Release Day: Black Rook

It's here! BLACK ROOK is finally available for download from most major e-retailers, so get your copy today! Remember, this new series is ebook only, so you can't find it in your local book store.

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Books-A-Million

Black Rook Blog Tour

 

With BLACK ROOK's release right around the corner, tomorrow kicks off my first-ever Month Long Blog Tour to promote my new series. You can follow along with the tour and drop comments for chances to win a fun grand prize gift basket! The tour list is below, and the first few stops are coming up tomorrow!

 

July 01 - [Insert Clever Quip Here]

July 01 - Pure Textuality

July 01 - SnoopyDoo's Book Reviews

July 02 - Rage, Sex, and Teddy Bears

July 02 - Wild Wordy Women 

July 03 - Booked and Loaded 

July 04 - MM Jaye Writes 

July 04 - Toot's Book Reviews 

July 07 - Geeks in High School 

July 08 - Rhi Reading 

July 09 - The Book Nympho 

July 10 - Angel's Guilty Pleasures 

July 11 - Mad Hatter Reads 

July 11 - Wendy Dawn's Wicked World 

July 14 - Romancing the Dark Side 

July 14 - Wicked Women Book Blog

July 15 - I Smell Sheep 

July 15 - Rantings of a Reading Addict

July 16 - Yummy Men and Kick Ass Chicks 

July 17 - Bitten by Books

July 18 - BookSkater 

July 18 - Addicted 2 Heroines 

July 21 - Paranormal Haven 

July 22 - Gizmo's Reviews 

July 22 - Totally Addicted to Reading 

July 23 - Deal Sharing Aunt 

July 24 - Book Lovin' Mamas 

July 25 - Between Dreams and Reality 

July 28 - I Feel the Need, the Need to Read 

July 28 - Platypire Reviews 

July 29 - Indie Author How-To 

July 30 - WTF Are You Reading? 

July 30 - Jami Gray's Blog 

July 31 - Tez Says 

Black Rook: Chapter One

I've gotten my butt in gear and updated my website, which includes a page for the Cornerstone Run Trilogy, and the entire first chapter of BLACK ROOK!

Cover Reveal: Gray Bishop and White Knight

They've popped up online, so it's only proper to officially post them here:

Random Update

It's been a while since I've posted anything here, and a reader question kind of reminded me of that. I'm so happy that winter is finally over and we're moving into the hazy, lazy days of summer.

Ha! I almost believed myself with "lazy" days.

Anyway, summer is here and I'd rather have sunshine and heat than cold and clouds. So what have I been up to, besides the day job?

I'm one-quarter of the way finished writing WHITE KNIGHT, which is Book Three in my upcoming Cornerstone Run trilogy with Berkley Intermix. If you're somehow only just now hearing about this, it's a new digital-only paranormal romance trilogy from me (under the pen name Kelly Meade) about wolf shifters, Magi, and vampires. Berkley bought the whole trilogy, so you don't have to worry about it being cancelled in the middle.

Coincidentally, all three books can be pre-ordered now! Pre-orders help publishers determine reader interest in a new book, so if you want to give it a try, don't be afraid to click the links below and give it a whirl.

BLACK ROOK (July 15th)
GRAY BISHOP (October 21)
WHITE KNIGHT (January 1, 2015)

In other series news, if you missed my previous blog post, there will be no more MetaWars books for the foreseeable future.

As for Dreg City 6, yes. There will be a 6 and a 7, because seven is how many books I always envisioned it taking to finish Evy's story. I know how it ends. I've had the final scene in my head for ages now. The problem is time. Right now I have to finish writing my contracted novel (White Knight). Once that is turned in, I'll be able to think about Dreg City again. I hope to have another Dreg City book out this year, but I can't promise anything at this point.

What I can promise is a fun new series, starting with Black Rook, with my own unique take on wolf shifters and their secret societies, plus hot brothers, the women who love them, and sexy-times. What's not to love?

The (Meta) War is Over

It's happened again, folks.

This time I can't say it's as much of a surprise, but Pocket has decided not to pick up the next title in the MetaWars superhero series. So for the handful of you who've been clambering for Gage's book....um....maybe some day?

The trouble with promising to one day self-publish more MetaWars is time. I still have a book due to Berkley for my werewolf trilogy. I still want to finish up the Dreg City books. I have more ideas than I can shake a stick at, as well as other projects that are keeping me quite busy. I don't know when I'll be able to fit Gage's book into my schedule--and that's just writing it. Never mind the production aspect of self-publishing a book.

