WIP Wednesday on a Thursday – Progress on the first book in my Eternal Mates series, with sneak peek!

After my post last week about my new paranormal romance series, Eternal Mates, and the fantastic response by some of my readers, I decided that I would move my schedule around to accommodate writing the whole of the first book in the series through in one go. The idea of stopping after only a third of the book was written in first draft didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t like the thought of going back to the book and having to complete it at a much later date, when my style and flow of language might be different from what it had been at the time I had written the first part.

So, on Thursday I sacrificed my day off to get the character profiles for eight main characters written up, finalised the outline of the first book, printed everything out and was eager to get going on writing the first book. I managed to get a lot of words done during just the first day of writing on Friday, clocking up 14000 words. I added a few hundred to that on Saturday but had other work demanding my attention. On Monday, it was another mixed day, but I got another chapter written. On Tuesday, I took a day off because I was about to go insane from the pressure of my current workload and deadlines, and my husband swept me out of the house for the day. I came back refreshed yesterday, hitting a cafe and getting another 13400 words of the book down in first draft. Today, I continued to work on the book, and wrote a further 9000 words.

The book is now 10 chapters long, and has 40776 words. I have around another 50000 to write, but if I can keep on top of my other work and keep this pace, I’ll have the first draft completed by the end of next week. I’m quite pleased by that.

I know you’re all desperate for Unleash, and my writing this book through from start to end is going to delay it, but truthfully it will only be a few weeks difference and Unleash needs more time to rest. Writing this book is helping clearly Unleash from my head and that will mean I can do a better job of editing it when I come back to it. See, there is a good side to this delay… because if I edited Unleash and did a poor job of it, that would be an even bigger delay. I won’t release anything until I’m satisfied with it. I’m all about putting quality books out there, not rush jobs.

Back to Eternal Mates. I’m really enjoying this world so far. The females stand on their own two feet and are more than happy to give hell to the males if they overstep the mark. The males are brash, dangerous, and more than happy to verbally spar with the females in an attempt to make them listen to reason / behave / not ignore a command (delete as appropriate) and will protect them when things go south.

The hero in particular is dreamy. He’s noble, a prince, and has that beautiful desire to take responsibility for his actions and suffer the consequences of self-sacrifice for the good of his people. You’ll like him… in fact, why don’t I introduce you to him?

Note: This is first draft material. Forgive any errors. I have skimmed it to avoid spoilers and such, but it’s unedited.

A little setting might be needed. Olivia is a scientist working for a hunter organisation, one of the few in the world who know about the existence of non-humans. She’s dedicated to studying new species but a turn of events meant she was cast out of favour with the senior members of the company, and she’s been stuck looking into already well-documented species of demons and fae.

A shot at redemption has just landed on her inspection table though in the form of an injured male from an unknown species, and due to a fabulous soiree to which she wasn’t invited, Olivia is in luck and she’s the only medically trained staff in the building… and now she has to inspect six-feet-six inches of dark, sexy, male… we join her a little into her investigation, when she’s already got him naked and hooked up to the machines in the lab.

Sneak Peek – Eternal Mates Book One

Olivia inspected his stomach, pressing in to feel his organs. He felt human but something about him, something other than his mysterious markings, told her that he wasn’t. She peered closer at the severe wounds on his stomach and chest.

“Specimen appears to have advanced healing ability. Age of blood around the wounds is indicative of a recent injury, but the wounds in question are already closed and beginning to scab over.” Many demon and fae species had heightened healing. He could be any number of them. Olivia carefully pulled his upper lip back and studied his teeth. “No fangs. Canines appear normal.”

She drew back and something caught her eye. She parted the wild strands of his short black hair and traced the pointed tip of his ear. Was he a demon? They had pointed ears.

Olivia hovered over him, looking down at his handsome bloodstained face. She had never seen a demon as beautiful, mysterious, or deadly as he was.

Deadly.

She could feel it like an aura around him.

He was dangerous.

And waking up.

Olivia scooted backwards and reached for the call button on the wall. She didn’t make it. His eyes slowly opened and she froze in mid-swing for the button, transfixed by them. They were incredible. She had never seen eyes like his. His irises were the most amazing shade of purple.

