Kelly Apple's Blog, page 25

Cover reveal – Monstrous Revelations #1

Guys, I’m SO nervous to show you this cover. This series has kicked my ass graphically (I seriously have been struggling to nail down the look I wanted) and, as much as I love this cover, I’m feeling gun shy.

Yet here I am. Shoving it out into the world like a mama bird with her baby. Or something.

Anyway. Ari is going to be front and center on this series since it’s all about her rallying the troops as the monsters move toward revelation day. For the record, that’s not the actual title of the day it all goes down, but it kinda fits.

Here you go. The cover for book 1, Monstrous Connections. The blurb will be coming soon. Probably. Come to think of it, I should have written it before revealing the cover, but GUN SHY. I needed to get it out there so I would stop obsessing over it.

Well, looks like I’m going to be working on blurbs today. Right now, in fact. Later.

Edited to add: AND THE BLURB IS UP!

The post Cover reveal – Monstrous Revelations #1 appeared first on Kelly Apple.

Monstrous Short – Damn Lucky

Damn Lucky

Liam

Monstrous

 

Liam loved his mate. Full stop.

The hyperactive nymph who’d blown into his life with the force of a hurricane and ripped apart his staid existence was a gift he planned on treasuring until the end of his days.

He even loved her when she disrupted the plans he’d made for them with one of her off the wall ideas.

Standing outside the house, Liam crossed his arms over his chest and stared silently at the door that was currently closed and locked.

Locked.

It was so absurd, he almost laughed.

As if a lock could stop him if he really wanted to get inside. Even if he didn’t have the strength to pull down the reinforced door on his own, he knew other supernatural monsters who did.

A locked door wasn’t going to keep him from his mate.

In the end, it wasn’t the lock that kept him rooted in place. It was the memory of Ari’s slightly naughty smile as she pushed him outside and told him to play with his friends for a while so she could get some work done.

Liam knew his mate. She wasn’t planning on working. She had some scheme percolating in that head of hers. He could hear the low hum of Ari and Ella’s voices through the walls and he caught enough to figure out Ari was planning something for him.

Something for tonight.

His slilthern perked up in anticipation.

Sending them a stern command to stand down since it was still hours until dark, Liam left Ari to her machinations and went off to do as she said. Find his friends.

Friends.

It was a strange concept for a species who so often lived alone.

Before Ari, he hadn’t had friends. Nobody he thought he could count on if he needed them, at least. He’d had a mutually beneficial agreement with a band of wood sprites living deeper in the wild patch of land he’d claimed, but that was it.

The trees surrounding him had been closer to friends than any of the monsters living nearby.

Now look at him. He’d inherited Ari’s friends and made some of his own. The tree sprites he’d once had an agreement with had become something more. They looked to him for guidance.

When the hell had that happened?

There were pixies coming out of the woodwork to ask for help and even the rock elementals living in the mountains had reached out and made contact.

Then there were the others. Michael and Vane and Max. Akakios and Jerinth and Lon.

Hell, even the local werewolf Alpha could be considered a friend.

It was strange having so many he knew he could rely on if things turned bad.

Rubbing his chest where a strange feeling had centered, Liam turned the corner and found Michael and Lon staring intently at the guts of Michael’s truck. Ambling up, Liam joined them.

Lon grunted out a hello and Michael gave him a frown. Raising an eyebrow, Liam waited.

“I don’t suppose you know anything about engines,” the werewolf said eventually.

Hardly. Liam tolerated the vehicles because Ari and the others required them. He didn’t like them, though, and tried to stay away from their stink as much as possible.

Shaking his head, he kept a few steps back so he didn’t have to breathe in the oily stench emanating from the metal.

Michael grunted something and stepped back until he was even with Liam. “I’ll have to take it to the pack house and have one of the guys look at it, then.”

Liam didn’t ask what was wrong with it. He wouldn’t understand anything Michael told him anyway, so the words would be wasted.

The sasquatch joined them and they all stared at the metal beast in front of them with varying degrees of disgust.

Finally, Michael sighed and turned away completely. “Ari kick you out of the house?” he asked.

“Yes. She told me to play with my friends.”

Michael laughed. “Really? What’s she doing in there?”

“Planning something.”

“Plotting something is more like it.” This from Lon, a wide smile on the sasquatch’s face.