So for now, the MetaWars series is, if not over, certainly on an extended hiatus.

I'm sorry I didn't do better by these characters and by my loyal fans.

Cover Art: Black Rook

She never saw this coming…

Brynn Atwood is a low-level Magus whose unpredictable precognitive powers have made her an outcast among her people—and an embarrassment to her highly-regarded father.  After a frightening vision in which her father is murdered by a loup garou man, Brynn decides to prove herself by finding the killer, and stopping them at any cost.

Her target is Rook McQueen, the son of a small-town loup garou Alpha. Despite being the youngest of three, Rook is first in line to inherit the role of Alpha, a duty he isn't sure he's capable of fulfilling. When Brynn finally meets Rook, she doesn't expect the attraction that draws her to him—and him to her. 

No longer believing him a murderer, Brynn and Rook strike an alliance to find her father's real killer. But when his older brother is targeted by an unknown enemy, Rook will have to choose between his growing feelings for Brynn and his duty as the future Alpha of his community.

Coming July 15 from Berkley Intermix.

Farpoint Schedule

Tomorrow, I'm heading out to the Baltimore area for Farpoint despite the snow. It should be plowed out by the time I hit the road. I hope. Anywho, here's my schedule for the weekend, for anyone who's out and about and wants to say hello.

Building A Series                       Fri 2/14/14     1600     Chesapeake 1

Farpoint Book Fair                     Fri 2/14/14     2300     Dulaney Valley 1

Beating Writer's Block                Sat 2/15/14     1000     Chesapeake 1

How to Kill A Character               Sat 2/15/14     1100     Chesapeake 1

I'm Walkin' Here! The Walking 

Dead - 'nuff said                         Sat 2/15/14     1300     Dulaney Valley 2

All Kinds of Writing Workshop      Sat 2/15/14     1400     Parlor Room 308

Writing Convincing Lead 

Characters                                 Sat 2/15/14     1400     Chesapeake 1

Marvel's Agents of Shield            Sun 2/16/14     1100     Dulaney Valley 2

 

I'm pretty excited by all the panels. And "How to Kill a Character"? Does that have me stamped all over it or what?

Cornerstone Run Release Dates and Blurb

Thanks to a savvy reader who spotted these books up for pre-order on Amazon, I now have release dates for the three books in my paranormal romance trilogy, written as Kelly Meade.

Black Rook - July 15, 2014
Gray Bishop - October 21, 2014
White Knight - January 1, 2015

You're probably curious what the heck Cornerstone Run means. Cornerstone is the name of the small Pennsylvania town where about eight hundred loup garou live and work and basically try to keep humans from knowing they exist in the world. Twelve other sanctuary towns like it are spread out throughout the country, each led by an Alpha. And a run is their word for "pack."

And since it's up on Amazon, here's the blurb for book #1, BLACK ROOK:

She never saw this coming…

Brynn Atwood is a low-level Magus whose unpredictable precognitive powers have made her an outcast among her people—and an embarrassment to her highly-regarded father.  After a frightening vision in which her father is murdered by a loup garou man, Brynn decides to prove herself by finding the killer, and stopping them at any cost.

Her target is Rook McQueen, the son of a small-town loup garou Alpha. Despite being the youngest of three, Rook is first in line to inherit the role of Alpha, a duty he isn't sure he's capable of fulfilling. When Brynn finally meets Rook, she doesn't expect the attraction that draws her to him—and him to her. 

No longer believing him a murderer, Brynn and Rook strike an alliance to find her father's real killer. But when his older brother is targeted by an unknown enemy, Rook will have to choose between his growing feelings for Brynn and his duty as the future Alpha of his community.

$1.99 Superpower Special!

For a limited time, both TEMPEST and CHIMERA (MetaWars 3 & 4) are discounted to $1.99 for Kindle! So if you haven't picked them, it's a great time to do so. Just click on the cover for a link.

My apologies for my fellow die-hard Nook users (and Kobo users), but the discount is only on Kindle.

PS--because Blogger is weird, you have to toggle your mouse over the bottom portion of the Tempest cover to find the link. Don't ask....

RIP 2013

And good riddance.

Here's hoping 2014 brings an upward trajectory.

Happy New Year!

Free Read!

