Celebrate the release of Mind Mates by Mary Hughes!
shifters with a naughty side.
by Mary Hughes
Pretty little shifter, wizard prince—their taboo love could burn the barriers between worlds.
Shifter Emma Singer has more problems than she can shake her pretty little wolf tail at. Her heirloom journal is missing, her pack alpha wants her for his harem, and her family plans to sell her to him. Even her wicked little crush on her hot boss is doomed—why would six-and-a-half feet of handsome royal wizard want a boring, good-girl iota shifter like her? Not to mention her only power is going berserker—that's a real relation-shipwreck!
Gabriel Light is a wizard prince who turned his back on his exceptional powers after he was accused of causing his parents' death. Now he pours his intellect into his tech business, and hides his naughty, forbidden lust for his pretty shifter clerk. But when his sister is imprisoned, and Emma is kidnapped, it's time for this alpha geek-wizard to decloak with all laser cannons blazing. Only one problem—how can he be sure Emma won’t get caught in the crossfire?
Then Gabriel and Emma stumble on hidden magic, a key to power beyond imagining—if they can stay alive long enough to use it. But if Emma unleashes her berserker wolf on their enemies, can Gabriel draw her back from the brink before she destroys everyone in her path?
Warning: Contains a hot wizard prince panting to bring out a good-girl shifter's naughty side. Accidental voyeurism, deliberate orgasms, a jealous rival wizard, and fun with prophecy.
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Excerpt
Owner of the Choice Buy store in Michigan, wizard prince Gabriel Light sees his employee, wolf shifter Emma Singer, fall off a tall ladder. He’s just managed to catch her and set her on her feet when her angry pack alpha shows up.
Bzz-bzzt. A buzz like an angry hornet stung wizard prince Gabriel Light’s ears the moment the predator slunk into the store.
Cap’n Crunch me. Gabriel had magically alarmed the door for just such an event, but why now, when he’d finally gotten a semi-innocent excuse to wrap his arms around this warm bundle of soft, sweet-smelling heaven?
Emma. It felt like he’d been dying to hold her forever. Now, with her in his arms, was the first time in months he could breathe.
But that buzzing alarm told him the approaching beast was male, a wolf shifter, and, from that level of sting, Emma’s alpha. The beast was not going to appreciate seeing her in another man’s arms.
She started trembling, no doubt in response to the alpha’s rampant fight-club stench, a musk even Gabriel could smell. He tried to ease her tension with a joke.
“Hey, Emma. How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?”
She skewered him with a disbelieving stare, icing his flesh. He’d blundered, she didn’t understand he was trying to comfort her, nobody gets my skewed sense of humor… Then she gulped and said, “Eight? Like, um, eight legs?”
Immediately his world brightened. “Nope. Ten tickles. Get it? Tentacles?”
She managed a tiny laugh, tinkling bells to his ears, and her body relaxed slightly under his arms. “That was such a dad joke.”
He loved that she, of all the people he knew, actually laughed at his jokes. He smiled into her eyes like a besotted fool.
Of course, that was when the he-wolf prowled into view.
Gabriel wondered how far he could get with the wolf by protesting his intentions were honorable. Probably not far. The creature was only barely in human form.
The wolfman was medium height but had a face like a dented shovel and a body like a trash compactor, his muscles-on-muscles popping in a stringy T-shirt that barely qualified past no-shirt-no-shoes-no-service.
Worse, with the hair sprouting everywhere, nose elongating like a snout, and lengthening canines, this alpha was dangerously pissed.
Hard to reason with a pissed-off wolf. They tended to bite first then ask questions…never.
Yet instead of releasing Emma, Gabriel’s hand dropped from her clenched jaw to open protectively on her back.
“The fuck?” the wolfman snarled.
Something inside Gabriel snarled right back.
Owner of the Choice Buy store in Michigan, wizard prince Gabriel Light sees his employee, wolf shifter Emma Singer, fall off a tall ladder. He’s just managed to catch her and set her on her feet when her angry pack alpha shows up.
Bzz-bzzt. A buzz like an angry hornet stung wizard prince Gabriel Light’s ears the moment the predator slunk into the store.
Cap’n Crunch me. Gabriel had magically alarmed the door for just such an event, but why now, when he’d finally gotten a semi-innocent excuse to wrap his arms around this warm bundle of soft, sweet-smelling heaven?
Emma. It felt like he’d been dying to hold her forever. Now, with her in his arms, was the first time in months he could breathe.
But that buzzing alarm told him the approaching beast was male, a wolf shifter, and, from that level of sting, Emma’s alpha. The beast was not going to appreciate seeing her in another man’s arms.
She started trembling, no doubt in response to the alpha’s rampant fight-club stench, a musk even Gabriel could smell. He tried to ease her tension with a joke.
“Hey, Emma. How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?”
She skewered him with a disbelieving stare, icing his flesh. He’d blundered, she didn’t understand he was trying to comfort her, nobody gets my skewed sense of humor… Then she gulped and said, “Eight? Like, um, eight legs?”
