THE SAVAGE GRACE Release Day plus Talentmania and Door Prize Winners Announced

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's here! It's here! The release day for THE SAVAGE GRACE is finally here!!!!!

I can not tell you how sad, scary, happy, awesome it is to give "the end" to readers. I want to cry and happy dance all at the same time. Heh. I just tried combining "cry" and "happy dance" in my head and came up with "crappy dance." That's pretty much how I dance all the time.

It looks something like this:



Anywho . . . I'm celebrating release day by getting ready for the big TSG Launch Party at the King's English Bookshop. It's tonight at 7.p.m. and I would love to see you if you're in the area.

The other way I'm celebrating is by announcing the winners of Dark Divine Fan Talentmania!! And also the winners of the door prizes!

The judges have turned in their votes. The numbers have been compiled. So here we go!

Drum roll please . . .

In the category of FAN ART, the winners are:

1st Place: Katie Dahlberg

2nd Place: Diana Gudayol

3rd Place: Amber Knighton AND Rudi May Hart

In the category of FAN FICTION, the winners are:

1st Place: LC Piper

2nd Place: Entity Carter

3rd Place: Whitney Gibbons AND Annie Boytim

Door Prize Winners are as follows:

Bwyatt wins: CINDER by Marrissa Meyer
Lexiegirl1222 wins: TIGER'S VOYAGE by Colleen Houck
Julianna Helms wins: EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton
Sacredm00n wins: HOURGLASS by Myra McEntire
Julie Belnap wins: TRIS & IZZIE by Mette Ivie Harrison
Vivien wins: THE MEPHISTO COVENANT by Trinity Faegen
Enna Isilee wins: EVERY OTHER DAY by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Julie Eves wins: THE BUTTERFLY CLUES by Kate Ellison
Chapter Chicks wins: THE SAVAGE GRACE by Bree Despain

Lucid Memory wins: Dark Divine Moonstone Necklace from Infinite Jewelry Company

Purplg8r wins: TSG nail polish*
dani_nguyen wins: TSG nail polish*
lollybees3 wins: TSG nail polish*
featherlyhearts wins: TSG nail polish*

Congratulations to all the Talentmania and door prize winners! Please email me at readbreecontests[at]gmail[dot]com to claim your prize. You have 30 days to do so, or I will assume you don't want it and the prize will be given to someone else.

*Since nail polish can not be shipped internationally, if you are outside the USA stickers and bookmarks will be sent instead of nail polish.

I hope you all have a wonderful TSG Launch Day! And I really hope you enjoy the book!

And I hope to see at least a few of you at the launch party tonight!

XOXO,

Bree

TDD Fan Talentmania Finalists Announced...and updated information about the eBook special price promotion

You guys, THE SAVAGE GRACE comes out ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!!!!!

(Yes, that is me shouting at the top of my lungs about it! I can't wait for this book to be out in the world for all to share. Like seriously, is it March 13th, yet?!!)

To celebrate the upcoming release of TSG, the eBook versions of THE DARK DIVINE and THE LOST SAINT are currently on sale for only $1.99 each! You can find this special deal on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, or pretty much anywhere eBooks are sold. That way you can brush up on (or catch up with) Grace, Daniel, Jude, Talbot and the rest of the Divine gang before the launch of THE SAVAGE GRACE on March 13th. Or maybe even gift the eBooks (at a super cheap price) to a friend or family member who might enjoy the Dark Divine trilogy. But don't delay, this special offer is only good until March 19th!

{Note: the date was extended from the 16th to the 19th to make up for the delay in the price reduction that happened over this last weekend.}

In addition to this eBook sale, you can also snatch up THE LOST LETTERS OF BROTHER GABRIEL: A Dark Divine Original Story for $1.79. {And the author's proceeds (i.e. mine) go to the children's charity Kids Need To Read.}

For a list of other things going on here in ReadBree Land, and for details about upcoming signing and events, be sure to click HERE.


Okay, now on to the main event!

If you want to know the names of the finalists who will be moving on to the final round of Dark Divine Fan Talentmania, raise your hand!
















Now both hands!

















Okay, now put them down. That looks uncomfortable. Plus, you can't scroll with both hands in the air. Believe me, I've tried. It takes a very dexterous nose.