Right now, TRANCE is a free read at XOXO After Dark until December 16. It's the first book in my MetaWars series of original superheroes living in a post-almost-apocalypse world that fears anyone with powers.

So if you haven't jumped on board with MetaWars yet, now's a good time to try it out!

Announcement: New Series/Trilogy!!!!

Since the deal has been announced in Publisher's Marketplace and shown up on Romantic Times, I guess it's okay to make it all official-like and tell you the good news. Remember the Sekrit Project I've been tweeting about since last year?

It finally sold.

The PM blurb:

Kelly Meding writing as Kelly Meade's new paranormal romance series, CORNERSTONE RUN, beginning with BLACK ROOK, featuring a magus whose lackluster precognitive powers have made her an outcast among her people and three werewolf brothers fighting to keep their pack alive against attacks by supernatural hybrids, to Leis Pederson at Intermix, in a three-book deal, by Jonathan Lyons at Curtis Brown.

Cornerstone Run is a paranormal romance trilogy, set in a world of hidden loup garou, their mystical Magi enemies, and the occasional vampire. The small, reclusive town of Cornerstone, Pennsylvania, houses an almost entirely loup garou population—one of only thirteen towns around the country that serve as a sanctuary for their nonhuman inhabitants, where the loup garou are free to be themselves.  When a neighboring sanctuary town is attacked by a vicious, unknown enemy, the three sons of Cornerstone's Alpha must stand together to protect their people—and the women who steal their hearts.

Trilogy titles are BLACK ROOK, GRAY BISHOP, and WHITE KNIGHT.

You may have noticed the whole "Kelly Meade" thing and are scratching your head. I chose to publish under a pseudonym to distinguish this paranormal romance trilogy from my urban fantasy series work, but the name will remain linked in terms of my blog and website. The first book , BLACK ROOK, has a tentative release of Fall 2014.

For folks who aren't aware, Intermix is a digital-first imprint of Berkeley. Yep. Digital first again. But Intermix has produced some pretty awesome books since their formation, and I'm very excited to work with Leis on these novels.

To give you a better idea of what the first book is about, I've included the original query I worked up for submissions. I hope you're looking forward to the future shenanigans of three badass brothers named Bishop, Knight and Rook McQueen.

#

One mistake cost Brynn Atwood everything: her sense of worth, the respect of her Magus father, and her beloved job as a private tutor for the Congress of Magi, the most powerful organization of magic users in the world.  When Brynn has a vision of her father being murdered by a loup garou, she hopes to redeem herself in the eyes of her people by taking matters into her own hands.  She leaves the safety of her family home to confront her father's would-be killer and stop the vision from coming true.  Rook McQueen is the youngest of the local loup garou Alpha's three sons and, through a twist of fate, the first in line to inherit the position—if Rook can get his life together and act like Alpha material.  A failed musician and an acknowledged screw-up, Rook isn't sure he can ever live up to the expectations set by his father and two older brothers.

As if his life wasn't complicated enough, the last thing Rook expects is to be accused by a beautiful young Magus of the future murder of a man he's never met—on the same night another town of loup garou is slaughtered.  A new, lethal enemy is targeting loup garou and no one is quite sure what they are: loup, vampire, or something new altogether.  With his family in danger, Brynn not allowed to leave town, and hundreds of lives at stake, Rook can't afford to be the family screw-up anymore—or to allow the distraction of falling for the daughter of the Magus he's accused of killing.

#

So yeah.  YAY!

MetaWars Bundle Update

So one or none of you may have noticed that the MetaWars bundle (a four-book collection of TRANCE, CHANGELING, TEMPEST and CHIMERA) is no longer for sale.

The bundle had to be pulled and renamed for reasons I can't talk about, but I'm assured once it's retitled I'll have a new release date for folks who were interested in purchasing all four books at one great price.

Thank you for your patience, and for your support with CHIMERA'S release yesterday.

Giveaway!

The celebrate Monday's release, my publisher is giving away promo code for a copy META.WARS: THE COMPLETE SERIES, which bundles together TRANCE, CHANGELING, TEMPST, and CHIMERA!

Your first chance to win is at Yummy Men & KickAss Chicks.

Note: the promo code is not compatible with Kindle (sorry, this is a Simon & Schuster thing).

In Which I Get Brutally Honest and Try to Explain Formatting and Why It's Not Always Up to Me

This post was prompted by a reader email asking me when I was going to make all of my books available in paperback. I've been receiving variations of this question more and more frequently lately, so I thought I'd lay it all out there, and hopefully clear the air on what's available and how.

