Clan Beginnings: Clan and Crave - Chapter One, Scenes One and Two

 

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Welcome to the preview of the latest Clan Beginnings book. This week, seven-year-old Imdiko Conyod's last words to his older brother Hoslek come back to haunt him.

* * * * 

“Hoslek, wait for me!” Conyod raced toward the paddock’s shimmering force field as his older brother rode chestnut-furred Ges through the opening he’d ordered. Another command closed it behind him.

At nine years old, Hoslek was already an accomplished rider of the six-legged kestarsh their parents bred, raised, and sold. He was also on the bossy side when it came to seven-year-old Conyod.

“Can’t wait. Two of the mares got loose, and I have to find them.” Hoslek spoke in a firm tone, but his gaze cut in the direction of their home worriedly, though the boys’ parents hadn’t yet returned from a trip to town.

“Let me go too, or I’ll tell them you didn’t properly close the containment when you brought them in from the pasture.”

Hoslek paused for an instant before scowling. “Don’t be a jerk, Conyod. As long as I bring them home, I won’t get in trouble. Stop slowing me down.” He shouted at the paddock’s system, though the nearest tall metal pole emitting it was mere feet away. “Corral containment, don’t unlock for Conyod. Disable his voice commands.”

Hoslek might have been only nine, but he already had a born Dramok’s command. Conyod’s first instinct at his brother’s order was to obey. By the time he’d recovered his stubborn nature, Hoslek was galloping toward the foothills of Mount Evar.

“I’ll tell!” he shouted after his brother, who’d already spurred Ges out of hearing distance. Conyod kicked a divot into the ground where the passage of numerous kestarsh had worn the grass away. Even if he’d been able to commandeer a mount in the locked corral, he wasn’t big or strong enough to saddle them alone. He was left behind. Again.

“I’ll tell. You’ll be sorry!”

* * * *

The escaped mares returned home of their own accord at their normal mealtime. It was the next morning when the first searchers found Ges, viciously clawed and shivering, between outcroppings of rocks. The evidence of a zibger’s attack was obvious. There was no sign of Hoslek.

Conyod’s mother, who’d stayed reluctantly behind while his fathers, the ranch hands, and local villagers spent the entire night until daybreak searching for her eldest child, collapsed to her knees in the yard when her Imdiko mate Sema brought the horribly injured Ges home. Sema dismounted and held her, his arms wrapped around her shaking shoulders. He was forced to remain at her side for the rest of the rescue attempt…which most acknowledged was now a recovery effort.

Conyod’s other two fathers continued the search. “We won’t stop until we find him,” Nobek Vel vowed.

Hoslek’s body wasn’t recovered. Like hundreds of riders, hikers, and adventurers who’d dared the mountains brooding over the plain, he was never seen again. In the end, even Vel was forced to admit the child wouldn’t be returned for a proper funeral.

The family descended into unrelenting grief. Conyod suffered endless nightmares of his brother riding away and of his own angry cry, the last words he’d spoken to Hoslek a mortal prediction: “You’ll be sorry!”

* * * *

He needed a hero and found two. Can love rescue him again?

Nobek Sletran never took Imdiko Conyod’s infatuation seriously when he rescued him years before. When Conyod shows up in his life again as a strong and successful man instead of a traumatized victim, Sletran has to reconsider the one he once rejected and now can’t imagine life without.

Conyod has never given up on the man he considers his hero. Sletran is all he’s ever wanted for a clanmate, and he’s determined to win him at last. But the past refuses to be laid to rest. When Conyod convinces Sletran to see him for who he’s become, will who he was resurface and destroy the love they’re building?

Sletran’s commanding officer Dramok Erybet is instantly fascinated by Conyod when the soldier brings his love on base for a visit. However, Sletran isn’t the Nobek Erybet feels is right for him. When he rejects the Nobek, he risks losing Conyod too.

Against the backdrop of heartbreaking childhood tragedy, a ghost who haunts Conyod and his grief-stricken family, and military brass determined to oust Erybet from the rank he’s worked so hard to reach, three men must come to terms with who they are. When tragedy strikes, the nightmares of the past must be faced and buried once and for all. Conyod, Sletran, and Erybet must dare everything to find redemption and hold on to each other.

 

Releasing May 31.  Pre-order now: Amazon, Amazon UK, Nook, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, print

 

What's Coming Up

 First of all, thanks for sending Dark Empire, Book Four: Revelations to Amazon's polyamory bestseller list! I appreciate you all so very, very much. Writing these stories for you readers is a privilege.

