Stay with a cheating fiancé or else... ➱ Lone Wolf an Urban Fantasy by Gretchen S.B. releases Oct 31st ➱ Book Preo Order with Guest Post and giveaway

 

 

Stay with a cheating fiancé or else...

Lone Wolf

by Gretchen S.B.

Genre: Urban Fantasy 

Stay with a cheating fiancé or else...

When engaged to the son of the alpha, Emma is told not to expect fidelity. Wanting more from life she flees the only pack she's ever known to try and rebuild her life on the other side of the state. Only to find there is more to her abilities than meets the eye. The wolves in her new home are fighting a war, each faction wants Emma and her budding magical abilities on their side.

Will Emma stay out of the fight?
Will her fiancé track her down?
Is there anyone Emma can trust?

Previously published in Kindle Vella

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Excerpt One

Her father stood, arms crossed over his chest, frowning over their Alpha’s left shoulder. No one in the pack looked the Alpha in the eyes except his mate, and possibly his children. Alpha Peters stood a yard and a half away from her father. His hands clasped in front of him, with a serious, concerned expression on his face. Next to him, only about a foot away, stood Richard, his expression smug.

What does that expression mean? What does he have to be smug about? He cheated on me.

Rip him a new one. Her wolf growled.

“Ah, Emma, thank you for joining us. As I said to your father, I apologize for interrupting your evening meal.” The Alpha’s smooth, deep voice was cordial, as if they were discussing clothing options for a formal event. He was an older, slightly taller version of Richard. There was never any doubt the two were related.

“Of course, Alpha.” Emma replied automatically as she came to stand only a few inches from her father. The anger vibrating off him was comforting. And she took a deep breath before looking at the Alpha’s chin, waiting for the older man to speak. Her nerves winding tighter now that she was close enough to smell Alpha Peters’ annoyance. 

“Your father informed me of the situation you and Richard find yourselves in. I, like several others, thought you were aware of his dalliances and had no problem with them. Honestly, I figured you were having a few yourself and were just more discreet than my son.” There was some disgust in his voice as he mentioned his son’s lack of discretion.

Emma felt her wolf bristle with insult, but Emma forced herself to remain calm. It wouldn’t do anyone any good for her to show any anger or aggression towards the Alpha. So instead, she said nothing and waited.

The Alpha sighed heavily. “I have come in an attempt to make amends with your family. Although you are not a beta family in my pack or an Alpha and another, Richard and I have come here so he can discuss a solution with you.” The older man turned to his son and motioned for him to step forward. “Richard?”

What the heck is going on and why do I think things are about to get worse?

Because they are. That sorry excuse for a wolf is hiding something. I can smell it on him. The growl was so thick Emma had trouble making out her wolf’s words. 

Richard took a step forward. Then he hesitated, but only for a moment, before a cocky smile reformed on his face. “I am sorry you had to find out about my dalliances in this way. I promise you, I planned to stop once our union was solidified. That is until the first child was conceived.”

Union? What union? Does that mean he meant to continue to cheat on me for a year or more? 

Of course he did. He would see no reason to stop. Her wolf snorted. Emma could feel her furry counterpart pacing within her in agitation.

“I see how my actions have affected you. Because of that, my father and I think it would be best to move up our timeline. Emma, I would like to ask for your hand in marriage. We can put this all behind us and start fresh as husband and wife.” He stepped forward again, opening a small box to show off a rather large, gaudy diamond ring.

You hate diamonds, snorted her wolf.

Before she could respond, she heard the soft growl coming from her father. “You insult my daughter.” Her father’s voice was so menacing it snapped Emma’s attention to him. Her father was an easy-going, lovable man. This was a side of him she never saw.

“Do not snap at my son. Know your place, wolf.” The Alpha growled back. It was a warning, and everyone in the room knew it.

Excerpt Two

The emerald in the middle glowed like a nightlight; warm, soft, and bright. It wasn’t blinding like a flashlight but there was no mistaking that it was emanating a light from within itself.

