Aldrea Alien's Blog, page 21

Rainbow Snippets: Not her rank…

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

Even though To Poison a Prince is out, I’ll be posting bits of their story for the rest of the month.

For those of you who are new or catching up… Darshan and Hamish are a pair of thirty-something princes from two vastly different lands. Their tale starts with them travelling through the ginormous Udynea Empire that Darshan is from on their way to the capital. This snippet skips a little from last week’s to Hamish dealing with Onella, one of his new sister-in-laws…

“Still, I believe proper introductions are in order.” She extended her hand whilst fanning her face with the other. “Onella vlos Mhanek.”

Hamish had spent quite a few hours being schooled on the various titles through the Crystal Court during their weeks of travelling. Whilst vlos was respectable—identifying them as the first princess in a long line of about a dozen—Onella wasn’t the name his husband accredited to the rank. Did it mean Darshan’s twin sister was dead? Or was Onella testing him?

Heeding his husband’s instructions upon meeting the man’s siblings, Hamish clasped the woman’s hand in both of his. He offered up a small bow over them, noting how her face pinched at his actions. “Well met, sister. I am Prince Hamish Mathan of Tirglas.”

Onella’s lashes lowered, veiling the hint of mischief gleaming just beneath. “I am surprised to see you here. My brother doesn’t typically bring his current flings to dally at my soirées.”

And there you have it. I’ll be back next weekend to share more. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

To Poison a Prince is live!

Someone is out to murder his husband and he might just be the reason they succeed.

Imperial Crown Prince Darshan knew his journey home wasn’t going to be the modest one he hoped for, especially not after eloping with Hamish, a former prince—and now exile—of Tirglas.
When he thwarts a clumsy attempt on his husband’s life during a soirée hosted by his long-standing rival and half-sister, he figures the worst is behind them.
Yet, the threat of death continues to shadow them across the empire. Someone is intent on making the rumours of his husband’s demise a reality, someone who can erase the memory of their very presence from people’s minds.
Darshan must discover who is behind the attempts before they succeed. But who can he trust when the culprit is capable of slipping by the most vigilant of guards?

Don’t miss the next step in Hamish and Darshan’s story of mystery, magic, romance and more!

*This book contains violence, gore and explicit adult themes.*

Buy Now!

Rainbow Snippets: Making him blush…

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

To Poison a Prince releases tomorrow! I’ll be posting bits of Hamish and Darshan’s story for at least until then…

For those of you who are new or catching up… Darshan and Hamish are a pair of thirty-something princes from two vastly different lands. Their tale starts with them travelling through the ginormous Udynea Empire that Darshan is from on their way to the capital. This snippet is slightly longer and skips a fair bit from last week’s to the pair dancing in the ballroom…

They twirled across the floor. The dance Darshan had chosen didn’t quite match the tempo, being a four-step when the beats were clearly for a three, but the dance was one Hamish knew and it meant he didn’t need to focus on their every movement.

It also left him free to take in the room and the crowd, of how the majority still chattered behind fans or into their drinks. “Everyone’s staring at us.”

“Of course they are,” his husband murmured. “They have never seen me this happy.” Grimacing, he added, “Not without a moderate application of alcohol and sex.” Darshan beamed up at him as he stepped to one side and guided them in a small circle. “That is entirely your doing. My heart swells having you, my flame eternal, at my side that I can’t contain such joy.”

More heat flooded Hamish’s face, slinking its way down his neck. “Cannae you stop that?”

“Stop what, mea lux?” Although his eyes were wide in a wonderful display of innocence, the faint curve of his lips hinted at another barely restrained grin.

“You bloody ken exactly what,” he hissed, pulling Darshan closer even though the dance steps called for the lead to twirl their partner. “You’re purposely saying things that’ll make me blush. Stop it.”

“Absolutely not. It’s adorable.”

And there you have it. I’ll be back next weekend to share more of these two adorkable twits. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Sharks…

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

To Poison a Prince releases at the end of the month. I’ll be posting bits of Hamish and Darshan’s story for at least until then…

For those of you who are new or catching up… Darshan and Hamish are a pair of thirty-something princes from two vastly different lands. Their tale starts with them travelling through the ginormous Udynea Empire that Darshan is from on their way to the capital. This snippet follows from last week’s where the elven man announcing their arrival is struggling with what title to give Hamish.