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We're going to take a brief break from Dark Empire. Dark Empire Book Five is scheduled to be released July 26. But that doesn't mean you have to wait that long for a Kalquor Universe book! 

Mark your calendars for May 31. That's when Clan Beginnings: Clan and Crave comes out, the story of how Alien Redemption's Clan Erybet got together. I have a little description to tease you with:

 

He needed a hero and found two. Can love rescue him again?

Nobek Sletran never took Imdiko Conyod’s infatuation seriously when he rescued him years before. When Conyod shows up in his life again as a strong and successful man instead of a traumatized victim, Sletran has to reconsider the one he once rejected and now can’t imagine life without.

Conyod has never given up on the man he considers his hero. Sletran is all he’s ever wanted for a clanmate, and he’s determined to win him at last. But the past refuses to be laid to rest. When Conyod convinces Sletran to see him for who he’s become, will who he was resurface and destroy the love they’re building?

Sletran’s commanding officer Dramok Erybet is instantly fascinated by Conyod when the soldier brings his love on base for a visit. However, Sletran isn’t the Nobek Erybet feels is right for him. When he rejects the Nobek, he risks losing Conyod too.

Against the backdrop of heartbreaking childhood tragedy, a ghost who haunts Conyod and his grief-stricken family, and military brass determined to oust Erybet from the rank he’s worked so hard to reach, three men must come to terms with who they are. When tragedy strikes, the nightmares of the past must be faced and buried once and for all. Conyod, Sletran, and Erybet must dare everything to find redemption and hold on to each other.

* * * *

Excerpts for Clan and Crave begin posting next Wednesday. See you then!

Dark Empire Book Four: Revelations - Final Sneak Peek

 

 

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It's our final look at Revelations! Ospar is in very hot water with his furious clanmate.

* * * * 

The vision of a shadow clinging to Oiteil’s shoulders made Rivek doubt his own sight for an instant. He blinked hard and looked again, staring where it had been. No, he’d been wrong. There was no shadow.

But the men were definitely Ospar and Oiteil vanishing through the exit.

“Excuse me. I’ll meet you back at the temple,” he said to his fellow priests. He didn’t wait for their response, bolting as quickly as the crowded restaurant allowed him to. Again, people were eager to make way, but it felt as if it took forever for Rivek to reach the door and spill out to the corridor beyond.

There was no sign of the councilman and his Dramok. The shuttle pad at the top of the cliff. Rivek sprinted for the nearest elevator, his layered robes snapping about his legs.

He rushed out as soon as he reached the in-house transport’s uppermost stop. Fortunately, there’d been only three levels between the restaurant and the cliff top.

The shuttles were lined up in tidy rows, and Rivek raced along the pad’s end, looking along the aisles he passed. Many of the personal craft were taking off as others landed. Had he missed Ospar?

No, there he was, casually strolling alone among the craft. Relief washed through Rivek. It was swiftly chased by seldom-felt anger.

“Ospar!” He raced forward, unmindful of how ridiculous a temple priest would look running toward his clanmate, robes flapping wildly in his wake.

Ospar turned. He gaped at Rivek, then a guilty flush crept from his neck to his face. The expression disappeared in a twinkling, replaced by the charming smile that came so naturally to his handsome, square-jawed face.

“Isn’t this a surprise? How nice to meet up—”

“Are you insane? Were you actually having lunch with Oiteil, where everyone could see you?” Rivek’s voice was low, but it rumbled as threateningly as their Nobek’s did when he was angry.

Ospar’s easy smile faltered only an instant, then it returned in full. “It’s no big deal. He finally has the votes to reinstate me to political life. He’ll be putting it to the council and Imperial Clan at the next general meeting. Congratulate me, my Imdiko.”

“I’ll toss you off the cliff first. How can you be so stupid?”

Ospar took a step back, his eyes wide. Rivek rarely lost his temper. His entire clan could probably count the times he had on one hand. “Hey. Calm down, okay? I have to get up to speed so as soon as my sentence is overturned, I’ll be ready to serve. Rivek, it’s all right.”

Rivek forced his unaccustomed fury aside in favor of his usual control. “It isn’t all right, and you know it, Ospar. It doesn’t matter if Oiteil has the support of the entire Royal Council and the Imperial Clan. Until they vote to overturn your permanent suspension, until the official decision is handed down, being in the councilman’s company is enough to land you in major trouble.”

