Monthly Archives: March 2020

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New Release- Hearts of Destiny by Kay Doherty

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Title: Hearts of Destiny

Series: Chevalier, Book Four

Author: Kay Doherty

Publisher: NineStar Press

Release Date: March 30, 2020

Heat Level: 3 – Some Sex

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 40700{

Genre: Paranormal, LGBTQIA+, MM romance, gay, pack dynamics, feud, wolf shifters, dragon shifters, multispecies shifters, bonded mates

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Synopsis

Ean and Matthias have known they’re mates for a while, but Matthias has been unwilling to claim Ean. He believes his past and age-old secrets are too big for Ean to overcome, so instead keeps Ean away by irritating him.

Depressed and no longer able to be near the dragon-shifter, Ean leaves the pack house and, after a night of heavy drinking, makes a life-changing decision that pushes Matthias into action.

As the blood moon draws nearer, the Chevalier Pack is called before a tribunal of paranormal leaders to assess the Alpha’s rumored mysterious abilities. Matthias decides to share his secrets with a little help from Colby. And to top everything off, they face another attack by the McBane Pack, which the Chevalier decide will be the last.

Excerpt

Hearts of Destiny
Kay Doherty © 2020
All Rights Reserved

Prologue
Duray Horde Vault

After adjusting the stack of scrolls tucked beneath his arm, Matthias opened the door to the vaults and headed down the stairs. He had no idea what was contained in the newest additions to the horde library, but Sadie had insisted he take them, look through them, and archive them appropriately. The sheer number of scrolls he was carrying guaranteed weeks of sequestered reading, and he was looking forward to it. Matthias often disappeared for days within the vault stacks, and no one cared. He was moody and antisocial at the best of times and preferred his own company to that of other dragons.

At the back of the library, he dropped the scrolls unceremoniously on top of the desk he’d claimed as his, decades ago. Since no one came down to the vaults, no one had challenged his claim. As far as the horde was concerned, the vaults were Matthias’s domain. The soft thump of little feet echoed in the cavernous space, dulled slightly by the papers and leather-bound tomes that filled the shelving. Matthias knew who those steps belonged to, and his disposition lightened a bit. Sadie’s son had a thirst for knowledge that Matthias admired, even if it did mean his quiet sanctuary was invaded on a regular basis by the child.

“Hi, Matthias.”

“What are you doing down here, Luca?”

The fledgling hefted a book that was nearly a third his size, and Matthias recognized it as an old human-written story about a witch. He wasn’t sure it was an appropriate choice for a fledgling of just eight years to read, but he’d learned early on that Luca was not an ordinary little dragon. There was something special about him: something that reminded Matthias of the child he’d raised centuries before.

“Nothing in that book is factual,” Matthias told the boy.

“That’s good, because the witch ate the kids.” Luca winced before turning around and disappearing into the shelving.

“Don’t make me come behind you and straighten up,” Matthias ordered, his voice carrying through the room despite him not raising it the slightest bit.

Twenty entirely-too-quiet minutes passed before Matthias rose from his chair to go check on Luca. He found the book the boy had brought back exactly where it should be, but Luca wasn’t there. Returning to the main aisle, Matthias glanced down each row as he passed until he finally found Luca sitting on the floor with his back against the stone wall with a book opened across his little legs.

“This isn’t a row you’re allowed to be in,” Matthias said, shocking the little boy who was clearly immersed in what he was reading.

Matthias squatted in front of him, closed the book, and willed the panic he felt explode in his chest to not show on his face as he pulled the book from Luca’s grasp. He stood and placed the tome well above the boy’s head. Luca was entirely too curious for his own good.

“But I liked that story,” Luca complained. “It had a dragon married to a wolf, and I didn’t know that could happen, and I want to see what happens next.”

Matthias swallowed thickly. Luca thought he was reading a fictional story, but Matthias knew all too well that the Chevalier family had been real, and he’d be damned if he put the idea of interspecies matings into the head of the horde matriarch’s son. Pushing the memory of his own interspecies mating to the back of his mind—because what did it matter anymore?—he looked down at the fledgling.

He steered the boy into a more appropriate area of the vaults to be explored and then returned to the tome he’d confiscated. Pulling it off the shelf, Matthias thumbed through page after page of his own historical account of the Chevalier, removed the most informative and thereby damaging chapters, and then replaced it on the shelf. Luca was only going to get older, taller, and more curious with age. Matthias wouldn’t risk him finding the book again.

Later that night, after darkness had fallen and the compound had grown silent with slumber, Matthias burned one of the last firsthand accounts of the Chevalier—his own. Why he’d thought it was a good idea to put that horror down on paper, he’d never understand. Youthful folly. All that was left to do was locate and obtain Alietta’s journal, the final remaining written history of the family and subsequent events Matthias had yet to destroy. For now, he was content knowing the only memory of the Chevalier that existed in the Duray Horde was now locked safely away inside his head; a place no amount of childhood curiosity could penetrate.

Purchase

NineStar Press | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Meet the Author

Kay Doherty is an omnisexual/polysexual who lives in Colorado with her poly-family, Mike, Keri, and Tigz. Her house is overrun with cats and dogs. Family is important to her so there are daily texts, frequent visits to her parents, and constant banter with her brothers. She happily suffers a severe addiction to coffee and Mexican food. She loves to read and write and can easily become consumed by it for hours, much to the dismay of Mike and Keri (Tigz is an enabler). On occasion she can be convinced to venture out into the world of the living despite being annoyed by the sun shining in her face.

