Title: The Wolf and The Druidess
Author: Cornelia Amiri
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Book Blurb:
A Celtic Tryst With A Shape Shifter Twist In days of old, deep in the dark woods, Druidess Seren discovers a wolf shape-shifting into the bare, muscular Celtic God, Gwydion. Seren's mind turns from the Samhain feast to wicked thoughts of Gwydion's gorgeous body Is the love Gwydion and Seren share strong enough to overcome barriers between an immortal god and a mortal woman? Or will a warning of danger from beyond the grave destroy the sensual magic brewing between the wolf and the druidess?
Excerpt:
Among the drone of dragonflies and the hoots of owls, a haunting howl ripped through the air. She stopped in her tracks. It sounded too close. A wolf hunting. There was better game than her. Knowing there was nothing for her to be afraid of, she remained brave, yet her body trembled. With her next steps, she kept her footfalls as light as possible, walking stealthily on the path, to not draw the beast’s attention.
When she came upon the clearing, she held the torch out and gazed at the large, smooth stones, piled one on top of the other. Her mother’s cairn lay in a pool of dried leaves. Her throat tightened and she swallowed back a sob as she moved closer. She couldn’t breathe. Heat radiated from the grave as if her mother stood there. Seren stared hard at the stones as if to call forth the image of the tall woman, with a compelling oval face framed by shoulder-length brown hair.
“Mam.” Her voice choked. “I have brought you Samhain treats.”
Though her mother didn’t appear, she knew she soon would. Her body quivered, not from fear but from the joy bubbling in her. She shone the firebrand on an old oak stump in front of the cairn and plopped down on it. Seren stabbed the end of the torch into the ground, so she had light. Facing the cairn, she called out to her mother’s spirit.
“We have a lovely feast.” Seren pulled out a large red apple. She stood, stepped forward, and stooped down to set it on the pile of stones.
When she straightened, she gasped. There, by the oak, facing her, with naught between her and it but the cairn, loomed a white wolf with pink-tipped ears.
Seren stood transfixed. Her heart hammered at the look of hunger in his amber eyes, glowing like a Samhain
0re. Fighting her fear, she remembered her druid training, her knowledge of wolf lore. In a soft, soothing tone, she spoke. “Wolf, we live in peace, you and I and your kind and mine. On this eve of Samhain, it is best you stay with your pack. For those who appear human this eve may not be.”
She smiled and he seemed to grin back, but the flash of his white, jagged teeth roused her fears even more.
She didn’t want those fangs sinking into her flesh. She took a deep breath. “Do not chew on me, there is better meat for you in the deep dark woods.” His pink tongue, hanging from his huge mouth captured her gaze.
As the beast jerked his neck back and howled, the haunting sound reverberated in the air.
Slow and quiet so the wolf wouldn’t become alarmed, she took one step back. He wiggled his nose as if smelling her. Seren shivered as she gazed at his long snout. The looming wolf took one step closer. She could not outrun him. If she managed to trick him and get away long enough to hide, he would sniff her out.
“Wolf, look what I have for you.” Pulling out a black pudding link, she tossed it toward him. It landed in a patch of grass at his side. “Food.” She smiled. “Eat, wolf. Yummy, goodie.”
The white wolf never turned its head. With his gaze fixed on Seren, he stared hungrily, as if he thought of her as a delicious treat.
She blinked and wondered if it was all the tall trees amid the darkness and the shadows in the night that caused the beast to appear as if his form shifted. Seren clutched her chest. Her heartbeat quickened as the wolf’s fur and muscles twisted. The beast’s body emitted sounds like the creaking of joints, but much louder. Watching the wolf’s body expand while other features contracted made her stomach lurch. She slid her hand from her chest to her belly. A voice in her head told her what she saw couldn’t be real. She blinked, yet still the wolf changed before her eyes. His gorgeous white pelt shortened and darkened until it transformed into bronze-toned skin.
A tall man with cascading golden hair and eyes the gray-blue of a stormy summer sky stood nude before her. Seren blinked again. The man fluttered his hands in front of his body and suddenly he was clothed in an open white, gold-speckled druid robe, and plaid braies covered his trunk-like legs. Heat emanated from him. She gawked at his bare, muscular chest beneath his robe, and felt hot in turn...yearning to rip o her clothes, to cool down.
“Druid robe ... shape shifted from wolf to --” As realization dawned, she dropped to her knees. ”God Gwydion, it is you?”
“Rise.” With a flutter of his fingers, he gestured for her to stand. “Druidess Seren, bewitched by your charms, I had to follow you to your mother’s cairn.”
Her flesh prickled. “God, what say you, why have you come?”
As his gaze roamed over her body, his eyes gleamed with a sensuous spark. “For you.”
Seren’s heart thundered. “Why appear to me only and not the tribe?”
His white-toothed grin sent a surge of heat spiraling through her. In his deep, smooth voice he said, “The tribe does not interest me as much as you do.”
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Regularly 3.99 – The Wolf and the Druidess is on sale for .99 during this event
What makes your featured book a must-read?
It’s a spellbinding, shapeshifter, first in series, novella. A spicy fantasy romance between a druidess and God Gwydion that takes place at Samhain (our Halloween). If you like druids, magic, mythology, wolf-shifters, and fast paced romance and adventure you’ll find it a must read.
Giveaway –
Enter to win a $20 Amazon US or Amazon Canada gift card
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Runs August 23 – August 31, 2022.
Winner will be drawn on September 1, 2022.
Author Biography:
Boudica, the Celtic Warrior Queen made me start writing professionally. I love history and in reading a book about the dark ages, I came across the rebel queen. She inspired me so much, I started jotting down notes, but they were fiction, visions of me involved in the Boudica revolt. Before I knew it, I had accidentally written a rough draft for a novel.
And I've been writing books on purpose ever since. Drawing on my love of a happy ending I have currently penned 35 published romance books under my name, Cornelia Amiri.
Now, for the more mundane stuff. I and my muse, Severus the Cat, live amid the hustle and bustle of humid Houston, Texas. My newest release, Rare Finds, is a sci-fi comedy romance with a Celtic goddess heroine and a Xeno-archaeologist hero.
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