Hamish’s eyes had adjusted to the bright light by the time they were to descend the stairs. He laid a hand on Darshan’s proffered arm, steadfastly ignoring the heat flaring in his cheeks. It had taken some time for him to stop blushing whenever Darshan introduced him, but this was different. Such gestures had a certain hierarchy that had been absent in their travels. But then, much of the journey from his homeland had taken them through small villages and towns. All places where those of the Crystal Court were unlikely to be found.

And now? They mingled at the foot of the stairs like sharks waiting for them to enter the water.

And there you have it. I’ll be back next weekend to share more of these two adorkable twits. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Still his title…

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

To Poison a Prince releases at the end of the month. I’ll be posting bits of Hamish and Darshan’s story for at least until then…

For those of you who are new or catching up… Darshan and Hamish are a pair of thirty-something princes from two vastly different lands. Their tale starts with them travelling through the ginormous Udynea Empire that Darshan is from on their way to the capital. This snippet follows directly from last week’s where the elven man announcing their arrival is struggling with what title to give Hamish.

Darshan tipped his head slightly. “Prince Hamish of the Mathan Clan from Tirglas,” he supplied, to the man’s visible relief.

The title wasn’t one Hamish had been wholly comfortable using, given his mother’s disownment. Until Darshan pointed out that marrying the imperial heir also came with a similar title for his spouse. Although, in those cases, it had meant another princess in the ranks. Udynea hadn’t a formal title for their vris Mhanek marrying a man.

Bowing low, the elf repeated Darshan’s words in a far less hesitant manner than he had done with the rest.

And there you have it. I’ll be back next weekend to share more of these two adorkable twits. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: His husband…?

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

To Poison a Prince releases at the end of the month. I’ve put the prequel novella to In Pain and Blood on the back burner until I’ve sorted out everything for the release. I’ll be posting bits of Hamish and Darshan’s story for at least until then…

For those of you who are new or catching up… Darshan and Hamish are a pair of thirty-something princes from two vastly different lands. Their tale starts with them travelling through the ginormous Udynea Empire that Darshan is from on their way to the capital. This snippet skips slightly from last week’s…

The door swung inwards as they neared, bisecting the image of the tree and allowing golden light to spill into the foyer. Darshan strode through the doorway with barely a pause, leaving Hamish to follow.

The whole room shone with a golden light. Hamish halted beside his husband at the top of the stairs, blinking to see anything beyond the glow. He caught flashes of colour when he squinted, but little else.

An elven man also shared the landing, there to announce attendees as they entered. He bowed, his tanned face gaining a sickly shade. “His imperial highness,” he announced to the crowd, his booming voice neatly cutting the chatter below. “Darshan vris Mhanek, and…” With his face gaining colour at double the speed he had lost it, the man’s eyes darted from Darshan to Hamish. The elf wet his lips, clearly torn between assuming and enquiring. “His husband…?” The tight note of a question lingered in that last word.

And there you have it. I’ll be back next weekend to share more of these two adorkable twits. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Ships, ports & mooring…

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

I’m editing the last few chapters of To Poison a Prince’s, which involves the biggest rewrites as I try to give these two dorks a satisfactory ending. I’ve put the prequel novella to In Pain and Blood on the back burner until it’s done, but I’ll still be posting bits of Hamish and Darshan’s story for a little while longer…

For those of you who are new or catching up… Darshan and Hamish are a pair of thirty-something princes from two vastly different lands. Their tale starts with them travelling through the ginormous Udynea Empire that Darshan is from on their way to the capital. This snippet follows on from the one at the end of May, where Hamish was waxing lyrical about his husband, but also suggesting: “You look a little uneasy.”…

Darshan opened his mouth, a clear protest on his tongue, before biting his lip. “Well.” He offered up a sheepish smile. “It just occurred to me that, given my half-sister’s penchant of surrounding herself with those of the lower nobility, there is likely to be a number of men here who have… seen me in some form of undress, if you catch my meaning.”

“And?” Hamish might’ve spent thirteen years prior to meeting his husband in a sort of self-enforced celibacy, but he couldn’t have been labelled as ignorant when it came to intimacy between men. “It’s nae as if you havenae told me your ship has docked at a lot of ports.” His husband’s hedonistic attitude to court life had been the sole reason the Mhanek sent his heir to Tirglas on an ambassadorial mission, even after the appointed countess was assassinated.