Emma had to force herself not to drop it. The brooch itself didn’t feel any different to the touch, and she didn’t feel magic coming from it like she had that initial zing, but she knew jewels didn’t glow from inside like that. Not unless there was some sort of electronic device in it, which it didn’t feel heavy enough to have. She quickly flipped it over to see that it looked like any other brooch, with a pin on the back.

She then looked up at Morris with a worried curiosity. “Um, it’s glowing.”

He looked relieved and a little resigned, as he looked down at the brooch in her hand. After a beat he reached out and covered her hands in his and squeezed them before looking up and making eye contact with her again. He gave a sad smile, and she felt affection pour out from him.

“I got it from my grandmother. She said it was a magic detector of sorts. She told me the same instructions I gave you. She said if the gem within it glowed when you did something that required Omega magic it meant you are in fact an Omega wolf. If you had just been a sensitive regular wolf nothing would’ve happened.

Panic filled Emma. There was no way she was an Omega wolf. Omegas were powerful and dominant in their own right. No one controlled them. No one could force them to do anything. They moved as unique members connected to a pack but not of it. They did things for the good of groups of people. They had miraculous powers that were helpful. And most of all, they came into their powers in their late teens.

“There’s no way that’s possible. There has to be another answer for this. Maybe there’s a fluke. Maybe it’s because you touched it and it’s your magic it’s picking up. You have a grandmother who is an Omega wolf. There’s no way I’m an Omega wolf, I don’t have power. I’m in the middle of my 20s. if I was I should’ve started displaying years ago.” Her words came out in one breath, fast and shaky. 

Her heart pounded in her chest. Morris’ words rang with truth. Deep down her wolf knew what he said made sense and knew it was true. But she couldn’t believe it. She would’ve known. Richard would’ve noticed. Richard would’ve told her. That was if he knew it was Omega power. Which he wouldn’t. Because he never actually met one in more than passing.

She forced down the panic, squeezing Morris’ hands out of habit, pushing the brooch to bite into her skin a bit.

“There’s no questioning it. It’s the definite test. I asked my grandmother about it. She said there’s no way to fake it.” He gave her hands another squeeze before letting go and reaching for the second pouch he held with his left hand, grabbing the brooch from her hands with his right. Deliberately he placed the brooch back in its bag, re-cinching it before dropping it in his lap and opening the other.

Not quite willing to accept it, Emma pulled back from her wolf. “Omegas they… They develop the power younger than this. Sure, I was a late bloomer for being able to change into my wolf form and all of that but this is ridiculous. There should’ve been some inkling before this.

Morris simply shrugged, “I don’t have an answer for you. But the brooch doesn’t lie. You are clearly an Omega wolf.” If Emma wasn’t mistaken, there was a thread of nervousness in his voice.

When he looked back at her his expression was sad. “I discussed it with my grandmother and while we don’t know why your abilities would only just be developing now, but they are developing quickly. Almost as if you’re making up for lost time. Do you think there’s a chance Richard would know you’re an Omega wolf?” His question was so quiet and so hesitant Emma felt herself leaning in as he spoke.

What inspired you to write this book? 

This book actually started out as an entry for a micro fiction contest. The scene in front of the school after her first class was my entry. It was one of my first forays into writing micro fiction. And let’s just say I didn’t do a great job at making a complete story. The feedback was that it felt like it was part of a bigger story and not like a story in and of itself. I have since then become much better at writing shorter things but the feedback was absolutely correct and now we have a more than 100,000 word story with the sequel waiting in the wings to be written.

What can we expect from you in the future? 

I can’t say for sure what you should expect from me in the near future. The hope is that I will write the last three Jas bond books. Those are my paranormal cozy mysteries where the main character is a magic-less son of a witch who owns a magical antique store. I have book 6 about two-thirds done. I am also planning to write the last four books in my Lantern Lake series. Those are sweet small-town romances. I am also working on a new project which is my Scent of Home series, those are paranormal romances with werewolves. So, I got quite the full plate, provided I don’t veer off and get distracted by something else, which is just as likely as me completing that to do list next year.

Do you have any “side stories” about the characters? 

