Book Spotlight - "Cat Shifters of Aaidar: Escape" Laney Kaye & Christina Wilder

CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR: ESCAPE (Book One)

Laney Kaye & Christina Wilder

Blurb

Can an alien shifter and a human find a way to be together on a planet torn apart by war?

Guns, fangs, and claws for hire, Herc’s the alpha of a big cat shifter mercenary team, fighting for the Regime. When nurse Maya tends his wounds, her touch on his near-naked body triggers the first phase of an impossible bondmate.

There’s no way in all seven hells Herc will bond with a puny human—despite her alluring curves and feisty attitude. He's not going to kiss her, so bond two, the meshing of their hearts, will never happen. And sex is totally off the table - or the bed, or any other damned place. So bond three, the irrevocable joining of their souls, isn't a concern...as long as he never sees her again.

A Resistance fighter, Maya infiltrated the Regime to save her captured sister. Her slash-and-burn plan doesn’t include bonding with a sexy mercenary shifter who’s hunting her people into extinction. But when her secret identity’s revealed, she flees into the desert with Regime soldiers—and a determined Herc—hot on her heels.

If he catches Maya, Herc faces a lifetime on the run from the Regime. But giving in to her heart’s desire will bond Maya to her enemy.

The CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR series consists of

ESCAPE, ENGAGE, ENSNARE and ENDINGS

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HDNPQXN

Excerpt

“Okay, Catboy, you going to hightail it over and check it out?”

A dozen grunted words, and my Commanding Officer, Smithton, proved he was an idiot. Not that the last six weeks hadn’t provided him ample opportunity, which the stupid bastard had greedily seized, but his persistent ignorance reinforced his lack of interest in learning anything of the Felidaekin cat shifters. Damn funny, given the money his government had invested in transporting the five of us from Aaidar to help them.

Fact was, if he wanted one of us to race across the scorched, barren earth between the rocky outcrop we currently occupied and the one he apparently felt we should claim, any idiot knew to call on Khal. Cheetahs the swiftest land animals, a Cheetahkin shifter was no different. Khal would hit seventy clicks an hour in four seconds, meaning he’d be tucked in behind the new outcrop, snug as a lion in a lair, before the hostiles even brought arms to bear.

Though I thought I had myself under control, my hackles must’ve risen, because I caught the shake of Jag’s head, his black hair ruffling in the breeze he created. The only damn breeze on this hellish planet. Gods knew what the Glians found to fight over in this giant sandbox. I thought I’d been posted pretty much everywhere, seen everything. But this was the first time I’d been stuck somewhere with not a single green tree or blade of grass, as far as the eye could see. Even a Ligerkin eye.

“Cool it, Herc,” Jag muttered, the frequency so low it’d register only as a warning growl to the soldiers with us. The Jaguarkin’s caution was invaluable to our team, especially considering how often I needed to be reminded to chill when dealing with Glians. Well, this Glian in particular.

Along with the other three cat shifters— Khal, Leo, and Spike—Jag had served under me for more than eight years, earning him the right to use my birth-name. But, with anything more than four syllables apparently unpronounceable for the Glians, we’d adopted nicknames for this mission. Besides, we had more anonymity this way. And anonymity is a rare and luxurious commodity when you’ve been sold for muscle.

I gave Jag a brief nod and glanced across him to where Khal lay prone in the red sand, cheek resting on his rifle stock, though his golden eyes were fixed on me. Despite being in the human form common to the descendants of Earth who inhabited this system, the black grease strip we’d each smeared beneath our eyes to cut the desert glare made him seem on the verge of transitioning, the dark teardrops of his feline form always one of the first points to manifest.

He blinked slowly, patiently waiting for direction, though I could sense his inner tension, his muscles coiled, ready to spring. I held up one hand, palm out, to still him. “Wait up, man.” Sure, he could run faster than the wind, but that didn’t mean I was about to take the idea of sending one of my guys out there lightly.

I kept my eyes on the desert, counting the spines on a far-distant cava bush. Facing the C.O. would just piss me off more. “Any reason to head out, Commander? The insurgents are on the run, they’ll show themselves soon enough. We can wait them out.” Smithton’s battle decisions were questionable, and several times I’d been left with the impression that we were expendable. It seemed he found maximum opportunity to use our shifting talents, even when they weren’t necessary, as though he took a perverse—or perverted—interest in watching us shift, despite the pain the change necessarily caused.

The hostiles, as the Glians termed them, though we rarely saw anything but defensive behavior and a few minor skirmishes, had been on the run since before we arrived, but HQ was keen to take them all down. Well, not so much take them down as have us parcel up and deliver them. More than one wing of our compound was off limits to the Felidaekin, but there were buildings on the eastern side that none of us would approach, either under orders or dare. The stench of pain and death oozed thick from that side of the complex, and we’d taken to turning up the entertainment coms in our communal room to drown out the inhuman screams. Though turning up the music didn’t do much for a liger shifter, considering I could hear a twig break a mile away.

Not that I’d needed to hunt too many twigs.

Thing was, the screams from the compound might’ve been inhuman, but the screamers weren’t. We’d see them, once a week or so, taken from cells in the eastern quadrant and marched, cuffed and hooded, to the interrogation chambers. There was something bad—no, wrong—going on there. If I wasn’t under direct government orders, I’d take my crew and make for home.

I stroked my hand along my Teyraus assault rifle, tapped the magazine. Fitted with a scope and night-sight, neither of which I’d ever need, I’d far rather take out this last cell with our bullets than haul them in for questioning. I didn’t condone taunting prey.

Hostiles, that is.

Only the damn Glians stooped to torture. Well, them and housecats.

As Smithton didn’t reply, I flipped to my back, facing the C.O. and struggling to control the disgusted curl of my upper lip. It’d turn to a fully-fledged snarl in an instant if I allowed it.

Smithton sat well back from where we lay in the dirt, obscured by boulders and the odd, scrubby, thorn-covered bush. He’d wedged his skinny carcass into a rocky crevice, obviously where he deemed it safer. He flapped a hand toward the desert expanse, his other hand fastidiously dusting at his camos. “It’s what you’re hired for. I haven’t got all damn day.”

About the Author

HEROES, HEART, & HEAT

Living in the not-so-wilds of Australia, Laney Kaye writes sexy contemporary and slightly-supernatural romance. 

With Christina Wilder, she co-authors the hot alien CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR romance series. As they live on opposite sides of the world, they can generally be found burning up the social media bandwidth with their plotting and scheming — not to mention, swooning over the hot guys — but it's okay, they each have their favorites ;-)

CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR: ESCAPE
CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR: ENGAGE
CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR: ENSNARE (Dec 18)
CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR: ENDINGS (Feb 18)

Look for Laney's upcoming titles featuring the hot Aussie lifeguard shifters 

THE LURE OF THE MER - HOOK
THE LURE OF THE MER - LINE 
Spring '19 from The Wild Rose Press

Laney can most often be found procrastinating on Twitter @LaneyKaye1
Or on her webpage https://laney-kaye-author.weebly.com