Liam considered that. Plotting was accurate. His mate did enjoy trying to put together elaborate schemes. “Your mate is with her,” he told the werewolf.

Michael’s chuckles dried up and he glanced toward the house. “Uhh, maybe we should check on—”

“Arabella and Ella are both smart enough to keep themselves out of trouble.” The sasquatch paused as if thinking about what he’d just said. “Ivy’s not with them, is she?”

Liam hadn’t heard Lon’s mate’s voice, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t there. That female was a quiet one.

At his silence, Lon straightened and looked toward the house. “Perhaps Michael is right. We should check on them and make sure—”

“They are fine. If Ivy’s with them, she’ll be a voice of reason.” Hell, compared to Ari, Ella would also be a voice of reason. Not that Liam would disrespect his mate by admitting it out loud.

Gods above, maybe they were right. Ari, with her stunning lack of impulse control and her ability to talk normally sane people into doing crazy things, might need some unbiased input into whatever she was planning.

Plotting.

Scheming about.

The three of them exchanged glances and started to laugh.

Right. They were acting like their mates were brainless. They weren’t. All of them were more than capable alone of taking on anything that crossed their paths.

Together, they were a godsdamned force of nature.

Relentless. Powerful. Utterly unstoppable.

And oftentimes right.

Ari had told him to spend time with his friends and he was going to do just that.

He was no longer living the solitary existence he’d been trapped in before, after all. He had a mate who loved him and friends who would cheerfully ride into battle at his side.

He was one damn lucky monster.

Damn lucky.

The End

Want to see how Liam and Ari’s story began? Monstrous Tales: The Complete Series is the beginning of their crazy romance. (Or grab The Wicked Woods if you prefer to read it as a serial.)

Missed any of the other shorts? Check out the Series Shorts page and get caught up.

The post Monstrous Short – Damn Lucky appeared first on Kelly Apple.

Looking Back on June

Look at this! We made it through another month! Also, the year’s half over. Wtf?!?!

June was slow-ish for me. While I wrote some (Monstrous Revelations 5 is in the bag, man, and MR6 has been started), I’m having a hard time nailing down the look I want for the Monstrous Revelations covers. Which is why there are no covers or blurbs currently available for that series even though I’m planning on releasing it fairly soon.

Have I ever mentioned I do all my own covers? Because I do. And when you get hit by a case of graphic design-block, it can throw a wrench in your plans.

On the plus side, the Monstrous Revelations series is definitely past the halfway point as far as writing goes. Since July is a Camp NaNo month, I’m hoping to get the last few installments written so I can focus on getting those released fairly quickly. (Once I settle on a look for the covers, that is!)

One of the perks of writing is that sometimes (when time and self-imposed deadlines allow) I get to dive into projects that…make no sense on the surface. That said, the August Series Shorts will focus on a sci-fi-esque series of stories that aren’t set in any of my currently established worlds. Which sounds weird when I write it since the Series Shorts are supposed to be an “after the happily ever after” type of things, but I had SO MUCH FUN writing these weird little scenes I want to share them.

So I shall.

But that’s not for another month. July’s Series Shorts will continue to explore the friendships and love affairs of Ari and her Monstrous friends. As always, writing these little snippets is incredibly fun and I’m loving where some of these off-the-wall scenes have taken me with the characters.

Speaking of the Monstrous world: Both Monstrous Tales and Monstrous Matchmaker (I’m talking about the complete series and all the serialized installments for both series) are in Kindle Unlimited. So if you subscribe to KU, you can get caught up on the series for free! YAY!

Okay. That’s enough from me. I’m off to wrangle some words and work on covers. See ya!

The post Looking Back on June appeared first on Kelly Apple.

Monstrous Short – Alone Time

Alone Time

Michael and Ella

Monstrous

 

Michael and Ella had taken over one of the guest rooms in Ari and Liam’s houses months ago and Michael didn’t often find himself being in the position of being alone in the house with his mate.

There always seemed to be someone around. Ari. Liam. Akakios. Liz. Jerinth and Amanda had been coming by more often. Lon and his quiet mate and Max and his extremely exuberant mate tended to congregate here too.

For the most part, Michael enjoyed having others around. He’d grown up surrounded by packmates and wasn’t bothered by having someone constantly in his business.

