Here's a sneak peek into the first chapter of PHOENIX FALLING!
A sneak peek into the first chapter of PHOENIX FALLING….
Coming November 28th
Chapter One
Sun
The cacophony of music and laughter and humans on the hunt for their latest lay stirred the animal lurking restlessly within me. My phoenix was only a bird in the strictest sense—an integral part of my being, my alternate form, he was more mythical monster than modern-day member of the Aves class of vertebrates, with the flesh-rending talons and unstoppable strength to match. Not to mention the immortality. And what he wanted right now, more than anything, was to pick the meat from the bones of the nearest human body for daring to disturb his peace.
Only one thing saved them: the scent of the female we had come here to meet. Risk. Her essence mingled beneath the odor of human sweat and alcohol and sex, reaching my nose and my animal simultaneously. The creature stirred in my chest for a far different reason than anger. This was hunger of a different kind.
Need.
Lust.
My all-too human cock stiffened immediately. I’d had the same reaction to Risk before I’d ever met her, the first time I’d caught her scent in a bar very much like this one several months ago. She’d been a possible source for the intel my clan needed, intel that had led us to the discovery of the enemy compound located right on our doorstep. The Anigma contingent had been decimated, its remnants scattered, but I had no doubt that the threat was just beginning. And I needed Risk’s help to prevent the war I feared would be coming all too soon.
“Sun.” Risk leaned against a wall in the darkest corner of the club, head tilted back to meet my much taller gaze. Despite the lack of light, my phoenix saw every detail of her clearly. The thick blonde hair draping her shoulders, with its garish red and blue streaks. The silky-smooth skin gracing her body. And oh, that kick-ass body. Risk was high-octane sexual appeal wrapped in an athletic form prepared to take down any comer, and with my phoenix’s gifted sight, I couldn’t miss a single curve of a single muscle that came together to make that gorgeous physique.
My animal took it all in, staring from my eyes, breathing through my nose. I barely managed to suppress his avaricious growl as it rumbled up inside my chest. When it came to this woman, being both animal and man seriously sucked—there was zero possibility of ignoring her.
“Risk,” I murmured, her name like gravel in my tight throat. The female had gone to ground not long after our battle with Maddox’s Anigma soldiers, a fact I still found suspicious, but since she’d also dropped Cale, my fellow warrior and her former lover, around the same time, Cale had convinced me it was no more than fickle female hormones rearing their ugly head. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t be watching her closely. My phoenix would ensure that, if nothing else.
One feminine brow arched above a deep blue eye.
I quirked my own. “What?”
Risk straightened away from the wall. “I should be the one asking you that. You requested this meeting, not me.”
I had, hadn’t I? And I was standing here dazed over the female’s erotic draw rather than getting down to business. “Of course. Perhaps we could sit.”
She turned to lead the way. “Perhaps we could.”
A frown tugged at my mouth at the same time that a hint of uncertainty tugged at my brain. And wasn’t that a mind fuck in and of itself. The Archai prince unsure of himself around a human woman. My people survived because the strongest of us ruled, and as first in line for the throne of the largest Archai clan in the world, formality had been drilled into me for a thousand years. What did I care if Risk was amused by the precise way that I spoke? She had been drawn to Cale, after all, the playboy of the Archai warriors council. Her type definitely wasn’t tall, deadly, and decidedly stiff.
I had been weaned not just on formality but on command, and yet neither I nor my animal objected as Risk preceded me along the back wall of the club until she came upon an empty booth, raised on a dais to overlook the writhing figures on the dance floor. It was as private as things got in a place like this, but Risk insisted on setting the location of our meetups. Yet another thing I had no control over when it came to her.
The phoenix screeched his displeasure at the idea that we were not the ones in charge, particularly of her. I shook off his reaction and followed Risk into the booth.
The curved walls cut the chaos of our surroundings in half, insulating the two of us in a quasi-intimate atmosphere that did nothing for my current mood. I had never met Risk alone before; always Cale had accompanied me. Now, with Risk at the back of the circle, facing out toward the club, and me moving instinctively close to grant us a modicum of privacy, the draw of the female was impossible to ignore. I had never been close enough to feel the warmth radiating off her skin, to taste her with no more than a bending of my head toward her neck. I cursed under my breath at my body’s instant reaction and scooted back a few inches, bringing my knee up onto the seat to give myself more space.
