Title: Into the Mystic
Series: Volume One
Author: Brooklyn Ray. J.C. Long, Kara Race-Moore, Samantha Kate, Nicole Field, J.P. Jackson, Caitlin Ricci, L.J. Hamlin, Kayla Bashe, Charli Coty, Tay LaRoi
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 7/31/17
Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex
Pairing: Female/Female
Length: 101100
Genre: Paranormal, paranormal, witches, werewolves, lesbian, bisexual, mermaids, fae, zombies, shifters
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Synopsis
Eleven lesbian/bisexual paranormal short stories…
Reborn by Brooklyn Ray – Dark magic, mystical bloodlines, a living forest, and two women fighting to reclaim a love they lost.
Zero Hour by J.C. Long – She can’t outrun the full moon.
Dove in the Window by Kara Race-Moore – As if the Great Depression wasn’t bad enough, Cissy’s first love is back from the dead.
Bottom of the River by Samantha Kate – The demon isn’t always the monster.
If You Want to Walk by Nicole Field – Follow Chess into the Underneath and meet the strange creatures she finds there.
A Tended Garden by J.P. Jackson – Immortality or humanity—which one will win out in the end?
Romancing the Healer by Caitlin Ricci – In a deadly snowstorm a werewolf needs all the help she can get, and the werebear coming to her aid is more than she appears to be.
Midnight Kisses by L.J. Hamlin – A local witch, a new-to-town werewolf, and a mystery to be solved.
Like a Bell through the Night by Kayla Bashe – Guarding a faerie princess? All in a day’s work for a werewolf bodyguard. Avoiding falling in love with said princess? The hardest mission of Jaffa’s life.
The Imp in the Rock by Charli Coty – The cure for a bad breakup might be magic.
Smile Like You Mean It by Tay LaRoi – Ingrid meets a terrifying Japanese legend, but the stories are all wrong.
Excerpt
Reborn by Brooklyn Ray
Thalia Darbonne left Port Lewis three years ago with no intention of returning. Despite being a powerful witch, she’s now known as a deserter – an outcast in the magical society. But after her mother’s untimely death, Thalia is called back to her hometown in order to fulfill her duty as matriarch, and take the place as head witch of the Darbonne Clan.
Being back home isn’t easy, especially when Thalia is confronted by a ghost from her past, the beautiful, dangerous necromancer, Jordan Wolfe.
As Thalia tries to cope with the loss of her mother, she’s also faced with her feelings for Jordan, the responsibility of becoming matriarch, and the strange, dark magic lingering between her and her first love. Thalia and Jordan fight through three years of confusion in the forest they grew up in, where trees whisper, the night sky bleeds, and sigils are carved into flesh.
Zero Hour by J.C. Long
After being bitten by her long-time girlfriend Robbin in werewolf form, Simone does the only thing she can think to do—she gets in her car and drives as far away as she can. As the first full moon since she was bitten approaches, Simone is faced with a difficult choice: does she trust Robbin, who wishes to guide her through her first transformation, after being hurt by her? And more importantly, with the full moon drawing near, does she really have a choice?
Dove in the Window by Kara Race-Moore
In 1930’s Appalachia, Cissy McGurk is still mourning the death of Pearl, her first love. However, Pearl shows up one night and crawls into bed with her, bemoaning that she can’t sleep. More and more people from the local cemetery are crawling from their graves because something won’t let them rest. Cissy has to find out how to fix it, even if that means asking Death himself for advice.
Bottom of the River by Samantha Kate
Anja Bauer is the daughter of rich but cruel parents who care little about her happiness. Despite her revulsion toward men, they plan to marry her off to a faraway suitor. But Anja’s discovers a contract they signed with the demon they’d warned her about, and she learns the true extent of their wickedness and the reality of the demon.
If You Want to Walk by Nicole Field
Chess runs into the world of the Fae to try to escape her depression, only to find it comes there with her. When she finds her way back, she knows she will have to leave many things behind. Is leaving worth that price?
A Tended Garden by J.P Jackson
Alyssa is a natural witch whose thoughts have a way of coming true. Her coven is the only one around—well, the only one she’ll practice her beliefs with – but her high priestess, Rachel, is particularly difficult to please.
Rachel has a secret she hasn’t told anyone in her coven—one that her ancestral witches before her kept from their covens too. If Rachel’s to hold on to her traditions and the immortality she’s been promised, she’ll have to keep the women in her coven returning to the sacred grove, and that includes Alyssa.
But secrets have a way of being revealed, and when Alyssa stumbles across Rachel’s violent and horrifying history with the trees of the grove, the pact between the sacred grove and Rachel’s family may have a price too steep to pay.
Romancing the Healer by Caitlin Ricci
When she takes too long to come back to her pack, Aria is caught up in a snowstorm. To make matters worse, she’s twisted her ankle while running. Hurt, freezing, and alone, her best chance for survival is to stay under an evergreen until the storm clears then try to limp back to her pack. Zoe has a better idea. She’s a healer without a pack to call her own, although she’s desperate for the kind of family Aria has with hers. Being trans, Zoe has never felt all that welcome with other shifters, but Aria promises to show her that there is at least one pack who would gladly have her. All they have to do is wait out the storm together.
