Release Day: White Knight

The final installment of the Cornerstone Run trilogy is out! See how it all ends!

White Knight: Snippet

A snippet from Chapter One.

48 Days!

*#*

Knight sent a quick “where are you?” text to Bishop.

Instead of texting an answer, Bishop took his overprotective nature in hand and called. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Are you busy?” Knight asked.

“Inspecting the new apartments with Jeremiah and the electrician. They should be move-in ready by the end of the week.”

“That’s good news.” With more than a hundred new loup joining their town in the last two months, they’d built apartments and homes with enough space to permanently house the newcomers. Newcomers who’d spent the last few weeks sleeping in spare rooms and on sofas all over town.

The human electrician had been a compromise, since no one in Cornerstone was qualified to wire up entire buildings with multiple apartments, and Bishop had spent the better part of the week overseeing the project.

“Yeah,” Bishop said. “It’ll be good to give everyone some stability.”

“You’re right, it will. And I’m sure your wife will be glad to have some of your attention back.”

Bishop’s sharp laughter bellowed over the phone. “Trust me, when Jillian wants my attention, she gets it.”

Knight heard the affection in his brother’s voice for the woman who’d stolen his heart. Maybe not in the ass-over-teakettle way that Rook had fallen for Brynn, but Bishop and Jillian had a fierce bond. They were both stronger together than apart, and as they eased into their roles, they would easily put any other Alpha couple to shame.

Both of Knight’s brothers were married and in love with their mates. He envied them their joy.

“Knight?”

“Huh?” Had Bishop been speaking?

“I asked you what was wrong. You sound off.”

“I’m fine. Rook just got some big news, though.”

“Big good?”

“Very good, I hope.”

“What’s going on?”

“Forget it. Call him, it’s not my place to tell.”

“Okay, I will. Are you sure—?”

“I’m fine.” Knight ended the call before he had to defend his tone of voice anymore. He couldn’t always control how he came across lately, and it bothered him, but there was nothing to be done. In truth, he’d been lucky to come out of his forced shift at all. The fact that his mind was mostly intact was a small miracle. He could deal with the occasional outburst.

His family might feel differently, but whatever. He was the one the hybrids had targeted. He was the grand prize for them. He welcomed another attempt at acquiring him.

Come and get me.

Release Day: Gray Bishop (Cornerstone Run #2)

Some people need something to fight for…

With the attacks on their homes escalating and human half-breeds seeking sanctuary among them, the loup garou are reaching their breaking point. Two, in particular.

After failing to stop his little brother’s kidnapping years ago, Bishop McQueen angrily broods on his shame, though no one else blames him.

Jillian Reynolds is still dealing with a tragic accident that took everything she ever wanted from life. And her attraction to Bishop is only making things more difficult.

When word reaches them that Jillian's hometown is under attack, the Alpha takes Bishop, Jillian, and a group of enforcers to assist in the battle. And it is in this chaos that both Bishop and Jillian will have to face their pasts—and the true feelings they have for each other—if they are going to survive…

Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Gray Bishop: Chapter One

The first chapter of GRAY BISHOP (Cornerstone Run #2) is up on my website. Only a month to go!

Snippet: GRAY BISHOP (Cornerstone Run #2)

Taken from Chapter 2. Read the rest October 21st!

 

He and Rook went inside and straight down the long hallway to the kitchen. Mrs. Troost, their housekeeper since before Bishop was born, had laid out a platter of sandwiches and a note that cold broccoli salad was in the fridge. Bishop and Rook helped themselves to food, then took their plates outside to the back patio.

Brynn and Shay were seated on opposite sides of the long picnic table, beneath the shade of an umbrella. They looked up at their arrival, Brynn’s face breaking into a wide grin. Shay simply watched them approach, her face blank, her eyes empty. Always empty. The girl’s spirit had been broken, and Bishop’s beast snarled with the unfairness of it all.

