Now Available for Pre-Order: Clan and Covenant

 

Dinner with the new intended clanmate.

Raxstad tapped his finger on the tabletop. “He’s late.”

“I realize that.” Korkla’s gaze was distant as he mused over whatever it was that had his mind far from the small restaurant’s quiet setting. Probably his conversation with Dapad, which he’d shared with Raxstad.

“I’m hungry.” Raxstad glowered at the waiter who brought food to the next table. Delicious smells wafted to him. He’d spent his day at Global Security training with the assault squad. The intense trials of storming buildings and confronting instructors playing the roles of hostiles had worked up an appetite. An appetite he was overdue to satisfy.

“I’m certain he won’t be much longer. Raxstad, how do we handle it if Govi is incompatible with us?”

Raxstad frowned as his gut snarled for dinner. Flatware clanged against plates around him. The dim lighting illuminating the scatter of sturdy tables low to the ground and seating cushions should have been soothing, but it irritated him. He hated trying to think when his stomach was complaining. “If he’s consistently late for meals and holds us up from eating? I won’t be happy, that’s for sure.”

Korkla came out of whatever brain fog he’d been enveloped in and chuckled. “We’ll order an appetizer when our waiter comes around again. I’ll text Govi if he hasn’t shown within the next two minutes. Fair?”

“Okay.” It was beneath Raxstad to sulk, and he did his best to avoid it, but he felt sulky. He didn’t want an appetizer. He wanted a plate piled high with food. He wanted this meeting over with. The Imdiko his parents had chosen wasn’t impressing him at all. “Maybe he’s into surly, angry Nobeks. Maybe driving intended clanmates crazy gets him off. I’d call that incompatible, so yeah, how to handle that—”

“What I meant by incompatible was, what if Govi’s entire personality is at odds with ours? Imagine if he sits around and watches drama vids on his days off. Or if he spends hours in a gaming house. Or what if he drinks excessively? Do we try to cope with it? Ask our parents to call it off? Become a clan and live our lives separate from his?”

“The parent clans ran compatibility tests,” Raxstad pointed out. “We shouldn’t be that far off where interests and personalities are concerned. Except the need to be on time for meals, apparently.”

“Clajak and Egilka underwent compatibility testing too. Yet they’re so different. Clajak likes Egilka though, so maybe there are a lot of underlying factors we’re unaware of on the surface. How can anyone really know how a relationship will end up?”

“We’re different too, when you consider it. You prefer to negotiate with people. I choose to bust heads. How much more opposite can we be?” Raxstad wasn’t in the mood to ponder the mysteries of clanmate bonds. In his opinion, people made connections or they didn’t, and the details of how that operated weren’t important. At least the conversation was a distraction from his groaning stomach.

“You’re not the meathead ronka as you pretend to be. There’s a hell of an intelligent brain in your thick skull.” Korkla gazed at him with knowing affection.

“I swear if you tell anyone, I’ll snap you like a twig. The less smart they believe I am, the fewer responsibilities I have to accept.”

Korkla rolled his eyes but kept talking. “We’re both driven by duty and honor. We respect those with authority. We believe in hard work and kindness to others until they prove themselves unworthy. We may express ourselves differently, but we’re similar at our foundations.”

“Okay. Here comes the waiter. I’ll have three of all the appetizers, and it’s been two minutes, so…”

Raxstad broke off. Their waiter was indeed weaving through the close-packed tables towards their seats, and he had someone with him. A man with the most breathtaking face the Nobek had ever seen despite its lack of a smile or anything approaching pleasure.

Raxstad forgot he was starving. His vision was full of the gorgeous Imdiko who was brought to his table. As if in a dream, Raxstad floated to a standing position. He bowed, but his gaze never left the chiseled jaw, the aristocratic nose, the high cheekbones…all framed by shoulder-length black hair.

Releasing January 14. Pre-order now at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords. 

Now on sale in print.

An arranged clanship. A threat to their lives. Does love have a chance?

Initially unsure about their impending arranged union, Dramok Korkla and Nobek Raxstad have grown to care for each other. They’re impatient to begin their life together when their parents spring a surprise on them: a third clanmate, someone they’ve never met, has been chosen to join them.

Imdiko Govi has delayed being promised to a clan for several reasons: his burgeoning psychology career and a past arranged clanship that went horribly wrong. However, his parents are certain they’ve found the perfect Dramok and Nobek for him and won’t take no for an answer.

The trio is reluctant to give the arranged relationship a chance, but sparks soon fly. Love seems assured, but trouble is waiting in the wings. Govi is crushed when he fails a patient, sending him into a tailspin that threatens his newfound relationship. Worse, as a member of the Royal House staff, Korkla soon finds himself in the path of a murderous foe. An attack on Raxstad threatens to destroy the clan before it begins.

Love on Kalquor is wonderful, if the trio survives to enjoy it.

Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords. Now on sale in print.