Releasing the Dragon Read online

  “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 2018)

  If you have enjoyed Releasing the Dragon, please consider leaving a review or a rating. 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.

  Sharing a Mate

  A Kindred Tales Novel

  A Beast Kindred who will not share a female

  A Blood Kindred who feels the same

  A woman forced to turn to both of them for help

  Will Bron and Sorin learn to share Kayla?

  Or will Sharing a Mate tear the three of them apart?

  Dr. Kayla Smith is a strong, independent woman with several prestigious degrees in Xenobiology and Chemistry. She lives and works on the Mother Ship and shares a lab with her two best friends, Dr. Bron—a huge Beast Kindred who is also a decorated microbiologist and Dr. Sorin, a Blood Kindred and award-winning virologist. The three of them work and play together but Kayla is afraid to act on her feelings for either Kindred because she knows that picking one means losing the other.

  Then comes the Great Needing.

  When Xi-46, a virulent aphrodisiac, is introduced into the Kindred Mother Ship through the air vents, Kayla is one of the women affected. Her desperate need can only be slaked with the help of a male and she gets help from both of her friends. Afterwards, they expect her to choose between them...but Kayla can't—she loves them both.

  Now they must go on a desperate mission to find the source of Xi-46 and try to create an antidote. But the further they go, the more Kayla realizes she needs both men in her life...and they need each other as well, though neither one wants to admit it.

  Can Bron and Sorin learn to share a mate?

  Can Kayla convince them that the three of them belong together?

  Or will the horrors they suffer at the house of Mother Pain tear them apart?

  Read Sharing a Mate to find out...

  An Excerpt

  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 t