“Mind if we join you?” Rook asked.

Brynn deferred to Shay, who nodded slowly. Rook sat next to Brynn, such an odd contrast, the pair of them. Rook was a head taller than Brynn, his muscled arms decked out with tattoos and scars, with a ragged ear that made him look downright dangerous. Or like the alternative rock band star he’d tried to be. Brynn was small and pale-skinned with stick-straight black hair and big blue eyes. A true odd-couple in terms of physical appearance. Very much matched in every other way.

Bishop sat on the same side as Shay, keeping a solid arm’s reach of distance from the spooked girl. The only people she seemed to allow close proximity to her were Knight and Dr. Mike, the town’s physician. She was underweight, average height, with long, strawberry-blond  hair and pale, gray eyes that had no life in them. She was also quite pretty. He imagined the girl had a heart-stopping smile, and he hoped one day to see it.

“Your ears must have been burning,” Brynn said to Rook. “Shay and I were just talking about you.”

“Oh?” Rook said. “Good things, I hope.”

“She asked about your ear. I was telling her about that night.”

Bishop paused before taking a big bite of his roast beef sandwich and studied Shay’s profile. She was staring at her half-eaten sandwich, hands clasped in her lap. Shay had been informed about the events that followed the attack on her town in bits and pieces over the last two weeks, mostly by Brynn and Knight. She’d been badly wounded and catatonic for a while, until Knight coaxed her back into the world. No one wanted to overwhelm her or frighten her with the reality that Cornerstone was still under attack by an unknown, unstable enemy. That she was showing curiosity about the people she lived with had to mean she was making progress in her recovery.

“I’m surprised Knight hasn’t told you about that yet,” Bishop said softly.

Her gaze flickered toward him. “I don’t ask.” Her voice was soft, melodic, and almost impossible to hear. “It hurts him to talk about it.”

It hurt all of them to talk about it. Bishop didn’t test her statement, though. He could be blunt to a fault, but he knew when to hold his tongue around grieving women—except when it came to Jillian.

He’d have deserved it if she had hit him for throwing her late husband in her face last month.

“Did Brynn tell you how she faced off against a Black Wolf with only a shovel?” Rook asked, levity in his voice.

Brynn had been down and on the ground when Bishop, Jillian , and Father arrived at the barn, but the mental image the description conjured up made Bishop smile. Brynn was small, but she was fierce when it came to Rook.

Shay glanced up at Rook. “She mentioned defending you until help arrived.”

“I was scared out of my wits,” Brynn said. She leaned against Rook’s arm and rested her chin on his shoulder. The picture was obnoxiously cute. Bishop attacked his sandwich so he didn’t have to see it.

“Where’s Knight, anyway?” Rook asked.

“I don’t know. He said he had to do something at the auction house, but that was over an hour ago.”

Bishop frowned at his food. Father had temporarily shut down the auction house until the triplets had been dealt with. Their weekly auctions were what kept outside cash flowing into Cornerstone without tempting humans to stay too long, or get any ideas about moving to town. They hadn’t had an auction these last two weeks, and they weren’t likely to have another one for the foreseeable future. They couldn’t risk the triplets attacking with so many clueless humans in the way, and the fewer outsiders around the better.

Father’s office was at the auction house, and he used it for both auction and run business, so it was possible Knight went to see him. Bishop sent a text to Knight’s phone anyway, asking for a location. Knight was the triplets’ primary target, and even though he was relatively safe within the confines of town, Father insisted he not wander around alone. No one wanted to risk losing him again.

“Paranoid much?” Knight said, his voice a welcome sound from the patio doors.

Four heads turned. He stepped outside with a glass of iced tea in hand, sunglasses on even though he’d just been inside.

“Who’s paranoid?” Rook asked.

“Bishop.”

Rook snickered, then shoved broccoli salad into his mouth without asking for clarification.

