how we can enjoy it without having to wear a swimsuit.”
Earth is not an option, leaving is not an option, moving forward is the only choice. Get ready for Free Worlds Book 1: Deadly Fathoms. Coming January 4th, 2023. Until then head over to Amazon and download today, you wont want to miss it!
5 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway Day 3
5 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway
Day 3 December 28, 2022
Take a peek at today’s FREE book
Check out the rest of the books in this giveaway HERE
Valkyrie:
What would happen if Odin decided to get involved in Midgard again?
Our world is tearing itself apart. The evil among us are ripping apart the very seams of today’s society, using terrorism and blackmail to create chaos.
Valerie Kearie, mead lover and history major, joins the mercenary company Viking, Inc. as a prospective business analyst.
Her first mission is supposed to be a cakewalk.
Tracking down a digital terrorist known as CLEOPATRA, Valerie and her partner Jacob Pinkerton need to figure out the identity of the elusive mastermind and stop the attacks before they are killed for their efforts.
Moving from one dangerous case to another, Valerie can’t understand why she is loving the running and gunning aspect of her new job way more than any sane person should.
Then there is the obscure historical knowledge that she shouldn’t know…and yet.
Valerie isn’t a wallflower, but she is having difficulties coming to grips with the new abilities and odd thoughts that emerge as she is drawn deeper into her new reality.
Can Valerie figure out why she is changing before she lands herself and Jacob in trouble too deep to escape?
Merry and Bright $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway
Count Down to a New Year, Wild Wednesday December 28, 2022
The New Year is almost here! Time to start adding to the books-to-read pile!
Wild Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Each week we bring you a list of books from not only LMBPN authors, but also friends of ours, that are on sale! Here’s a fantastic opportunity to discover some new authors or some exciting books you may not have seen yet.
Most of these books are FREE in Kindle Unlimited, but all are on sale today.
Please remember to double-check the price before you one-click.
Last Gasp:
Being a cop in the only nonhuman city in the world is tough. You’ve got magical and mundane crimes, standard and supernatural perps, and as always, plenty of paperwork for both. . Elves have elvish problems, goblins have goblin problems. Everyone takes care of their own. But with the rest of the world going to hell, literally in some places, this divided city has to change. Enter the Inquisitors, the first arm of the integration initiative to make a stronger, better Quadras. Spearheading the Inquisitor program are two cops who’d rather be anywhere but with each other. Doughas Ruiridh is an old warhorse from the Dwarven Quarter hoping to retire already. Esselliar VorKluvaith is a hotshot elf investigator looking to bust corruption, unfettered by a partner. They must find a way to work together and trust each other because something big is coming.
New Deals Here
Game of Serfs:
It was supposed to be a fun break while school was out for the semester. It’s all Benjamin and Marty can do to stay alive when the earth opens beneath their feet, and they’re swallowed by the mountain. As a fire-spewing monster emerges and spreads its wings to blot out the sky, Benjamin and Marty learn that the comfortable illusion of the world they knew is gone. Everything has changed. Depending on the other for every second of their survival, they reach what looks like safety… The world beneath the mountain is impossibly huge, but the sheer size isn’t the only thing that beggars belief. As the titanic monster takes to the sky, leaving behind the lair that has lain buried for millennia, the two men know what they have to do.
Gateway to The Universe (FREE):
They say that behind every great man is a great woman…but what if that woman is a Werewolf?
What happens when Terry and Char meet Bethany Anne?
They get to do the Empress’ bidding, but not on Earth. With the infamous Valerie of New York, to space they go, to become the Direct Action Branch of Nathan Lowell’s Bad Company.
Before they reach Nathan on the other side of the galaxy, they find that space is a dangerous place, even for the wary, especially for the unprepared.
New Deals Here
The Bad Company Complete Series Boxed Set:
Humanity’s greatest export—Justice.
Space is a dangerous place, even for the wary, especially for the unprepared. The aliens have no idea. Here comes the Bad Company.
From The Bad Company, book 1 – Colonel Terry Henry Walton takes his warriors into battle, for a price, in this first installment of The Bad Company. He believes in the moral high ground and is happy getting paid for his role in securing it. Set in the Kurtherian Gambit Universe, Terry, Char, and their people—humans, Werewolves, Weretigers, and Vampires—form the core of the Bad Company’s Direct Action Branch, a private conflict solution enterprise.
