Releasing the Dragon (Brides of the Kindred) Read online

  “Sounds like a banana split,” Sophie giggled and Liv laughed too.

  “Well, we know where the banana comes in,” she said and winked.

  “Laugh all you want—it’s not funny when your poor guys are dehydrated from giving you so much of what you need,” Kat said sternly. “We all know Kindred don’t need a recovery period during sex and they can come as often as they want but it’s been really hard on Deep and Lock. They’re practically living on protein shakes lately.”

  “And so are you!” Liv exclaimed. “Think of it Kat—you are!”

  She and Sophie began laughing again and Annie joined it. Finally Kat cracked a smile herself.

  “I’ve dropped ten pounds, you know,” she remarked. “It’s better than Atkins and the Keto diet put together.”

  This set them all off again and Annie laughed until tears came to her eyes. But finally, they sobered up.

  “It’s okay for us mated girls, you know,” Liv remarked. “But it’s the unmated girls I feel sorry for. It must have been so embarrassing for them, having to ask males they weren’t mated to, to help them.”

  “There are going to be a lot of uncomfortable looks around the family dinner table when they bring those guys to meet their parents and Mom and Dad ask, ‘So, how did you two meet?’” Kat remarked.

  “And what will they tell their kids?” Sophie shook her head. “I know nothing can happen to us that the Goddess doesn’t will, but sometimes it’s hard to understand why she lets certain things happen.”

  “She loves us though,” Liv said reassuringly. “And she can see things we can’t. This will all work out according to her will—you’ll see.”

  “I certainly hope you’re right.” Kat sighed and put down her knitting needles. “Okay, who’s tried of knitting and wants cupcakes? Lauren brought some fresh ones this morning.”

  “Lauren is our cousin—she’s also a genius baker,” Liv explained to Annie. “In fact, she was supposed to be here with us for girl’s day but unfortunately, she had a needing spell and had to run off to find her hubby.”

  “Xairn has probably got her chained to the bed even as we speak,” Kat remarked conversationally. “Oh, he’s Scourge so they’re into BDSM,” she explained to the rather shocked Annie. “But at least she brought us cupcakes first. So who wants one?”

  “I do—oh!” Sophie put a hand to the side of her head. “Sylvan just bespoke me. He said there’s a group of scientists going on an expedition to find an antidote. A special team of three.”

  “Really?” Liv frowned. “Who are they? Maybe I’ve seen them at the med center.”

  “Hang on…” Sophie concentrated for a moment, clearly bespeaking her husband, and then answered. “There’s Dr. Bron, who’s a Beast Kindred microbiologist, Dr. Sorin, a Blood Kindred virologist, and Dr. Kayla Smith, a xenobiologist and chemist.”

  “Oh, I know Kayla—she’s awesome!” Liv exclaimed. “And so smart! She’s got a genius-level IQ but she’s not one of those super-smart people you can’t relate to. She’s still down to Earth, if you know what I mean.”

  “Well, it’s good to know Sylvan is putting our smartest people on it,” Kat remarked. “So which of the other two scientists is she mated to? Or is she married to someone else altogether?”

  “Oh, you know what…she’s single.” Liv put a hand to her mouth, her eyes widening. “I wonder which of them she was with when the needing started?”

  “Hang on…” Sophie concentrated, bespeaking Sylvan again, and her green eyes went wide. “Oh no! She was with…both of them.”

  “What?” A Blood Kindred and a Beast Kindred?” Kat demanded. “Those two will rip her in two like two dogs fighting over a bone! Everybody knows how territorial Beast Kindred and Blood Kindred are.”

  “That’s true—it’s not like they could share her like Twin Kindred could,” Sophie said doubtfully.

  “Oh, poor Kayla!” Liv looked distressed. “I wonder if I should go see her and say anything?”

  “According to Sylvan, she’s going to go with Dr. Bron and Dr. Sorin to try and find the antidote as soon as possible,” Sophie remarked. “So I’m guessing the situation will work itself out.”

  “It’ll have to,” Kat said grimly. “She’s going to have to pick one of them—and odds are, the other one will end up dead.”

  “That’s terrible!” Annie exclaimed. She had been listening with wide eyes but she couldn’t hold back anymore. “What is she going to do?”

  “We don’t know, hon.” Liv patted her hand gently. “All we can do is pray for her and put her in the hands of the Goddess—it’s the safest place to be.”

  Annie hoped her friend was right. But even though she didn’t know Kayla, she couldn’t help being worried about the poor girl who was caught between two huge Kindred warriors with no way out.

  The End?

  Of course not!

  There is always more Kindred to come. I confess, I had some serious writer’s block in the middle of this book—mostly due to trouble with my son’s school. (Don’t you hate when RL gets in the way of a good story?) But I’m really pleased with how it ended because it presents so many options for new Kindred Tales, which is really becoming its own series, along with my main Brides of the Kindred line. I want to explore what happens to Kayla and Bron and Sorin, and I want to tell Lizabeth and Lone’s story as well. And then there is the dastardly Zar’ren who got the Mother Ship into this mess in the first place. What is his past and why does he hate the Kindred so much? What will he do next—something tells me we may find out at sometime in the future. And of course, I still want to tell Malik the Volt Kindred’s story in Brides of the Kindred 23. So many stories for my muse to tell and never enough time to write, it seems like! If you’d like to tell me which ones you’d like to hear next, come find me on FaceBook or drop me a line at my website www.evangelineanderson.com. I love to hear from readers!

  Hugs and Happy Reading to you All!

  Evangeline September 9, 2018

  ***If you have enjoyed Releasing the Dragon, please consider leaving a review or a rating HERE. Good reviews are like gold for an author--they let other readers know it's okay to take a chance on a new series. Plus, they give me the Warm Fuzzies. Thanks for being such an awesome reader! : ) Evangeline

  Now here's a sneak peek at the next Kindred Tales Novel--Sharing a Mate, coming November 2018

  Chapter One

  Doctor Kayla Smith wished she was dead.

  She was a renowned xenobiologist and chemist with several prestigious degrees to her name. She had a bright future, living and working on the Mother Ship, studying alien samples from the other planets the Kindred visited. As a member of an elite, three-person team, she was breaking all kinds of scientific boundaries and making amazing new discoveries every day. In short, she had everything she could want in her personal and professional life.

  And right now, she wanted to die.

  “Oh God, how could I let myself do that? How? How?” she whispered, pulling her knees up to her chest as hot water dripped down her nose. She was sitting in the shower stall in her suite in the Mother Ship, taking what had to be her twentieth shower in two days. She wished she had a bathing pool in her suite but those were only for mated couples and she most definitely was not mated.

  She didn’t want to be mated, either, Kayla told herself. She wanted to stay single and be married to her work. Unlike a lot of single women who came up to the Mother Ship from Earth, she hadn’t come with the intention of finding a husband or earning her “Mrs. degree” as her Auntie Feenie jokingly put it.

  “I’m a respected scientist,” Kayla whispered to herself, pushing one of her long black box braids behind her ear. Her hand was trembling as she did so—she hadn’t eaten in days. Not since…the incident. “Or I was a respected scientist, anyway.”

  But it wasn’t the respect of the wider scientific community she was worried about losing—it was the respect of the other two members of her team. The two Kindred warriors she