Blind Heat Game and Giveaway

 Welcome to a some cool fun for a hot Sunday. To celebrate the release of Blind Heat, the second book in my Pantherian Passions series, I've set up a little game related to the story.

Our hero, Marcus St. Germaine has a habit he hasn't been able to kick. At the start of Blind Heat he gives into temptation and this time it gets him into trouble. I'll be sharing the first chapter in blog posts throughout the day. At the end of each post, I'll show you a picture and tell you the name of the blog where it's hidden. Simply email Master Bond ( the kinky French Chef from The Dungeon Gourmet) lemarquis.debond on gmail.com telling him where you found the picture. For every correct answer you send in, you'll get your name in the hat. The prize is your choice of my backlist:

The Tiger's Tale (First book in the Pantherian Passions Series)
The Dungeon Gourmet
Snatch Me

I'll announce the winner Monday morning on the Words, Women, Wisdom blog.
 Happy Hunting and good luck. I'll be checking back throughout the day, so if you have questions, leave them in the comments and I'll be along shortly with an answer.

Blind Heat: Excerpt 1

A perfect blend of shadow and light rendered the snow leopard invisible as he crept sleek and silent through frosted woods. Where woods broke away to a ball field, he broke into a run, sending powdery snow up in plumes, his lean belly skimming just a feather’s breadth above the ground. Wind ruffled his fur, sang in his ears.

The forest thickened on the other side, but it was like welcoming arms closing around him, inviting a companion. He craved the comfort of a mate’s body, feminine heat and a welcoming purr. He had to settle for the feathery fingers of a fir tree sliding over his back, the cold kiss of snow on his nose and lashes.

There could never be a mate for him, no female to race under the stars at his side. He ran from his solitude, from the unique combination of gifts that set him above and apart from his own kind. Even among the males, ritual protocols of respect kept him isolated, friendless.

Closer to the water he burst through the skeletons of blackberry vines. Thorns raked his fur and pricked his skin—sent the thought of a female’s claws and teeth, the feral abandon of mating, skimming through his mind. He ran faster, as if he could outrun fate.

Solitude was a life sentence no one could change.

He splashed into the ice-fringed creek and ran downstream, letting nature’s version of a cold shower numb his hunger. As the stream bed curved sharply and opened on a woodland pool, he slowed. Something faint, desperate, nudged his attention away from himself and opened his mind to the soft stirrings and secretive rustles of life around him.

At the edge of the pool he paused, drawing cold air deep into his lungs, savoring the rush of energy that came with anticipation, using it like a drug to shove cravings that threatened to shred him into the background. His keen hearing tuned to the sound of thousands of tiny flakes touching the earth, the combined voices amplified, shifting pitch to impart a whispered warning, loud enough to prick his awareness, too soft to interpret.

He leapt to a broad rock near the pool’s center, used the steadying power of water and stone as a conduit, opened his mind further, searching for the source of anguish that nipped at his attention. Like lightning finding ground, the connection hit in a flash of white-hot pain, forcing him back to his haunches to absorb the force before he recovered and closed his mind like a curtain. He drew a cold breath and then another, tasting the first flavors of spring mingled with the late-winter snow. He should go back, keep his mind shut and walk away. There could be only one source for that kind of quick, complete connection here in the human-controlled regions of the world. A hybrid, only a research animal genetically modified with human neurons implanted in its brain, could make this sort of telepathic connection. She—the energy was unmistakably feminine—was in agony.

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Hunt for Hella at Therianverse.com