Blightmage:
It has been fifty years since the sun died over Ashathar. Blaike was born in the blight. As one of the “touched” he is devoid of power. He is forbidden from following the Lightweaver Path. The “touched” still serve the brightlands, working the mines to extract sunstone; to deliver it to the Lightweavers, the saviors, preservers, and rulers of Ashathar. The largest sunstone ever extracted from the mines has been found. It could empower the brightlands for months. When it is discovered that someone stole the sunstone’s power, Blaike is exiled from the brightlands. Ming Yue is the daughter of a brewer. The Ming clan’s elixirs have supported those on the Lightweaver path for a half-century. Yue’s twin brother was taken by the blighted when they were children. But when she’s denied access to the Lightweaver path, since she is not the first-born child of her clan, Yue’s father tasks her to create an elixir that might save her brother from the blight. But there is no guarantee that Yue’s brother has survived among the blighted. Would he remember her at all?
New Deals Here
Virtue of War:
A stolen alien weapon must be found…
Kaylin Ramirez has been framed for the heist of the Virtue of War—an elite alien weapon with the power to destabilize the universe. She faces death if she doesn’t return this legendary weapon. How can she return what she doesn’t have? She’ll have to steal it from the actual thieves.
Now she’s racing against time to retrieve the Virtue, but the odds promise almost certain death.
Can Kaylin pull off the near-impossible counter-heist of a lifetime? Or will she and the universe pay her nefarious rival’s ultimate price?
Mantle and Key 8 Book Series ( each book is on .99 Cents)
From Book 1: When her father is killed, Maine returns home to settle his estate and learns that he wasn’t any ordinary troll, but the town hero. Seems trolls can be superheroes, too. When Maine inherited her father’s Mantle, she got more than a demonically possessed magical cape that reveals one’s weakness. She also inherited several busloads of mythical adversaries. Thanks, Dad! Now that she’s inherited the Mantle, her father’s assassins are coming after her. With powerful supernatural beings gunning for her and the Mantle, Maine doesn’t have much time to learn about her magical inheritance. She has a choice to make. Give up her father’s Mantle and return to her mundane, human life, or stay and fight.
Get this deal, starting with book one HERE
Island of Misfits:
When you’re a misfit in your own pack, where can you go? The Island of Misfits isn’t for everyone. There are requirements in order to find it. But for those few who meet those requirements, the island can be a place of safe haven… And mystery! When Ree, Sofka, and KeeKee find themselves outcasts from their own pack, with no one to help them, they set off on a journey that will take them all the way to the ends of Earth… Literally. With every sort of supernatural creature on the island, it’s only a matter of time before trouble brews. And when it does, guess who’s at the center of it all? Three little Arctic Wolf shifters who don’t know how important they will be to the future of the island.
Ever wonder what happens down at the bottom of the Earth?
Epic Adventures:
Jedediah Smith: The Story of a Wayfaring Heart: Into the uncharted West came the mountain men. They were French Canadians, Blacks, and Whites who left society and conventions behind. They all wanted to see a vast, unknown landscape. An earth that roiled and bubbled and erupted even when the skies were snow-filled. Powerful rivers that sculpted the land. An ocean that was wild with promise and mystery. The most complicated, and enigmatic, of these mountain men is Jedediah Smith.
New Deals Here
Detective Fey Croaker:
Her personal life is in shambles, but no cop does it better than Fey Croaker – as she fights for respect in the L.A.P.D. . . . and for justice in a city on the edge.
With her integrity, freedom, and life on the line, Fey Croaker is about to unleash all the anger inside her—and nobody better get in her way…
The Complete Detective Fey Croaker Series delivers a knock-out punch from an author who combines the hard-earned authority of the professional police officer with the narrative gift of the born storyteller.
Merry and Bright $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway
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5 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway Day 2
5 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway
Day 2 December 27, 2022
Take a peek at today’s FREE book
Check out the rest of the books in this giveaway HERE
Mud War:
War is a messy business and anyone who claims otherwise is trying to sell you something.
The dwarvish legions, the Holt’Dwan, are familiar with this but these are strange times.
The dead are rising from the earth in the freshly settled Ysgand Vale and the war just got a lot messier.
So an old custom was resurrected and the Bad Badgers were formed.
Condemned and disowned, the Badgers have nothing to lose and everything to prove. But in a world where the dead don’t stay dead and victory will cost you everything, what can be done?