His gaze slid towards her but he didn’t move.

“What are you?” Olivia whispered it again as his eyes began to change, shifting to a normal shade of blue, and then his ears changed too, the points dulling until they appeared human. Adapting. He was studying his environment and her, and he was adapting.

It was incredible.

Fascinating.

She lowered her hand to her side and stared at him.

“Specimen appears able to blend into his environment, changing his appearance to conceal himself.”

She had never seen a demon do this. Many of them did it and she had heard the tales from the field agents, but she had never witnessed it.

“You are being held in a secure facility and no harm will come to you.” She hoped he understood English. His blue gaze narrowed with his frown, locked on her mouth as she spoke. Maybe he didn’t understand her.

He sat up in one fluid motion, swinging his legs over the edge of the inspection table, the movement so swift that it startled her and she shot backwards, distancing herself. Her heart thundered in her throat. She should have pressed the call button.

She should have strapped him down.

Stupid.

Her gaze darted to the red button off to her right. Could she make it there and sound the alarm before he attacked?

“Where am I?” The sound of his deep voice sent a fiery tremble through her, at odds to his lithe figure. The commanding edge to it had her forgetting the call button and automatically answering him, because he didn’t sound like the sort of man you could piss off and live to tell the tale.

“At a secure research facility in London.” She hoped he didn’t ask what she had been doing to him while he had been unconscious because now that he was awake, very awake, that sense of danger he radiated had only grown stronger. Her shot at resuscitating her ailing career looked as though he might kill her if he didn’t like any of the answers to his questions.

His blue gaze moved around the room, cataloguing everything, a keen edge to it. Strategising. He had adapted to blend in to his environment, and now he was figuring a way out of it.

“How did you do that?” she said, unable to get her voice above a whisper. His attention snapped back to her.

“How did I do what?” He could definitely grasp her language.

“Your eyes… your ears.” She pointed a shaky finger at them.

He planted his hands on the edge of the table either side of his hips and she struggled not to look down. Her guest didn’t appear to have any qualms about being naked in front of a stranger. He sat on the table, frowning at the equipment in the room. His gaze caught on the wires attached to the machines and he followed them to his chest. He raised a single black eyebrow and pulled the sticky pads off his body.

“Strange to ask me how and not why,” he said at last and looked up at her through his long black lashes, his blue eyes holding an glimmer of curiosity.

“I’m a medical doctor… a scientist.” She pulled at the chest of her long white coat, drawing his attention to it.

He glanced at it and then back around the room. His gaze lingered on the tray of tools to his left, narrowed, and then slid to her. A threat. She had enough experience of the world to know when someone was silently threatening her. He didn’t intend to use the scalpels and other implements on her. No. He meant to warn her that if she dared to attempt to use them on him, she would come off worse.

Olivia held her hands up in front of her. “Listen, I’m just curious about your species, and the things you can do. I wanted to help you.”

He grimaced and his grip on the edge of the table tightened until his arms shook. He ground out dark words in a foreign tongue and paled further. The edges of his irises turned purple.

The heart rate monitor still linked to his finger went crazy. He scowled at the machine and tried to move to take the clip off. His hands trembled violently.

“You’re not well.” Olivia reached out to steady him, instinct telling her to help him. She caught his upper arms and gasped. He was burning up, shaking beneath her fingers, his skin clammy. “You need to rest.”

“I will be fine… with a little fluids.” Pain grated in his deep voice and he swallowed hard.

“I wasn’t sure what to give you.” Olivia pressed her palm to his forehead. A fever? Was it part of his healing process or was his condition getting worse? “I wasn’t sure what would harm or help you.”

He leaned forwards and his breath skated over her bare neck. She shivered, a hot rush sweeping through her.

“I know what fluid I need,” he whispered low, his voice barely there and teasing, stirring unbidden heat in her veins and quickening her pulse.

“Tell me and I’ll get it.” She tried to draw back and his hands shot up, fingers closing tightly around her upper arms.

“Oh, you already have it.”

He struck hard on the left side of her throat.

Did you enjoy the sneak peek? Want me to do another one in my next WIP Wednesday post about the series?

Does this sound like the sort of book you want to read?