If she noticed, Risk didn’t let on. This time when she arched a brow, I knew what she was thinking.
Time to talk.
“Your assistance with our previous problem proved to be invaluable, Risk.”
She raised her hand. “There’s no need to butter me up. I did a job, and I’m happy to do another one. For the right price.”
Agreed. But first, follow-up. “We’d like to know if you’ve seen any indications that the group we discussed previously has returned to Nashville.”
She tapped her red-tipped nails against the slick table. “Not as a group, no. Though there may be individuals out there—I’m not specifically hunting them anymore—I haven’t seen the kind of activity we tracked before.”
The word hunting on her full lips had certain parts of me throbbing harder than the bass line of the current song torturing everyone from the club’s speakers. I shifted in my seat. “Good.” I narrowed my eyes on her. “If you should happen to see—”
“You’d be the first to know, big boy. Again, for the right price.”
“You would be compensated generously, of course.”
“Of course.”
I’d carefully considered the next order of business. Not only could information about possible Archai females hidden in the wider human population be a priceless commodity, as seen by the fierceness with which the Anigma had sought such females out, but that same information held danger if outside forces ever learned of the person to have gained it. Risk had begun to earn our trust, but with something this important, our need to be sure was high.
Unfortunately I was running out of time. I still wasn’t a hundred percent certain of the female, but I had no choice. We desperately needed her eyes and ears.
“I want to enlist your help in finding a female.”
The slightest smile curled one side of her lips. “I think I told you the first time I met you, Sun, I wasn’t that type of girl.”
She had. I remembered wondering if I looked that hard up, that I’d need to hire a hooker to get some action, as Cale put it. The Risk back then had teased me, her smile suggestive, while she called Cale baby. The Risk sitting across from me now barely allowed her lips to curve. What had prompted the change in her?
I didn’t return her smile. “Wrong type of female.”
“What type of ‘female’ were you looking for?” Neon lights hanging over the dance floor glinted off the metallic hoop piercing her nose.
I studied her for another long moment before taking the plunge. “Not just any female. We have two criteria: specifically, you would need to look for someone whose mother died young, most likely committed suicide, and who were subsequently left to be raised in an orphanage or foster care.” There were hundreds of other possible scenarios, but we couldn’t track them all, not yet. Our first starting point was the lineages of the women who had already been discovered. Risk gave us a second avenue to make headway on a desperate—and with the Anigma threat ever looming, time-critical—mission.
“Why?”
The word brought me up short. “Why…?”
Risk tipped her head to drill me with that deep blue stare. “I might be mercenary, Sun, but I won’t put women in danger without a reason. Why do you want to find this ‘female’?”
“We have reason to believe someone who went missing from our…family…long ago may have given birth to a daughter that ended up in just such a situation. We’re looking for leads.”
It was the story we had decided to tell Risk to earn her help. When I considered how close it was to the truth, something deep inside my chest felt broken. We were missing not one female but possibly thousands, the offspring of psychs who had been separated from the Archai for hundreds of years. Those daughters carried the genes that made them capable of conversion, and every one was infinitely valuable. My clan had only recently discovered that such psychs were possibly hidden, unknown and unknowing, in the human world. Unfortunately our enemy had figured it out long before the Archai had.
How many females were being tortured right now, like the women we had rescued from my old friend turned Anigma general, Maddox, and his nightmare army? How long would it take to find them? How many wouldn’t survive long enough to be found?
Risk pushed the fall of her long blonde hair behind one ear. She was known in the underground as the best finder money could buy—you name it, and she could find it. I was praying that included people.
“I’m not buying your story.”
Smart woman. “You don’t have to.” She simply had to do as I requested.
Risk’s calculating brain made her dangerous but also effective. And yet it wasn’t her mind that made my animal stir inside me. Every time I looked at her, the creature that shared my body raised his head, eager to stare out of my rainbow-hued eyes at the gorgeous female.
Not that I allowed him to. A female like Risk—wild, independent, secretive—was not for me.