A lot, if one has the will and stomach for it.
Merry and Bright $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway
5 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway Day 1
5 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway
Day 1 December 26, 2022
Take a peek at today’s FREE book
Check out the rest of the books in this giveaway HERE
Silent Night:
WHY CAN’T THEY JUST LEAVE CHRISTMAS ALONE?
Kris Kringle left behind his mercenary life to atone and accepted the responsibility to deliver presents to the children each year.
The children will smile on Christmas morning at all costs. Even if Kris has to die to try to make it happen.
Someone has set a trap for Kris Kringle. The problem is, Kris is willing to go anywhere to get those gifts to the children.
Including to his dark place.
This time, even Kris is surprised by who helps him.
Be careful, world. You don’t want to piss off Saint Nick.
NOTE! This story is not gentle. There is cursing, killing, and decapitation involved to save the season. Kris Kringle is not your normal Santa Claus. Not appropriate for younger children. Don’t read this to them.
Merry and Bright $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway
Baba Yaga is Back in This Snippet of The School of Hard Knocks Book 1
The School of Hard Knocks Book 1: She is the Principle
In the much-anticipated return of Baba Yaga and Bethany Anne, she is everything you would hope she would be.
She is the Principle snippet –
Beyond Empire Borders, High Tortuga
The planet formerly known as Devon appeared to be at peace from afar.
However, appearances can be deceptive.
In the jungles that covered the southern continent, the cries of prey animals rose in a lament to the inevitability of nature’s cold cruelty.
On the inhabited northern continent, in the city of Thon, another aria arose to taint the silence of the night. This sister ode was dedicated to the end of life brought by the cloaked figure bearing twin katanas as she ghosted through homes and businesses.
Those who had spent their lives evading Justice had brought her avatar to their doors.
Bethany Anne, Empress of the Etheric Empire, removed the blood of the corpse at her feet from her blade with a thought that drew cleansing energy from the dimension her Empire was named for.
The corpse in question belonged to the last link in a trail of corruption she had eliminated, starting at the top and working her way down to…
Bethany Anne pressed her lips together as her internal monologue faltered. Fuck. What was his name?
>>Karrog Baijom,<< ADAM supplied.
Please continue, Bethany Anne, TOM requested. I was enjoying your narrative.
>>It was reminiscent of the old David Attenborough nature documentaries,<< ADAM added. >> I think I prefer the screams of the guilty for the soundtrack instead of the mating calls of animals.<<
There was a certain appropriateness to it, I agree, TOM concurred.
Way to kill the mood. You two suck the fun out of everything. Bethany Anne returned the clean katana to her back harness and stepped into the gently swirling gray mists of the Etheric. She took a second to orient herself, then started walking in the direction of the safe house. Stephen and Lerr’ek would be wondering why she was late to their ops meeting. Anyone else making an overt move to muscle in on Lerr’ek’s businesses?
>>You mean your businesses?<<
Same thing. At least until I’m ready for people to know I’m here.
TOM snickered. Don’t tell me your sword arm is getting tired?
About as tired as you are of living. Bethany Anne’s annoyance was directed at the attempt at a hostile takeover, not at her two onboard companions and closest friends. As a woman, being contradictory is my right. As a leader, it doesn’t sit well with me to expect a standard from Lerr’ek that I’m not going to adhere to.
Fairness is subjective, TOM countered. Since Lerr’ek’s rivals refused to accept that his holdings were not up for grabs, one might surmise that it is entirely fair that they’re now doing business in the big stock exchange in the sky.
Bethany Anne snickered despite her frustration. I can never decide whether my influence on you is a good thing or if I’ve corrupted you beyond redemption. Then you say shit like that, and I don’t care.
>>By all accounts, your tame Zhyn has acted like he took your command to heart,<< ADAM offered, knowing her well enough to surmise this wasn’t what she’d had in mind when instructing Lerr’ek to initiate Phase Two of his takeover strategy with a methodology that was, well, alien to the Zhyn. >>That is the only metric that matters, right?<<
I wouldn’t go so far as to describe Lerr’ek as tame. Bethany Anne had to appreciate the effort the Kurtherian and AI made to guide her past her rising temper. The time I took to educate him about where he sits in the food chain brought him into line. He has a lot to prove before I will trust him.
