Author Name: Lexi Ander
Book Name: Dreams of the Forgotten
Series: Sumeria’s Sons
Book: 3 Not be read as a standalone
Release Date: March 15, 2015
Blurb(s):
For Tristan and Ushna, nothing comes easy and with each passing day the challenges grow and the dangers multiply. The safe home they are building for their family and tribe is threatened from all sides, and the peace they seek is being torn apart by enemies and internal strife. Tristan dares not reveal his condition to any but those closest to him, all the while he’s plagued by dreams he cannot remember upon waking…
And over all of it hangs the knowledge that his time with Ushna is running out. Because Ushna already has a Flame awaiting rebirth, and though Tristan would die to protect that bond, he constantly struggles against his beast who demands they bind Ushna to their side.
Pages or Words: 63,000
Categories: Fantasy, Gay, Paranormal, Polyamory, Urban Fantasy
Excerpt:
Ushna’s Lupe, the third form of half-man and half-wolf that all Lycan warriors used for battle, pushed forward as his need to protect took over. Short, fine, black hair burst through his skin under my hands as his chest and arms thickened, his face elongated, and his mouth filled with jagged teeth. Even with fingers tipped with razor-sharp claws, he was careful as he delicately held me in his protective arms. He growled loud and long in warning.
The light switched on, flooding the room with blinding white light. I heard Gregori in the background yelling in anger, followed by a hollow thumping noise, and wounded yells. I scented who’d invaded our bedroom before I gazed over Ushna’s shoulder.
Several weeks ago, Elder Koller had made a call to pull childhood friends of ours, Stanley Kendall and Jory Swaine, from California. The suggestion had been made after the Magi Triad had tried to kidnap both Gregori and Ushna, and the elder knew these two were men I trusted. We had been expecting them at any time, and I would’ve laughed at their antics if I wasn’t worried Ushna would eviscerate our friends.
Gregori, his red hair wild, clad only in blue sleep pants, had a fistful of Stan’s dark hair and a foot planted in the middle of his back, bowing Stan over backward. Gregori wielded a shoe like it was a Sumerian sword and beat Jory with it. Jory tried to defend himself against the onslaught of the shoe and fight off the two guards who were attempting to subdue him.
“You stupid idiots!” Gregori yelled at the top of his lungs. “You could’ve hurt him, you oversized oafs! What’s wrong with knocking?!”
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
“Ushna is going to eat you and I should let him! It would remind you to respect your alpha!”
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
“Senseless overgrown children!”
Half a dozen guards filed into the room, taking charge of Stan and Jory, relieving a bedraggled Gregori. Scowling furiously at our friends, Gregori gradually crawled onto the bed, talking soothingly to Ushna, who hadn’t stopped growling. I ran my hands down his fur-covered back to soothe him.
“Everything is okay, Ushna,” Gregori cooed.
I cupped my hands around his face, gazing into his ruby red eyes. “I’m okay,” I whispered to him. “Come back to me.”
He released the Lupe, and Ushna the man emerged, the harsh and horrific features melting away. His body shuddered, muscles clenched and convulsed as his control returned.
It’d been years since I’d seen our two friends. Where Stan was dark, Jory was light. Stanley Kendall had wavy dark brown hair that roughly covered his brow, but didn’t quite touch his collar. His eyes were so brown they were virtually black. He sported a couple days of growth on his chin and cheeks. The stubble looked good against his bronzed skin.
Jory Swaine, on the other hand, had short blond hair, was clean shaven with bright turquoise eyes and golden skin. Stan was broader through the chest with his athletic build while Jory was leaner. Both wore leathers; Jory’s pants where loose, hanging low on his hips and revealing the waistband of his boxers, while Stan looked like he was poured into his.
Ushna turned a furious gaze on Stan and Jory, who were standing in the farthest corner, appearing chastised and contrite. “What in the hell were you thinking!” He roared at them. Gregori and I made shushing noises, but Ushna continued to rumble.
“Ah… surprise?” Stan offered weakly, slightly confused.