And yet I couldn’t deny that her appeal had never waned. She was earthy, the air around her practically vibrating with energy, both carnal and emotional. A female made for sex. And a female who used that sexual energy often if Cale’s stories were to be believed.
Definitely not for me.
We could have her for a time.
True. And I was tempted. So very tempted. My animal knew that. But…
“Do you have more specific parameters?” she was asking now.
“No.” There was no definitive way to know if a particular female was, in fact, Archai without a triggering bite. But we had to try, and it was too big a task to take on by ourselves alongside the other issues we were facing. How we would handle the possible psychs once we found them was a question we hadn’t answered yet.
Risk frowned, her fingernails continuing their tap dance on the table. The sound put me on edge. “Age? Description? Anything?” she asked.
Feeling the less said, the better, I kept my mouth shut and shook my head.
“Well”—Risk raised that imperious eyebrow once more—“that’s going to be a long-ass list.”
“I understand. If we could start locally and then expand outward?”
The tap dance stopped. Risk leaned toward me. “If I find any reason to believe you would use that list to harm them—and I will be looking—you won’t be getting it. Once I’m sure they will be safe…” Risk shrugged. “It’s your money.” She named her figure.
The price was fair. I didn’t hesitate. The Archai had no worries about money, given we’d been accumulating wealth and investments for millennia. Not to mention that I was, in fact, a prince. I gave the female a silent nod.
“Will do.” Risk began to slide her way around the opposite side of the booth. “I’ll have an answer for you by the end of this week.”
She paused at the opening, her stare on the dance floor. I waited.
She glanced back at me through the veil of her hair. “It was good to see you again, Sun.”
Surely not. And yet there was something almost…wistful in her tone. As if she truly had missed someone. Cale, more likely. Except she had been the one to break things off with the warrior, not the other way around. Why would she miss him?
That certain something underlying her words had me speaking without thought for the first time all night. “Risk, are you all right?”
I shouldn’t ask. Shouldn’t want to know. Shouldn’t care for anything more than having her body. And yet I was unable to hold the words back.
She seemed puzzled. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Why indeed. I gave her another nod.
She stood, preparing to leave.
“Risk…”
She hesitated, gaze still on her exit.
Whatever had been on the tip of my tongue, I swallowed it down. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
PHOENIX FALLING releases on November 28th! Don't forget to preorder your copy!
The Prince Is Coming…
The time has come! The cover for PHOENIX FALLING is here! I don’t know if I can describe how it feels to see the progression of this series. These books have been in my brain for so long, and though I love my other series, this one is what got me into writing, honing my skill, working hard to get to the point where I was good enough to make this world come to life. It’s truly special every time I release one of these babies into the world.
So, I give you our prince’s cover…
In case you haven’t seen the back-cover blurb yet, let me whet your appetite for this bad boy! 😊
PHOENIX FALLING
Coming November 28th
Her name tells me everything I need to know about pursuing her. Risk. And yet my phoenix — and my heart — refuse to walk away.
Sun
I was raised in the shadow of the king, expected to perform but never expecting to ascend to the throne. The only thing I’ve cared about in my centuries-long life is protecting my people, even if it means going up against my own father.
The weight of so many lives in my hands is eased by only one thing: being with her. But I can never make her mine, no matter how much my animal and my soul cry out to possess her.
Risk
My life changed forever the night a monster followed me home. My family died, and I…well, I was never the same. I made it my mission to find others like me, to protect them, to help them find themselves when everything they knew disappeared like smoke.
And I failed. I can do my part, but only the inhuman Sun and his warriors can truly save them. Is it selfish to want a small piece of him for myself? Just for a little while. Just until my secrets are set free, and the love I thought I saw in his rainbow-colored eyes turns to hate.
The race is on to find the women who, unbeknownst to them, have hidden inside them the key to winning the war against the Anigma. But it may not be too little, too late.
Because the Archai — and their prince — are about to fall.
Preorder today! And stay tuned for news on the preorder for the PHOENIX FALLING audiobook featuring Stella Hunter and J. F. Harding!
Spring News and Tulips!
Spring Has Sprung, Y’all!
