Release Blitz: Dragon Dilemma by Mell Eight #LGBTQ #YoungAdult @MellEight
Title: Dragon Dilemma
Series: Supernatural Consultant,
Book Three
Author: Raevyn McCann
Publisher: NineStar
Press
Release Date: July 20, 2020
Heat Level: 1 - No Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 32200
Genre: Paranormal YA, LGBTQIA+,
YA, dragon shifter, mage, mates, men with children, magical detective agency,
dragon rescue, magic-users
Summary
Dane
hasn’t spoken with his mother in years and he’s never met his father. But
somehow his mother finds out about Mercury and the kits anyway, and it’s
difficult to throw one’s mother out when she happens to be a powerful,
dangerous witch.
She
isn’t the only uninvited guest, and the others are even less likely to take no
for an answer—and much more likely to leave everyone dead if they don’t get
what they want.
Excerpt
Dragon
Dilemma
Mell
Eight © 2020
All
Rights Reserved
Chapter
One
Saturday-morning
breakfast was always chaotic. With seven kits running around, it was
inevitable, and Daisy—the babysitter/housekeeper who helped to look after the
kits—had weekends off. Daisy somehow managed to corral all the kits into line
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and got them to their lessons with their tutor
on time. Dane, on the other hand, was lucky he still had a standing kitchen.
Lumie
and Alloy were chasing each other in circles around the kitchen island, yelling
excitedly about something. Their words were too garbled for Dane to catch.
Lumie’s red hair kept flashing by, followed by Alloy’s mix of blue-and-red
hair. Copper and Zinc were yelling at each other from opposite sides of the
island. Their argument stemmed from something that had gotten spilled in the
bathroom, which might also explain why Copper smelled particularly flowery this
morning. Copper would probably smell like that for days; as a fire dragon, he
avoided proper baths as much as possible. Even though he was eight years older
than his youngest siblings—much too old to be skipping baths—his hair was the
same shade of red as Lumie’s and Alloy’s. Zinc was an air dragon the same age
as Copper. Her hair was white and she kept it in one long braid down her back
to avoid getting it tangled in her magic.
Chrome
and ’Ron were also arguing—this time about frogs. Why? Dane couldn’t even
fathom a guess. The answer might scar him for life. Over the last year, ’Ron
had cut her brown hair into long spikes and had traded frilly dresses for
sparkly pairs of jeans. She was still cleaner and more put together than
Chrome, whose brown hair was actually longer than hers and usually contained a
few sticks and leaves tangled in his curls, but she was more willing to go frog
hunting now. Or frog dissecting. Again, Dane really didn’t want to know.
Luckily,
Mercury was at the stove calmly flipping pancakes on the electric griddle. His
bronze hair was long on his collar and still sleep mussed. Dane had to hide a
grin because he knew exactly what had caused Mercury to look so disheveled this
morning, and it wasn’t a kit-friendly topic.
“Kits
who aren’t sitting quietly don’t get pancakes.” Mercury didn’t say it loudly,
but he didn’t have to. Copper, Zinc, Chrome, and ’Ron immediately shut up and
took their seats around the island. Lumie stopped by the spice drawer to pull
out the extra-large bottle of cinnamon before he and Alloy also settled quietly
into their places.
The
threat of being denied pancakes was a serious one. Dane went to the pantry to
grab the syrup—another extra-large bottle, because dragons were sugar
fiends—and set it in front of his seat as he took his own spot at the island.
“I’m
going to have to shovel the driveway this morning,” Dane said into the quiet
kitchen. “I’d appreciate everyone’s help.” Copper, Lumie, and Alloy looked
immediately interested—they could melt the snow with their fire magic as long
as they didn’t leave puddles of water that would eventually turn the driveway
into a skating rink. Nickel, the only kit who had been sitting quietly the
entire time, nodded to tell Dane he was in too. He liked playing with frozen
water just as much as unfrozen. Nickel was the only full water dragon living
under Dane’s roof, his blue hair and bright blue eyes a stark contrast to the
other kits’. Alloy had been genetically altered in the egg to have both fire
and water magic, but he spent most of his time with Copper and Lumie, so fire
was his preferred method of choice.
None
of the kits made a peep of agreement or disagreement. The pancake rule was
still in effect, apparently, but at least Dane wouldn’t be shoveling his
driveway on his own.