So here's the deal, I absolutely LOVED every single Talentmania entry. Seriously, loved them like burning. Every entry showed so much passion and love and talent, it made me want to burst. And it didn't help that the voting was so fierce on some of the entries! (You voters rock!) Because of this, I found it nearly impossible to narrow the entries down to only 5 finalists in each category. Therefore, I decided that the best thing to do was to choose the top FOUR most-voted-for entries (as opposed to only the top three entries like I had originally planned) along with two wild card entries in each category to advance on to the finals. That makes a total of SIX finalists instead of only five.

But don't worry, I have decided to award TWO third prizes in each category to compensate.

Before I list the finalists, please note that only legitimate votes that followed the voting rules were counted (i.e. completely anonymous votes were thrown out). I, along with the help of two other judges, selected the two wild card finalists out of the rest of the group.

So without further ado, I give you the Dark Divine Fan Talenmania Finalists (listed in no particular order) . . .

Fan Art Finalists:

Samantha Dussor
Rudi May Hart
Katie Dahlberg
Amber Knighton
Brina Cook
Diana Gudayol

Fan Fiction Finalists:

Annie Boytim
LC Piper
Stephanie Ehmann
Whitney Gibbons
Entity Carter
Malyza C.

Finalists, congratulations! Your entries will now be submitted to a panel of judges who will determine the final outcome. Winners will be announced here on the blog on March 13th.

To the other entraints, thank you so much for entering Talentmania! You have no idea just how much your participation means to me. I truly loved and appreciated every single entry and would have advanced everyone on to the final round if I could. (Which would totally negated the purpose of having finalists--which is why I brought in two additional judges to help me with the selection process.)

Voters, be sure to come back on March 13th to see if you won one of the door prizes!

For a list of door prizes and to see what the finalists are competing to win, please refer to THIS POST.

Looking for something to tide you over until the 13th? You can read the first chapter of THE SAVAGE GRACE by clicking HERE.

And be sure to come back on March 8th when I'll post my playlist/soundtrack for THE SAVAGE GRACE.

Dark Divine Fan Wrestlemania Talentmania FAN ART voting begins!

Are you ready for Round 2 of Dark Divine Fan Wrestlemania?! Oh wait, I mean TALENTMANIA! Because TDD Fans have got some artistic talent, and they're ready to duke it out in the FAN ART portion of the competition!

(Just remember, no hitting below the belt.)

Rules for voting for Fan Art is the same as voting for the Fan Fiction portion of the contest.

Here's how it works:

1. You can vote for up to 3 different Fan Art entries, but you can only vote once per entry. (So no voting multiple times for one entry. Got it?)

2. Vote by leaving a comment that says "Vote" on the post for the entry you wish to vote for.

3. When you leave a comment, be sure to "sign in" so we know who you are. If you do not have an account to sign in with and need to leave an anonymous comment, you must then leave a valid email address with your comment. (I need to know who you are to ensure people are voting fairly, AND so I can contact you if you win a door prize.) Anonymous comments that do not leave a valid email address will not be counted. You can use the name/url option, but you must either leave a valid URL or an email address.

4. Please, absolutely no flaming of entries is allowed. There are many different ages ans skill levels represented in this contest, and everyone has worked hard on their entries, so absolutely no rude or negative comments will be tolerated. If you don't like something then just don't say anything at all. This here is a kitten fight, not a cat fight.

5. 3 of Fan Art entries will be picked by popular vote to advance on the the finals. So be sure to vote for the entries you love! 2 additional entries will be selected (by me) as "wild card" entries to advance on to the final round as well.

These five finalists will then be submitted to a panel of judges (consisting of professional artists and nationally published authors) who will determine the winners of first, second, and third place. To remember what prizes the contestants will be vying to win, please refer to THIS post.

6. Each time you vote (up to 3 per person) you will be entered into a random drawing for some fabulous door prizes (listed below). These 3 votes are in addition to any votes you may/may have placed in the Fan Fiction portion of the contests. Contestants who have submitted fiction or art entries in the competition are allowed to vote. This contest is open internationally.

7. Voting for Fan Art entries is open until 11:59pm MST on February 28th. That gives you 1 week to get your votes in.

8. Winners of the competition, and winners of door prizes, will be announced on or before March 13th, 2012. (TSG release day!)

9. Contestants, yes, you are allowed to campaign for your entry. Tell your friends, family, social media followers, that boy you want to impress at school, whomever, to vote for you. Just remember, they can only vote one time for your entry. (And up to 2 additional entries to make 3 votes total.)

