Happy Tuesday
everyone! Author Bethany-Kris was unable to come by to talk about “A Love
Unfinished” but in her place she’s sent Holden Levy, the hero of the story.
*whispers* I, er,
well, I have to admit I’m a bit flustered under such a fine specimen of a man.
Mr. Levy, is currently sitting across from me and with his digital camera in
hand, scanning through his latest shots, he seems almost calm, quiet, and
content. But, it’s clear by the aura around him he has strength, power, and
when his colbalt colored eyes flick up from the LCD screen to glance at me, you
can sense the predator
below his surface. Smiling a shadow of a smile on full lips, bright white teeth
flash for a moment and I’m struck. Like he knows I sense the danger, he drops
his eyes back down to his camera. It’s hard not to notice how handsome he is
with his broad shoulders and messy black hair waved back as if his fingers have
been running through the strands. The black artwork on his arms licking around
his bands of muscles catch my attention for a moment and it’s only when he
clears his throat do I realize how long I’ve been staring.
Mr. Levy, or can I call you Holden? You
are a dragon shifter. What does this imply?
*Another
one of his grins grace his features and he almost looks boyish, if you didn’t
consider the size of the man*
Call me Holden. Mr. Levy was my father. And, it
means just what you put, sweetheart. I’m a man, and occasionally, I shift into
a giant beast. A huge one—easily the size of a house. I try to make sure I
shift at least once a day or I get a little twitchy. It also means I have a lot
of power and a lot of responsibility being the Alpha of my clan.
The
heat—it gives us everything. It is our magic. Without it, we wouldn’t be.
*He
frowns for a moment, then shrugs*
And
the least? The unrest in our world. Clans can’t seem to get along, they’re
always fighting. I lost my parents because of it.
Your family has been in, er, some trouble for
some time. Can you tell uswhy?
*This seems to be a question that bothers Holden,
as after I ask it, he grows silent and stares at the wall behind me. Those
oddly hued eyes of his narrow before he finally starts speaking again*
As I stated, the unrest between clans. Sometimes
the unrest comes from within and the man gets unsettled. It’s like tipping a scale
between the beast and the man. Two decades ago our clan thought it would be
safe to live more openly than what they currently were—my father, the Alpha,
agreed to settle the unrest. Lulled into a false sense of security by the
clan’s size and numbers, they didn’t see the rival coming until it was much too
late. I was just one child lost in the process, but I eventually found my way
home. The others who were lost haven’t. Things seem okay right now, but who
knows what’s going on around the world. Things change daily.
If you
could do one thing differently in your life what would it be?
*The sadness in his
gaze is evident, but Holden blinks it away with a wave of one hand*
The hardest thing
to learn is how to forgive yourself, you know? She’s teaching me that. Anyway,
your question. Leaving Dani, even if it wasn’t something I could control. She
thinks I don’t know what that did to her, but I do. I have my memories. I
watched. I know.
Regarding your mate, Ms. Heartview: what do you
like best about her?
*A wolfish—or is it dragonish?—smile creeps over
his face before he winks suggestively*
Her stubbornness. Keeps me up on my toes. She
likes to challenge me, and I certainly like to give it back just as hard. It
makes working to get her all the more fun. We were always like that. It makes
our bond a great deal more fun when we get to reconnect.
But, if I had to pick another thing, it’d be her
trust. The faith she’s always offered me, from the time we were teenagers, to
now. We’ve learned together—I’ve got everyone of that girl’s firsts because she
trusted me, then and now.
How did you both meet?
She was seventeen and I was eighteen. I’d just
graduated high school and trying to find some sense of home…anywhere. I grew up
in foster care, so I didn’t have that place between switched between homes my
whole life. So, to Tennessee I went with this feeling burning hot inside. I
first saw her running through a horse pasture to get away from a horse they
were trying to break. She was the first thing to feel like home to me.
Besides your mate, tell us about someone
invaluable in your life.
*Holden holds up a single finger, surprising me
as he goes back to his camera. A minute passes us by as he clicks through
pictures before the camera is suddenly turned to my view. In the picture, there
are many people. Women, a few small children, a dragon in the background, and
many men watching from the sidelines of it all as they smile and laugh. The
sight looks so normal, if it weren’t for the one giant beast with tendrils of
smoke curling from its flared nostrils, but even the dragon seems to be
enjoying it with it’s wide, cobalt blue wings opened wide to the skies above.*
That dragon? That’s mine.
And those people? They’re mine, too.
As of right now the only invaluable thing to be
besides Dani is my clan. There is no one person, they are all equal, from the
children and mates, to the dragons, to the elders. We are a unit, strengthening
only and always if we stay as a unit. It’s when a piece of the unit begins to
break that we have a problem.
This is my family, the one I lost, and the one I
found.
Any pet
peeves?
Just the one…that *friend* of Dani’s back in New
York. Joey.
*Then, we hear Dani yell from the other room*
Stop it! He is just a friend, Holden!
*Holden smiles, that predator’s stare of his
leveling on me again*
He is now.
A Love Unfinished by Bethany-Kris
Genre:
Paranormal Erotic Romance
Length:
95k—Full length novel.