>>But you intend to give him a chance?<<
Whether he is teachable is up to him. I’ll give him the same as I give anyone who hasn’t been with me since the start. Bethany Anne pulled up her hood to hide the distinctive features of her Baba Yaga persona before she stepped out of the Etheric and onto the crowded sidewalk. Enough rope to either hang himself or pull himself out of the hole his previous actions have gotten him into.
High Tortuga, Northern Continent, City of Thon, Undisclosed Location
Lerr’ek’s two companions at the table had nothing on his bulk. However, they were human, or one of them was.
Who knew what the woman with skin as black as the absence of light, hair bright as starlight, and eyes as red as blood was?
Deadly if your Zhyn ass pisses me off, Bethany Anne’s voice cut into his thoughts. So pay attention, Lerr’ek.
Stephen answered Lerr’ek’s pleading glance with a shrug, a glint of amusement in his eyes.
Lerr’ek sighed, a habit he’d picked up since having his life co-opted by the new mistress of the planet. The singular saving grace of Baba Yaga’s unequivocal takeover of his business interests was that his rivals had suffered a more permanent fate in addition to losing their livelihoods.
The jury was still out on whether they had been given the easier deal, and since he was lacking in clairvoyant abilities, there was no way to find out without committing an act of supreme stupidity.
He hadn’t gotten this far in life by being stupid.
“I apologize, Mistress. Where were we?”
“We were discussing alternatives to genocide for dealing with the irredeemable fuck nuggets who are resisting my efforts to clean up this dumpster fire of a planet.” Baba Yaga’s gravelly voice had the effect of sharp claws running down his spine. “And for your information, I am every bit as human as the Empress.”
Lerr’ek didn’t miss the threat in her reminder that he had been granted the knowledge of her true identity. What was more fearsome, the Witch on any given day or the Empress unrestricted by the weight of ruling?
His mind scrabbled for purchase on the sliver of sanity he was able to retain in the presence of Death personified. He gulped at the sight of the razor-sharp teeth that showed when her lips curled in a wicked grin. She was enjoying this.
“Mistress, the Northern Continent is all but yours. You have a controlling interest in all extraplanetary trade, and on-world trade will soon follow. The rest of the planet will fall into line once the people realize your rule means an end to living under the heel of the cartel.”
“The balance of power is shifting in my favor,” Bethany Anne agreed without acknowledging the tremor in his voice. “Just not fast enough for my liking. Existing is not thriving. The gangs, both on the streets and in the government, are running wild in the belief that they can fill the vacuum I created when I took out the cartel’s leadership.”
“You did drive the majority of the remaining criminal elements underground,” Stephen reasoned.
“Underground is not six feet under,” Bethany Anne corrected, her nails tapping the table in an audible indication of her impatience. “There are one-point-six billion people on this planet who have no understanding of what it means to live free of the artificially created scarcity that has me wanting to burn the pillars of this planet’s society to ashes and start from scratch.”
“Which you cannot do without involving the Empire,” Stephen reminded her gently.
The red light in Bethany Anne’s eyes faded and she sighed, then pushed back the hair that had fallen into her face. “Not happening. This is my personal project. I need a place away from the Empire, and I refuse to allow the people living in that place to exist in substandard conditions.”
There it was. The reason beyond primal fear that had inspired Lerr’ek to swallow his pride and resolve to do as his Mistress commanded without question.
She had dropped him into the Etheric and broken him without showing a drop of emotion. That was nothing new to a male who lived in a world where the strong did whatever they wanted to the weak. It was the tender side she had exhibited as she put him back together again that had brought him to what humans called a “come to Jesus” moment.
She was a scary-as-shit, easily moved to violence, emotionally fractious dictator with a hair-trigger temper. She was the living embodiment of everything good in this universe and would live and die for those under her protection.
Lerr’ek’s head should have spun with the dichotomy Bethany Anne/Baba Yaga represented. However, he saw that the two halves were simply different facets of a whole, one he would follow into the burning center of a star going supernova.
Her laser focus never wavered from her determination to drag the planet out of the gutter. He utterly believed that she would succeed. After all, she had done the same for an Empire that spanned galaxies. What was one planet in comparison?
All he had to do was survive long enough to see that day.
“What do you have to say, Lerr’ek?”
Her voice snapped Lerr’ek out of his wandering thoughts. “If I admit I wasn’t listening, are you going to hit me?”
Bethany Anne shrugged. “That depends. Were you thinking of solutions to the pushback I’ve been getting about renaming the planet?”