So what are these fabulous door prizes you can win just by voting?
DOOR PRIZES INCLUDE:

SIGNED books:
CINDER by Marrissa Meyer
TIGER'S VOYAGE by Colleen Houck
EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton
HOURGLASS by Myra McEntire
TRIS & IZZIE by Mette Ivie Harrison
THE MEPHISTO COVENANT by Trinity Faegen
EVERY OTHER DAY by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
THE BUTTERFLY CLUES by Kate Ellison
THE SAVAGE GRACE by Bree Despain

Dark Divine Jewelry from Infinite Jewelry Company

TSG nail polish


Want to earn additional entries in the door prizes contest? You can by spreading the word about TDD Fan Talentmania.

You can earn up to 5 additional entries by doing the following:

A. Earn +1 entry each time you post about the contest on a social media site (such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr) up to 3 times for a total of +3 entries.

B. Earn +2 entries for posting about Talentmania on your blog or website.

C. Leave a comment on this post (with linkage) telling me what you did to spread the word.

(Note: These entries are in addition to the ones you may have earned by posting about the first phase of Talentmania a couple of weeks ago, and in addition to spreading the word about the Fiction portion of the contests, so you can go ahead and keep spreading the word to earn more entries now.)

Ready to start voting?

All 14 FAN ART entries have been posted below. Scroll down, see, enjoy, and vote for up to 3 of your favorite Art entries! (You will probably have to click on "older posts" a few times in order to see all the entries.) And then don't forget to spread the word about Talentmania so you can enter to win those door prizes.

Also, don't miss the FAN FICTION portion of Talentmania. To read and vote for Fan Fiction, go HERE.

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #1

Artist: Katie Dahlberg

Artist's Description: "I've had this scene in my head ever since I finished The Lost Saint last year - Grace, anguished and desperate, finds Daniel (who is, of course, in wolf form) resting in the middle of a forest and cuddles up next to him. For me, a scene like that will yank on my heartstrings and turn me into a blubbering mess, so I wanted to bring it to life."

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #2

Artist: Emma

Artist's Description: "For my entry I decided to make a fan-art cover for Dark Devine."

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #3

Artist: Katie Dahlberg

Artist's Description: "If the book was adapted into a movie, I'd assume the poster would look something like this. Dark, foggy and romantic. I'm also a big fan of Emma Roberts as Grace and Taylor Kitsch as Daniel so I wanted to incorporate them into it as well."

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #4

Artist: Samantha Dussor

Artist's Description:
"I drew this picture as my idea of what a graphic novel cover for The Lost Saint might look like, if there were to be one. The picture features what i think Daniel and Grace, my two favorite characters, would look like. The wolf in the background is Daniel, and since there is more action in The Lost Saint (to me at least) i added some blood underneath the moon. The reason I chose The Lost Saint my medium was because it is, so far, my favorite book out of the series."

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #5

Artist: Giada Mariani

Artist's Description:
"Here’s my colored pencil drawing of Grace.
I used a marker to color the dress and a micron pen for the wolf. I also used a silver colored ink pen for the leaves.
It took me three days to finish it (I cannot count how many hours)."

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #6

Artist: Eileen

Artist's Description:
"In this picture, Grace and Daniel are making a heart with one of their hands and leaning in for a kiss. The title is "Grace and Daniel Forever" and each of the words, besides "and", is in a color of a book cover in the series. This scene was something that I envisioned would happen instead when Grace and Daniel were in the prison cell after being captured by Jude, and Daniel's dad."

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #7

Artist: Rudi May Hart

Artist's Description: No description given, but I love how Jude is standing farther back from the others in the darkness.

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #8

Artist: Sophie

Artist's Description: "Grace and her world in watercolors"

Title: "Purple purple purple"

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #9

An interesting take--this artist made different cover options for his Fan Fiction entry that can be found HERE.

Artist: LC Piper

Artist's Description:

Cover #1
This story book cover is my favorite. It shows a black background that has been tore into (presumably) by a werewolf claws. The interior looks red, but not a particular bloody one. ;-) The title in this and the other two book covers is from my submitted short story. I tried to emulate the fonts and layouts to the book covers from your Dark Divine series. I used Dark Divine in the cover assuming that since this is a fan art contest it would be fine.

