Ain’t it purty?  As always, the ultra-fabulous Elaina Lee has done an outstanding job of turning my cover ideas into something absolutely wonderful.  I’d be happy if she was always my artist over at Sugar & Spice.  I could kiss her for being so full of awesome.

But that’s another story for another day.

Ahem…moving along.

*grin*

She-Wolf is up on the SSP site as we speak, sitting pretty with a release date of September 29th.  I’m so excited that I can hardly wait.  In fact, I’d much rather not wait, because I love this story so much.  So to keep you entertained this afternoon while I’m running around like a crazy person, enjoy the following blurb and excerpt.

 

 

 

The Blurb:

It is almost the full moon, and werewolf Mira Winterborn is feeling restless. Research has failed her, and she is convinced that no matter what happens, there is no way to stop the change. But when her best friend invites her out for a late night on the town, she finds herself drawn to the bad-boy in the corner as a likely candidate for a final experiment. Unfortunately, he’s there to kill her.

Rune Morwyn is a hunter, working to repay a blood debt. Mira is to be his last mark, but she makes him a bizarre offer that seems too good to be true. Is the wild attraction between them enough to upset her curse, and what will happen if he lets his normally guarded heart go?

 

The Excerpt:

I could put off killing her long enough to have her, he thought. Heaven knew he wanted her in a bad way. It had been years—five of them, to be exact—since he’d had a woman, and this little one seemed to trip every trigger he had. Hell, Rune had even considered pulling her against him and doing more than just dance right there on the club floor, but that would be much too personal for such a dirty job.

Keeping it simple had never failed him before.

Damn if he didn’t want to back her up against the wall of the building and take her right here in the alley, though. Wolf or not, she was a woman, and an unusual, oddly beautiful one at that. Rune didn’t make a habit out of seducing his targets, but then again, he’d never had a female target.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, signaling the impending downpour. He could smell the rain in the clouds overhead. Being out in this would only slow him down after the job was done. And it needed to be done, he told himself again, focusing on the dagger clenched in his fist. Again he found himself not listening to common sense. Frustrated, he lifted his hand and prepared to plunge it into her chest.

“Since you’re planning on killing me anyway,” Mira said, turning back to face him just in time to catch his wrist in her hands. Damn, she was strong. Only the slightest flash of fear crossed her face before she reined it in and regained her cool exterior. Almost. Something new and wicked danced in her eyes. “Do you think you could put it off long enough to help me with an experiment?” She batted her lashes at him and offered a coy smile.

“Excuse me?” he barked through another bout of laughter, and she used his distraction to pry the weapon from his fingers.

“I want to use you.”

Yes, he thought as he surreptitiously dropped his hand to his crotch for a minor adjustment, use me any way you like. “What sort of experiment?”

“I’m curious to know if my research is correct.”

She wasn’t making this easy. He raised an eyebrow at her and tried unsuccessfully to curb his laughter. “And how exactly am I supposed to help you with this experiment?”

“I need you to take me home.”

That one sentence immediately sobered him. Was she really suggesting what he thought she was? Hadn’t he just been telling himself it was a bad idea to prolong this? But at the same time, hadn’t he also been weighing the options of doing exactly what she was suggesting?

Rune stared down his nose at the brazen little woman, ignoring the immediate tightening in his gut as he did so. Yes, he wanted her in the worst way imaginable. Yes, bedding her would make this job intensely personal. The question was, would he still be able to put that dagger in her hands through her heart when he was through with her?

He was pretty sure he would. It would only be sex, after all.

“I hope you don’t expect this to change anything,” he said in response to her statement.

“No.” A small sigh escaped her, and he watched her demeanor change from cool and confident to frightened and just a little bit sad. The thin curl of a smile at the corner of her mouth turned downward. “If it meant stopping the change, death would be welcome.”

He’d seen it in her eyes; that desire to not exist. But never in a thousand lifetimes would he have expected her to admit it. How the hell was he supposed to react to that?

“You want me to go home with you, and then you’ll let me do my job?”

Her forehead wrinkled. “Job? I’m a job to you?”

“How else would I have known that you were…” he hesitated, considering his words and their very public location before speaking again, “what you are?”

“True,” she said, nodding in assent as she handed the dagger back to him. An odd move, but no bolder than any of her others to this point. Rune shoved it back into his boot for safekeeping. “You can explain that later. Right now, we need to go. I live near Five Points. Where’s your car?” Smiling, Rune turned and pointed to the motorcycle on the corner. Mira’s eyes went wide, and a slow, lazy smile spread across her lips. “Fantastic. I’ll give you directions.”