Welcome to all my new subscribers! As a special treat, I have two things to offer you. The second is at the bottom of the letter. The first is chapter 1 of Predator’s Patience.
Trigger warnings for the book: blood, guts, gore, magic, gods, fangs, feeding, sex, drinking, smoking, and curse words.
Book 1 in the series is Nothing Burns Like Time, and can be found here: https://books2read.com/u/49djaX
The first chapter for Predator’s Patience can be found here: https://jaegreyn.com/?p=1265
pw: L0vingCy
If you love it and want to read more, it can be found here: https://books2read.com/Predators-Patience
Book 4 for Amber Light Pride is available for pre-order here! The King’s Confessor (MMM Blood-Rights Book 4) – Kindle edition by Greyn, Jae. Romance Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
The books are not standalones, so please read them in order.
TW: This is paranormal fantasy, so there is blood, guts, gore. Smoking, drinking, and foul language. Sex.
Sacha is the last son of Gregori Luciano strong enough to sustain the magic of his brothers, who’ve been captured by Ignatius. Dante is the only Di Gatti strong enough to sustain his magic and his brother’s. The Feline chooses the mate- one for the man and one for the Beast. Chase must accept Sacha into their mating. Will he?
Jaime is live at: Jaime by Jae Greyn – Audiobook – Audible.com
I’m so excited to have two the first two novellas for Fire Ridge Pride available! Indigo is coming soon!
For those of you who are brand new, welcome! I have a piece of flash fiction just for you, to say hello, and welcome you to the Pride, or Clan, or both. Thank you for joining us! Remember, for all the passwords to the bonus chapters and the ones that didn’t make the books, please check out my facebook page!
It’s very PG. anything more would be under a password. Trigger warnings: drinking, being teased by a crush. This is a wedding. Meet cute, contemporary (not my usual). I normally write paranormal fantasy romance.
Now, onto the story.
Josh
Jose Cuervo, Patron, Captain Morgan, and Johnny Walker stood at the foot of the bed, arms linked, swaying as they sang an Irish lullaby. One foot on the floor didn’t stop the room from spinning, and on every fourth note, the floor tilted. Pounding on the door joined the pounding in my head, and my quartet left me to face the consequences alone.
Sallie burst into the room, and I watched her through my lashes.
She slapped a hand over her eyes and wrinkled her nose. “Geez, Josh. Did you drink the whole bar? It smells like a brewery in here.”
Pushing to sit, the foul concoction in my belly churned. It had been a good idea at the time.
Her slender fingers traced my cheek, causing me to wince. “Who did you fight with?”
A vague memory of falling into a door floated through my mind, and bile rose in my throat. I shoved her away, bolting to the bathroom.
Memories spewed from my mouth and nose- the invitation, Mark’s smiling face as he hand-delivered it, and the man’s patented, “Come on, Josh. You know you love me.”
Did I? I couldn’t remember at the moment.
“Oh, Josh.” Sallie’s pity sent me into another wave of nausea. “We have less than an hour to be on the beach, and you’re sick.”
Hah! My potent cocktail the night before was only half my problem.
Mark and I had been best friends since we were two. We did everything together until he discovered Julie, and I discovered his brother, Ben.
Ben always called me ‘Meatball’ because I wasn’t exactly slim as a kid. Ben would laugh, rub the top of my head, and I would cringe.
In less than an hour, I had to escort Salllie, Julie’s baby sister, down the aisle, and Ben would be there as Mark’s best man. Had thought it let me out of the affair, but Julie wouldn’t hear of it.
Julie had threatened to geld me if I didn’t show, and she’d turned into a demanding female, complete with red lacquered claws, since the wedding plans began. I hadn’t dared to piss her off. Everyone knew stories about bridezillas. Something about weddings turned people into lunatics.
Sallie and I were friends, at least, so it hadn’t seemed so bad when I agreed. And then we got to the hotel. Mark and Ben stood at the check-in desk, talking to the receptionist behind the counter.