Cover #2
This story book cover draws from both my short story Savage Beginnings and from the first chapter in the Dark Devine where I connected my plot to yours. I really like the feeling of Angel, my character, seeing Grace through her perspective as she is introduced to Daniel for the first time. I think it's a bit of foreshadowing and stage setting. This image of a solitary isolated locker reflects Grace and how her struggle is hers alone to deal with. The locker is iconic to High Schools where she starts her story and on it's own looks odd, but is still instantly identifiable.

Cover #3
This final story book cover is similar to the first, but I took it to a closer perspective. The girls hand is drawing across the red locker. The claws drawn back have shaved small curls of metal off the locker face as told in my short story Savage Beginnings. The other two book covers kept a black background which I felt was important to keep a similar feel to your Dark Divine books, but I decided to do this one for fun, because the ripping of metal off an actual locker seemed to make more sense. So it's a big red monstrosity. ;-)

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #10

Artist: Amber Knighton

Artist's Description:
"I used white charcoal on black paper.
This is a picture of the forest behind Grace's house.
Not far from this scene, Grace and Daniel began their journey to find Baby James after he went missing in The Dark Divine."

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #11

An out of the ordinary entry--TDD earrings.

Artist: Grace Radford

Artist's Description:
"I made earrings...The backs have the letters T D D for "The Dark Divine" (The series title) and the front has the three covers."


Note: Grace has said that if anyone would like to purchase earrings from her, to email her at peachandblue2 [at] aol [dot] com

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #12

Artist: Diana Gudayol

Artist's Description: Star-lighted Grace and Daniel

Talentmania Fan Art Entry #13

Artist: Brina Cook

Artist's Description: "I love to draw so I drew a picture of Daniel Kalbi, his good wolf, and his bad wolf."

Talentmania Fan Fiction Entry #14

Artist: Marguerite Gibson

Artist's Description:

"The title is 'My Wolf'. It is a linocut, hand burnished with black graphic oil-based ink on Arches BFK 100% cotton paper."

Dark Divine Fan Wrestlemania Talentmania FAN FICTION voting begins!

The contestants are in their corners. The Fan Fiction entries have been posted below. Voters are going wild with anticipation. So let's get ready to rumble. . .


Here's how it works:

1. You can vote for up to 3 different Fan Fiction entries, but you can only vote once per entry. (So no voting multiple times for one entry. Got it?)

2. Vote by leaving a comment that says "Vote" on the post for the entry you wish to vote for.

3. When you leave a comment, be sure to "sign in" so we know who you are. If you do not have an account to sign in with and need to leave an anonymous comment, you must then leave a valid email address with your comment. (I need to know who you are to ensure people are voting fairly, AND so I can contact you if you win a door prize.) Anonymous comments that do not leave a valid email address will not be counted.

4. Please, absolutely no flaming of entries is allowed. Everyone has worked hard on their entries, so absolutely no rude or negative comments will be tolerated. If you don't like something then just don't say anything at all. This here is a kitten fight, not a cat fight.

5. 3 of Fan Fiction entries will be picked by popular vote to advance on the the finals. So be sure to vote for the entries you love! 2 additional entries will be selected (by me) as "wild card" entries to advance on to the final round as well.

These five finalists will then be submitted to a panel of judges (consisting of nationally published authors) who will determine the winners of first, second, and third place. To remember what prizes the contestants will be vying to win, please refer to THIS post.

6. Each time you vote (up to 3 per person) you will be entered into a random drawing for some fabulous door prizes (listed below). Contestants who have submitted fiction or art entries in the competition are allowed to vote. This contest is open internationally.

7. Voting for Fan Fiction entries is open until 11:59pm MST on February 27th. That gives you 1 week to get your votes in.

8. Winners of the competition, and winners of door prizes, will be announced on or before March 13th, 2012. (TSG release day!)

9. Contestants, yes, you are allowed to campaign for your entry. Tell your friends, family, social media followers, that boy you want to impress at school, whomever, to vote for you. Just remember, they can only vote one time for your entry. (And up to 2 additional entries to make 3 votes total.)

So what are these fabulous door prizes you can win just by voting?
DOOR PRIZES INCLUDE:

SIGNED books:
CINDER by Marrissa Meyer
TIGER'S VOYAGE by Colleen Houck
EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton
HOURGLASS by Myra McEntire
TRIS & IZZIE by Mette Ivie Harrison
THE MEPHISTO COVENANT by Trinity Faegen
EVERY OTHER DAY by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
THE BUTTERFLY CLUES by Kate Ellison
THE SAVAGE GRACE by Bree Despain

Dark Divine Jewelry from Infinite Jewelry Company

TSG nail polish


Want to earn additional entries in the door prizes contest? You can by spreading the word about TDD Fan Talentmania.