Immediately his world brightened. “Nope. Ten tickles. Get it? Tentacles?”
She managed a tiny laugh, tinkling bells to his ears, and her body relaxed slightly under his arms. “That was such a dad joke.”
He loved that she, of all the people he knew, actually laughed at his jokes. He smiled into her eyes like a besotted fool.
Of course, that was when the he-wolf prowled into view.
Gabriel wondered how far he could get with the wolf by protesting his intentions were honorable. Probably not far. The creature was only barely in human form.
The wolfman was medium height but had a face like a dented shovel and a body like a trash compactor, his muscles-on-muscles popping in a stringy T-shirt that barely qualified past no-shirt-no-shoes-no-service.
Worse, with the hair sprouting everywhere, nose elongating like a snout, and lengthening canines, this alpha was dangerously pissed.
Hard to reason with a pissed-off wolf. They tended to bite first then ask questions…never.
Yet instead of releasing Emma, Gabriel’s hand dropped from her clenched jaw to open protectively on her back.
“The fuck?” the wolfman snarled.
Something inside Gabriel snarled right back.
Author Bio
As a girl, Mary Hughes spun romantic, happily-ever-after stories to get to sleep. A husband, family, two degrees and a blackbelt later, she's delighted to spin them for readers.
She's lived with love and loss, in bright times and dark, and learned we can all use a break from reality every now and then.
So join her for action, sparkling wit and red-hot love. Strong men. Stronger women.
Connect with Mary:
Interview
Please welcome Mind Mates author Mary Hughes to Diane’s Book Blog.
Thanks so much to Diane’s Book Blog for hosting Mind Mates today. Love the questions!
What is your favorite part of the story, MIND MATES?
So many favorites! The opening scene came to me years ago (Emma falls off a ladder into her boss’s arms, oh, yum!), and I’ve been dying to find a book to use it. But I really enjoyed playing with Emma and Gabriel trying to hide their attraction from each other.
See, Emma wants Gabriel, but he doesn’t give off a smell like he wants her in return, so she pretends to be simply a good little employee. And Gabriel wants Emma, but he knows witch/shifter sex is taboo and the Witches’ Council would introduce them both to the cleavy end of the headsman’s axe. So he pretends not to care, to the point of magicking up a way to hide the scent of his desire.
When that goes haywire, all heck breaks loose! The first intimate scene after all their sizzling build-up was awesome to write.
How long did it take you to write MIND MATES?
I started planning the series arc before I wrote Heart Mates, Pull of the Moon book 1. Writing Mind Mates itself went pretty fast, for me. I started the proposal June 1, 2015, and had three chapters and a synopsis done by July 9. The first draft of the book took from August 1 to October 30. The editing process went from April, 2016 to June, a little longer than usual because it was spaced out by other projects. So about 5 months in all for 90,000 words. What helped it go fast was Gabriel and Emma being strong, quirky characters, really fun to play off each other.
If you were stranded on a desert island which of your characters do you want by your side?
Gabriel is sexy and hella smart, but he’s in love with Emma, and I wouldn’t want to mess with that! Probably Gabriel’s panther familiar, Pan. As a wisdom creature he’d be able to build anything we needed out of coconuts, and he’s got an enjoyable dry sense of humor. Plus, he’s very sexy, which doesn’t hurt, lol.
If you could be best friends with one of your characters, who would it be?
Emma. She’s sweet but tough, and I’d like to know her better.
Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
I have pages and pages of favorite authors, lol. I love the lean way JD Robb (Nora Roberts) writes. I enjoy how Elizabeth Peters combines action, romance, and humor. Jim Butcher is a master at taking story tension and, not just escalating it, but setting a bomb off under it.
Can you share a little of your current work with us?
Ooh! Currently I’m working on the first of a new trilogy called The Ancients. The book’s working title is The Sphinx at Nieman’s Bar.
FBI Special Agent Seb Rikare is an ancient vampire, though he doesn’t look older than mid-twenties or early thirties with his dark, muscular, six-foot-nine build.
Seb is investigating a string of murders and needs the help of an artist working at the New York field office, Brie Lark, to go undercover in her little hometown of Meiers Corners. Problem is, Brie has sworn never to return there.
These two seem total opposites—she annoys him with her colorful hair and clacking bracelets, and he annoys her with his emotional constipation and super-secret-agent enigmatic crap. But the sparks are already flying between them, and I think they’ll have a super happy ending.
After that, I’ll be writing the final book of the Pull of the Moon trilogy, Soul Mates. I’m looking forward to that too!
Giveaway
Follow the tour and enter to win great prizes!
5 grand prize winners will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card.
5 runner-ups will receive an eBook of choice from Mary’s backlist!
5 runner-ups will receive an eBook of choice from Mary’s backlist!
Thanks to Diane's Book Blog for hosting my tour today, and to Diane for the great interview questions and wonderful review!!
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