WIP Wednesday – Hunted by a Jaguar & Craved by an Alpha (Eternal Mates Paranormal Romance Series Books 4 & 5) and more!

I’m fighting to bring WIP Wednesdays back when I’m actively working on a book… but normally I’m so engrossed in writing that I kinda forget to make a WIP Wednesday post, and then I’ve finished the book in first draft!

If you follow me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/felicityheaton then you know what I’m up to, but if you haven’t followed me yet, here’s an update. If you are a follower, then you’ll know most of this, but you’ll get that tasty sneak preview snippet I made you vote for!

Right now, I’ve just completed the first drafts of the next two books in my Eternal Mates romance series. Hunted by a Jaguar is Kyter and Iolanthe’s story, and that’s the next book in the series. You remember Kyter? He’s that sexy jaguar shifter who runs Underworld, the nightclub in Kissed by a Dark Prince. The bonus is, you’ll be seeing Bleu in action again in his book since they’re kinda buddies now. Bachelors have to stick together.

The other book I’ve just finished in first draft is Craved by an Alpha. No, it’s not about werewolves. It’s about a delicious snow leopard shifter. You’ll get to meet Cavanaugh briefly in Kyter’s book as these two big kitties work together at the nightclub. Cavanaugh’s heroine is Eloise. Craved by an Alpha is a novella, and it’s around half the length of the novels in the series.

Now that I’m done with writing these two, I’ve set them aside to rest while I plan the next book in the Eternal Mates series, Bitten by a Hellcat, which is another novella.

Yes, I’m having a run on this series, and absolutely loving it!

The plan as it stands is that I will release the next four books in the Eternal Mates romance series close together, only a few weeks between each release. The current release plan for the books is for them to go in this order:

Jan 10th – Hunted by a Jaguar
Jan 31st – Craved by an Alpha
Feb 21st – Bitten by a Hellcat
Mar 14th – Taken by a Dragon

There’s a chance I could release them about a month earlier for each release… would you like that?

Once I’ve written Bitten by a Hellcat, I’m planning and writing Taken by a Dragon, which is novel length and it’s Anais the hunter and her story. Remember her? She got snatched by a pesky dragon in Claimed by a Demon King. Well, that dragon is Loke and he might have Anais holed up in his cave somewhere in the dragon realm in Hell and a certain sassy huntress turned demon queen might be on a warpath to get her fellow huntress back. I think Loke needs to watch his back…

I know what you’re thinking… that’s a lot of books! Don’t worry though. I’m not using up all my release spots for 2015 in one fell swoop.

I’m also planning to write and release in 2015:
A Vampire Erotic Theatre series novella
A Her Angel series novella
Guardians of Hades books 1-3

And maybe a Vampires Realm novella if I really work some magic!

Now, how about a sneak preview snippet from Hunted by a Jaguar? I asked my Facebook followers what they wanted and they chose this book…

A little backstory… this is close to the start of the book, and Kyter’s first face-to-face meeting with his heroine, Iolanthe. Kyter is being a naughty kitty by trying to make his unflappable heroine blush and trying to win her over as they’re both after the same object…

Kyter took a step back, stooped and unzipped the main compartment of his backpack. He took out his canteen and rose to his feet. The female eyed him, her blade still held at the ready. At least she hadn’t attacked when he had feigned dropping his guard.

He unscrewed the cap on his canteen and then put it back on as an idea came to him.

He set the canteen down on his backpack. Stood and stared across the narrow strip of ground to the female, making sure he had the whole of her attention. When he had assured himself that she was still staring at him, he grabbed the hem of his black t-shirt and pulled it up.

Her eyes shot wide.

“Wh-what do you think you are doing?” She edged back a step and her blade dropped a few inches before it came back up.

He smirked and pulled the top off over his head, taking his time about it and giving her a nice, leisurely look at his stomach and chest. He dropped the black tee on his pack and she stared at him. No blush. No problem. He could get one out of her.

He swiped the canteen from beneath his tee, unscrewed the cap and raised it above his head. He tipped half of the contents over his sandy hair. Water ran down his face and throat and over his chest.

She stammered. “What… I… what?”

Kyter shot her his best smile as he scrubbed his hand over his hair, tousling the wet strands and squeezing more water from it. It ran in rivulets down his face and his body.

A blush scalded her cheeks.

Bingo.

“I’m hot,” he murmured and rubbed the water into his chest. “And a little dusty. I’m remedying that.”

Because he hated being dirty.

But he could be dirty for her.

She blinked and her mouth flapped but no words came out. Her gaze betrayed her and fell to his chest as he swept his hand across it. The heat on her cheeks flared hotter. She turned her back on him.

“Put some clothes on.”

He smirked. “I have clothes on. I’m damned if I’m going to boil to death for you. Prude. You don’t like what you see, get out of my territory.”

She turned on him, her green eyes flashing fire.

“I am not a prude… and this is not your territory.” Her left eyebrow slowly rose and she murmured, “Territory. You have said that twice now.”

And he wouldn’t say it again, because he preferred it when people couldn’t tell what he was. His mixed genes normally masked his jaguar scent, making it impossible to detect his species to all but the most experienced fae and demons. At her age, she had probably met several jaguars, and he was surprised she hadn’t figured him out yet.

He still didn’t have a damn clue what she was.

She lowered the blade to her side and smiled at him, fluttering her eyelashes. Trying to play at his game? She was an awful actress. Too forced. Even the stupidest of males would have seen through her attempt to charm him.

She was going to be a tricky customer though. She wanted the artefact. He could see it in her eyes. He had animal magnetism to his advantage, and a better ability at acting, but something about her had him hungry for a taste of her, and he wasn’t sure it was purely her beauty or her gracefulness. If she took the stick out of her ass and really turned on the charm, he didn’t think he would be able to resist the fierce desire she stirred in him with only a look. Just thinking about it had him aching for her, growing hard in his combats.

He cursed himself for being too damn easy and turned away from her to look at the fresco and give himself a moment to get his body back under control. He had to keep building on the foundations he had laid. He couldn’t give her a chance to pull herself back together. The quickest way to get in her good graces and get information out of her would be pretending to fall for her charms, giving her the impression she was in control of the situation, and then turning the tables on her.

The trouble was, he probably wouldn’t be pretending to fall for her poor attempts at seduction and he would probably forget all about the turning tables part.

He felt her gaze roaming his back, intent and focused. The scars on it burned.

Kyter whirled to face her, a growl rumbling through his chest, and she dropped her eyes to her boots.

“You not left yet?” he snapped and she straightened, pinning him with a glare.

“You have to leave.”

He shook his head and took a swig from his canteen. “Nope. I like it here.”

She pointed her blade at him again. “I have a weapon, you do not.”

Kyter slowly smiled. “Oh, I have a weapon. It’s around this big.”

He spaced his hands around ten inches apart.

She blushed beautifully again. “You disgust me.”

“I was talking about a knife. I don’t know what you thought I was talking about… oh… man… you have a dirty mind.” He smirked as she huffed and turned away from him. Giving him her back? She either felt confident she could defend herself if he attacked, or she was beginning to feel he wasn’t a threat to her and was starting to trust him. “Name’s Kyter.”

“I have no interest in your name.” She swung her blade up onto her shoulder again and looked over it at him. “I shall call you Disgusting Pig.”

Kyter shrugged, luring her eyes back down to his body. “I’m not a pig.”

Her gaze jumped back up to his face and narrowed. “What are you?”

He shot her another smile. “I told you. I’m Kyter.”

Her huff filled the quiet room. “I should have named you Irritating.”

She looked as if she was considering leaving. Oddly, he didn’t want that to happen. He was enjoying playing with her. She had the most alluring little crinkle between her brows when he was frustrating her and he liked the way her eyes flashed green fire flecked with gold.

“Irritating is my middle name.” Kyter held his free hand out to her. “Most people call me Kyter.”

She slowly turned back to face him, looked at his hand, but didn’t take it. “Iolanthe.”

He bet a thousand men had told her what a pretty name she had. It suited her beauty. He was damned if he was going to be number one thousand and one though.

“So, Io.” He flinched when she shot down that attempt at friendliness with an icy glare and tried again. “Lanthe?”

She scowled. “Do not shorten my name without permission.”

Tough customer. He cleared his throat. If they were back at his bar, he would have offered her a drink to break the ice between them and get her to lower her guard. He cast a glance around the empty room, thinking about the arid ruins beyond it and the fact she wasn’t likely to want to leave this place to find a joint where they could share a drink. He didn’t want to leave either. He would have to do this the hard way.

Kyter offered her his canteen.

She raised an eyebrow at it. “What do you expect me to do with that?”

The unsteady edge to her eyes and her heartbeat said that she thought he meant her to toss water over herself in some sort of private wet t-shirt competition for his eyes only. While he wouldn’t say no to seeing her wet all over, it hadn’t been his intention and it was probably a little too soon for trying anything so risqué.

What do you think?