Ben wore a pair of jeans that made me envy cotton for the first time in my life, and when those piercing green eyes scanned the lobby and lit on me, my heart jumped into my throat. He smiled, one dimple on the left side of that strong, angular jaw, and I had to lock my knees to keep standing.
He strode across the carpet and stopped in front of me. “Meatball!” he yelled, pulling me into a hug. “Good to see you! Glad you could make it.”
I spent four years working out, played soccer in college, and hadn’t seen Ben since I was fourteen.
He left me then, and Sallie raised her eyebrows, mouthing, “Meatball?”
I checked into my room and began my hunt for sloshy friends, who were now burning my nose and throat. Sallie rubbed my back, reminding me we had somewhere to be, and my trip down memory lane left a sour taste in my mouth. I smelled worse.
“In the shower. At least you’re naked. Don’t think my tiny self could get you there.” Sallie tugged on my arm, and I pulled away from her.
“You’re dressed. I can manage.”
She eyed me skeptically and left the bathroom. “I’ll get your clothes ready.”
“Sure, sure.” I flushed the toilet and put a hand on the wall, feeling my way to the sink. My feet had forgotten their purpose, but I wasn’t numb enough to face the wedding party.
Sallie had found my toothbrush and put toothpaste on it for me.
“So, Ben’s the guy, huh,” she called from the other room.
I didn’t respond. Didn’t have to. Sallie knew me better than Mark, apparently. Julie had paired me with Sallie, hoping I’d marry her sister. Sallie and I both understood.
Probably didn’t help that we hung out- movies, coffee, the same bars.
Sallie’s next words made me pause. “He came alone, Josh.”
I finished brushing my teeth, and Sallie continued to talk. “He broke up with his boyfriend six months ago, and-”
My brain froze on the word ‘boyfriend,’ and I climbed into the shower, nearly banging my cheek on the showerhead.
“Yeah, so,” she walked in again and stopped by the door. “Julie thinks we would make pretty babies.”
“We would,” I agreed. “If we could manage to forget.”
“Well, anyway, Ben found me last night at the tiki bar. Where were you? We looked everywhere.”
“You and Ben looked for me?” I couldn’t believe it.
“We did, yes. After he found out that we weren’t together and that I had a girlfriend, who is pissed that I came without her, by the way.”
I laughed. “Honey, you could invite her up. We are here for two more days.”
I didn’t want to talk about Ben. Hoping the man saw me as someone other than Mark’s pudgy little friend had been smashed the day before.
“I’ll do that,” Sallie murmured.
Twenty minutes later found us arm in arm, walking down the path towards the arbor. The string quartet played something Julie had chosen for the wedding party, and we were the last in a long line.
As I made my way to my spot, Piercing green eyes watched me intently. Ben winked, and when he smiled, I realized he had dimples in both cheeks.
I tried not to fidget during the ceremony because Ben couldn’t have meant it.
Suddenly, the music was playing again; Julie and Mark were kissing, and the rest went by in a blur.
Somewhere in there, I found myself at a table in the dining room, and the eloquence of the ceremony had been replaced with a deejay, who’d decided it was our ten-year high school reunion and not a wedding.
Ben had been lost in the crowd, and I’d been left alone again.
I returned to the lobby and the little hole-in-the-wall bar near the entrance. It was dark, aside from the lights above the mirror behind the bar and the lone pool table in the center of the room.
The familiar smells of cigar smoke and stale beer wrapped around me like an old friend as I resumed my stool from the night before.
A hand knocked on the wood bartop, and a deep voice ordered two shots of Patron. He leaned closer, and the scent of cologne replaced the smoke and beer.
Sun streamed through the slit in the curtains, blinding me. One foot on the floor again, but the room wasn’t spinning, and instead of my sloshy quartet from the night before, a rich bass mumbled a sleepy hello in my ear. “I can’t call you Meatball anymore.”
“Huh. And just what do you want to call me?”
“Mine.”
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