True Fact: Unless I self-publish something, the issue of format is not up to me. 

Format is the way in which the book is presented for sale. Format possibilities include: mass market paperback, trade paperback, hardcover, digital, and audio (plus a lot more that are way too expansive and make my eyes cross a little bit when looking at a contract).  But for the moment, these are the most popular formats.

For-sale format is, in the end, up to the publisher and what they contracted the book(s) for.  This means that Bantam picked the format for Dreg City, and Pocket Star picked the format for MetaWars.

DREG CITY

The first four Dreg City books (Three Days to Dead, As Lie the Dead, Another Kind of Dead, Wrong Side of Dead) are all available in both digital and mass market format, through any major retailer. If you can't find the books on the shelves at your local bookstore, the bookstore can still order them.

It is no secret that book sales directly influence whether or not a publisher will contract an author for more books in a series (or if they will take a chance and buy a new series from the same author).  And while Three Days to Dead did and continues to sell well, interest in the rest of the series has....well, dwindled. A lot. Readers weren't finding books two, three, and four, for whatever reason, so Bantam chose to not issue a contract for more Dreg City books.

I chose to digitally self-publish the fifth book (Requiem for the Dead) so that the story could continue in some format. And yes, I am considering a paperback format through Createspace. Why haven't I done it yet? Because self-publishing costs money. I have invested not only my time, but also money into the cover, the ISBN, and formatting the book for various platforms (because Kindle does not take the same formatting as for Nook). File formatting is beyond my capabilities, so I had to pay someone else to do this for me, and it isn't cheap. I will have to pay someone to format for Createspace. And I honestly can't tell myself that the cost for creating a printable file will be recouped in sales.

I hate having to think like a publisher and worry about money, but when you self-publish that's what happens. I have to hope I sell enough copies to recoup my investment and maybe go have a steak dinner.

METAWARS

MetaWars is a little trickier.

Trance and Changeling were contracted together for mass market and digital release. But the sales were pretty terrible. I'm being honest here. Maybe superheroes simply don't translate to print as well as comics or movies. Maybe the books weren't marketed correctly and people wrote them off as more fluffy urban fantasy. I don't know. In terms of availability, I believe Trance is still available in both mass market and digital, but Changeling did not go back for a second printing, so those copies are dwindling.Changeling is available in trade format through a print-on-demand service, but once the mass market copies are sold out, that's done.

When it came time to submit a proposal for more books, Pocket chose to only offer to publish books three and four (Tempest, Chimera) in digital format. I accepted the offer because I love these characters, and I love their world, and I wasn't ready to say goodbye. Digital only is better than nothing at all. Did I know going into it that I would lose readers? Yes, and I'm sorry for that. But I was going to lose readers no matter what.

Again, it's all about sales. Publishing is a business, and despite good reviews across the board, my books aren't selling well. When that happens, publishers go to a simpler format, or they don't offer another contract. Sometimes with digital first imprints, a book may be offered in print at a later date if the digital sales are good. This type of contract is happening more and more frequently for mid-list authors, as evidenced by a recent Publisher's Weekly article. This is the type of contract offer I received for my most recent submission to New York publishers (which I will talk about more when I am able). It's an interesting shift that reflects our changing times, when ereaders and smartphones are taking over our lives and our society.

I often have folks tell me they don't own a Kindle, or another e-reading device. The good news is that even if you don't have an e-reader, there are lots of free apps that allow you to read digital books on a smart phone, tablet, and even on your personal computer. For a long time, I read digital-only books on my laptop, because being able to read those stories was more important to me than having a paper book in my hands (then I finally saved up and indulged in a very basic Nook).  There are ways to read digital books without buying an e-reader.

Digital is simply another format, much like hardcover or trade paperback. And digital is not going away. For some writers, it's becoming our lifeblood and our only source of income. Do I wish I could make all of my readers happy and give them the format they want? You bet your ass, I do. Can I? No. I don't wield that kind of power.

The only real power I have is to craft the most entertaining stories that I can possibly tell, and then do my best to get them into the marketplace.

After that, it's out of my hands.

Missing Scenes: Requiem for the Dead

Despite my affinity for causing him pain and injury, I have a soft spot for former Hunter Milo Gant. He first officially appeared in As Lie the Dead (he was part of the big battle at Olsmill at the end of Three Days to Dead but did not make it on-page), and since then he's been through the wringer. Repeatedly. When I began writing Requiem I knew I wanted to start nudging Milo toward some kind of happiness, and big, badass were-jaguar Marcus Dane stepped up to help me do that.

