Book Title: By the Red Moonlight
Author: Amanda Meuwissen
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Kris Norris
Release Date: October 5, 2021
Genre: Shifter Paranormal M/M Romance
Tropes: Forbidden love, enemies to lovers, found family
Themes: Destiny
Length: 221 pages
It is book 1 of a new series but does not end on a cliffhanger.
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On All Hallow’s Eve when the sky glows bright…
Blurb
Alpha werewolf, crime boss, and secret Seer Bashir Bain is neck-deep in negotiating a marriage of convenience with a neighboring alpha when a tense situation goes from bad to worse. A job applicant at one of Bash’s businesses—a guy who was supposed to be a simple ex-cop, ex-con tattoo artist—suddenly turns up undead.
A rogue newborn vampire would have been a big wrench in Bash’s plans even without his attraction to the man. After all, new vampires are under their sire’s control, and Ethan Lambert doesn’t even know who turned him. When Bash spares his life, he opens himself up for mutiny, a broken engagement, and an unexpected—and risky—relationship.
Ethan just wants a fresh start after being released from prison. Before he can get it, he’ll need to turn private investigator to find out who sired him and what he wants. And he’d better do it quick, because the moon is full, and according to Bash’s prophecy, life and death hang in the balance.
Wow, this guy was beautiful. His eyes almost seemed to glow golden brown, his whole form like some bronze statue.
Had Ethan gotten drunk after the interview? It was Halloween, and he thought the interview had gone well. Maybe he went for a drink after. He just couldn’t remember where or when he’d gone home with this stranger. He could only picture a dark figure pulling him into the alley and then….
Then he was here, with a hard cock in his hand and a warm body atop him.
Who was bleeding! Why was the man bleeding?
Ethan tried to ask, but his words came out garbled. He felt the man shift and start to tuck himself away. Then he tucked Ethan away, which was slightly uncomfortable given the mess, but Ethan felt so out of it still, he kept waiting for the hangover to hit.
When it didn’t, he tried harder to focus. There was a wonderful taste in his mouth he couldn’t place, something he wanted more of as he licked the traces from his lips. He watched the man slowly grasp his wrists and pin them above his head. If the stranger hadn’t been bleeding, that would have been intensely hot.
“Would you like to try that again, Mr. Lambert?” the man’s low, lilting voice asked, strained but exuding authority. Ethan thought he meant the rough and messy sex, which yes, they could do that anytime, but then he realized he probably meant the gibberish.
“Who… who are you…?” Ethan slurred, pushing past the unfamiliar sensations coursing through him. He wasn’t drunk, so what was this feeling? Had the man given him something? Was that why Ethan felt so strange?
Maybe he didn’t like this position anymore, or his lost time.
“Where am I?” Ethan demanded. “What’s going on? What happened to your neck?”
After scrutinizing Ethan for several seconds, the man sat back and released his wrists. “Give it a minute. It’ll come back to you.”
Ethan opened his mouth to counter that, but as he looked again at the blood on the man’s neck and recalled the delightful taste on his lips, he suddenly remembered everything. “Oh God….” Scrambling to get out from under the man, Ethan rolled to the side and vomited blood all over the floor. “Oh God.”
“Stop that. You’re wasting it.”
“Why doesn’t it taste the way blood should?”
“Because you’re not human anymore.”
“Wh—?” Ethan’s question was stolen as firm hands grasped his jacket and yanked him into a sitting position away from the splatter of blood.
“You’re a vampire. And I need to know who turned you.”
“Who…? What? That’s insane!”
“I don’t have time for your existential crisis.” He released Ethan to topple back to the floor and stood, starting to remove his jacket and shirt.
“What are you doing? I—”
“Sit still and pay attention. You’re a vampire now. And I’m a shifter, like many in this city. A werewolf, to be exact. And before you scoff at that… watch.”
He dropped his clothes to the floor—piece by piece—even more beautiful than Ethan had realized, save the angry bite mark on his neck. He had scars, a multitude of them, but Ethan had never found scars ugly.
Once the man was naked, his skin still stained from their rut on the floor, he said, “Stage one,” and his eyes glowed.
“Stage two.” He took a step toward Ethan, opening his mouth to show fangs growing from his canines, with shorter ones along the other upper teeth, and similarly along the bottom. Claws grew from his fingernails, and his skin took on a dark grayish tint as silvery fur sprouted along his cheekbones and the edges of his body.
“Stage three,” he said with a rumble, rendering Ethan paralyzed, because how could there be more?
The fur thickened across his body and the entire shape of him shifted, looking painful, yet he made no grimace or whimper as his spine and legs and skull cracked, reforming into a large wolfish creature that the movies never got right. He was beautiful for how strange and deadly he looked.
Taking another step toward Ethan, just as his transformation completed, it began again, faster now, shrinking him down but not losing any of the fur or wolfish visage. This time, when it was over, he might have been a normal timber wolf in the wild.
“Stage… four?” Ethan asked meekly.
The wolf padded closer to him, and Ethan dared outstretch his hand to stroke the beast’s fur. It was far softer than a wild wolf’s would be.
“Wow,” Ethan gasped, smiling as he petted the remarkable creature, even though he knew he should still be afraid.
The wolf retreated, and once he was far enough away, he shifted back into a man as easily as shedding another layer of clothing. While Ethan stared on dumbly, the man started to dress.
“I’m sure you have questions, but mine come first. Do you believe me now about what you are?”
With the magic of the moment gone, Ethan tried to reconcile wanting to be sick from having drank someone’s blood while not being able to deny how good it felt flowing through him and how amazing it had tasted.
He nodded.
“Good. Now, who turned you?”
Amanda Meuwissen is a bisexual author, with a primary focus on M/M romance. As author of the paranormal romance trilogy The Incubus Saga and several other titles with various publishers, Amanda regularly attends local comic conventions for fun and to meet with fans, where she will often be seen in costume as one of her favorite fictional characters. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband, John, and their cat, Helga.
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