Changed Blog Tour

Changed
Vicki Stiefel
(The Made Ones Saga, #2)
Publication date: August 13th 2020
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

What if you could be young again? Would it be a dream come true or truly a nightmare?

That’s the startling reality retired circus trapeze artist Breena Balážová awakens to on the world of Eleutia in her own re-engineered younger body. For a woman whose death on Earth was inches away, it seems like a second chance at life. But in this parallel world, where horses fly and animals and humans are symbionts, Bree is intended as breeding stock to balance the plummeting female birthrate.

As she searches for her missing sisters, who were pulled to Eleutia with her, Bree also must survive assassination attempts, the growing threat of war, and her unexpected attraction to the arrogant animal Clan Alpha, Gato, a man with terrible burdens and secrets.

The animal Clans join forces to combat a dark conspiracy that will shake the foundations of their world, even as Bree’s search for her sisters grows more desperate and dangerous.

If Bree has any hope of finding her sisters and fulfilling her own destiny, she and Gato must carry out a perilous deception, their success or failure deciding not only their own fate, but that of all Eleutia.

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Excerpt 5—Bree has snuck into the fair to meet her sister, Kit (Altered, book 1). Gato finds her.

 

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She clasped his face. “Why are you sad?”

Again his laughter boomed. “Sad? Do not be absurd.”

Her hands fell away. “Someday, catman, you’ll tell me.” She rose to her feet. 

“Wait. Stay.” Gato grabbed her hand. 

“Why should I?” She wanted to. Very much. 

“Please.”

That damned word. 

Once seated, she faced him, and he cupped her chin. His breath was warm on her lips, while a mixture of hunger and despair leaked from his eyes. 

“You confound me,” he said.

“Back atcha, fella.”

“You make me want more,” he said. “You make me forget my purpose, my duty.” He closed his eyes and pressed his cheek to hers.

And all her wiseass comebacks vanished. His sorrow and need suffused her with a wish to comfort and an answering desire for more as well. Their embrace was deeper, holding the promise of something rich and meaningful. It whispered of what might be. 

She wrapped her arms around him and held on tight.

He pulled her closer still, the world dissolving to heat and want. To touch his skin, to weave his hair with her fingers, to press her lips to his. Instead, she breathed him in, reveling in the moment’s intimacy. When they parted, his eyes glittered with fire. He turned her, so her back rested against his chest, his arms banding her waist, his breathing synced to hers. Or was it hers to his? 

Bree relished the pleasure and comfort of him holding her. His muscled forearms were warm beneath her hands, and she stared at the stars as if they would answer the mystery of this relentless attraction.

Attraction. Who was she kidding? 

Each day at CatHome, her feelings had deepened, growing branches, spreading through all of her like kudzu. A male friend once said she was the best casual lover he’d ever had. She did casual well. Her emotions for Gato were anything but. 

He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I want you.”

“I know. The feeling is mutual.” 

“Come, poosha.” He rose, pulling her with him. 

She stepped back. A joke. She could steamroller this with a joke. “You’re too old for me, catman. You’re over seventy, while I’m a mere fifty-six.” 

He raised that arrogant Alpha brow. “Irrelevant.”

No more games. “I can’t, Gato.”

He pulled her tight to him again, a grin on his face. “Of course you can.”

She smoothed her hand down the sharp angle of his cheek, felt the scruff bristling his chin. “You are putting me up for The Challenge, and I can’t make love with a man who plans to give me away. How could I?”

His face tightened. “Because we want each other. It’s not impor—”

“It is, Gato. Desire used to be good enough for me. Not with you, it isn’t. I want more than a fuck. And you don’t. Or can’t.”

Bree pulled her hand from his and walked toward the tent, not wanting him to see how much rejecting him cost her. 

Come after me. Let me share your burdens. Say you won’t put me up for The Challenge.

He did none of those things. And she was alone. Again.

 

Author Bio:

Vicki’s fantasy romantic suspense series, The Afterworld Chronicles, launched with Chest of Bone, followed by Chest of Stone and Chest of Time. She is currently pounding the keys on her series’ fourth novel, Chest of Fire, and the first in a new series, The Made Ones Sags: Altered.
Her mystery/thrillers include Body Parts, The Dead Stone, The Bone Man, and The Grief Shop, a Daphne du Maurier prize winner. All feature homicide counselor Tally Whyte. All are available as ebooks.
She co-wrote (with Lisa Souza) and photographed the 10 Secrets of the LaidBack Knitters. With her late husband, William G. Tapply, she ran The Writers Studio workshops in creative fiction.
Vicki taught fiction writing and modern media writing at Clark University.
She loves both a well-crafted sentence and unlocking the doors of a student’s imagination.
She grew up in professional theater and planned to become an actress, with a bent for song and dance. She didn’t. Instead, she’s been a professional photographer, a high-school teacher, a hamburger slinger, a scuba-shop manager, and an editor.
She’s Blake’s and Ben’s mom, her favorite role of all.
Her passions include scuba diving and fly fishing and knitting; photography and movies; vinho verde and bourbon (not together!); Maine lobster and chocolate (also not together!); and musical comedy scores, which she sing in the shower, unfortunately not an Equity venue; and a fascination with people in all walks of life.

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