J.M. Link Author: We're Back!

Hello Lovely Readers,

Oh, gosh. I'm sorry I haven't posted here in so long! I've been working hard to get back on track as far as a posting schedule, though. And for the sake of brevity, this one will still be short, as my days are usually planned down to the minute now to allow for writing time #toddlerlife

But how have you all been?? Well, I hope😊💕 I've definitely missed this blog, and I'm delighted to finally be able to share an excerpt from our current WIP, Askara Book 4, Before the Dawn, Roz & Xaphan's story. So exciting!!

I've also been working on a little side project; more to come soon. Right now I'm off to work on Dawn. Hehe, happy reading...

Chapter One

No fucking way.

Captain Rosalind Carter thought, as she eyed the nasty-looking massive Askari with the scar lurking behind Ambassador Wells. She remembered him well from the team’s initial meeting with the alien species on the bridge of the Amendment. The top of her head came to right beneath his chiseled chin: which was saying something, because she wasn’t a small woman. Didn’t matter. The bigger they were, the harder they fell, in her experience. Though she had yet to spar with one of the demonic-looking beings, and had already been briefed on how much stronger, heavier and faster they were than humans. But shit, his looks weren’t even what made her recoil. This was the one whose creepy yellow eyes had followed her around nonstop the entire time on the bridge during the team’s first “meet and greet”; as soon as he’d spotted her, in fact, Roz remembered, and he had snapped his sharp shark teeth in her general direction too. Either he didn’t care for her—which, fine by her, the feeling was mutual—or he’d been trying to size her up.

She figured it was to fight, since they were a warrior species, as she understood it, and the team had been warned to watch their body language and power poses so as not to seem threatening...

“No, thank you. Mm-mm,” was all she said. Short, sweet and to the point. That was usually how she came across…unless she was looking to spar, then she loved to talk shit.

Wells cleared his throat. The middle-aged man seemed like your typical politician, but she was getting the sense he was more formidable than he appeared...

“Captain Carter, was it?? In case I wasn’t clear, Representative Krim and Jinn have already volunteered to help all your teammates fully bond with their havats,” he said, glancing at the huge Askari. “You’re the only one that Representative Xaphan volunteered to help specifically, and as none of the other Askari appear comfortable performing such an intimate act…”

The male clicked, a sound of impatience if she ever heard one, and Roz denied the shiver that ran down her spine. She held her ground. “And I don’t blame them, but I can approach someone else myself if I have to. You have my answer, sir.”

He wasn’t technically her superior, but she addressed him as such anyway out of respect. And how the hell had she gotten herself into this situation anyway? Roz clenched her teeth in frustration. Call it intuition, but this was why she’d tried to tag their doctor, or healer, or whoever Jadar was as soon as they’d figured out that the team needed Askari blood to complete the “bonding” of their black alien body suits, because she didn’t want to have to deal with this one.

Xaphan.

***

Xaphan watched the large, delicately muscled female—delicate, compared to his kind—retreat swiftly down the passageway away from him. He could sense the ambassador still cowered beside him, and acknowledged that lunging at her in the diplomat’s presence probably wasn’t the best decision. He regretted nothing, however, as he continued to stare at her retreating form with a soft growl.

The sight piqued something inside of him, and Xaphan tilted his head, going still while he tried to place it.

The feeling was new, and fierce, and it took him by surprise…

Struggle as he might, but he could not remember a time he had ever given chase to a female before. To be true, since it was always they that found him, there’d been little need for him to go hunting in lust as other males often did for the chance to secure a breeding. But she, this Earther…she seemed to be giving him that opportunity, it occurred to him as his nostrils flared—whether she knew it or not. And Xaphan could not be more pleased.

Finally! Something to slake his lusts in this desolate system while they prepared for an attack he still mostly believed would not happen. Which was, he deemed, a whole other matter. All the same… He thought. Yess, all the same. This would do nicely. Then he snikted and lifted his chin to catch her lingering scent in the air.

Xaphan knew she would be much easier to track with a healthy havat, having sensed before there was something very wrong with the Earthers’ new bonds. Fortunately for him, he’d imprinted her scent the first time he saw her.

“Uhm, are you alright Representative Xaphan?” The ambassador made a small noise next to him. “I can have someone find Representatives Jadar, or Aderus, right away if you’re not feeling well.”

“No need,” he growled. Xaphan leveled the male with a stare, watching him cower again before he made to escape the annoying diplomat. “We are done here,” he grunted with single-minded intent.

Xaphan intended to track her. He was going to track Captain Carter...

In truth, he had attempted to do so more than once since spotting her, but the others kept him busy: Braxas, or Aderus, or Jadar. Their plans of warring with the humans for Askara came first, this he knew. Still. That did not mean he could not enjoy the prospect of catching her alone, he thought with a rolling click. Especially now, with what Jadar and the slight female with wild tresses had discovered: that their fighters needed Askari blood to complete the bonding of their havats... and Xaphan knew as soon as he’d heard it, that he wanted to be the one to give to her, Carter, as he continued tracking her through the passageways.

She was harder to impress than he figured. Especially when he’d never had issue impressing his own kind before. But humans were difficult, he snorted. One never knew what contorted reasonings were behind what they did, as they were all unfortunately coming to understand. It was no matter. He just needed to find her alone, Xaphan plotted. Because he had absolutely no intention of standing in the shadows while she asked other males for their blood. He would be the one to give to her, or none at all... He was unsure where she had been thinking to go, however…until he stopped again, clicking slowly.

His tresses lifted, and he turned his head toward the access to what the humans called their training room. It was a large space where they fought for sport, or as practice for warring, and if her scent didn’t tell him for certain, then another pulse from his havat plainly did.

Xaphan had found her.

Before the Dawn, by J.M. Link

*Full Prologue & Chapter One available @* https://www.patreon.com/posts/askara-series-4-103312576