In order to save their future, they must overcome their past.
Now that the mission to save the ruler of Ketaurrios is over, Celeste and her friends have been ordered to remain as guests in his home until the antidote they’d obtained purges the deadly toxin from his system.
After days of waiting, Celeste is impatient to return to the human settlement and decides a visit to his quarters, a quick thank you, and an even shorter good-bye to the man she’s never met should be all she needs to appease him and be on her way. What she didn’t expect to find is the man who stole her heart, the one she thought she could trust to protect her family during the war—a broken promise which resulted in their deaths.
Khyron is a warrior and the leader of his people. The war might be over but the past, in the form of a beautiful human female with flowing dark hair, haunts his thoughts and his dreams. Soon after waking from a healing induced sleep, he discovers Celeste is still alive and, once she realizes who he is, flees the city.
He doesn’t care if his life is in danger from those who will do anything to keep him from uniting the humans and his people, or that leaving the protection of his home is inadvisable. He is determined to find Celeste and make amends for his mistakes, then claim the only female on the planet who makes his tail twitch and bears the intoxicating scent of his mate.
When a new threat stalks Khyron and Celeste, can they overcome their past and reunite in order to fight for their future?
Note to readers: Each book in the Ketaurran Warriors series has a new romance and can be read as a stand-alone. The action, adventure, and story-line progresses with each book and enhances the reading experience if they are read in order. Here is the recommended order:
Jardun’s Embrace
Khyron’s Claim
Zaedon’s Kiss
My instincts, at least when it came to sensing danger, were finely honed and rarely wrong. Something wasn’t right. I could feel it in my core, had felt it for several days now. Yet when I leaned against the ornately carved wall of rock bordering the terrace and stared down at the city of Aztrashar, I didn’t see anything suspicious.
Maybe I was mistaken and should blame the tension thrumming through my body on boredom. My friends Sloane, Laria, Cara, Burke, and I were temporary houseguests in the home of the drezdarr, the leader of the ketaurran people. I’d been stuck in the city way longer than I’d expected, and all I wanted to do was return to the human settlement and home.
READ MOREWe’d successfully completed our mission by rescuing Vurell, the physician who’d been abducted by mercs, and returning him along with an antidote to stop the toxin that was slowly killing the drezdarr. Supposedly, the male I had yet to meet wanted to thank my friends and me personally for saving his life. So instead of heading home, we’d been asked to stay. It was the drezdarr’s polite way of ordering us to remain in the city until he had completed the sleep-induced healing process necessary for the drug to work.
I hadn’t assisted the vryndarr, the drezdarr’s elite warriors, with the mission or risked my life to save their leader. I’d done it because the toxin was a threat to many lives, human and ketaurran alike. I had no interest in being thanked for the role I played in the rescue. If I hadn’t known punishment for refusing a ketaurran leader’s request was severe, I’d have left the day after we arrived.
Other than the few times Sloane and I had ventured to the trader’s market, I had nothing to do but wait and visited the terrace frequently. I tipped my chin into the breeze, warmed by the early afternoon sun, and stared at the deep-green sky, where a cluster of blue-gray clouds had formed along the horizon signaling an oncoming storm.
Feeling confined and edgy, my patience gone, I decided to indulge my curiosity about the drezdarr and headed for his personal quarters. It probably wasn’t a good idea and meant major trouble if I got caught. Since I wasn’t big on following rules anyway, I decided it was worth the risk. With any luck, the drezdarr would be awake so I could get my thank-you, then leave.
I crept down the corridor leading to his private rooms, pausing outside Burke’s sleeping chamber long enough to hear him arguing with Vurell. Both males were obstinate and strong-willed and had differing viewpoints on whether or not the injuries Burke had received during our rescue attempt had healed enough for him to be allowed out of bed. I stifled a grin and silently slipped past the open doorway undetected.
Surprisingly, there were no guards standing in the hallway outside the closed doors of the drezdarr’s quarters. I knew I shouldn’t be here, but couldn’t force myself to walk away. After taking several deep breaths to calm my racing heart, I pressed on the door and slipped inside.
The interior of the room was dimly lit. Large wooden panels had been secured over the window areas to block out the sunlight. I waited for my eyes to adjust, then perused my surroundings. To the right sat a long desk and chair. Filling the area to the left was a massive bed, the frame constructed from stone much like the rest of the building.
From where I stood, I could see the large outline of a body beneath the blanket on top of the bed. I heard a male groan, not a normal sleep-laden noise, but the pain-filled moan of someone in the throes of torment. The heartfelt and overwhelming need to comfort him was too strong, so I cautiously inched closer.
After one glimpse and a shocked gasp, I clamped my hand over my mouth. Even with the sweat soaking the dark hair and plastering it to the skin around his face, I recognized the male before me. I knew the face all too well. It belonged to the male who had abandoned me, the male responsible for shredding my heart and letting my family die.
COLLAPSE