Naturally nothing is ever easy in Dreg City. Which is why Milo stepped up and demanded a little more screen time, and thus these missing scenes were born. If you haven't read Requiem for the Dead yet, then please don't read these scenes. They are all set within the time frame of that novel, and won't make a lot of sense read as a standalone story. Otherwise, please enjoy.

 ####

Monday, September 1

5:10 a.m.        

Milo Gant gave up on sleep and rolled out of bed. It wasn't worth it anymore, trying to force his body to rest during those blessed chunks of time when he wasn't working. He simply tossed and turned and lay awake staring at bunk above his bed—especially when his head was full of so many racing thoughts. Old habits of working sunset to sunrise and sleeping during the day, leftover from his Triad Hunter years, were harder to break than he thought. And more than just mental anguish and regrets haunted him from that part of his life. He had a lot of other beaten-in training to work through, and that included trusting the nonhumans he worked with on a daily basis. He was getting there, as were his fellow former Hunters.

            Without trust, the Watchtower simply couldn't function.

            The dormitory was silent, save the occasional rumble of snoring from one of the open rooms. A large department store had been divided into a small cubicles, each with two sets of bunk beds and storage units for personal items. At the moment, they had more cubicles than Watchtower members, so Milo had this one all to himself. While Milo had never gone to college, maybe this was what it was like living on campus—sharing common facilities and a cafeteria. No one applied to this particular "college," though, and few knew of its existence.

            He threw on his sneakers. Maybe a physical distraction would help clear his mind a little bit. He'd had the day off from any official Watchtower duties, so he'd spent it being bored out of his mind. He would rather use his time to track down half-Bloods, instead of watching mindless television, especially when it wasn't blocking thoughts of last night's near-miss.

            He padded out of his cubicle, only to pause at the doorway to the one next to his. A soft voice muttered in his sleep, nonsensical things. Milo paused to listen, unsure if Tybalt was simply dreaming, or caught up in a nightmare of some kind. They both had plenty of nightmare fodder to choose from, and Milo had woken up in a cold sweat more times than he could count. He waited until the muttering stopped, then left the dorm area for the main hall. 

            Sometimes he forgot the Watchtower HQ had once been a mall. It still looked like one to the world at large, with a stained exterior and weedy parking lot, but inside the fading structure was alive with activity. He waved idly at some of the hidden security cameras, more to entertain the night watch than anything else. No one would question him being up and around. The Watchtower was pretty much twenty-four-seven when it came to activity, and it was a little after five. He was almost surprised not to see more people in the corridor.

            So much had happened in the last twenty-four hours—not exactly unusual for the Watchtower, whose odd mix of humans and Therian shape-shifters policed the supernatural races in and around the city. Vampires used to be part of the group, until a deadly illness forced all of them to back out and return to their hidden headquarters, wherever that was. Milo had little use for the vampires, beyond their cunning and strength, but his best friend Evangeline Stone was concerned for them. She had vampire friends who were sick, so he worried for her sake.

            He hadn't seen Evy around all day, actually. She'd gone off with her half-Lupa boyfriend Wyatt Truman earlier in the day. If they'd returned, he hadn't heard about it, which wouldn't be an issue unless their quad was called into action. He, Evy, Wyatt and Marcus Dane were a quad unit, and they worked well together on their assignments. Milo had always respected Wyatt as a fighter and a thinker, but after his infection with the Lupa virus, which left him half-human, half-werewolf, he'd gone from ass-kicker to super-fucking-badass. Plus he was hella scary when he bi-shifted.

            And Marcus. 

            He cursed the stupid little flutter in his chest when he thought about Marcus. Tall, muscular, long black hair. The kind of jaw you could cut glass on. He was gorgeous, dangerous, and exactly who Milo did not need to have a crush on right now. Or ever. Marcus was Felia, a black jaguar shifter, who was only ten calendar years old but had already lived half his lifetime. Even if Marcus was interested—which was not possible because really, who'd ever heard of a gay Therian?—they had no future.

            Stupid, stupid crush.

            A stupid crush that had nearly gotten him killed last night. 