Website |Twitter | Pinterest

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Jana Blogs

Rainbow Snippets

5 Comments

I have to say I’ve been too busy moving all my classes online to be either anxious or depressed but I’m nearly done with that. It’ll be interesting to see how I fare after that. I’ve never done well with inactivity but I’m good with not leaving the apartment.

I’m picking up where I left off in These Haunted Hills after Josh asked Brendan to go looking for a hidden haunted cemetery at the murder hotel (while they’re eating dinner). Here’s the answer. It’s definitely over 6 sentences because there was no good way of breaking this and making sense of the scene. Hope you don’t mind.

“Sure. I could do it tomorrow. How about you?”

“That works.”

Brendan stabbed up some salad, chewing thoughtfully before asking, “Can I ask you about the twins and the whole aura thing.”

“I heard about what they said to you. I hope they didn’t upset you,” Josh said quickly.

“No, not at all. I’m not sure I believe in auras. DO you?”

Josh made a face, setting aside his fork. “I’m on the fence but Hoshi and Kasumi are true believers. There seems to be evidence both ways so when it comes to something that ambiguous, I tend to remain on the side of the skeptic.”

“I guess if there’s anything to it, they could certainly be right about me. I looked it up. Gold in theory denotes creativity. I am that.”

“No argument.”

“And the black, hell my life has been dark ever since I first heard Connor had cancer.” Brendan sighed, touching his pendant. “I am trying to be objective about this because on the face of it, it can be exactly what I’ve always feared about psychics. I’m a public figure. At least authors aren’t movie star level of celebrity. Even so, Connor’s death, our grief played out publically. That was the salt in the wound.’ He paused, trying to gather his courage. “My point is, they could easily have known and tailored their response to fit what they knew.”

“Agreed but I can’t see them doing that. Of course, they’re my friends so I wouldn’t want to see that.”

Josh’s distress upset Brendan. “I’m not suggesting they did. Please don’t think that. I’m just working through the idea that some psychics can and do do things like that. Kasumi and Hoshi had no real reason to try and trick me. I wasn’t paying them for a reading. There was no real reason to say anything to me unless they were concerned or had some underlying reason for it.” Brendan new they could have. They might have been buttering him up before offering to contact Connor for him and he’d jump at that. He doubted Josh would approve.

“They don’t this work for pay if that helps.”

“It does. I just thought it was interesting is all,” Brendan said. That was true and it might be a good place to leave it. He didn’t want to upset Josh. He remembered Josh’s hesitation when they first met as if he feared Brendan only wanted to hire him so they could contact Connor and hadn’t been happy about that idea. That was a conversation for another day.

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

Jana Blogs

Rainbow Snippets

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I will throttle the first person who tells me teaching online is easier. OMG I’ve spent 15 hours moving things online for my classes and I’ve barely scratched the surface. I have to waive my labs because too many of my students have no internet (we’re rural Appalachia here so…) I’m looking forward to breaking free of this computer.

Until then here’s more of These Haunted Hills I’ve skipped over them eating dinner. They’re sitting around afterwards talking about the haunted hotel.

“We were thinking about the hotel and how to handle it. Hunter and Cass want to tackle it this weekend but they thought maybe you and I could go out to the hotel and scout around the outside, maybe get that ladder up to peek into the second floor,” Josh said before popping another hunk of steak into his mouth.

“Will we be going back in?”

Josh shook his head. “We decided that it might be a bit too dangerous between the level of activity and the structural issues. It might be best to have everyone there. There is supposed to be a hidden graveyard on the grounds, at least according to the research Madison has done.”

“I saw some mention of that myself. So you want to look for that?”

“I think it’ll be a good use of time, if you want to give it a go.”

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

Jana Blogs

Rainbow Snippets

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I know I owe everyone comments. This week was a blur of working on research during spring break and working with the university to come up with what we’re going to do during the pandemic. I’ll get back to them.

I’m continuing with These Haunted Hills Josh has been outside in the woods and has just returned to the cabin.

He pulled out the ear buds and Brendan heard strains of Mozart before Josh turned the player off. “Got it. Something knocked it askew, maybe a coon or a coyote. I’ll have to review the footage. I haven’t had time with trying to read the graduate ecology’s papers. I have them in the car. I thought if you wanted to work while you cook, I could do that. Or give you half.” Josh grinned. “You’d be at least as good at a TA at grading them.”

Brendan held up his hands. “Oh hell no. I’ve done a little of that when I’ve been a guest lecturer in creative writing classes. I’m not even sure I remember what proper format is for papers these days and what I know of ecology is it’s bare definition.”

“Close enough.”

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

Jana Blogs

Rainbow Snippets

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It’s Spring Break so I’m going home to see the family. Posting and driving back to Pittsburgh. Mom already has my every day planned. I’m like Mom I do have work to do but the casino DOES sound like more fun.

Still with These Haunted Hills. Josh has arrived at Brendan’s cabin and has gone off into the woods to figure out what is wrong with his cameras in the field. Brendan is waiting for him almost patiently.

He sat in the not-quite-comfortable lawn chair and waited for Josh. He could have, perhaps should have, gone in and back to work but he wasn’t getting much done. He might as well sit back and rest a while. Josh came back about twenty minutes later, a little dirtier than when he left. He hummed softly to whatever was playing on his MP3 player. For a moment he was surprised Josh wasn’t listening to his phone but there was probably no bars out there. Josh doubtlessly spent a lot of time where there was no coverage.

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!