“Ushna, it’s okay; they didn’t know,” I said.
Ushna snapped his human teeth at our friends. I swear if we’d been alone, I would’ve jumped and taken him right there.
“Xenres, are you injured?” Corey Bahar was the first to swear a blood oath to me. He’d been Captain until this unexpected growth of the tribe and now he was the newly appointed Arms Master of the Royal Guard. In private, he was most adamant in the use of my title, Xenres, which meant prince in our language. Corey didn’t take his sable gaze off Stan and Jory as he approached me. The man looked like he’d been up for hours with his braided blond hair gleaming, clothes pressed and tucked. Did he ever sleep?
Jory chortled at Corey’s words, which caused Gregori to throw a shoe and bean Jory in the head.
A string of curse words exploded from Jory. “Dammit, Gregori! What the hell was that for?” He rubbed the sore spot.
Gregori didn’t answer. Corey’s question was all it took to make Ushna start snarling again as he ran his hands over me, checking for obvious injury. Gregori rubbed small circles on Ushna’s back. I grabbed his hands and craned my head around to get him to look me in the eye, to see me.
“Hey, hey! I’m okay. I’m not hurt.” I kissed his hands.
“I want Nathan to look at you.” Ushna’s worried gaze continued to study me. Nathan Janick, my brother and the resident doctor, had meticulously cared for me during my pregnancy so far.
“All right.” I knew nothing less would appease him.
Stan watched our exchange. The longer he listened, the more confused he appeared. “What’s the big deal?” He crossed his arms, scowling hard. He and Jory had acted as they normally would around us, with carefree roughhousing.
I grabbed Ushna’s attention before he could bark back a reply. We’d purposely kept my pregnancy within my inner circle. I hadn’t left the Clearwater area, which was my territory. When I needed to go to town, I wore a ring Gregori had made for me, a ring of illusion that had hid my swollen stomach. I didn’t meet with outsiders without it.
We hadn’t told Stan and Jory. All communication had gone through Elder Janus Koller, who’d recruited them to work for the Elder Council in the Enforcement Division. Neither Ushna nor I had spoken to these two before now. Needless to say, we hadn’t anticipated their surprise.
“Master Corey,” I calmly said, “we’re all right. I’m sorry we woke you.” I needed privacy for the talk we were going to have with our old friends.
Corey gave a slight bow. The expression on his face let me know we would be revisiting the issue of posting guards outside the bedroom. I had been successful at convincing Corey that the small group of warriors staying in the house was enough security. We didn’t need someone standing on sentry duty in the hallway. To appease Corey, I had even agreed to allow an armed detail to shadow me around the ranch when I left the house. This stunt of Stan’s and Jory’s would make Cory feel vindicated in his original assessment. I would have to talk quick at the next security meeting to keep the arrangements the way they were now.
“It was no bother, Xenres.” Corey shot Jory a hard look when my friend snorted a laugh. He appeared to be gauging whether Jory was being disrespectful to me or making fun of him. “I won’t be far if you need me,” he said before closing the door behind him.
Jory tried to hide his smirk by rubbing a hand over his face. I knew what was coming before he opened his mouth. “Damn, Tristan. You’ve got people bowing and scraping to you. What’ve you been doing?”
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About the author:
Lexi has always been an avid reader, and at a young age started reading (secretly) her mother’s romances (the ones she was told not to touch). She was the only teenager she knew of who would be grounded from reading. Later, with a pencil and a note book, she wrote her own stories and shared them with friends because she loved to see their reactions. A Texas transplant, Lexi now kicks her boots up in the Midwest with her Yankee husband and her eighty-pound puppies named after vacuum cleaners.
Thank you for stopping by today. BFD Book Blog had some great interview questions for me.
Q: You are a Texas transplant now in the Midwest. Which area do you prefer?