His husband’s lips twisted sourly. “Nevertheless, I hardly think you expected to be faced with a mob of them during your debut at court. And I think a number of them will be most put out that I have found a… permanent place to moor, so to speak.”

And there you have it. I’ll be back next weekend to share more of these two adorkable twits. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Like a tavern menu…

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

Because it’s celebrate pride month, I’m showing pieces from across my stories in the theme of coming out to their love interests…

Like last week, this snippet is from In Pain and Blood. This tale focuses on the spellster, and closeted bisexual, Dylan and his bi-awakening when fate puts him (and the group of women he’s travelling with) square into the path of the elven spellster-hunter, Tracker.
The snippet itself is Tracker explaining how he sees sexuality…

“I guess… I thought I’d lost my chance to decide.” Dylan tore his gaze from the flames to find the hound watching him. “Until I met you.”

Tracker’s lips gently curved in what had to be the most genuine smile Dylan had seen from the hound. His whole face was soft and receptive.

Dylan quietly considered the merits behind bridging the small space between them to kiss the man.

Then, all at once, the elf cleared his throat and the look vanished. He shook his head, his breathy chuckle heating Dylan’s shoulder. “Did you think there was a cut-off period where it would go away if not admitted? Because that is really not how this works.”

“So I’ve learnt.” It seemed so obvious now. He could even recognise how much he’d denied it over the years. “When did you realise you were attracted to… men with meat on their bones?”

Tracker grinned, a short blast of mirth hissing through his teeth. “That is quite the question. Well, for starters, my realisations came from another direction entirely, although I was quite young when the notion occurred to me. But if you are seeking to find if I have a preference, I am afraid the only answer I can truthfully give is ‘with a pulse’.”

“How is that even possible?” He’d been trying to figure it out ever since the man told him. He just couldn’t see how… “You’d sleep with anyone you’d happen to come across?”

Tracker straightened. A small huff of affront gusted through his open mouth. “And I suppose you have slept with every woman you have spoken to, yes?”

“Of course not.” He couldn’t even say he’d been successful with the majority of those he’d propositioned.

“But this is what you expect of me?” The man’s brow arched high.

“You’re the one who just said he’d slept with anyone who had a pulse.”

“Potentially, yes. But do not mistake attraction and possibilities for desire and action. In a perfect world, I would have no qualms in sleeping with whoever asked, but I do have standards. Fancying many things does not equate to everything. It is…” Tracker rubbed at his mouth, silently grumbling to himself. “It is like a tavern menu.”

“What?” He peered at the man. How had their talk managed to find its way to taverns and menus?

The hound sighed. “That is how it was explained to me as a boy. When it comes to intimacy and who you choose to lay with, the world is like a menu. Most people stick to one thing. A stew, perhaps. There are many kinds and people have their preferences as to what belongs in one, but it is all stew. Others are the same with soup. Some might try the soup and decide it is not for them and some bounce between both whilst others might prefer fish.”

Dylan’s stomach twisted at the mention of fish. “Did you have to drag fish into this analogy?”

Tracker chuckled. “Actually, fish is a good one to use, you would never eat it bad.”

I’d never eat it at all. “So…” Dylan frowned, trying to wrap his head around the analogy. “If I understand you right, you’d prefer to try everything from the menu?”

“Until I found something I liked a little more than the rest? Yes.”

“And where do I fall on this menu of people? What food am I under?”

Tracker shook his head. “That is not how it works. It is just an example. You are not food.”

Grinning, Dylan leant against the man. “Then why do you keep trying to devour me?” he whispered.

The hound tipped his head back and laughed. “You have me there.”

And there you have it. I’ll be back next weekend to share more snippets from my other books. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: Nothing wrong…

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

Because it’s celebrate pride month, I’m showing pieces from across my stories in the theme of coming out to their love interests…

This snippet is from In Pain and Blood. This tale focuses on the spellster, and closeted bisexual, Dylan and his bi-awakening when fate puts him (and the group of women he’s travelling with) square into the path of the elven spellster-hunter, Tracker.
The snippet itself is where Dylan, after their second night together, finally admits he is attracted to men…

Licking his lips, the hound crawled up the bedding, stretching on top of Dylan, his weight and warmth a welcome addition to the euphoria still quaking through his veins. He kissed along Dylan’s neck, making his way up the side to the base of his ear. “Was that what you were after?” Tracker whispered.