Mercury
brought the plate over and the steaming scent of buttery pancakes enveloped the
table. Chrome was actually drooling, Dane thought, but he didn’t look too
closely. There was a sudden popping noise and a sealed envelope appeared
directly on top of the stack.
Dane
knew that spell. Hell, he knew the handwriting on the envelope, just as he also
knew that the sender had chosen to have it materialize on the food on purpose.
Mercury pulled it from the stack of pancakes and read Dane’s name on the front,
then held it out for Dane to take with a quizzical look on his face. Dane’s
hand wasn’t shaking when he forced it to reach out and take the envelope from
Mercury. It wasn’t, he reassured himself, but he wasn’t breathing either.
“I’m
starving!” Chrome moaned. Mercury smiled at him and grabbed a fork to begin
filling everyone’s plates. The syrup disappeared with alarming quickness while
Dane was staring at the cramped cursive. That handwriting was so familiar and
so damned frightening.
“Who
is the letter from, Dane?” Mercury asked.
Dane
looked up just in time to see Lumie liberally coat his syrup-drenched pancakes
in cinnamon. Copper and Alloy each had their turn with the cinnamon before Dane
remembered that Mercury had asked him a question.
“It’s
from my mother,” Dane said as unemotionally as he could. If he didn’t suppress
what he was feeling, he might start screaming or crying.
Mercury
put his fork down on his plate, which was just as drenched in syrup as his
kits’, and stared at Dane with his bronze eyes. “The one who’s a god?” he
asked. Dane was the child of a god, something he had told Mercury before they
became mates, but Dane had never gone into specifics. Mercury had seemed to
sense that it was a difficult topic for Dane and had never asked for more
detail.
“No,”
Dane replied. “My mother is one of the few witches in the world strong enough
to summon a god, though.” At Mercury’s blank look, Dane sighed. “The Isle
Crone?”
Mercury’s
jaw dropped. “Your mother is the Isle Crone?” he gasped.
“Who’s
that?” Zinc asked curiously.
“We
have a grandma?” ’Ron added. She bounced in her seat with excitement. Mercury’s
lips tightened and Dane had to hide a wince. It wasn’t Mercury’s fault that
dragons in the wild had to abandon their kits so they didn’t inadvertently end
up killing them over a territory dispute. Mercury didn’t have the first idea of
where to find his parents or any of his siblings. Dane had a mother who was the
Isle Crone and a father he had never met and probably never would.
“She’s
not the cookie-baking type,” Dane tried to explain to ’Ron. She was more of the
biblical-smiting type. She was the territory leader of the British Isles, and
she ran her territory with an iron fist. No one dared to challenge her because
she was that powerful and that ruthless. For all that, she wasn’t evil. Mostly
she was controlling, and no one was allowed to live their lives outside of how
she dictated. It made her one of the more well-known territory leaders in the
world.
Dane
had left her house as soon as he was old enough to get away. Actually, escaped
her house was probably a more accurate description. He had traveled all the way
across the ocean to flee from her, but that hadn’t been nearly far enough,
thanks to the more modern and less taxing innovations to basic transportation
magic. Luckily, she wasn’t more powerful than Dane, so she couldn’t force him
to return with her magic, but she had made her displeasure known many times
since then.
His
favorite instance was when she had instructed the largest witch coven in
England to curse him. He had managed to counter it before he found out what
exactly it was supposed to do to him, but the end result, according to his
mother, was supposed to have been him crawling back to her for help and falling
under her thumb again. She had sent a letter much like the one he was holding
to tell him how disappointed she was that he had managed to avoid that fate.
That,
along with a number of other difficulties she had caused throughout the years,
was why he hadn’t spoken to her in at least a decade and had hoped to go a few
decades more before having to even think about her again.
“What’d
she write?” Chrome asked through a mouthful of food.
“Don’t
talk with your mouth full,” Mercury immediately scolded. Chrome frowned but
obediently shut his mouth.
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Meet the Author
When Mell Eight was in high school, she
discovered dragons. Beautiful, wondrous creatures that took her on epic
adventures both to faraway lands and on journeys of the heart. Mell wanted to
create dragons of her own, so she put pen to paper. Mell Eight is now known for
her own soaring dragons, as well as for other wonderful characters dancing
across the pages of her books. While she mostly writes paranormal or fantasy
stories, she has been seen exploring the real world once or twice.
Giveaway –
One lucky winner will receive a $10.00NineStar Press Gift Code!
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