You can earn up to 5 additional entries by doing the following:

A. Earn +1 entry each time you post about the contest on a social media site (such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr) up to 3 times for a total of +3 entries.

B. Earn +2 entries for posting about Talentmania on your blog or website.

C. Leave a comment on this post (with linkage) telling me what you did to spread the word.

(Note: These entries are in addition to the ones you may have earned by posting about the first phase of Talentmania a couple of weeks ago, so you can go ahead and keep spreading the word to earn more entries now.)

Ready to start voting? All 22 [EDIT 23 entries!] of the Fan Fiction entries have been posted below. Scroll down, read, enjoy, and vote for up to 3 of your favorite entries! (You will probably have to click on "older posts" a few times in order to see all the entries.) And then don't forget to spread the word about Talentmania so you can enter to win those door prizes.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for when the Fan Art portion of the competition goes live!

(Note to contestants: Apologies if there are any formatting problems with your post. Not all transferred over to the blog with their formatting intact. I tried to fix things the best I could, but not all the formatting changes would stick.)

Talentmania Fan Fiction Entry #1

By Tammy B

I opened my eyes to blackness.
Everything was hazy, memories escaping out of my reach. I went still and took a few deep breaths to clear my mind. Slowly, realization set in.
I was sitting in a very uncomfortable chair, hands tied behind my back. The darkness was actually a blindfold over my eyes.
They caught me.
The Shadow Kings.

It all began about a year ago. You see, I was turned into a werewolf by my boyfriend (ex-boyfriend). He kind of forgot to mention that small detail when we started dating. One evening things got out of control and I earned a scar just above my collarbone. The following day was the first time I Changed.
The pain was unbearable, coursing through my veins like a drug. Every limb and muscle, every bone screamed with agony. My thoughts through the Change were a real mess, not here nor there. It was almost impossible to focus on anything but the pain. I wanted it to stop.
There was one thought, though, that kept breaking through the pain.
I'm going to die.
At those moments, I wished I did.

Later, the Change would become easier and easier, and only a couple of months after, I was able to Change whenever I wanted. Which was good, very good. On the hundredth day of being a wolf, my seventeenth birthday, I ran away.
If you asked me how, I would have no idea, but I managed to successfully live in the wilderness. I would come across a pack, join them for a while, and then move on. I've made some friends and crashed in with them when it had been needed.
It was going well until two weeks ago, when I first noticed somebody was following me. At last, yesterday somebody knocked me out with a hit on the back of my head, and now I was here, in a cold, not so good-smelling room, anticipating my destiny.
Thanks to my inner wolf, I could see and hear abnormally good, and I was extraordinary fast and strong. I focused on the sounds around me, realizing that I was in the room alone, most likely underground. Then I focused on the sounds coming from outside. At fist nothing, but then...
One - no, two- pair of footsteps coming closer and closer...I didn't have the time to prepare.
The door burst open.

There was a sound of hard breathing, then someone's hands were on the ropes that bound my hands, untying them. My blindfold slid off.
In front of me stood a boy and girl, both around my age, by the looks, although the boy did look a bit older.
He was blonde and cute, and she definitely looked smart and like she was in charge of something, but not in a bad way, but in a way that she was born to be a leader.
Two things I noticed by the way they were standing.
One, they were an item.
Two, they were werewolves.

I was about to say something, but the room was suddenly filled with SKs, and before I knew it, we were in a battle.
Blows and hits were flying all over the place, and in the middle of the fight, I counted how many of them we were fighting.
Three of us against eight of them.
Well, dang it.

I prayed that those two were as good in fighting as they were in rescuing missions. Luckily, they were.
By the time I got one of the Shadow Kings, each of them took down two. Their movements were clean and precise, but also full of grace, where mine were somewhat sloppy and predictable.
I sensed an attack from my behind and spun around, connecting my foot with the stomach of a hooded man. He buckled a bit, but didn't go down. I was preparing for my next hit when he reached out and sent me flying backwards into a wall.
I saw stars for a second, but then regained my balance and stood up, just in time to see the girl finishing the poor bastard. I looked around.
Only the three of us were left standing.
Quickly I approached them and said: "Uh, thanks. I'm Emily."
The girl smiled and moved closer to the boy. "Glad to help. This", she hugged the blonde-haired boy, "is Daniel, and I'm Grace."
I smiled back. "Nice to meet you both."
Grace looked at the door, my path to freedom, and said, "Shall we?"