But there was something to be said for knowing he could do whatever he wanted with his mate without having someone wander in while he was mid thrust. Nudity was something of a non-issue among shapeshifters, but that didn’t mean he didn’t like a little alone time with his sexy harpy.

Right now, Ella was sprawled across their bed on her stomach, her head on his thigh as she told him an amusing story about Ari mixing up a stack of dating questionnaires earlier today.

“She almost matched one of your packmates up with a siren of all things because of the mix-up. Could you imagine that?” Ella’s silvery laugh rang out as she scrunched up her nose in amusement.

Actually, Michael could imagine it. Ari had a gift for seeing something in two people that others didn’t. Maybe things wouldn’t have worked out because of the mix-up, but Ari didn’t seem to see the boundaries others saw.

She’d matched him up with a harpy, after all, and werewolves and harpies weren’t considered compatible in most circles.

Yet here they were, living the dream.

Smiling, Michael smoothed a hand over Ella’s wing. He loved the sensation of her feathers under his fingertips. There was something so decadent about their feel. He adored how the tawny gold of her skin bled into darker brown at the base of her wings and then to black down toward the tips.

Hell, he just loved this woman.

Every inch of her. Every sweet, supernatural curve.

He adored her clawed toes—something she giggled about when he lavished his attention on them. He adored her flashing eyes and wicked smile. He loved how he’d sometimes find her and Ari huddled together in a corner coming up with some sort of horribly elaborate plan that usually fell apart because Ari was too damn impatient to go through all the steps they’d laid out.

He loved Ella. Top to bottom and all the places in between.

Bending far enough to kiss her was awkward, but Michael managed it.

Luminous blue eyes looked up at him when he straightened, a sweet smile curving his harpy’s mouth. “What was that for?”

“For being you, El. For looking beautiful and making me happy.”

Ella’s cheeks flushed the delicate pink he adored and she wrinkled her nose in the way that made her look a little pixie-ish.

It was that expression all those months ago when they’d first met that had clued him in he was one hundred percent gone on Ella. When even a person’s silly expressions made someone’s heart beat harder, it had to be love.

“What do you want to do tonight?” Ella asked, the smile in her voice making him smile. “We’ve got the whole house to ourselves.”

In all honesty, Michael didn’t care what they did. While he knew he should take advantage of the alone time since it happened so infrequently, being with his mate was enough.

They could cuddle on the bed until Ari and Liam came home and he’d be happy with that.

“Whatever you want to do,” he said, toying with the stiff feathers along the outer edge of her wing.

“Ari told me where her Twister board is.”

Michael blinked. Twister board?

“She said she and Liam used to play it before they got mated.”

Michael blinked again, his fingers stilling. Ari was an odd, energetic nymph, but he couldn’t for the life of him imagine her and her massive, green mate playing a game of Twister.

Ella came up to her knees, her expression caught between amusement and naughtiness. “She said they played it naked.”

Of course they did.

That one tidbit made everything make sense.

It also gave him some very wicked ideas. Ideas Ella seemed to be having too if the flush on her cheeks was any indication.

“I was thinking,” his mate went on, her already sultry voice taking on a slight purr, “we could see what all the fuss is about. I mean, I’ve never personally played that game and, although Ari explained the rules to me and everything, I might need some hands on coaching.”

Hands on? He could do hands on. He would gladly put any part of him she wanted on her.

“I think,” he managed to get out, “that’s a fabulous idea.”

Fabulous. The best. His mate was brilliant.

Slipping off the bed, Ella tugged on the lower tie of her halter until it loosened. The lack of a tie at the small of her back barely revealed any additional skin, but it was like a damn beacon he couldn’t take his eyes off of.

All that beautiful, gold-kissed skin called to him.

“Meet you in the living room, wolf. I’ll be naked by the time I get there. You should be too.”

She sauntered out of their room, already tugging on the tie holding the top half of her halter in place and Michael practically flew off the bed to keep her in sight.

They were alone in the damn house. There was nobody around to see the magnificent body his mate was revealing.

He wasn’t going to waste a minute of their alone time going forward.

Not a damn minute.

The End

Want to see how Michael and Ella first met? Monstrous Matchmaker: The Complete Series has their story. (Or grab Operation Werewolf if you prefer to read it as a serial.)

Missed any of the other shorts? Check out the Series Shorts page and get caught up.

The post Monstrous Short – Alone Time appeared first on Kelly Apple.

