NEW RELEASE | THE MATE
A FIRE’S EDGE NOVELLA
A FREE Prequel to The Boss
Maddie Thompson’s life just fell down a rabbit hole. Finding out she’s a dragon shifter was one thing—she never quite fit into the human world, and this new reality feels…strangely right. However, discovering the next step is to choose a mate, and if she chooses wrong she’ll die, is the other side of crazy. Especially when she already left a piece of her heart with someone who didn’t want it.
To say dragon enforcer Fallon Conleth was shocked when the Mating Council summoned him as a potential mate for a newly found dragon doesn’t quite cover it. A mate is rare and precious and many dragons never find theirs. Fallon isn’t sure he’s worthy of the honor, not when so many deserve it more. He’ll just go through the motions and return home alone…until he sees Maddie. The human woman he reluctantly let walk away.
Fallon already broke Maddie’s heart once, but if he can’t convince her that they’re meant to be, she’ll die… and he won’t be far behind.
Entangled Publishing | 9/17/2018
BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
REVIEWS & QUOTES
✭✭✭✭✭ Abigail Owen is a rising star in paranormal romance! Her dragons are sexy, suspenseful, and smoking hot–an electrifying new series. ~NY Times Bestselling Author Alyssa Day
✭✭✭✭✭ Paranormal romance doesn’t get much better than The Boss. A sexy shifter hero, a spunky, no-nonsense heroine, heart-clenching emotion, and world building at its best. This story nearly set my Kindle on fire. Bring on the next book cause I can’t wait! ~USA Today and National Bestselling Author Anna J. Stewart
✭✭✭✭✭ Jealousy, male posturing, the threat of death if one chooses wrong, I loved it! A quick and fun read with the inside scoop on dragons… ~Tome Tender
✭✭✭✭✭ Wow! This is a wonderful kick off to a potentially great series. This novella was a quick and amazing prequel to Fire’s Edge paranormal romance series. ~Moonshine’s Corner
EXCERPT
The head of the Mating Council smiled, though warmth continued to remain absent, making his expression appear more like a facial tick. “You are the last to arrive. Come. Let me introduce you.”
Fallon hadn’t even looked for the new dragon mate. As he turned in the direction Jagar indicated, he caught sight of a woman standing on a dais at one end of the long room, probably once a ballroom.
Every part of him froze as shock ricocheted inside him like buckshot, shredding his insides with a direct hit.
“Maddie.” Her name felt punched from his lungs, though he only whispered. Jagar still caught it, turning his head sharply.
“Do you know this woman?” Macon demanded, beating Jagar to it.
Fallon couldn’t pull his gaze from Maddie. Her lips were pinched closed, a sure sign of her emotions. Usually, she never let any hint of her thoughts show.
“She was one of the humans I came into contact with for my job,” he owned reluctantly, deliberately keeping the more intimate details of their relationship to himself. “She moved away several months ago. I haven’t been in contact since.”
Deep, a red dragon who’d retired from the team, was their liaison with humans, posing as a fire marshal and working to help cover their tracks. At the time, Deep had been busy with a bigger fire, so Fallon had stepped in to work with a new arson investigator on a series of smaller fires locally.
Maddie.
The woman who’d consumed his thoughts for the better part of a year stood alone. Chestnut curls cut to her chin framed a heart-shaped face, a familiar face that haunted his dreams and woke him every night aching and hard. Only she didn’t look like Maddie.
His Maddie was a no-nonsense, plain-speaking, arson investigator, tough as dragon steel and soft as a kiss, who was more comfortable in jeans, funny T-shirts, and beat up sneakers. This elegant creature in a deep purple dress of some shimmery material that begged to be touched, sky- high heels, and lips a crimson red, was more like a Madeline than a Maddie.
Untouchable.
She observed the men in the room. He could see her wariness in the way she held herself rigid, hands clenched in fists at her side, and how her gaze darted around the room. After that first immobilizing jolt, his next instinct was to hold her, to tease that nervous expression from her eyes as he’d done in the past.
How was this possible?
She glanced his way as though the pull of his stare drew her, and her eyes flared wide, the blood leaching from her face.
“Fallon.” She barely whispered, merely mouthing his name. His enhanced hearing would’ve caught the sound otherwise. He knew the sweet tones of her voice as well as his own, even strained to hear his name on her lips.
For a second, he thought she might faint, but Maddie shook her head and pulled her shoulders back in way that struck him as hauntingly familiar.
There’s my Maddie.
Her combination of resilience and vulnerability had grabbed him by the gut from day one. A need that had only grown as they’d worked together, spent time together. Especially after he kissed her. He’d pumped the brakes after that kiss, even though he’d craved more. So much more.
After that, she’d disappeared from his life without a word, leaving less of a trace than a ghost that she’d ever been there. Yes, she’d texted him a month or so later to let him know she’d moved, but he’d forced himself to wrestle his emotions into check and let her go. Against all his instincts. Pursuing her would be unfair to her when he knew it could never end the way they wanted. Not when he’d believed her to be human.
Anticipation lit in his chest as realization sank in under the shock. Maddie wasn’t just a human—she was a dragon mate.
And she would be his.
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