I can’t safely answer that without giving spoilers. 😊

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Lone Wolf? 

Absolutely, Emma is our main character. She is a werewolf, and she lives with her boyfriend who is the alpha werewolf’s son. She is also a college professor and is really happy with her life until she comes home early one day and finds her fiancé in bed with another werewolf. If that’s not bad enough the alpha gives her the ultimatum that she needs to basically marry his son or else and that the infidelities don’t matter. So, this woman who was perfectly content with her life one day earlier now had the entire world tip upside down and has to make life altering decisions or be miserable. 

How did you come up with the concept and characters for the book? 

When I started writing this as a longer story, I wrote it serialized, so I didn’t know a lot of what would happen until I was maybe 40 chapters in and then the story started to develop around that. All I knew was that Emma was trapped in an impossible situation and when she tried to escape it things just got more complicated. I just didn’t know necessarily what those complications were until I was neck deep in the world and the story.

Did you learn anything during the writing of your recent book? 

I did learn something while writing Lone Wolf. And that is that even as someone who writes by the seat of their pants, or pantser, sometimes you do have to plot things out, especially with much longer stories or else you’re going to get lost in a lot of things and then stuff is left hanging. Once I started to figure out what the plot was, I planned out the chapters for the rest of the book. I ended up rewriting those chapters at least twice and then when I was about 15 chapters away from finishing, it drastically changed. So I learned that definitely with longer works I need to plan them.

What is your favorite part of this book and why?

Oh man, once again I can’t really go into detail without spoiling things. So, I’ll just say the scene on the ferry. The whole scene on the ferry. That was my favorite to write and is I think my favorite part of the story. It took a bit of a weird turn for me as I was writing it and that was really when the story started rewriting itself and basically told me it was going to become a duology instead of a single book.

If you could spend time with a character from your book whom would it be? And what would you do during that day? 

I’m not sure what we would do, but I would spend the day with Morris. I think there is a lot more going on in his head than we see and I kinda just would love to just pick his brain.

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination? 

All the characters in this particular book are out of my imagination. Though I have several books where the characters are based on real people or I use aspects of real people’s personalities to build characters around, this particular book was all for my imagination.

Do your characters seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have the reigns of the story?

I am not unfamiliar with characters hijacking a story. However, that didn’t happen with Lone Wolf. The characters just seem to go along with what I was writing. Though there was a little bit of butting heads when I got to the scene on the ferry as both me and the characters realized the story was going to head in a different direction. 

Convince us why you feel your book is a must read. 

No pressure! What I think makes this book a really good read is if you’re a fan of books where the main female character is pushed into a sort of rejected mates scenario and you always want to see them reject back, I think this is a good book for you. Because instead of going into a bad relationship and wait it out and hope he does better, Emma leaves and basically goes into hiding because she wants nothing to do with that and is sick of pretty much werewolf culture. If you want to see the female character stand up to the crummy scenarios that she’s put in, not just go along with it Lone Wolf is definitely a book for you.

Have you written any other books that are not published? 

So many, so, so many. Some of which will never be published. Others are going to be part of series that already exist and I just have to write them. I don’t think I will ever have enough time to write all the stories I have running around in my head or sitting partially written on my computer.

If your book had a candle, what scent would it be?

I think it would be the scent of rain and not the fake rain smell you get on some candles. But the actual smell of rain mainly because while the rain could be inconvenient it’s wonderful and nature needs it. And that sort of optimism is very Emma.

What did you edit out of this book?

I edited out the original ending of the book. The original ending was that, to try and tap dance around this, Emma ends up needing to save herself and basically blows out her Omega abilities doing that, but she escapes and gets live happily ever after. That did not seem as satisfying to me, so when the book started turning toward something else I was actually really grateful because I just didn’t like that ending.

Gretchen spawned in the Puget Sound region. After some wandering she returned there and now lives with her husband and the daintiest Rottweiler on the planet. When not drowning herself in coffee, as is custom in the Greater Seattle Area, Gretchen can be found at her day job or sitting at her desk in the home office, flailing her arms as she dictates to her computer.

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