Monstrous Short – A Very Special Night

A Very Special Night

Amanda and Jerinth

Monstrous

 

Usually, Amanda wasn’t excited to lock the library doors at the end of the day.

No, that wasn’t quite right. She was normally happy enough to end another shift so she could head home to her mate and all the wonders that came with his handsome body, but she wasn’t normally giddy about turning the key and locking the doors for the night.

Which meant tonight was special

So damn special.

She didn’t want to get her hopes up about how special, but sometimes a medusa just knew when things were going to happen.

Now, she didn’t know things the way Jerinth knew them. She didn’t have his gift for visions of the future, but her kind weren’t considered the gatekeepers of knowledge for nothing.

It only took her a matter of minutes to pull the bag she’d packed this morning from her office. A quick stop in the break room and she had the groceries she’d picked up on her lunch hour.

A glance at the clock over the help desk told her she had about fifteen minutes to get everything set up before Jerinth got here. Provided he wasn’t early, of course.

Her mate’s ability to see the future made surprising him difficult.

Not that it stopped her from trying.

Honestly, she sort of suspected he had at least an inkling of an idea of her plan for the night. Even if he hadn’t had a vision, her asking him to meet her after work was out of the ordinary.

Of course, when your mate was a half-man, half-snake anything they tried to do in public ended up being out of the ordinary.

Not that the library was public. At least not once those doors were locked.

That giddy feeling bubbling up again, Amanda set up her supplies and stopped by the bathroom to make sure she was presentable. A special night deserved some special consideration, after all.

Her hair was just as wild and unmanageable as it normally was, but Jerinth loved her hair. He could spend hours toying with her curls as they lay in comfortable silence on the bed. She often did the same with the place on his hip where the scales from his tale blended into his more human skin.

There was one spot that made him twitch and suck in a breath every time.

It amused her to think of her big, strong mate being ticklish. He’d seemed just as delighted to find the places on her that caused her to wriggle away from his questing fingers.

A short, hard rap on the front door had Amanda straightening.

Right. It was time to woo her mate and give him a surprise he might not see coming.

Jerinth stood in the shadows by the entryway, a heavy cloak drawn up over his head and flowing down to cover the bulk of his beautiful body. She’d asked him to wear the cloak specifically. It reminded her of the first time she’d met him, when she’d cast aside all her rules for the library and debauched him in the stacks.

A shiver went through her. That had been a memorable night.

Hurrying to unlock the door, Amanda ushered her mate in and had him round the corner so they were out of view of the front door before she let him remove the cloak.

As the billowing material was carefully folded and put on the help desk, Amanda marveled that he was just as captivating to her now as he had been during their first meeting. His smooth, hairless head with its faint patterning of scales begged her to touch it.

His chest had gotten broader, the muscles even more defined since he’d started spending time with Liam and the others. There always seemed to be work to do around the big house and Jerinth often offered his services to the Liath Mor as thanks for giving him a place to stay.

Pushing aside thoughts of their friends, Amanda met Jerinth’s amused stare with a sultry one of her own. “Hello, handsome,” she purred.

Jerinth’s amusement faded to be replaced by something hungry. “Hello, love.”

When he went to say more, Amanda laid her finger against his lips and shook her head. She’d taken pains to make this evening reality and she didn’t want to delay her plans with talk.

Lacing her fingers into his, she led Jerinth through the darkened library to the stacks. She wondered if he remembered this particular row of shelves from their first meeting.

They’d learned each other here. They’d taken their first steps into a relationship that made her happier every day.

And now, maybe, they could take their first steps in a new direction.

She knew the moment Jerinth saw the blanket and supplies she’d laid out. She’d recreated their first date as much as possible and his hand tightened around hers as he took it in.

“What’s this, love?”

She’d prepared a careful speech. She’d thought about the best way to tell him. She’d considered a hundred different ways to approach this.

Of course, she just blurted everything out instead.

“I’m in my fertile time, mate. Medusa’s don’t come into their heat often and I was hoping you’d want to consider starting a—”

He was on her before she’d finished. His mouth was hard, hungry, ravenous for her. His hands held too tightly, but she didn’t mind.

There was such fierce joy in him, she knew his answer before he spoke.

“Yes, my love. Yes.” He breathed the last. Reverent. Unbelievably thrilled.

