Monster goes on sale to general retailers like Amazon and All Romance eBooks on Friday, May 16th! I’ve decided to make a week of it, and I’m posting a special excerpt from the book each day leading up to the release. Hope you guys like it!
First up is a little scene showing off Syler’s ex, Max.
When I got back out into the main room of the club, Max and Adam were both gone, and it took me another two minutes just to find someone else whom I could ask where they had gone. The bouncer didn’t have much going on upstairs, which didn’t help matters, but with enough prompting and a few ten-counts to keep from losing my mind—how fucking hard was it to comprehend ‘Where did the two guys you work with go’?—I was running out to the parking lot, where Max was already opening the door to climb into his Jeep. Adam stood a few steps away, seeing him off, and I shouldered him out of the way to get to the Shifter.
“What’s going down around here that has everyone so freaked?”
For an instant I noted that, if I was trying to convince Max that we could work fine together, I should have opened with something less abrasive. My general demeanor and combative tone could’ve used some work too, come to think of it. But I never had been one to fake it. Max rolled his eyes.
“Otherthan the crazy Hunter running around like a psycho?”
Adam snickered, but I was years beyond the point when Max’s comments had held any weight other than as ammo.
“Will said you’d tell me.”
I was taking a little creative license, but hey. The Shifter rested against the open door, crossing his arms. The leather jacket he wore strained plaintively as the motion stretched it across his set shoulders, and I slid my hands into my pockets.
Max’s eyes narrowed. “Will said I’d tellyou, or he told you to askme?”
Shit. The fuck had always been able to read me better than anyone I’d known. Of course, he’d still always missed anything that was actually important, hence why my leaving had seemed to come as such a surprise to him, but the fact remained that the few times that I’d bothered trying to stretch the truth with him, he had always had an oddly intuitive sense of it. Pissed me off no end.
“Does it matter?” I tossed petulantly, but Max was already scowling, coming up off the door to take a step closer to me.
“Yes, it does. There’s a pretty good chance of the one, and not a snowball in hell’s of the other.”
I stepped closer as well, noting idly that Adam starting running his hand through his hair and looking rapidly from one of us to the other.
“I can help.” Considering my first inclination was to say ‘Just tell me, you colossal fuck’ I thought I was doing pretty well. Max didn’t seem to agree. If anything, he just seemed even more pissed.
“No, you can’t. You’re a liability, and I don’t have time to be watching my back to make sure you don’t stabit again when you see your chance.”
Gold eyes flared, but my flames burned hotter, matching the rise and sending heat rushing into my limbs as I drew close enough to get in the Shifter’s face. “You’re really gonna try to make it about that again?” He was like a fucking kid who couldn’t get over having his toy taken away, and I was sick of it.
“Guys…” Adam took a step closer, but Max thrust a hand out to stop him in his tracks, magic flaring over his skin and into the air around us.
“Yes, I am. Because it matters.” His voice was rough, and he poked his finger into my chest. “Don’t fucking come out here and act like you give a damn about me, or about helping, because you don’t. You couldn’t care less whether or not you can help. You just want in on the secret because you can’t stand being left out of something, because in the end you’re the only one that matters, right? Your feelings. Your wants.”
Be sure to check out Monster when it comes out, or check here to read the official excerpt of the first chapter on Totally Bound’s site. Stay tuned for more leading up to Friday’s release!