I’m finally recovering from my bout with Covid early this year, and I’m busy working on the latest Silver Foxes book. The book is now officially called 40 AND (FINALLY) FIXING IT—"fixing it” because it features Erin, Black Wolf’s Bluff’s beloved general contractor. Our small-town girl meets her match in a big-city guy this go-round when Carter and his precocious little boy show up in BWB. I’ve got a lot of fun things planned for this book that I think you’ll love, not the least of which is a crazy male peacock named Willard who thinks he’s in love with Erin. I can’t wait for you to meet him.
Aside from writing, I’ve been resting a lot, swimming when I can, and spending time with Oliver, who just turned four (I cannot believe it!), and my kids. My daughter recently took me to a local tulip farm that is in full bloom for springtime right now. You would not believe all the blossoms! Tulips in all varieties and colors, from the lightest butter yellow to the deepest, darkest red. Beautiful orange and red hybrids. Gorgeous white blooms with light peachy stripes. Want to see some pictures?
As far as books, I’ve got great news for anyone who is looking for the last audio installment for Southern Nights: Enigma. DESIRE ME will be releasing in April! I’ll have a pre-order link for you at the beginning of the month, so keep an eye out for that.
I’m also hoping to have some excerpts and more news on PHOENIX FALLING (Archai Warriors 2) and the next Assassins book coming up in the next couple of newsletters. In the meantime, take care of yourselves, and happy reading!
~Ella
Have You Read COME FOR ME?
Book 1 in the Southern Nights: Enigma book is currently FREE!
He lived a life of danger and loneliness without her. He’s never going back.
Olivia Brannan never expected an ordinary workday to turn into a nightmare. She thought nothing could make her happier than having Dain as her husband. Her hard-core, intense alpha male. Protective to the extreme. Commanding—in and out of the bedroom. Her soul mate. They have everything they ever wanted. Or, almost everything. Until today.
Today, she found out she’s pregnant. And unknowingly walked into a roomful of killers.
Ten years. That’s how long Dain has lived his dream life. His wife is the partner he always wanted, in every way. And if they can’t have children of their own, well, the elite team he runs at Atlanta’s top security firm is often handful enough. They’ve created a “family” that fits them and fills their lives.
One phone call changes all that.
He never thought his wife could get pregnant. He never thought she’d be held hostage. Now it’s up to him and his team to get the love of his life—and the child they never thought they’d have—out alive.
Well 2023 Is Being a PITA
How’s Your New Year Going?
I’ll tell you, mine isn’t going to plan. 😊 That’s par for the course the past couple of years, I guess, for all of us. I started the year off with Covid, and I’ve basically been sleeping and trying to get my brain to work ever since.
So how do I want the rest of the year to go?
Not like this! I began the first week of January on a new mindset journey, working to build more positivity into my life, be kinder to myself, take care of myself. All of that went by the wayside when I became ill. (That happens when you’re sleeping 22 out of every 24 hours! Luckily I’m now down to 14-16 hours of sleep a day. *eye roll*) I’ve been berating myself for not getting better faster, for “starting back at square one” with everything, including my weight loss. But constantly going over the bad things in my mind isn’t helping anything. The sleep helps, but not mentally putting myself down the whole time I’m awake.
How can I change that? The only way to accomplish change is deliberately, one step at a time. So I’m revisiting my plan for this year, and yeah, starting back at zero. Where do I go from here? What can I nourish my soul with? What plans do I have to move toward a more positive mind and body?
And then begin with the first step.
But I’m sure the plan you’re most interested in is my writing plan for the year.
And I definitely have plans! Right now, because my brain is so scrambled, I’m working on plotting three books: the next Silver Foxes book, the next Archai Warriors book (Phoenix Falling), and most important of all, THE NEXT ASSASSINS BOOK!!!! Woot! Assassins will be back this year. I’m planning a minimum of three more books in that series, to be released in 2023 and 2024. Each book will feature a member of Nix’s team, completing the arc from their dangerous past. But I’ll also be including threads from each of the Agozi brothers. We’re not leaving our boys behind! So get ready for a wild ride coming later this year. 😊
I’ll have more specifics starting in March, so keep an eye out. In the meantime, happy reading!