“Next week! No one’s going to prosecute me for breaking the terms of my sentence for meeting Oiteil mere days before I’m reinstated as eligible for office.”

“Because you’ll adhere to the terms until you are eligible beyond all doubt.” Rivek preferred to use logic tempered by compassion to make his arguments, but the stubborn light was in Ospar’s eyes…and no one was more stubborn than Rivek’s Dramok.

Beyond Rivek’s concern for Ospar was the well-being of their Matara and children. For them, he stepped inches from Ospar, whom he stood taller than by five inches and outmuscled by thirty pounds. His clanmate’s sudden expression of alarm gave Rivek no pleasure. Indeed, it sickened him. But if it succeeded in scaring Ospar into reasonable behavior, Rivek would do so.

“I mean it, Ospar. If I hear any hint you’ve done something that could land you in a prison camp, I’ll chain you to a wall in the deepest chambers of the temple, where no one will find you.”

Ospar recovered his bluster. “You’re forgetting who the clan leader is.”

“I forget nothing. Especially the fact we would have lost you to a possible life sentence if Imperial Father Yuder hadn’t assumed responsibility for your crimes. Yes, crimes, Ospar. Tell yourself all the lies you wish, the lies that say you did no wrong, but what you did damned near tore our clan apart.”

Ospar gaped. Hurt pinched his features. “You regard me as a criminal, my Imdiko?”

The last of Rivek’s anger drained, revealing its source: fear. Fear of losing his impetuous clanmate, of raising their children without the greatest source of the family’s fun-loving energy. Fear of a life lacking Ospar in it.

“I see you as a man driven to do good to the point he becomes reckless. Honestly, Ospar, if you saw a man falling from a cliff, you’d trample dozens of innocent victims to catch him.”

“I…I don’t mean to…I need this. I feel like I die every second of the day I’m unable to help my empire. I can’t change who I am.” There was a catch in his voice, a sad pleading Rivek had never heard before. It broke his heart to see Ospar reduced so greatly.

He grasped his clanmate’s shoulders. “I wouldn’t change you for the world, my Dramok. I’ve never known anyone so ready to throw caution to the wind so he could be a force for those who need his help. I admire you for it, I truly do. But you have to think of those who depend on you. Call your children’s faces to your mind: Thomas, Umpev, and Mira. If you’re so certain Oiteil will make it happen, can’t you wait a few days for the vote for your children’s sakes? Just a few days?”

“When you put it like that, I feel stupid. Ashamed.” Ospar’s head hung. “You’re right. I’m an ass.”

Had Jol been there, he would have agreed. Their Nobek had little patience for foolishness, though he knew Ospar’s difficulty in restraining rash impulses as well as Rivek did.

Rivek was no Jol. He saw what was in Ospar’s heart and celebrated it despite his Dramok’s tendency to get in trouble. “You care deeply for our society. There’s nothing wrong with that. You simply concentrate on the big picture so much, you forget the details.”

“I shouldn’t when the details are my clan and family. Thank you for reminding me. And for not throwing me off the cliff.”

Rivek chuckled at the weak attempt at humor. He hugged Ospar without restraint. “The safety nets would have caught you. Besides, I couldn’t stand to lose you for a second.”

* * * *

* * * *

Blythe Nelson is certain Clan Deram is keeping something from her. The clan of spies finds it difficult to stay a step ahead of the wily reporter who’s winning their hearts. What they don’t know is Blythe has a secret of her own. New love can’t survive without trust, and neither side is ready when the truth comes out.

Dramok Ospar, determined to return to the political stage, strikes up a deal with Royal Councilman Oiteil. Unaware he’s dealing with a Dark entity controlling Oiteil, he finds himself fighting for his honor, his relationship with his clan…and his life.

The Kalquorian Empire, already struggling against the Darks infiltrating its highest offices, suffers a new blow when it’s revealed it’s keeping a prisoner from the war against the first Earth: Holy Leader Browning Copeland. The schism between Kalquor and its allies grows deeper, setting the empire against the rest of the galaxy.

As chaos descends on rioting Earther colonies, the Galactic Council of Planets, and Kalquor, a desperate group of humans and Kalquorians race to stop the force behind the turmoil: the Darks. Can they loosen the grip on their worlds the enemy seeks to tighten, or is all lost?

Now on sale!

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