Sensing that whatever he did would trigger the trap he saw lurking in her eyes, Lerr’ek chose honesty. “No, Mistress. I was considering the choices that led me here.” The deep blue of his skin darkened around his neck at the admission.
Silence followed as Bethany Anne ceased her relentless tapping. She fixed him with a soul-searching stare. “Elaborate, and don’t bother with any ego-stroking bistok shit.”
Lerr’ek shuffled uncomfortably under the scrutiny of the two humans. “I came here because this planet is rich in resources. Ores and other raw materials. It’s close enough to the Empire to support trade without being folded into it. There’s an overabundance of business opportunities, whatever sector you deal in. If you hadn’t come here, I would have owned it all within twelve cycles, and I would have stripped it bare before moving on to the next opportunity.”
Bethany Anne’s eyebrow arched. “Then it can only be a good thing that you have been leashed.”
Lerr’ek shook his head. “I’m not so sure. There is an untold multitude of people who think like me. The farther out from the Empire you travel, the more apparent it becomes.”
“It was just as apparent inside the Empire before I beat some damned empathy into anyone who thought fucking others over was the way to live.” Bethany Anne saw he was still formulating his answer and waved her hand for him to continue.
“It’s just the way it is,” Lerr’ek told her. “Nature running its course on a larger scale, and with a more refined intelligence guiding that mindset. Those who have the drive to act in favor of the many typically lack the resources to act any higher than at a local level. Those who make it get overrun by entities more ruthless than they have the capacity to comprehend.”
Stephen nodded in understanding. “There is a middle ground between total exploitation and benevolent anarchy.”
“Anarchy can be benevolent?” Lerr’ek snorted at the thought. “I would assume a lack of structure inevitably leads to collapse. A middle ground? That’s new thinking for me, but I can see how your extended lifespans allow you to reap the benefits of investing in long-term growth.”
“Those benefits don’t just fall into my lap,” Bethany Anne clarified. “And they don’t just benefit those closest to me. What does post-scarcity mean to you?”
Lerr’ek shrugged. “Honestly? Not an awful lot. Life competes for its share of finite resources. It’s how it has always been. From microscopic single-cell entities to the behemoths that travel from nebula to nebula feeding on the energy of supernovae, whoever commands the resources gets to thrive.”
Bethany Anne adjusted her assessment of Lerr’ek’s intelligence. “Hmmm. Okay. You understand that cooperation increases the ability of any given species to thrive?” He nodded. “Can you picture a society—like the Etheric Empire, for instance—where that cooperation is extended to ensure that many otherwise disparate peoples can live without competing for resources?”
Lerr’ek shrugged. “I can imagine that working, right up until the moment fear of reprisal from the Empress ceases to be a motivation for said cooperation. It goes against instinct to place anyone who is ‘other’ in equal standing to the group. Surely you have psychologists in the Empire?”
Bethany Anne’s lips twitched. “There are universities and teaching hospitals full of them. Many have been researching ways to subvert that genetic imperative for generations. The result of the research that has been implemented is that the Empress could step down tomorrow, and the member states would find a way to continue coexisting for the benefit of all. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from that.”
Stephen’s reaction was too subtle for Lerr’ek to notice, but someone else read the slight stiffening of his body.
That is skating very close to the truth, TOM commented.
I’m not about to spill all my secrets. The time will be right soon. Then I’ll tell those who need to know that I’ve been working up the rebellion that’s going to allow me to abdicate without consequences, Bethany Anne told him.
>>Stephen already suspects your interest in High Tortuga is more than a distraction,<< ADAM pointed out. >>He moved Jennifer here.<<
I’ll tell him when I’m ready, Bethany Anne stated, her inner voice icing over.
ADAM and TOM chose not to push the issue and reap the consequences of making her repeat herself a second time.
Bethany Anne laced her fingers together and rested her hands on the table. “I can accept that your experience has created a mindset that is contrary to the expectations I have for my people.”
“In some ways, yes,” Lerr’ek agreed. “I understand your determination to realize your goals, even if I have never encountered someone who combines that relentlessness with…what was the human word?”
Bethany Anne brushed his mind. “Ethical and moral responsibility?”
Lerr’ek pointed at her, nodding as he filed away the concepts for later examination. “That. Yes.”