A: I moved here the last year of high school, and honestly, in the beginning I hated the Midwest. The humidity, the green stuff everywhere, the cold—OMG, I thought the cold was going to kill me—and then there was the fact I knew no one. For the longest time I didn’t consider the Midwest home but it’s grown on me over time. I loved the colors in the fall. I learned to love a crisp frosty morning over a hot cup of coffee. I no longer notice the humidity, unless there isn’t any. And as crazy as it seems, I now LOVE the cold. I want to live farther north and I want a snowmobile which irks the husband because he’s ready to move to the south away from the snow. 🙂
Q: What kind of puppies do you have?
A: My oldest, H
oover, is seven years old this year. We were told when he got him as a pup that his mother was an Akita and his dad was who-knew because she had a dalliance in a dark corner. He’s smart and high energy. He acts like a cat. He has definite preferences when he wants you to love on h
im, and then boom, he’s done. The ‘baby’, Dyson, is three and a half. His dad was a Bernese Mountain Dog and his mom was a Samosa. He was supposed to be 40 lbs max. Ha-ha. The joke was on us. He’s 100 lbs. He’s a momma’s dog and still thinks he has the right to sit on my lap at any time. I love them both.
Q: Who is your must read author?
A: Picking just one is painful. I’ll try to keep it down to a respectable number because I love to read and I’m finding new go-to authors all the time. These are in alphabetical order, across all genres. Catherine Asaro, Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Mary Calmes, T.A. Chase, Megan Derr, Barb & J.C. Hendee, Angel Martinez, Sasha L. Miller, Freddy McKay, Tali Spencer, Piper Vaughn.
Q: Which of your characters is your favorite? Which was the hardest to write?
A: I’m going to stick to the characters to the Sumeria’s Sons series for this question. I don’t know if anyone is going to understand my answer to my favorite character. It is Corey Bahar, Tristan’s Arms Master. When I write characters, they all have some kind of back story. It helps me to know who they are and to gauge how they will react to situations. At this time, I’m the only who really knows Corey. As the series progresses, the readers will come to know him as well.
Who was the hardest to write? I would have to say, Ushna. Crazy, right? Up to this point, everything has been from Tristan’s POV. We see Ushna through Tristan’s knowledge and emotion. Ushna is demonstrative, but not very verbose, which one would think is easy. There is so much under the surface that isn’t seen… yet. I just finished book 5, and for the first time in the series we have Ushna’s POV. Freakin’ broke my heart to put his internal thoughts on the page. Writing book 5 came right after the death of my father, and so that was mixed up with Ushna’s own sorrow. It was hard reining in the emotion. I didn’t want it to overshadow the whole book, but it had to be done. I think that the balance was achieved but make sure you have a couple of tissues.
Q: If you could go anywhere in the world and come back with a new fantastic story where would that be?
A: I would love to crawl around the Aztec ruins of Central America. I have a ton of books about them, but I would trade all the pictures for a look at the real thing. That would be awesome!
Thank you for stopping by the Dreams of the Forgotten Blog Tour. I hope you enjoyed the interveiw. ^_^ I hope you have a wonderful day and thank you for reading!!
Where to find the author:
Web site: http://www.lexiander.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexi.ander.9
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LexiAnder1
Blog: http://lexiander.blogspot.com/
E-mail: [email protected]
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6521302.Lexi_Ander
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Cover Artist: London Burden
Tour Dates & Stops:
27-Apr
28-Apr
29-Apr
Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My
30-Apr
1-May
4-May
5-May
Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves
6-May
7-May
8-May
RAFFLECOPTER PRIZES:
- $20 Amazon Gift card, $20 All Romance Gift card, hard copy of Dreams of the Forgotten, swag (pens, bookmarks, and such)
- $20 All Romance Gift card, hard copy of Dreams of the Forgotten, swag (pens, bookmarks, and such)
- hard copy of Dreams of the Forgotten, swag (pens, bookmarks)
- e-book copy of Dreams of the Forgotten
- e-book copy of Dreams of the Forgotten
Thank you for hosting me today!
Hi Lexi, thanks for the giveaway!
My pleasure, Thomas. Goo luck with the giveaway!
thanks for the chance!
Gook luck, Amanda!
Hi Lexi, I wish you all the best!
Hey, Betul. Have a great weekend!