That was far more than he’d hoped. He was going to wind up with fresh dreams of the man, of that he was certain. “You arse,” he muttered. “Be quiet, you said? Then you go and pull that?”

The hound chuckled. “I have a few more tricks to show you, if you are so inclined. Not tonight, of course. We simply do not have the time. So, it would have to depend on whether this was another ill-considered foray for you.”

Groaning, Dylan clapped a hand over his face. “I’d rather hoped you’d forgotten about that,” he mumbled.

“That? You mean how adamant you were on this not being repeated? That that?” He laughed again, this time there was definitely a smug edge to the husky richness heating his ear. “How could I forget?” The hound’s tongue flicked across Dylan’s earlobe.

Dylan bit his lip. His hips shifted involuntarily, rubbing against the elf’s. “I… I like sleeping with men,” he said into the darkness. There, he’d admitted it. It felt oddly freeing saying it out loud, like an invisible band had been cut free from around his chest.

The hound’s lips paused in their little climb up the curve of Dylan’s ear. “I have noticed.”

“But I still like doing the same with women.” He’d hunched his shoulders before he realised.

“Nothing wrong with that.” The words came softly. A whisper so faint that he wasn’t sure if he’d thought it or Tracker had spoken.

And there you have it. I’ll be back next weekend to share more snippets from my other books. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!

Rainbow Snippets: A good reason…

Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.

Because it’s celebrate pride month, I’m showing pieces from across my stories in the theme of coming out to their love interests…

This snippet is from To Target the Heart. This tale is about two gay princes meeting when one is sent on an ambassadorial mission. If you’ve been following my snippets of To Poison a Prince, you’ll know them already.
The snippet itself is in which Prince Hamish humours Darshan vris Mhanek’s request to visit a traditional Tirglasian pub. An also where Darshan has gotten a little tipsy…

“I suppose there are also others who would react poorly to losing her,” Hamish murmured before drinking deeply. He peered at the ambassador out the corner of his eye, trying to gauge Darshan and finding the man favoured not reacting. “Children, maybe? It must be hard being so far away from your family.” The Udynean capital of Minamist was literally on the other side of the continent. He couldn’t imagine having such distance between him and home.

Darshan shook his head. “I have no children.” Chuckling, he scratched at the side of his nose with a thumb. “And what a bone of contention that is.”

“Your wife must be eager to remedy such an oversight.” Hamish knew without an ounce of doubt that he would already be a father if it wasn’t for the truth of what he’d have to do to turn that into a reality.

A weak, and slightly queasy, attempt at a smile stretched the man’s lips. He snatched up his tankard and mumbled into its depths, “Not married.”

“Oh?” The man was perhaps a little too pretty and foppish for Hamish’s tastes. And a little on the lean side, despite his protests at Nora pointing out the same thing at dinner last night.

“There is a very good reason for that.” Darshan set his mug on the counter and, giving a smirk, motioned him closer. “It is something of a secret.”

Intrigued, Hamish closed the already small distance between them. Amusement danced in the man’s eyes. Hazel. This close, the separate rings of brown and green in Darshan’s eyes were clear in the pub’s light, colours muddied only where they met and merged. That’s nae fair. Of course he would find the prettiest eyes belonging to a man he shouldn’t consider being alone with.

He also couldn’t help noticing the ring of black around the rim of Darshan’s eyes seemed slightly smudged in the inner corners, near where the glasses sat. Was it some sort of powder? The clans would sometimes plaster dyes and paints across their skin during war, but he had heard of men in foreign lands using such things in a more civil setting as fashion and tradition dictated.

The ambassador clapped a hand on Hamish’s shoulder, tearing his attention back into the present. “It goes a little something like this…” In one swift move, Darshan slid his fingers into Hamish’s hair and sealed their lips together.

There was no hesitation in the act, nor any forceful prying open of his mouth to invade with a tongue, just the bold press of his lips. There for a blissful moment then gone.

“Oh,” Hamish breathed. “I… er…” In all his years of fooling around, of rutting with strangers in the dark, he’d never met a man that forward.

Darshan returned to his drink, his face flushed by more than alcohol. His gaze slid back to Hamish as he drained the last of his drink. There was certainly something of an invitation lurking in that multi-coloured depth.

And there you have it. I’ll be back next weekend to share more snippets from my other books. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.

If you’re looking for more news of my books, be sure to “Like” my Facebook page and/or join me in my Facebook group!