“Are you capable of growth?” Bethany Anne noted the doubt that creased the Zhyn’s features. She had seen every reaction to variations on that question over the years, and his doubt gave her hope for his ability to make the changes she wanted to see. It meant he understood the challenge she was setting him and was invested in the possibilities presented by meeting her expectations.
“Are you willing to move beyond acquisition for the purpose of accumulating power and wealth, knowing that my way will bring you both those things without creating suffering for those who don’t deserve it?”
Lerr’ek considered her question. “What about those who do deserve it?”
Bethany Anne’s smile revealed those razor-sharp teeth again. “Payback,” she told him, “is a bitch.”
The School of Hard Knocks Book 1: She is the Principle is coming this week December 31st. What better way to start the new year than with everyone’s favorite vampire?
5 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway December 26 – 30, 2022
5 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway
December 26 – 30
Here at LMBPN we want to beat those after Christmas blues and keep the party going by giving away FREE books from our library. Check in daily to claim your next adventure.
Hit the buttons below to be taken to the giveaway.
Silent Night
Dragon Missing
Mud War
Valkyrie
Justice Before Law
Merry and Bright $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway
Box up these new releases and take them home with you
Christmas has just eeked past us and it’s now Boxing Day! For anyone unfamiliar with Boxing Day, it is a holiday the day after Christmas, when people used to give gifts to poor and unfortunate individuals. Modern days, it’s just a shopping holiday. Do you have any big shopping plans for today? Perhaps some of our new releases might make their way on your Kindle?
Today is not only Boxing Day, but it’s also the first day of our Five Days of Christmas. Check out the free book week below.
And in addition to the free books, we also have new releases. I have 6 phenomenal books launching this week, That’s pretty sweet for a Monday!
- Maximum Pain
- Sophie Briggs and the Magic Thief (Warrior-related)
- Carpetbags and Crossroads
- Beyond the Pack
- Probation
- She Is The Principle (Kurtherian)
This Week’s New Releases
Title: Maximum Pain
Series: Pain and Agony Book 9
Release Date: 12/26/2022
Situation normal set sail for the distant horizon some time ago at P&A Investigations.
After the recent revelation about Pain’s former partner, the big guy’s been AWOL in search of answers.
Agony is not the type to mope about. She has kept the ship afloat, trusting that when Pain’s found the answers, he needs he’ll be back
When Pain does come back, he arrives only he can…
…in a maelstrom of gunfire, screams, and callouts to emergency services.
Agony and Pain need to sort out the issues months of distance and time have created, and they need to do it quickly.
More than one ghost has emerged from the past to haunt them. If they’re not careful, the fragile peace the dysfunctional do have built could go up in smoke.
So old allies must be called up, and new understandings reached to make right what’s been wrong for so long
Even with stakes this high, the pugnacious partners can count on being outmaneuvered, outgunned, and out of time as their adventures reach a crashing crescendo.
And they wouldn’t have it any other way!
Title: Sophie Briggs and the Magic Thief
Series: The School of Roots and Vines
Release Date: 12/27/2022
Sophie Briggs will have to fight her way out this time but without her elemental gift of life. It’s the spring semester of Year Two at the famous School of Roots and Vines.
The National Elemental Skills Trials are coming up, and Sophie and her friends are called to represent the school in faraway Colorado.
Dark forces and powerful, all-too-familiar enemies are out to kidnap Sophie and steal her elemental powers. They’ll stop at nothing to get their revenge.
Is there a snake in the grass?
Sophie, Marcus and the gang are out to unravel the secrets of the Defenders before Sophie’s magic is gone for good.
Will they be too distracted? Or will the secrets of the ancient tree at the School of Roots and Vines help them to victory?
Title: Carpetbags and Crossroads
Series: Marmalade and Magic Book 8
Release Date: 12/28/2022
Where there’s a witch, there’s a way.
Jemma and her friends are still dealing with the pocket of anti-coven sentiment that’s been pervading Kalhoun County.
It’s a good thing the coven can depend on the people they’ve helped to have their backs.
But trouble is brewing outside the county as well as within.
A trip to Johnsonville for Jerome Winslow’s trial ends with a nasty surprise for the coven. A familiar face gets them out of hot water.
It’s not that simple. When Val acts to save Easter from an attack, he ends up behind bars awaiting the news of whether he’ll be charged with murder.
Jemma is at a loss. Her plans to scare the anti-magic thugs have to be abandoned, leaving her without a plan to set things right.