Heart pounding, Amanda let him draw her down to the blanket.

And then she allowed him to debauch her and her library in every way imaginable. And possibly in some ways that might not have been.

After all, it wasn’t every day a medusa and a naga decided to start a family.

Something as momentous as that deserved a little rule breaking.

That was the last thought Amanda had as she let her mate sweep her away in a storm of pleasure.

The End

Want to see how Jerinth and Amanda first defiled the library? Monstrous Matchmaker: The Complete Series has their story. (Or grab Operation Naga if you prefer to read it as a serial.)

Missed any of the other shorts? Check out the Series Shorts page and get caught up.

The post Monstrous Short – A Very Special Night appeared first on Kelly Apple.

Monstrous Short – A Hundred Types of Kisses

A Hundred Types of Kisses

Lon and Ivy

Monstrous

 

Lon still wasn’t sure about the supernatural message boards Michael had introduced him to.

Intellectually, he understood its functionality, but he couldn’t quite grasp why he’d want to know the minute details about people from different parts of the world. As interesting as it was at times, most of what he read didn’t apply to him.

Today, though, he thought he might get it.

The boards were buzzing with mentions of a sasquatch sighting in a small town not far from them.

Tapping his fingers against the screen, he tried to remember if he’d been anywhere near that town in the last few months.

Against his side, Ivy looked at him in concern. “Do we need to be worried?” she asked, her normally smooth voice tinged with something close to fear.

Lon understood her fear. She’d been broken in spirit when they met—heartbroken over the part she’d played in abusing Ari’s mate—and it had taken long months before she’d started to blossom into the woman he knew she could be. The thought of possibly having to uproot their lives because of something like this would weigh on her.

Not that he had any intention of packing up and running just because one tabloid was running a news story about his kind.

Or, well, more than one and not all of them tabloids, but still.

He and Ivy had a home here. Ari and Liam opened their house and their arms to them and he wasn’t going to repay that by slipping away when things got a little dicey.

“No,” he gently told his green love, “there’s nothing to be concerned about.” But he would have Michael look into it a little more deeply.

Because if there was another sasquatch out there, he wanted to meet them.

Logic said the reports of this sasquatch were incorrect. He’d been the last of his kind for so long he’d forgotten what it was like to be part of a tribe.

But just in case…

Closing the laptop, he kissed the side of Ivy’s head and pulled her more securely into his arms. It was a story. Nothing more.

Because if there was another of his kind out there, he’d have known about it long ago.

Wouldn’t he?

“Ari asked us to stay for dinner tonight. Would you like that?”

Because of the way she was leaning against him on the couch, Lon couldn’t see Ivy’s expression. But he knew what it would be. She’d look undecided.

He understood that, too.

Liam may have forgiven Ivy for her part in his ordeal, but she hadn’t quite forgiven herself yet. “It’s only dinner, love,” he told her. “You always like the nut cakes Liam makes, don’t you?”

She shrugged, her movement muted. “They’re good.”

They were. And the only time she got to eat them was when they shared meals with Ari and Liam. His darling mate had shamefacedly admitted she’d never gotten the hand of making them on her own.

That decided it for Lon. If the only way Ivy could get her favorite cakes was by sucking it up and facing Liam across the wide dining table, she was going to do it.

It was good for her, anyway. She needed to accept that bad things had happened which she’d unwittingly played a part in.

She’d apologized in a thousand ways for the path her mentor had led her down and Liam accepted her apologies every time.

Still, she fretted when she knew she was going to come face to face with the other Liath Mor.

There were ways to ease her guilt, though. Lon had found several of them in the months they’d been together.

Sweet kisses when they were alone in the grotto.

Hungry kisses when they were alone in the cave.

Desperate kisses when they were anywhere they couldn’t indulge themselves.

For all her people didn’t usually bother with clothes, Ivy was surprisingly restrained when it came to what Ari liked to call public displays of affection. It was like she didn’t want to draw attention to her sexuality and remind everyone that she’d been one of the females who’d once abused a breeding male of their species.

Lon didn’t blame Ivy. He couldn’t. She’d been in her first heat and hadn’t known any better. The female she’d been paired with as a mentor had been a sadistic bitch who enjoyed the power she gained during a mating contract.

Lon didn’t blame Ivy. Neither did Liam. Even Ari had come around when she saw how remorseful his lovely mate was over her part in Liam’s imprisonment.