            Milo and Marcus had waited on the street while Evy and Wyatt broke into the hospital morgue to see if a dead body had been killed by goblins (which it had). The pairs had met by the river, compared notes, then split up to walk back to the car (safety measure). Milo didn't remember what he and Marcus had been talking about, only that Marcus was teasing him, Milo was enjoying the easy banter, and they weren't paying attention to their surroundings. Three half-Bloods jumped them, knocked Milo's head into a car, and one had nearly taken a bit out of his neck before Marcus could shift and rip them apart.

            He rubbed at the spot where those underdeveloped fangs had scraped skin. A little more pressure, and he would have been infected. His friends would have had to kill him before he changed into a mindless monster, like Felix had.

            His heart panged a little as he walked past the cafeteria that had once been the food court. Milo had worked with Felix for almost a year and a half, when they were both Triad Hunters, along with Tybalt Monahan. They were all as close as brothers, protecting each other, fighting alongside each other. A month ago, Felix had been bitten and infected, and seeing the monster he'd become had broken Milo's heart. Not only because he was losing a brother, but because he'd done something stupid and fallen in love with Felix. Felix, who was undeniably straight. Felix, who died a horrible death without ever knowing how much he was loved.

            Why did Milo always fall for the wrong guy?

            He nodded at a pair of Therias as he passed Operations, which was in the center of the U-shaped mall. Farther down, on the opposite end of the U, was a pair of connected storefronts that was now their training area. Milo entered the weight room, which had an attached sparing room in the back. He'd never shopped in the Capital City Mall before it closed ten years ago, so he couldn't have guessed what trendy shop had once occupied the space now filled with mats, benches, and equipment of all types and shapes and sizes. Free weights and machines, resistance training, stair climbers, and even one of those bow-rod flex things.

            Milo was halfway across the room to his preferred bench when he realized he wasn't alone, and he froze in place, defensive instincts kicking in. Some Hunter he was, not noticing the weight room was already occupied. In the far right corner, near one of the resistance machines, Marcus was toweling off. He was shirtless, impressive biceps rippling with each motion, a near-perfect eight-pack glistening with perspiration. His black hair was tied back, but a single lock had escaped the tie and hung by his left ear. The workout shorts were just tight enough to—

            He realized how hard he was staring and blinked, embarrassed. Marcus smiled and slung his blue towel over one shoulder. The abrupt motion startled Milo into looking away. Maybe a little too sharply.

            "Sorry," Milo said, frozen in place and feeling a little stupid. "I didn't think anyone else would be up at this hour." A ridiculous thing to say, considering he and Marcus had been there the night before, wrestling at three in the morning, working out some tension from their encounter with the half-Bloods. They'd gone at it for over an hour, the physical contact without fear of dismemberment or death a welcome relief. 

            Plus, you know, it was Marcus. Sweaty, shirtless Marcus, just like the vision in front of him now. Milo really needed his body to stop reacting to such a vision. Like, now.

            "You're up," Marcus said.

            The obvious statement stumped him for a moment. Two things he'd learned about Therians after working with them these last few weeks were they were incredibly observant, and they didn't bullshit around things. It was both refreshing and frustrating. Usually both at once, like now.

            "Besides me." It was all Milo's stuttering brain could manage, and it perplexed him. He and Marcus had worked out together before, dozens of times. Hell, they'd had entire conversations without this sort of issue—sure, they'd been chatting about weapons and disarming opponents, but still. Was it because they were off the clock, Milo was keyed up, and Marcus was nearly naked?

            Probably.

            "I'm up, too," Marcus said.

            It took every ounce of Milo's self control to keep his eyes above chest-level and not allow his pervy brain to go other places. More savvy intelligence came out in the form of, "Yeah."

            Marcus blinked, a funny glint in his copper eyes that could have been amusement. "Spot you?"

            Standing over him glistening like that while Milo pressed a hundred-sixty pounds of weights above his head? Yeah, sure, that sounded like a terrific idea. Not. "Yeah, okay."

            Milo set the weights and climbed onto the bench, laying back and getting comfortable on the padded seat. He realized too late that he was still in the t-shirt and shorts he slept in, providing less than was probably appropriate in the way of lower support, but brushed it off. No one else was likely to come in and get an eyeful, and Marcus was standing behind his head. Way out of eyesight, even for a were-cat.

            He found his grip, set his feet, and began his first set of reps, moving the bar more easily than he expected. He'd been weight training more often than he ever had as a Hunter, so his strength had increased. Nice.

            As if mirroring his thoughts, Marcus said, "You have quite a bit of power in those things."