~Ella
Did you know the final audiobook for the SOUTHERN NIGHTS series has finally arrived! TEACH ME is now available in audiobook, featuring the fantastic duo of Jason Clarke and Stella Hunter as Conlan and Jess. Listen to their story as well as TRUST ME (Jack and Maddie) and TAKE ME (Gabe, Sam, and Peyton) today!
Did you know TEACH ME is currently free in ebook? Grab your copy on amazon and add on Whispersync audio for only $7.49! No need to use your monthly credit. 😊
Start your year off with the next silver fox!
40 AND (NO LONGER) FIGHTING IT is coming in just three weeks! Have you pre-ordered yet? You don’t want to miss this fun and sexy story for Claire and Lincoln. I haven’t had this much fun writing a book in such a long time. And the food… Sometimes I think I gained five pounds just reading about all the wonderful things Claire made in her bakery, Gimme Sugar.
If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the cover for FIGHTING IT, and a little excerpt just for y’all. Enjoy!
JD bypassed Lily’s wide front porch and headed directly for an open side gate leading to the backyard, stopping to chat at the various clumps of people gathered around, introducing Linc to too many individuals to keep track of. The backyard was generous for a neighborhood like this one, right in town, but Lily had utilized every bit of space for chairs and picnic blankets and small tables. A tent had been erected that covered the side farthest from the gate, and Linc could see a couple of long tables laden with covered dishes. The smell of barbecue permeated the air, and he began to think maybe JD had been telling more truth than his taste bud–challenged judgments knew when he’d said the meat would be good.
“Lily!” JD raised a hand along with his voice. His fiancée stood near a massive grill, a red plastic cup in her hand and a smile on her face that turned brilliant when she saw JD. She waved him over, Linc trailing along. Surrounding her was a group of women and one man at the grill who he assumed was Clayton of the barbecue fame. Linc’s glance slid across the faces, not really taking in details, until it came to rest on the woman directly next to Lily. Her warm brown skin glowed under the bright sun, her dark curls bouncing in the faint breeze. But it was the mahogany eyes fixed on his face that locked him in. He knew those eyes. He hadn’t seen them in years, but he could never forget the last moment they’d stared up at him, betrayal shining bright.
Linc’s steps slowed, dread rising. “You said Lily’s baker friend was named Claire?” he asked JD.
“Yeah.”
“Claire what?” he managed to get out.
“What?” JD stopped, turned to him.
He broke eye contact with the woman, forced his gaze to his friend. “Claire what? What’s her last name?”
JD’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“What is it?”
“Claire Taylor. Why? Do you know her?”
Claire Taylor. In Black Wolf’s Bluff, Tennessee. The last place he’d ever expect her to be. Yes, he’d lost track of her, but how in hell had she ended up here?
JD’s stare demanded an answer.
“Oh yeah, I know her.”
JD looked like he was about to say something, but he was forestalled when Lily appeared in front of them, two women in tow. And one of them was Claire.
“Linc, let me introduce you to my two best friends,” she said. “Erin is your general contractor, and this is—”
“Claire,” he choked out, unable to find the inimitable charm he was famous for. “Hello again.”
***
40 AND (NO LONGER) FIGHTING IT releases on January 24th, so make sure it’s on your e-reader the minute it comes out!
I’ve also got another little goodie for everyone who enjoyed GRIFFIN UNDONE. Book 2 of the Archai Warriors series, PHOENIX FALLING, will release on November 28, 2023. But you don’t have to wait because it’s also now on pre-order. You don’t want to forget it’s coming, so pre-order your copy today. It’s a long wait, but it’s going to be so worth it when you read Risk and Sun’s story.
Sun and Risk are coming November 28th.
The Archai — and their prince — are about to fall.
Sun and Risk are coming November 28th.
The Archai — and their prince — are about to fall.
Griffin Undone Is LIVE
Arik & Kat have arrived!
I’m not sure if I can adequately explain what it means to see this book out in the world. It is the book of my heart, the one I longed to write from the beginning of my tentative tiptoes into the world of putting words on paper. It has been ten years in the making, but I knew now was the right time to unleash Arik and Kat and the Archai on the world.
A time when I needed hope. A time when many of us need hope, I think.