No, Lon blamed the older Liath Mor female for the spiral his mate had been in when they’d first formally met.

That was in the past, though. He wanted to keep it there. Dwelling on the other and what she’d done would only remind Ivy of things better left unspoken of tonight.

Stroking a hand down the rough ropes of her hair, Lon kissed the side of her head again. He loved the different textures his mate wore. The roughness of her hair contrasted with the smoothness of her skin. Her adventurous tentacles where slick and strong, her body sturdy.

His Ivy had the eyes of a woodland creature and he’d be happy to stare into them all day.

But not tonight.

Tonight they were going to join Ari and Liam for dinner. Ivy would get her nut cakes and maybe she’d find the courage to look Liam in the eye when she quietly thanked him for the meal.

If she couldn’t do it tonight, they’d try again tomorrow.

And the day after that. And the day after that.

One day, she’d shed the last of her guilt and she’d be the strong, confident female he knew she could be.

Until then, he’d be content to lend her his shoulder to lean on. His hand to hold her up. His body to wipe the memories of the past away.

Until then, he’d be content to love her with everything inside him.

The End

Want to see how Lon and Ivy found one another? Monstrous Matchmaker: The Complete Series gives us their story. (Or grab Operation Sasquatch if you prefer to read it as a serial.)

Missed any of the other shorts? Check out the Series Shorts page and get caught up.

The post Monstrous Short – A Hundred Types of Kisses appeared first on Kelly Apple.

Monstrous Tales and Matchmaker available exclusively at Amazon!

In preparation for Monstrous Revelations (coming soon!), both Monstrous Tales: The Complete Series and Monstrous Matchmaker: The Complete Series are available in Kindle Unlimited. If you have a subscription, you can get caught up on Ari’s adventures FOR FREE!

And if you don’t? No worries, you can still purchase both books. That said, the Monstrous books are ONLY available through Amazon, however. The restriction for being in the Kindle Unlimited catalog is that the books can’t be available elsewhere.

So go forth and spend some quality time in the Monstrous world! Ari would love to have you.

The post Monstrous Tales and Matchmaker available exclusively at Amazon! appeared first on Kelly Apple.

Monstrous Short – The Thrill of the Chase

The Thrill of the Chase

Akakios and Liz

Monstrous

 

Akakios’s mate was up to something.

He liked how sneaky she was trying to be. Liz wasn’t the most outgoing of werewolves, so the joy he saw in her when she thought he didn’t notice her trying to keep something from him was well worth him playing along.

He pretended not to notice when his favorite loincloth went missing.

Or when she and Ari had their heads together in an intense conversation one afternoon.

Or how the large mug he favored for drinking mysteriously kept relocating to different parts of the house.

Most importantly, he pretended not to notice how Liz always had a slightly guilty look when he walked in on her and Ari together.

His mate was up to something and he had a good idea what it was.

After all, Ari had pointed out recently how everybody was going to get a special day of celebration—a friend-day instead of a birthday—because it was only right.

Akakios didn’t particularly see the point in celebrating something on a randomly chosen day for no apparent reason, but he loved his mate enough to go along with it. If she was excited, he would be excited.

Plus, Ari was so ridiculously not sneaky in her part of the planning he couldn’t help but be amused.

“Hey, big guy,” the nymph chirped one day out of the blue, “what’s that wine you like? I’m not asking for any reason or anything, just curious.”

Akakios had looked at her for long enough without speaking she’d started to squirm before he’d told her. Not that it took much to make Ari squirm. Especially when she was trying to hide something.

The exuberant nymph was not good at keeping secrets.

That had been the start of the planning. The next morning, he’d noticed his loincloth was missing. Liz had looked at him with a bland expression on her face when he asked her if she’d seen it.

Her scent hadn’t been bland, though. It had been spiked with excitement and a touch of guilt.

The guilt didn’t work for Akakios. If Liz wanted to plan a friend-day celebration for him with Ari, he was going to make sure she enjoyed herself.

So he’d huffed out a put upon sigh and muttered that maybe he’d misplaced it the evening before when they’d been engaged in some sweetly carnal activities.

Liz’s smile had been quick and bright and she’d nodded so enthusiastically Akakios had feared she’d injure herself.