Midnight Kisses by L.J. Hamlin
A night out in a bar before a big council meeting to relax seems like a good idea, talking to the cute werewolf at the bar seems like a better idea. But when they meet again will sparks get in the way.
Like a Bell through the Night by Kayla Bashe
Rhiannon, faerie princess in exile, has been on the run for her entire life. Hunted by her most dangerous enemy yet, she turns to her childhood crush for help: immortal, smolderingly sexy werewolf Jaffa Volkovitch.
Jaffa’s scars and secrets haunt her, and she doesn’t let anyone get close. She remembers Rhiannon as an optimistic child… not an alluring, resilient young woman whose every touch awakens forgotten feelings. Keeping up her emotional barriers could mean breaking Rhiannon’s heart. What will Jaffa decide?
The Imp in the Rock by Charli Coty
Wendi Tamura turns to her favorite beach to calm her jangled nerves after she’s dumped by her cheating boyfriend. The water near her home on the Oregon Coast is never warm, and no place for a nude woman, so when one appears before her seemingly by magic, Wendi offers her help. It’s been years since she’s been with a woman, but when the beautiful Hanako reveals her true nature, Wendi doesn’t let either detail keep her from the most magical and steamy night she’s ever had.
Smile Like You Mean It by Tay LaRoi
Ingrid Smith, a young American living in Sendai, meets the cursed Slit-Mouthed Woman of Japanese folklore and does her best to rid herself of the woman. When a conflict reveals that Ayame isn’t as terrible as her legend says, she’s embarrassed by the truth and vows to haunt Ingrid until they can figure out how to lift the curse. For weeks Ingrid tries to lift Ayame’s curse, but with each passing day, she’s not sure she wants to.
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Bottom of the River by Samantha Kate
Anja knew to stay away from the river.
Her mother and father had warned her about it since she was a child. She was never to step foot in its muddy waters, for the moment she did, the waves would swell up and consume her, drowning her amid the rocks and rotting logs on its floor. Anja was never told why this would happen, only that it was certain.
But on some days, Anja preferred the thought of that bitter end to another day spent with her parents.
The three of them lived in the largest house in the village, near the edge of the Black Forest. Her father had once been a farmer, Anja was told, but never had she seen him toil in the fields. Their family possessed enough gold, silver, and jewels to pay for all their material needs and much more; their wardrobes overflowed with silk dresses and long buttoned coats, and servants always bustled about the kitchen, preparing enough sauerbraten and boiled potatoes for a family three times their size.
But Anja had little interest in her family’s wealth. Instead, she often spent her afternoons wandering the forest, dirtying the hem of her dress as she traipsed through the brush. Though she avoided the river itself, she’d covered nearly every inch of woodland surrounding it. She spent many an hour collecting wildflowers, tracking the footprints of rabbits and deer, or just lying in patches of grass, listening to the wind as it brushed against the leaves above her, like fingers along harp strings. This, she felt, was her real home, out in the wilderness. The whispers of the trees seemed to welcome her back every time; she could almost hear a feminine voice singing out, ushering her ever deeper into the wood with a bewitching, oh-so-tempting refrain.
Come to me, young woman of the wilds. Join me, and leave your worldly burdens behind.
Well, perhaps Anja was just imagining that last part. But even as a flight of fancy, that enchanting voice was far preferable to the sounds of scolding she often received at home.
“You mustn’t keep disappearing like this,” her mother said one evening after Anja had vanished for another multihour jaunt. Like most reprimanding sessions, Mrs. Bauer only gave half attention to her daughter as she scolded her; the older woman was distracted by her hand mirror as she was busy combing her smooth, honey-blonde hair. “You always come home with new stains to your dress and dirt on your cheeks,” she continued, pursing her lips in disgust. “Is this how to want to look when you meet your future husband?”
Anja, whose own hair was the color of wet soil and often tangled in wavy knots, saw little point in trying to appear beautiful like her mother or father. Her face had always been rounder than theirs and her skin more ashen, and while her parents’ eyes were as bright and blue as a sunlit sky, Anja’s were the color of clouds just before a heavy rain. But what little did that matter when she had no desire for a husband? Never in her life had she felt the desire for a man’s touch or vows of love—in fact, the thought of either was repulsive. She would rather find her most sensitive spaces covered in boils.
“I’ve told you countless times, Mutter,” Anja replied, “I want of no man.” She tried to make her voice sharp and piercing, like a jab from a stick.
Her mother was unharmed by her words. “Nonsense,” she said, deflecting her with a casual flick of her wrist. “Every young woman is in need of a proper husband. We shall find one for you soon enough.” She smiled into the mirror. “Your father is meeting with a businessman from Hanover next week to discuss arrangements with his son.”
Anja could feel her blood simmering. “How many times must I say it? I don’t want to be married!” She ran her fingers through her coarse curls, tugging when she reached the roots. She felt tempted to just tear all her hair out and be done with it.
“What you want is of little importance here,” her mother scoffed. “You may be twenty years of age, but I swear, your mind is still like a child’s. Someday you will learn.”
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