Mistletoe Marked Q&A
Q: When is Mistletoe Marked Releasing?
A: December 24, 2019
Q: Any chance we can get a sneak peek at Mistletoe Marked?
A: Absolutely! If you stick around to the end of this Q&A post, you can read the whole first chapter for free!
Q: Why go back to Lucy and Charlie for the Southern Shifters Saga Christmas short?
A: Honestly? Bella and Dalton (my characters for Seducing the Alpha) were being difficult and I wanted to work with characters my readers are already familiar with while I straighten out my plot and character kinks (pun totally intended) for Seducing the Alpha.
Q: What inspired Mistletoe Marked?
A: I’ve been watching a LOT of Hallmark Christmas movies, and thought a Christmas-themed story that takes place between Possessing the Alpha and Seducing the Alpha could be really fun!
Q: What’s Mistletoe Marked about?
A: Southern Shifters Saga – Christmas Short
An unexpected attack. A breathtaking surprise. A holiday to remember.
After enemy shifter Maddox’s disappearance, life in Bay Minette, Alabama, got quiet again…too quiet. Lucy, the Blackburn pack’s Alpha, has been holding her breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Her mate Charlie, on the other hand, just wants to enjoy Christmas in peace, and convinces Lucy to play along.
A positive pregnancy test certainly helps put her in the holiday spirit. She can’t wait to surprise Charlie with the news, until they’re attacked by a coyote while shopping for a Christmas tree. Her mate’s declaration that he’s relieved they’re not bringing up a child in such uncertain, dangerous times sends Lucy into a tailspin of despair.
Terrified that he’ll reject her once she reveals she’s pregnant and plagued by ever-increasing enemy attacks, Lucy isn’t sure she’ll ever have another happy holiday.
Fans of Kresley Cole and Laurell K. Hamilton will devour this short, steamy, and poignant holiday wolf shifter romance from USA Today Bestselling Author C. J. Beaumont.
One-click today to get your Southern Shifters Saga Christmas fix!
Ready for your sneak peek at The First Pages of Mistletoe Marked?
Excerpt
Warm, soft lips blazed a trail from the hollow below my ear down to the crest of my shoulder, tugging me from the depths of sleep and into acute, delicious awareness of Charlie’s hard body spooning me. I stretched at the delectable sensation of waking up in my mate’s arms, arching against him. I pressed my ass against his stirring arousal with a strategic wiggle and he growled, deep and low, as his teeth grazed my shoulder in a playful nip.
“Damn it, Lucy. Why do you have to be this insanely sexy?” His grumpy tone made me smirk over my shoulder at him.
“I don’t understand how my sexiness is a problem.” I burrowed into his warmth and gave him a slow, enticing kiss.
“It’s a problem because I snoozed my alarm too many times, and we don’t have time for you to fix the hard-on you’re giving me before I leave for work,” he grumbled.
I rolled to face him and stroked his cheek with a mischievous grin. “Are you sure you can’t be a little bit late today?”
He whimpered as he gripped my hips and pulled me close, claiming my mouth with a fierce kiss. “If we weren’t running wide open trying to get the streets around the courthouse paved before the Christmas festival, I’d risk it. As it is, Dad would kill me if I left him hanging with so much on the line.”
I slumped back against my pillows. “Well, damn.”
Charlie threw his side of the comforter back and rolled out of bed, stifling a yawn. I squeezed my eyes shut and fought the urge to pout. He’s just as disappointed as I am. He cursed under his breath, confirming my suspicions.
I mirrored his yawn and huddled deeper under the covers, lamenting the loss of his intense body heat beside me as he rummaged through the closet and started getting dressed for work. “Can I just say I hate the fact that neither of us is a morning person? We missed the window where sexy-times were a possibility, and my inner wolf is protesting.”
He mumbled something in response, but I couldn’t quite make it out. The familiar sounds of his morning routine lulled me, and I rolled over to my side, nuzzled my face in the soft warmth of my pillow, and smiled as Charlie trailed his fingers over the curve of my hip on his way out of the bedroom.
The evenly paced thuds of his work boots on the stairs drifted up to me and I breathed deep the scents of lavender and fabric softener. My awareness faded into the cocoon of warmth and familiarity.
“Oh, no ma’am. This isn’t going to work for me.” Charlie’s gentle, teasing tone made me roll over and force my heavy-lidded eyes open again. “If I have to be awake at this ungodly hour, so do you.”
He set a piping hot cup of coffee on my nightstand and I grinned at the oversized mug’s declaration that Santa likes naughty girls best.
I sniffed at the unusually pungent scent of the coffee, my brow furrowing with curiosity. “Did we buy a different brand of coffee recently?”
“Nope.” Charlie shook his head and leaned over to give me a goodbye peck on the cheek. “It came out of the same individual serving cups as you always get. Why?”
“Hmm.” I mused. “It just smelled a little stronger than usual, for whatever reason.”
“I don’t know, babe. I did everything the same way I always do. Love you.” He ruffled my already bad case of bedhead and gave me another quick kiss before rushing out of the room.
“See you in just a bit!” I called down the stairs after him. “And don’t get a ticket trying to make up time on the way to the plant.”
I pushed up into a sitting position, made an adjustment or two to keep as much of my skin as possible shielded from the slight chill in the bedroom, and plucked the blessedly hot coffee mug off the nightstand.
Savoring the warmth radiating into my hands, I stared out my bedroom window at the obsidian silhouettes of trees back-lit with the barest hint of pale, wintery dawn. I wasn’t a morning person, not by a long shot, but it was a beautiful sight.
I raised the mug to my lips, blew across the steaming surface of the coffee, and took a big sip of my favorite caffeinated liquid. It was so much stronger and more bitter than usual that my stomach curdled in an instant. Overwhelming nausea boiled in my gut, forcing me to clap a hand over my mouth to suppress the urge to throw up. I set the coffee aside and bolted across the bedroom to my en suite bathroom, desperate for relief.