He’d pretended ignorance when the other things started showing up in odd places, but he’d kept an eye on his sweet mate to make sure she was enjoying herself.

Keeping his little werewolf happy was his single greatest joy in life.

For an ancient minotaur who hadn’t seen any of his own kind in a long, long time, finding and keeping his joy was important to him.

Liz was important.

Ari and her mate and the others she’d collected in her harem of friends were important.

He could do without the celebration, but that was more because he didn’t much think he deserved it. After all, he’d kept himself voluntarily trapped in the maze below the college before Ari came to prod him out.

What sort of monster did that? A tired, lonely one, that’s who.

If anything, they should be planning a friend-day for Ari. She was the one who made everything he now had in his life possible.

She’d lured him out of the maze. She’d offered her friendship in unstinting abundance. She’d found a place for him to live and then opened her home to him when she thought he needed it.

But most importantly, she’d brought Liz into his life.

Liz, whose shy smile made his heart beat faster.

Liz, who had given him a reason to try harder to connect with this modern world.

Liz, who, right now, was trotting down one of the tunnels connecting the house to the old cave system Liam used to live in.

The desire to see her had him getting up and moving to the hidden door that allowed them access to the newly constructed tunnels. He toyed with the idea of waiting until she got topside, but the thought of stalking her through the earthen tunnels was too much to resist.

With a rumbling laugh, Akakios made his way underground.

The tunnels were a lot like the old maze he’d hidden in beneath the college. Smaller, yes, but they smelled earthy and ancient and roused his blood in ways that had him thinking of sweat and heaving bodies.

“Where’s my little wolf?” he rumbled into the darkness.

He heard Liz’s steps falter and slow. “Akakios?” she whispered.

“There she is.”

With his sharp supernatural senses, Akakios could hear the sudden thundering of Liz’s heart. She swallowed and he could tell she edged back a step by the scrape of her shoe on dirt.

Liz liked the chase as much as he did. Unlike most she-wolves, she preferred to be the one chased, which was fortunate for him.

Because he liked to be the one doing the chasing.

“Run, little wolf,” he snarled.

Liz gave a whimpering whine and then he heard her spin and take off.

Instincts triggered, Akakios followed.

She’d been far enough up the tunnel when she took off he couldn’t see her, but the sounds of her retreat were like a thundering drum in his ears.

Besides which, there was only one place this tunnel went. The old cave. If he didn’t catch her in the tunnel, he’d catch her there.

Either way, he was bound to get the sweetest of prizes for his efforts.

A warm, bundle of wolf who made the most delicious sounds when he did his job right.

He could smell her excitement as he closed the distance between them. She loved when he chased her. It soothed her wolf like little else could.

He would soothe her wolf, too, once he got his hands on her.

He’d soothe her and rile her up all at once.

With that prize dangled before him, Akakios picked up speed so he could get his hands on his beautiful mate and do all the wonderful things he was imagining.

After all, if a man couldn’t indulge himself with his mate, what was the point of living?

The End

Want to see how Akakios and Liz started their relationship? Monstrous Matchmaker: The Complete Series gives us their story. (Or grab Operation Minotaur if you prefer to read it as a serial.)

Missed any of the other shorts? Check out the Series Shorts page and get caught up.

The post Monstrous Short – The Thrill of the Chase appeared first on Kelly Apple.

Looking Back on May

Whew! May slipped by in a flash, didn’t it? (I know I say some variation of that every month, but MAN these months are flying by. I mean, it’s JUNE already. Crazy.)

On the writing front, I finished Monstrous Revelations 4. Which, in case your curious, is sort of untitled. I have a few ideas for titles of all the books in the series, but I’m not really feeling them yet. So I’m keeping them close and letting them percolate until I settle on what they’re going to be.

Monstrous Revelations is on track to come out this year (hopefully within the next month or two, but it honestly depends on how far I get in the writing of the final half of the serial). If you haven’t caught up on Monstrous Tales or Monstrous Matchmaker yet, the individual stories are all in Kindle Unlimited (Read for free if you have a subscription!) or you can buy them from Amazon.

Series Shorts continue to go up on Tuesdays. Ari and her crew of monsters are on tap for the near future and it’s been a BLAST to write those day in the life style scenes for all those crazy monsters.

And finally, the Kelly Apple site got an overhaul. A new banner, a new privacy policy, and just some general behind the scenes stuff to tidy up some of the pages.

