QSFer Karenna Colcroft has a new MM paranormal romance out: Figs Till the End.
Anax Tobias Rogan, ruler of all werewolves in the United States, is preparing for what should be the happiest day of his life: The day he finally marries his fated mate, vegan werewolf Kyle Slidell. But before the wedding can occur, Tobias has to make it through his first time hosting the annual gathering of the country’s werewolf leaders.
Not everyone is pleased about the changes Tobias has made in the year since he became Anax. After one of the regional leaders and several of the alphas under his rule leave the gathering in protest, Tobias faces a fracturing country–culminating in the issuing of a challenge to fight for the Anax rank. A fight only one can survive.
Tobias has always refused to kill without reason, but this time, the choice is to kill or to die. And all Tobias wants is to live to see his and Kyle’s happy ending.
This book includes violence and death between werewolves; off-page trans-bashing of a transgender man; transphobia and homophobia; depictions of PTSD; and mention of past sexual assaults, including of an underage teen.
Discussion of past sexual assault; transphobia and off-page trans-bashing; violence between and death of werewolves.
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Excerpt
Kyle answered on the first ring. “Tobias, my love. I thought you’d be back by now.”
“There have been some…complications.” Going into everything would only worry him, but he had a right to know. Since April, when I’d disappeared for a few days after the Anax power started getting the better of me, I’d promised Kyle I would keep him informed of everything I had the right to inform him of. Which, since I was the Anax and decided what my rights were, was pretty much everything.
I opted not to out Ren, though. That didn’t seem fair. “A new wolf showed up while I was running,” I said. “In wolf form, badly injured. Right after he shifted back to human for the first time, members of the pack that was supposed to take him in beat him. He’s here now, and I don’t want to leave him alone here, obviously.”
“And the hunt house is better for a recovering wolf than our house.” He sighed. “I love you. One of the things I love about you is that you help others. So you’re staying out there for how long?”
“Tonight, at least.” I hadn’t thought any further ahead than that. Right now, I didn’t have the brain power to sort it out.
“Tell you what.” He paused. “The gathering starts in two days. I mean, yeah, you’re only an hour from the house, but you have someone there who’s probably terrified, and to be honest, Xavier’s a great guy but not the most comforting person I’ve met. It’s probably best that you stay there with…?”
“Ren.”
“Ren, and I’ll pack up everyone and everything here and head out there tomorrow afternoon.” He paused again. “Davion already left. He’s going there as backup?”
“In case someone comes after Ren.” Which they’d already done. “Again.”
“Again?” His voice rose. “Are you all right?”
“Three wolves from the pack showed up, supposedly to keep Ren from ‘defecting.’” Even though Kyle couldn’t see me, I made air quotes. “I sent them on their not-so-merry way and spoke to their Alpha, who wasn’t aware of any of this and is going to deal with the situation.”
“All right.” He sounded skeptical. “At least you’ll have Xavier and Davion out there for tonight, which I guess is good. They’re both day shift guards, but you can change that for the moment, yeah?”
“Yeah, good thinking.” If I was going to be here overnight, I would need a guard on duty while I slept. Or didn’t sleep, as the case might be. Dragging all of the guards out here from Boston didn’t seem necessary; I was pretty sure I’d taken care of any threat. So there was no reason that Xavier couldn’t go catch some Z’s once Davion arrived, and then come back on duty after dark.
“As long as you’re safe, that’s what matters to me.” He cleared his throat. “So you’ll be out there with Xavier, Davion, and Ren. I’ll inform Seth so he can fill in the other guards. Tomorrow, I’ll pack for both of us for the gathering, and the guards and I will arrive tomorrow midafternoon. Oh. And Chloe.”
“Yes, we’ll be needing food.” Chloe, our human cook, had only been to the hunt house once, and that was only to tour it so she would be prepared to supervise meals for the gathering.
I was a little leery about having her and the three humans we’d hired as temp workers to assist her around a bunch of werewolves, especially with the full moon impending, but she’d reminded me that she’d done it a number of times while she worked for my predecessor and had never run into issues. The temp workers, of course, didn’t have that background, but Chloe and I had spent a solid day meeting with them to go over every possible occurrence. I’d assigned Mandeep, one of the guards who’d worked for Hezekiah before I took the rank, to protect our kitchen staff during daylight hours, and had asked Seth to assign someone to guard them at night.
Except, of course, on full moon night. Each of my guards was also a werewolf and would have to shift and hunt with the rest of us. Chloe and I had decided that on the day of the full moon, she and her staff would prepare a quick and easy buffet and then go to the rooms I’d assigned them in the smallest guest cottage, where they would stay until the following morning.
Until the past few months, I’d never really considered all the logistics and arrangements that went into the national and regional gatherings. I’d attended the gatherings, of course, as Alpha of Boston North Pack, but I had won the rank of Arkhon of the Northeast Region during the previous spring’s regional gathering, so everything had already been in place and I’d only had to worry about supervising the end of the event. Same when I won the rank of Anax at last year’s national gathering.
Next year, I would hire an event planner or something. This year, I would just have to muddle through as best I could and hope that the people I’d hired and trusted would back me up.
“Are you there?” Kyle asked.
“Huh?” I yanked myself out of my thoughts. “Yeah. Sorry. Yes, tomorrow midafternoon is good for you and the others to get here.”
“Cool. Gives me time to pick up our suits from the cleaners.” He chuckled. “Assuming you’re still marrying me.”
Author Bio
Karenna Colcroft (she/they) is a nonbinary, neurodivergent survivor whose books try to encourage other survivors to believe they deserve and can find love and healthy relationships if they dare to open their hearts. In her non-writing life, Karenna is a mother, grandmother, and partner.
She does not compartmentalize love into gender or number, and in her stories, she strives to show that no matter how afraid or reluctant someone might be, and no matter how much work it takes to build a relationship, finding someone to share a life with is worth the effort. Karenna lives in the northeastern United States, where she is hard at work on becoming a forest-dwelling cat person.
| Author Website | https://karennacolcroft.com |
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| Author Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/KarennaColcroft |