Talentmania Fan Fiction Entry #2

By Whitney Gibbons

“…and after she took the knife out of his chest there was only one heartbeat! We’ve been searching for a cure for hundreds of years and it shows up in Minnesota a week ago.”

Hope sighed in envy as she stared up into the afternoon sunlight filtering through the forest canopy. Fingering the moonstone beads on her bracelet she tried to ignore the proximity of her families’ mansion behind her, instead pretending that she was deep in the mountains that surrounded it. Far away from her pack and her curse, being alone with Chance was worth the isolation.

“Grace Divine.” Hope said. She caught the stone Chance had dropped to her and tossed it back up with a powerful flick of her wrist. “I bet she’s blonde.”

“I thought Brother Mooney said her hair was black?” Chance said from his perch high in the oak above her.

“She’s the Divine One, her hair is probably whatever color she wants.” Hope pointed out.

With a slight rush of wind Chance jumped out of the tree, the superhuman strength in his legs steadying him after his twenty-foot drop. Hope jumped to escape the burst of leaf litter heralding his decent.

“Do you know how long it takes to get this stuff out of my hair?” Hope said in mock indignation. Smiling, Chance delicately picked a leaf from her brown tresses.

“You look beautiful with or without leaves.” He said, taking her hand in his. A shivery warmth spread up Hope’s arm as she looked into his green eyes.

A snapping sound killed the moment. Chance’s head jerked up in the direction of the disturbance, away from the house.

“You hear that?” he whispered.

“Yeah, it’s coming from the edge of the property.” Hope said, reluctantly taking her eyes off Chance to listen as the shuffling noises grew closer.

“Want to check it out?” Chance asked, cocking an eyebrow playfully.

“We aren’t really supposed to, it’s probably just a deer.” Hope said hesitantly.

The noise suddenly resolved into human muttering, like a radio dial had been nudged. Chance’s playfulness disappeared and Hope’s muscles tensed.

“Still think it’s a deer?”

“No, let’s go.”

Yes, go punish the trespasser.

Hope gritted her teeth as she and Chance silently sprinted through the woods at an inhuman pace. Just shut up. She thought fiercely, this was no time for the wolf to distract her.

Hope saw the source of the noise and skidded to a halt, holding a hand out behind her to stop Chance as she realized what they were up against; a man with shockingly blonde hair, a cleft chin, and a perfectly malicious smile.

Hope desperately tried to back up but she just ran into Chance. The man looked up and his grin grew wider.

“A couple of Sirhan’s flea-bitten pups I presume?” he sneered.

Chance stepped in front of Hope, between her and the lunatic pack-reject. It had been a while since anyone had seen Caleb Kalbi, but his name was still spoken with disgust.

Kill him. Do it now! You and Chance together. The wolf screamed. Hope tried to stifle the furious indignation simmering in her chest, the fumes were drifting up and stifling her mind. She could practically see the hair on the back of Chance’s neck prickling with hostility.

“What are you doing on our land? This is private property!” Chance growled, taking a step forward.

“I don’t have to justify myself to you.” Caleb snarled back. Hope didn’t see a speck of moonstone on him, nothing to prevent him from going wolf and ripping them to shreds. She suspected the only thing keeping Chance from going ballistic was the moonstone stud in his ear, she hoped it would be enough.

Hope heard thundering footsteps from the house, others had heard Caleb too.

“Come and get me, or are you a Gabriel pacifist poodle? Are you wolf enough?” Caleb jeered.

Chance roared and leapt at Caleb, Hope screamed and vaulted against him, throwing him off-course and into a bush, she wasn’t going to lose him to the wolf! She heard crashing underbrush as the cavalry arrived, but she only had eyes for Chance.

“Are you okay?” she asked, checking to make sure his stud was in, his eyes were horrified.

“It was so easy to give in.”

“Not on my watch.” Hope said, helping him to his feet, Caleb was gone, the others in pursuit.

“Who needs Grace when I have you?” Chance smiled and pulled her into a hug.