Can an unexpected alliance save the coven and Val?
Title: Beyond the Pack
Series: Great Lakes Investigations Book 7
Release Date: 12/30/2022
Just when Maggie thinks it’s safe to relax, her life takes another turn down crazy avenue.
The biggest surprise should be that Cole turned out to be a baddie, but the possibility she might sorta have something going on with Liam eclipses everything else.
Might.
Maggie isn’t exactly comfortable trusting her instincts right now.
Does she decide to handle this in a totally mature way? If “totally mature” means running away, sure.
The only way Maggie can keep her head above water is to get out of the pool. But will distance give her the perspective she needs?
The world is full of mysteries for a PI to unravel, especially when that PI comes from a family steeped in secrets.
Having enough skeletons in the family closet to populate a graveyard aside, Maggie is about to learn that some secrets are far, far stranger than anyone could have guessed…
…and that knowledge always comes with a choice.
Title: Probation
Series: Brew City Blues Book 2
Release Date: 12/30/2022
Michael Collins made it through field training and a close call with IAD. Now he’s on probation.
Assigned to the graveyard shift in the most dangerous part of town, Officer Collins finds himself under scrutiny from a new sergeant who is threatening to have him fired.
If that isn’t bad enough, his new shift is filled with jeopardy.
Coming under fire from bad guys is an expected part of the job, but no one said anything about being stabbed in the back by his fellow officers.
There is hope for Officer Collins. He is building strong friendships with the more trustworthy cops on his tight-knit shift, and there is help from the kind sergeants who make the job bearable.
Collins’ mettle will be tested when the shift respond to a triple homicide, diffuse a tense hostage situation, and hunt down a killer.
The late shift get all the interesting cases, complete with car chases.
Off-duty, the ghosts of the past must be faced.
The prospect of new romance becomes a reality if Michael can let go of what haunts him while fending off his overprotective mother.
Between a flirty neighbor, internet dating, and a promising connection with a nurse who showed him compassion in a time of need, the time of being alone could be over for him.
Note: This book contains profanities and situations not for the faint of heart. There is also dark, or what some call ‘gallows humor’ that police officers, and most other first responders use to deal with the ugliness that is thrown their way on a regular basis. This book is as realistic as it gets. Unless you are riding around in a squad car, now that’s real.
Title: She is the Principle
Series: The School of Harder Knocks Book 1
Release Date: 12/31/2022
A teenage boy with a terminal condition, a group of school bullies, and an incognito Empress with a short temper…
Kirian Larsen knows he won’t live to see adulthood. Dex and his gang only care that he’s a human living on “their” planet.
Their determination to make his life harder bothers Kirian less than their efforts to do the same for their other victims. What can he do, bound to his wheelchair and dealing with unimaginable, unending pain?
Fight back, and damn the consequences.
Kirian’s refusal to submit to the hand life has dealt him gets the attention of his new physical therapist, a human doctor with a hidden past who has recently moved to High Tortuga.
Dr. Ericson isn’t the only human arrival to the planet previously known as Devon.
Rumors of the Empress’ Witch taking over the planet are proven by the vacancies opening up in the planet’s government and criminal enterprises. Baba Yaga’s bloody Justice is unavoidable for the corrupt.
A reckoning is coming for the bullies—both in the schoolyard and the planet’s places of power.
Can Kirian put an end to Dex’s reign without crossing a line he can’t come back from? Will Baba Yaga find a way to ensure the vision she has for the planet doesn’t crumble the moment she returns to the Empire?
Nobody Likes to say goodbye to the holidays, so instead say hello to FREE BOOKS! Today’s free book is Christmas Kringle: Silent Night and tomorrow’s is Mud War.
Christmas Eve and Fan Pricing Saturday, December 24, 2022
With all the Holiday shopping it’s time to buy yourself a gift, and at these prices, it’s a no-brainer!
Fan Pricing Saturday, December 24, 2022
Note: We requested the price changes from Amazon on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, they don’t change all of the prices at one time. Please double-check the price before clicking “Buy”.
All of these new releases are 99c for one day only!
And they are also available for FREE in Kindle Unlimited!
Grab them today before the prices go up!
Black Wings
How to Kill a Goddess
Contract Execution
Sons of the Damned
Steel Dragon Boxed Set Books 9 – 15
Fate of the West
Witch With a Crisis
Merry and Bright $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway