Shades of Pink vol. 2 by Alice Stark, Alicia J. Love, Amara Lebel, Angela Yseult, Ashley Suzanne, C. Deanne Rowe, Catherine Bowman, Cynthia Sax, Deelylah Mullin, DJ Shaw, Gill Taber, Highland Hussy, JJ and TA Ellis, Kallysten, Laura Hunsaker, Laurie Hunsaker, Mitzi Calderone, Natasza Waters, Nina Day Gerard, Sabrina Garie, Susan Harris, T. Hammond, Vivien Dean, Zoe York on October 1, 2014
Genres: Bdsm, Contemp Romance, Erotic Romance, Highlander Romance, Military Romantic Suspense, Mythology, PNR, Romance, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Scottish Romance, time travel romance, Urban Fantasy
Format: eBook
Source: Personal copy
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This October, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, 22 authors have allied for 1 cause: fundraising for research through the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Their gift to everyone who makes a donation? A romance anthology (ebook) titled Shades of Pink (volume 2). Last year, the first Shades of Pink event raised over $10.000 through more than 1300 donations!
This anthology contains 22 short stories, including…
• 4 paranormal, 1 sci-fi, 11 contemporary, 1 historical, 2 military, 3 BDSM, 2 YA (some stories have more than one genre)
• 3 spicy (ménage or kink), 7 sexy (explicit sex scenes), 12 sweet (no sex)
• A couple of vampires, about three dozen humans including soldiers, geeks, teachers, librarians, writers, survivors, bosses, rock stars, teens, mages, wives, husbands and fiancés, 1 succubus, 1 genie, a Highlander, a few aliens, some werewolves and other shifters.
• Pink, pink and more pink, including tattoos, plenty of flowers, precious stones, jewelry, a bookmark, a drawing, ropes, lingerie, a car, a bag, a vase, various clothes, an anteater and a squirrel.
Last October I was invited to write a short story for the Shades of Pink charity anthology that author Kallysten puts together every year. We raised over $10,000 for the Breast Cancer Research Fund. We even got a sweet trophy!
This year, Kallysten has done it again! With the Shades Of Pink volume 2 anthology, you get 22 stories, mine included! I wrote the Broken Highlander, which is a prequel for my Nightkind series, and it gives you a glimpse as to what Nevin did after Amalia turned him into a vampire.
All you have to do is click on this link. Donate any amount you want to, and once you’ve donated, you download the ebook! Easy peasy!
In the mean time, here’s a scene from The Broken Highlander for you.
Scotland 1304
The fire consumed him, burning away what he had been. It coursed through his veins until it culminated where his heart should be. He no longer knew whether he had a heart or not. But he held fast to the one thing in the inky blackness that he could remember. Her. She was everything. He both hated her and wanted her. But what had she done to him?
The wet slurping sounds nearly gagged Nevin MacLachlan, but he refused to stop. He needed this. His newfound strength had waned.
It had been weeks since he had fed. He was pushing himself to go longer between feedings. The last time wasn’t something he’d soon forget. How could he? He’d killed a man.
Forcing the blood down his throat in a Herculean effort, Nevin refused to shut his eyes. He would watch, he made himself watch, and he would never forget what he had become. Vampire.
He dropped the nearly empty deer carcass and stared in horror and disgust at the blood on his hands. His plaid was ruined. He’d have to try to wash the blood out in the loch. Trudging towards the freezing cold loch, his thoughts drifted to the demon angel who had turned him into the monster he now was.
She was beautiful. Long hair, dark as the night he lived in, eyes that were just as dark, and a sinfully lush figure. He’d wanted her from the instant he first saw her. The lust that hit him was unlike anything he’d ever felt before, not even for his wife.
But that was before. Before she’d turned him, before he’d been relegated to the darkness of shadows, before he’d become a monster. He swatted at a low-hanging branch with more vehemence than was necessary and the branch splintered. Disgusted at himself, he plodded on.
Damn her, she’d ruined everything. Why couldn’t she have just left him alone?
He should be inside his warm smithy, pounding out a piece of metal, watching the lump of raw ore change shape and turn into something useful. He loved working with his hands. He loved making tools, weapons, horse shoes, didn’t matter. He created something and he felt a sense of purpose.
But all that was gone. His friends, his village, all thought him a demon. Which he was. The blood dripping down his beard was evidence enough. The one time he’d seen his reflection in the moonlit water, his eyes had been red. If that didn’t prove he was demon, the taste of blood in his mouth did. Because he enjoyed the blood. All of his kind did. That was the problem, wasn’t it? He couldn’t stop thinking about blood.
Except when he was thinking about her.
Her. The demon who had doomed him to this hellish existence of eternity. He didn’t pretend that the human he’d killed wasn’t dead because of his own actions, but she sure as hell deserved some of the blame. It was her fault he had become this creature.
Nevin refused to become like her. He wouldn’t kill humans. Not again. His fight was with the vampires. All of them. The Nightkind had killed his wife, and he had hated them long before he’d been turned into one. Now, he wouldn’t rest until every last one of them had been eradicated. Maybe then he’d feel some peace.