Release
Date: January 10th, 2014
Publisher:
Evernight Publishing
Over two decades ago, an
attack on The Clan of Cobalt left families of dragons in ruins; now, with the
clans able to start rebuilding their lives, history is beginning to rewrite,
one dragon and one mate at a time…
Dani
Heartview spent a year running from the past she can’t forget and it’s about to
catch up in the form of Holden Levy. When he suddenly disappeared, she was
devastated, but now he’s back. Even if she can’t deny their connection, the man
who returned is vastly different from the one who left.
With Holden’s secrets
uncovered, the Alpha dragon inside the man is demanding for its mate to be
claimed, but there’s danger lurking close by. Still, his abandonment is a
monster she can’t shake. Can she forgive to restart their life, and if she
does, can Dani handle exactly what it means to be a dragon’s mate?
~~ Clans of Fire, Book One ~~
Available at
Available at
How about an Excerpt? ~~~~
“Get away from me,” I
hissed. “You have no right to be here.”
Emotion broke through
on his handsome features, marring it with sadness as my eyes blurred with
unshed tears. “Please, Dani…”
“Stop saying my
name.” My voice was rising to an unhealthy octave. My heart was pounding at a
too fast pace. Why would he be here? He had to have known I wouldn’t want him
here. “Stop sharing my fucking air. For God sakes, get out of my space,
Holden.”
“Ouch, man.”
Holden didn’t even
glance back at his friend. “Shut up, Duran.” There was a timber in his tone,
something else I didn’t recognize from the man standing before me. I felt wetness
drip down my cheeks. “Oh, Dani, please don’t cry…I didn’t come here to make you
cry, baby.”
Baby?
“Who in the hel—”
“Dani!” Jade was out
of the kitchen and rushing over to my side. She barely noted the men or my
heartbroken expression. That, or she mistook it for the pain of the coffee
spill. “Did you get burned?”
“I’m fine.” Those
words were the biggest lie I’d ever spoken.
“She’s not,” Holden
replied quietly. “Could you get a cool cloth and the first aid kit, if you have
one?”
“I’m fine,” I
repeated. “Jade, could you handle these guys, please?”
“Dani, wait.”
“Holden, I swear to
God if you don’t walk out of this place right now and never look back, I will…”
I couldn’t finish my sentence because there wasn’t anything I didn’t already
feel for him. Hate. Love. Desire. Disgust. I felt all of that. With him being
so close, it only served to make me more confused. Defeated, air rushed from my
lungs, in a harsh exhale. “Leave, right now.”
Jade appeared lost.
“Um…okay, I’m going to grab the first aid. You’re going to stay here and sit
down.”
Duran smiled at Jade
when no one responded. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
Holden hadn’t taken
his eyes off me. When he moved forward, I backed up. “Don’t come any closer. I
don’t want you near me.”
Agony pulled Holden’s
full lips into a frown. “Let me explain.”
“I told you this
wouldn’t be the best place to approach her,” Duran said. “We should have
waited.”
“We don’t have that
kind of time.”
“Why haven’t you
left?” I asked, feeling a seething rage beginning to take over my initial shock
and pain. “Have I not made it clear enough yet that you’re not welcomed?”
“You made it clear.”
Holden’s gaze flickered up to the ceiling, a tick showing in his strong jaw.
“But it’s not that simple. One minute, Dani. That’s all I’m asking for. After
all we were, don’t you owe me that?”
“Owe you?” My
hands trembled. The sudden burst of fury and courage that swept over me was all
consuming. I stepped up to him and slammed my fist into his chest. Holden
barely flinched and the action hurt me a great deal more than it must have him,
but emotional pain registered in his eyes. “I owe you. Are you fucking
insane? You left me, Holden. Left me in Tennessee with nothing. Not a goddamned
explanation, not a goodbye…nothing!”
I hit him in the chest again, disbelief coursing through me. “How could
you ever say that I owe you after everything you did to me? I waited for
months. I called your phone every day. I texted, emailed, and left messages
until your inbox was full. You could have been dead if not for that stupid
note. I defended you when it was clear you didn’t want me anymore … Once,
Holden. All you had to do was
answer me back just once! You up and walked away from me, from
our home, and our life without a single care in the world. And you have the
audacity to say that I owe you anything?”
“Do not…” he growled,
face suddenly mere inches from mine, “…say that I just walked away from you,
Dani. I never would have walked away from you like that had I been given the choice.
Ever.”
His response only
served to fuel my rage. “Well, excuse me for living. What would you call me
waking up to an empty house, with a note on the counter, and no you to be seen
again, exactly?”
Anger clouded his
face. “What did that note say, Dani?”
“Holden, calm down.”
Duran was up off the bench, a hand on his friend’s shuddering arm. Rippling
tension flowed between the men, but my former lover and fiancé didn’t register
the one person attempting to help the situation. No, his focus was solely on
me. “Come on, we’ll do this another time.”
“You won’t do it ever
again,” I spat hatefully.
“Yes, I will. I have
to. I can’t be me without you.” That confession struck me like a knife in the
chest, the blade twisting painfully. Holden breathed deeply, the fight suddenly
gone from his body as quickly as it came. “I will always come back for you. I
lo—”
“No, you don’t. You never did. If you had, this…” I
said with a wave at us, “…wouldn’t have happened.”
Available at:
About Bethany-Kris:
Bethany-Kris is a
Canadian author, lover of much, and mother to two young sons, two cats, and two
dogs. With her children under her feet, animals at her side, and spouse calling
over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something…when
she can find the time.
Follow her at:
Thanks so much for having me and Holden on your blog!
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