For June, I’m working on Monstrous Revelations 5 (and hopefully 6 so I can get some firm release dates down). Closing a series is always difficult for me because I have a hard time letting go, but I have goals and I’m going to try my hardest to stick to them.

Until next month!

The post Looking Back on May appeared first on Kelly Apple.

3 Paranormal Series to Satisfy Your Craving for Shapeshifters

I’ve been in the mood for some shapeshifter romances lately. This isn’t a new occurance. I’m pretty much always in the mood for shapeshfiter lovin’. But sometimes you REALLY want it and you just have to indulge yourself.

So I am.

My go-to paranormal romance series is Thea Harrison’s The Elder Races. Following the exploits of the shapeshifting Wyr and their draconic overlord…Ha. I’m kidding about the overlord thing. Kind of. I mean, Dargos is sort of autocratic and he absolutely expects his orders to be obeyed, but he mostly lets the Wyr do their thing. Until he doesn’t. And if you cross him, you’re pretty much screwed. Unless you’re Pia. But, really, how many times can a dragon expect to find his mate in the secretive lady who steals from him? Just the once, I assume.

Or twice if you’re those two, but OTHERWISE…don’t steal from a dragon.

Dragos and Pia aren’t the only power couple in the Elder Races universe, either. ALL Dragos’s sentinels are powerful in their own right (hence how they became his sentinels) and they all end up with powerful mates to match. As the series starts to branch out, we delve into the realms of the vampires and witches and djinn and elves…okay, I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.

The world is big. It’s complex. It’s wonderful. Basically, these books satisfy all the sides of my paranormal loving heart and I ADORE diving into it. There are both full length novels and novellas and the newest series jumps the pond and takes us out of the US based-Wyr to seewhat shenanigans are taking place overseas.

Next up is Shelly Laurenston’s Pride series. Weird aside, but when I buy books, I usually buy them in one medium across the series. So either they’re all physical books or they’re all e-books. For some reason, I had bought several of the books out of order in paperback, so when I went to read the series I NEEDED the next one like WHOA. So I bought the ones I was missing in ebook. Which kind of weirds me out because it’s pretty much the only series I can think of off the top of my head that I’ve done that with.

But the books are just that good. I couldn’t wait for a physical book to be delivered. I just couldn’t.

Seriously. They’re insane. Over the top. Completely batshit crazy at parts. In the best way imaginable. Things happen and you can’t help by laugh in delighted horror over what these characters get themselves into.

In fact, I wrote the first book in the Wicked Pride series as a homage to Shelly Laurenston’s crazy characters. While my shifters aren’t quite as crazy pants as hers, they made me laugh and I still get a kick out of reading them. (Also, I can honestly say that until I sat down and starting putting this post together, I didn’t realize how close the series names were. Oops. No infringement intended.)

The point I’m trying to make is that if you love batshit crazy characters who are a little violent, like their sex a little wild, and don’t mind indulging in some inter-species warfare (when the situation calls for it), the Pride series is for you.

(And now I kinda want to do a reread.)

Last up, Ann Aguirre’s Ars Numina series. I was blown away when I read book 1. BLOWN AWAY. The world building has grown with every book and I’m still in awe over how Ann Aguirre somehow seamlessly melded futuristic tech with old world charm.

These are shifters on the brink of war and they’re struggling to find a path that will keep their people safe while not indebting themselves to anyone who will exploit them once the war is over.

And the romance. HOLY WOW, the romance. I love it. I loved Dom and Pru coming to terms with the unconventionality of their romantic start (he’s still mourning his first love when she comes to him to bring him home to his people) and how they made things work. I loved Alastor and Sheyla finding their romance as she races to beat the medical condition that’s crippling him. I loved how Raff and Thalia seem like complete opposites on paper, but are so perfect for one another in reality.

Seriously, I’m starting to do that fangirl thing here. Again.

These books are crazy good, though. CRAZY GOOD.

They remind me of all the reasons I started reading paranormal romance in the first place and why shapeshifters will always be my greatest love.

Looking for some Kelly Apple books to quench you shapeshifter cravings?

The Wicked Pride series follows a group of sassy shapeshifters finding love and sexy times in a small town.

The Anderson High Wolves series finds out wolves in high school, dealing with all the normal things high schoolers deal with. You know, if dead bodies are normal.

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