So my hope right now is that GRIFFIN UNDONE will bring something special to your life as you read it—and not just steam. 😉 Though there’ll be plenty of that, I guarantee you! And I’d love to know what you think. Consider leaving a review on Goodreads or your favorite retailer to share your thoughts on the book. I can’t wait to hear them.
Now, go forth and buy! And don’t forget GU’s audiobook, also releasing today with duet narration from Stella Hunter and J.F. Harding. You don’t want to miss the growl in his voice, trust me!
All versions of the book can be found at the link below.
Happy release day, Arik and Kat!
NARRATOR REVEAL!
I'm excited to announce the narrators for the upcoming
GRIFFIN UNDONE audiobook!
My first paranormal romance is…wait for it…NOW LIVE FOR PREORDER! And it is narrated in duet by Stella Hunter and J. F. Harding!
These two sound amazing! I can't wait for you all to hear the full thing, but in the meantime, you can check out an extended teaser on my Facebook page to whet your appetite. The audiobook will release simultaneously with the ebook on November 29, but you can preorder now at the links below!
I hope you're as excited for this one as I am. What do you think of the sneak peek?
She’s the perfect prey. The perfect instrument for my revenge.
And the only crack in my centuries-old armor.
Arik
For nine hundred years I have roamed the earth, a griffin shifter without a clan, an Archai warrior unable to fight the one enemy that matters: my parents’ killer. The only thing I care about? Vengeance. And I’m about to start a war to get it.
Nothing will stand in my way—except a red-haired female whose power could change everything. She’s the weapon I need to devastate the enemy, but in order to use her, I have to keep her alive, on my side…
And away from my heart.
Kat
All my life, I've never really belonged. Adrift, with nothing to tether me in place. Until one night at work when I lock gazes with a pair of smoldering silver eyes that steal my breath, and it feels like finally being seen for the first time. But in the next second he's gone. That same night the silver-eyed man saves me when a monster attacks, but not before the monster’s bite unleashes a deadly power I never knew crouched deep within me.
Now I’m no longer human—and no longer safe.
Except with Arik. He’ll teach me control, train me to fight. But his secrets could kill me as easily as the power I struggle to wield. In the end, I’m forced to choose: fight in a war I don’t understand, or escape the male who wants to use me. War might take my body, but even if we win, Arik could tear apart my soul.
This epic new paranormal romance series features a shifter species of mythological creatures, the basis for all human myth—and they bite.
New Series Announcement!
If you follow me on social media, you saw my Big Announcement™️—I'm writing a new series! And if you've been with me for a while, you'll see a whole new side of Ella, because I'm writing paranormal romance! The Archai Warriors is an epic new paranormal romance series featuring a shifter species of mythological creatures, the basis for all human myth—and they bite.😉
Welcome to the world of the Archai!
She’s the perfect prey. The perfect instrument for my revenge.
And the only crack in my centuries-old armor.
Arik
For nine hundred years I have roamed the earth, a griffin shifter without a clan, an Archai warrior unable to fight the one enemy that matters: my parents’ killer. The only thing I care about? Vengeance. And I’m about to start a war to get it.
Nothing will stand in my way—except a red-haired female whose power could change everything. She’s the weapon I need to devastate the enemy, but in order to use her, I have to keep her alive, on my side…
And away from my heart.
Kat
All my life, I've never really belonged. Adrift, with nothing to tether me in place. Until one night at work when I lock gazes with a pair of smoldering silver eyes that steal my breath, and it feels like finally being seen for the first time. But in the next second he's gone. That same night the silver-eyed man saves me when a monster attacks, but not before the monster’s bite unleashes a deadly power I never knew crouched deep within me.
Now I’m no longer human—and no longer safe.
Except with Arik. He’ll teach me control, train me to fight. But his secrets could kill me as easily as the power I struggle to wield. In the end, I’m forced to choose: fight in a war I don’t understand, or escape the male who wants to use me. War might take my body, but even if we win, Arik could tear apart my soul.
I'm so excited to bring this new series to you! Even more exciting, the audio production is already underway, and the audio will release simultaneously with the ebook! Stay tuned for a narrator announcement coming soon.
I'll be writing this series alongside my contemporary novels, so you'll still be getting more Assassins and other fun stuff from me!
GRIFFIN UNDONE will be here November 29th, but you can preorder your copy NOW: