WIP Wednesday – Working on Taken by a Dragon (Eternal Mates Series) – with sneak peek!

It’s time for WIP Wednesday again. I missed the last few but I didn’t really have anything new to report.

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!

As you all know, I’m working on the next FOUR books in the Eternal Mates romance series. I know that I’ve had a few readers see me talking about Taken by a Dragon and that it’s book 7 in the series and go – WTH? Have I missed some books?

No, you haven’t. I’m just writing FOUR in one go and they’ll all be released very close together between January and March 2015. You guys seem quite addicted to reading this series, and I’m addicted to writing it, so I figured we could both get a nice big fix!

The edit of Hunted by a Jaguar (Eternal Mates #4) is done and so is the edit of Craved by an Alpha (Eternal Mates #5). Both of them are waiting for their final proofread and then they’ll be ready for their release in January 2015!

Bitten by a Hellcat (Eternal Mates #6) is on hold, sitting there patiently while I write the first draft of Taken by a Dragon (Eternal Mates #7).

Taken by a Dragon catches up with, Loke, that naughty blue dragon shifter from near the end of Claimed by a Demon King and the huntress he kidnapped, Anais.

I’m around 30,500 words into writing the first draft of this novel, and there’s probably another 60,000-70,000 words to go before I type “The End”. So far, Anais has given Loke hell and she’s also gotten him and herself into a spot of trouble. Their roller coaster romance isn’t going to end there though. I feel there’s more trouble ahead for these two.

I’m hoping to have this book finished in first draft by the time I head off on vacation at the end of November. When I return to work in December, I’ll edit Bitten by a Hellcat and this book, and prep Hunted by a Jaguar for release.

Now, how about a sneak preview snippet from Taken by a Dragon?

This is from the first chapter… which is all first draft so forgive my mishaps…

She had passed out at some point.

It might have been shortly after the dragon shifter who had abducted her had hit a height that had made her vision do strange things, zooming in and out as she had stared wide-eyed at the thousand-foot-plus drop to the black lands below. She had certainly lost the contents of her stomach at that point.

Anais lay with her eyes closed, feigning unconsciousness, keeping her breathing light and even and her heart rate steady and slow. She wasn’t alone. She could feel the piercing gaze of the man who had snatched her from the midst of the battle.

A battle where they had been enemies, fighting on opposite sides. Her in the army of the Third Realm of the demons, and him on the side of the Fifth Realm.

When she had set eyes on him, laying in the middle of the mad fray, staring at her and Sable as if they were goddesses or something born of myth and legend, the last thing she had expected was him to transform into an incredible and enormous blue dragon, and she definitely hadn’t expected him to snatch her and fly off with her.

Anais breathed slowly, biding her time, waiting for her faculties to all come back. Fear wasn’t an emotion she was going to allow herself to feel. She was going to figure out a way out of this mess. Her head ached as she tried to think, throbbing behind her eyes and around her temples. Maybe she had passed out from lack of oxygen. It was possible. Anything seemed possible in this insane realm.

Hell.

When she had been told to assemble as part of Sable’s team that would be venturing into Hell on Archangel’s first mission to that new land, she hadn’t known what to expect. It was black and grim, and filled with creatures straight out of the nightmares of most normal people.

She was far from normal though.

She had fought vampires, werewolves, warlocks and demons. Even some fae and cat shifters. All in the name of protecting the unsuspecting humans and the good non-humans who shared the mortal realm from those who would do them harm.

She had never met a dragon shifter though.

Anais slowly opened her eyes.

They settled on a bare and black dust covered pair of feet and tracked upwards, over smooth blue leather encased legs and a honed naked torso to the shifter who had abducted her.

He crouched beside her, his aquamarine eyes stunning in the weak light from the fire she could feel near her feet and hear as its crackles and pops filled the thick silence. That same golden light played on sculpted cheekbones and profane lips, a mouth made for wicked things. She quickly reminded herself that he had a killer set of teeth behind those sensual lips. Twin rows of tiny white daggers that he had flashed at Sable when her superior had talked about studying him.

He canted his head, causing a hank of wild blue hair to slip down and caress his brow. His dark blue eyebrows dipped low, causing his striking eyes to narrow. Curious. He had looked that way back in the battle. He had stared at her with a strange mixture of fascination, awe, and desire.

That final emotion made her go on the defensive. She scrambled backwards across the pebbly black ground, her eyes swiftly darting around to take in her surroundings but never leaving him for longer than a second. A cave. She hit the wall of it a few metres into her attempt to flee him and banged the back of her head against the jagged rock.

Her flinch of pain drew a darker look from the man and he rose to his feet and began to approach her.

Anais shot to hers and held her hand out. A feeble attempt to stop him when she had lost her only weapon, her favourite dagger, during the flight to wherever they were, but it seemed to work.

He halted a short distance away and even backed off a step.

He was incredibly tall.

The demons she had worked with, and the elves, had all been tall, and this man rivalled them. He stood at least as tall as King Thorne of the demons, an impressive six-foot-seven, but where the demon was broadly built, hewn with thick muscles, this male was more athletic, his build slighter but equally as honed.

Anais shook herself and pressed her back against the wall. She was meant to be escaping, not admiring her abductor.

Her gaze flitted to the fire off to her right, where it illuminated the opening of a dark tunnel, and then the cave mouth off to her left. It was dark out there too, a barely discernible difference between the black mountains and the near-black sky of Hell. Either looked like a good option over remaining in the cave with the shifter, but she would take the exit from the cave rather than risking heading deeper into it where she might end up trapped.

Her eyes drifted back to the beautiful male standing before her, his back straight and shoulders squared, and feet noticeably braced apart. He was a warrior all right. He had cut through the battle with ease, taking down demons with one blow of his curved blade. Now he stood in readiness, prepared to defend or attack if she made a move, his fierce blue eyes tracking her every action.

She knew from his interaction with Sable on the battlefield that he understood English, although she had a feeling she was about to test the limits of his knowledge.

She schooled her expression, steadied her heart, and shifted her feet further apart. His gaze dropped to them and his left eyebrow rose. She used his momentary distraction to assess him. He was far stronger than she was, probably faster too, and he had a weapon. A knife. Sheathed at his waist.

That was her target.

Somehow, she would get her hands on that knife. It wouldn’t level the playing field, but it would make her feel a whole damned lot better about her situation.

His aquamarine eyes lifted back to hers and narrowed again, shimmering with curiosity. Why was he so fascinated with her?

“Amazon,” he husked in a voice so deep and smooth it was like taking a pure hit of the finest chocolate, more than most girls could handle without melting into a puddle of bliss.

Anais shook herself again, forcing herself to focus.

On the battlefield, he had called her and her fellow huntresses Amazons. Sable had responded to that by pressing her boot against his throat and correcting him. He had to know she was a demon-hunter. Unless he hadn’t understood that part.

“I’m not an Amazon. I’m a demon-hunter. I work for Archangel.”

He frowned. “An angel?”

Anais resisted the overwhelming temptation to sigh. “No. Archangel. A hunter organisation. I work for them and believe me when I say that they’ll be coming to get me.”

He snarled, flashing white teeth.

That weren’t all tiny daggers.

She made a mental note of that. It seemed that like vampires, elves and demons, the fangs were under his control. She would have to tell Olivia when she got out of this hellhole and back to Archangel.

But they weren’t at Archangel right now. Her team were back in the Third Realm, fighting against demons, bear shifters and dragons. Her heart started a hard thumping against her chest and she looked back towards the mouth of the cave.

“Take me back,” she said and when he didn’t respond, she turned her focus to him, giving him her best glare. “Take me back to the battle. I have to go back.”

What do you think?