“I don’t like you walking around alone,” Bishop said. He didn’t give a damn if that made him paranoid. He preferred to think of it as smothering and overprotective.

“I went to the auction house and back,” Knight said. “I didn’t even stub my toe.” A month ago, his tone might have been light and teasing. Today it was bordering on hostile. Knight didn’t like being handled, but damn it, he’d been kidnapped twice in his life already. Bishop wasn’t going to allow that to happen a third time.

Instead of joining them at the table, Knight flopped into one of the patio’s lounge chairs, angled away. He seemed intent on ignoring them—something else he wouldn’t have done a month ago. Rook had twisted around to stare, and as he turned again to finish his meal, Bishop caught a stray emotion on his face that stirred up his gut.

Fear.

Fear of what, he didn’t know and couldn’t ask, but fear all the same.

His phone buzzed. Rook jumped at the same moment. They retrieved their phones, to an identical message from Father: 911 Office.

Bishop got up without a word, barely listening to Rook explain their abrupt departure to the women. Knight wasn’t following them, which surprised him briefly until he realized Knight’s exclusion could mean they had a lead on the triplets.

The auction house was a five-minute walk, and a ninety-second run. Despite the late summer heat, Bishop jogged down their road to Main Street, made a sharp right, and pounded pavement to the end of the official town limits where McQueen Auction House had been built three generations ago. Rook stayed on his heels. Devlin and his cousin Winston met up with them at the front door, and they all followed Bishop inside.

Father was behind his desk, standing with his arms folded, agitation all over his face. “We’re waiting on two more,” he said in lieu of a greeting.

They fell into line around the room, waiting for their Alpha to begin the meeting. Bishop studied his father’s face, but found no hint as to their agenda in his set jaw or narrowed eyes. Moments later, two pairs of footsteps pounded up the stairs to the office. Jillian Reynolds came in first, Jonas right behind her. Bishop’s beast stirred at her appearance.

“This information stays in this room for now,” Father said. He picked up a folded sheet of paper with four sets of numbers printed in black marker. “I received this in today’s mail. No return address, no distinguishing scents attached. Postmarked from Welton, our nearest neighboring town.”

Bishop accepted the paper when handed to him. The numbers seemed familiar in some way. “Coordinates?”

“Correct. The coordinates are for a location just off Route 12, about six miles from here.”

“No indication of what we’re expected to find there?”

“None. That was the only thing in the envelope.”

“Feels like an ambush invitation.”

“My thought as well. I want you six to go there and see what we’re meant to find, if anything. Go in as pairs, one beast and one skin, from different directions so you can see from all sides. Keep in constant contact with each other.”

“With respect, Alpha, is six of us enough?” Jillian asked.

Father’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “Six is all I will risk sending. This could be an ambush, or it could be a tactic to draw my enforcers out of town and make us more vulnerable to an outside attack. Once you’ve left, I’ll inform the other patrols of what’s going on so everyone is on their toes.”

The plan was a good one. They didn’t know what they were going to find out there in the woods, and putting all of their strongest fighters in one place was a bad move.

“Understood,” Bishop said. “We’ll leave right away.”

“Good. Be careful, all of you.”

Verbal affirmatives rose up, and then the group filed out of the office and downstairs.

Bishop hung back. “Was Knight over here within the last hour?”

“No, I’ve been alone all morning,” Father said, concern furrowing his brow. “Why?”

“He told Brynn this was where he was heading.”

“Knight probably needed a few minutes to himself. I don’t like it, either, son, but he does need personal space in order to control his empathy. If your mother was around others for too long, too consistently, she became agitated. Especially when something was already bothering her.”

“Right.” Their mother had been a White Wolf, too, so Father had a unique perspective on the responsibilities and side effects of the burden. Balancing the emotional control of seven hundred-plus loup garou was a monumental task. “I’ll let you know when we’re close to our location.”

“Be careful, son.”

“I will.”

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: 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?

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.

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.