            Milo grunted, unable to decide if he'd just been insulted or complimented. He was average height for a guy, with a slim build, and people liked to underestimate him because of that. He'd used it to his advantage more than once, including the first time he'd ever sparred with Marcus. "Don't have to bulge like melons to be strong." Okay, so his own retort bordered on insult. 

            Even from upside-down, Marcus didn't appear put out. "True." He took a moment to flex one impressively meloned bicep. "So what has you tied up in knots so tightly that you can't sleep? Last night?"

            Too damned perceptive.

            "Just can't sleep." He puffed the words between lifts, careful to control his breathing as he'd been taught. He didn't want to admit to anyone how rattled he was by the near-miss. "It happens. I'm used to keeping more nocturnal hours, so I'll be off for a while until I adjust."

            "Hunters mostly worked at night."

            "That's when our prey was out and about."

            "You miss it." The statement was made as simply as if Marcus had verified Milo's shorts were, indeed, green. Not even a question.

            Milo put the weight bar back in its support brace, then sat up. His arms were warm, humming from the stretch. He shifted sideways, tossing his left leg over to meet its mate, turning him toward Marcus without actually looking at him. "I miss the way we worked, yeah, just the three of us and Kismet leading us. Less structure, more action."

            "And you miss your partner."

            Annoyance flared at the subtle intrusion in Milo's personal past. "Felix was my best friend. Sure, I miss him." Had been missing him a lot, actually, since last night's reminder of how he'd died.

            "Friend?"

            The flare burned into a spark of anger, and he fixed the were-cat with a stony stare. "Yeah, friend. You need a definition?"

            "I apologize. Felia can be quite gossipy among themselves and there have been rumors—"

            "What? That Felix and I were a couple?" Hot fury and chilly regret warred with each other, neither able to unseat the other. Only a scant handful of people knew Milo was gay, and he could count them on three fingers. Not because he was ashamed of it, but because it wasn't anyone's fucking business. He hated gossip, hated being the subject of it, but damn if he wasn't tired of not being who he was around his friends and coworkers. "Felix was straight as a rod, end of story."

            "And you?" 

            The genuine interest in those two words made Milo's brain stutter. Then it erupted in a buzz of fury that had him vaulting to his feet, hands fisted by his hips. He got right in Marcus's face, because what the hell? "What fucking business is it of yours? You think gay human males are so damned interesting you grill them with personal questions at the ass-crack of dawn?"

            Marcus's mouth twitched, and Milo realized what he'd said—talk about a double-entendre with a side of naked truth. But he didn't back down, didn't try to take back what he'd said. Marcus did. He took an actual step backward. "We work together, Milo, and I count you as a friend. I also find you interesting, and I'm not grilling you, as you say. Mainly I am acquiring information."

            "Why? Going to start a few more rumors about the queer Hunter?"

            "Your anger is misplaced, Milo. I'm not your enemy, and please believe that I have no desire to cause you distress."

            Milo snorted. "You're a little late, pal."

            "Then I'm sorry." He came around the bench, arms loose by his sides, his expression neutral. Almost placating in its gentleness, and Milo's heart skipped. "In all of our time spent together, have I ever done anything to deliberately hurt you?"

            "No." He didn't have to consider his answer. The occasional bruise or sore muscle from a sparring session didn't count, and Marcus had only ever been kind. Attentive. Occasionally fierce, when their lives were threatened, like last night.  "Look, Marcus, about yesterday.  I never did thank you."

            "You don't have to thank me for that. We were both caught unaware." 

            "Still, I know better than to not pay attention to my surroundings at all time. I let myself get distracted by you, and I almost got a fast ticket to infection and death.  It was stupid, and I owe you." Now why the hell had he added on by you as a reason for his distraction?  Or that he owed Marcus? Words he couldn't take back, damn it. 

            Something sparkled in Marcus's eyes, and it sent a strange zing through Milo's insides.  "Do you?  I imagine you despise debts."

            Milo shrugged.

            "Would you like to clear your debt and make us even?" he asked, his voice dropping an octave.

            Annoyance—mostly at himself, partly at Marcus—made him blurt out, "You want me to just bend over, or are you going to buy me dinner first?"

            Marcus surprised him by laughing, a deep sound of genuine amusement.  "What you think of me," he said, smiling.  "No, my request is far simpler."

            "Okay. What do you want?"

            "A kiss."

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