Hunky Alpha Wednesday with Ally Shields!

I am super amazingly excited to have the Super Amazingly Talented Ally Shields with me today for Hunky Alpha Wednesday! I have been secretly stalking Ally for a while because of her awesome series and amazing writing. So I am so glad she could come blog with us today. So everyone give a HUGE welcome to Ally!!!!

Hi, Rebekah! I can’t thank you enough for inviting me to visit your blog and introduce my heroine’s hunky boyfriend Andreas. Unfortunately, he’s so busy running the vampire court and his elegant supper club that I couldn’t convince him to come with me. So I thought I’d let you meet him through the eyes of my heroine Ari Calin, a fire witch who serves as the supernatural cop for OldeTown.

This is a scene from Fire Within, book two of the Guardian Witch series. Ari and Andreas, a very alpha vampire, have what you might call a conflicted relationship. They’ve been estranged for several months, but Ari cannot stop dreaming about him. She’s been investigating a series of vampire murders, and when she hears he was the victim of a shooting at his supper club, she races to the scene, imagining the worst.

Excerpt:

She yanked the front door open, charged inside, and slid to a stop.

Andreas stood in the hallway. Unharmed, sexy as ever with that lock of black hair falling over his forehead, calmly talking with a uniformed officer. His friend Marcus, Club Dintero’s host, was listening and acting not the least bit alarmed.

Relief acted like a bucket of cold water flung on the adrenaline roaring through Ari’s veins. She gasped before she could stifle the reaction, and Marcus reached a hand toward her. His action was all it took. Ari turned on him.

“Marcus, what the hell happened? Where was security?” she demanded, her voice shrill. “Doesn’t anyone do their job around here?” She was vaguely aware of Marcus’s shocked face, but the words kept pouring from her mouth. “Where were you? Don’t stand there like…”

“Stop it. Arianna, stop it right now.” As Andreas grabbed her shoulders, the sharpness of his voice got through to her.

She gulped down the rest of her tirade. Andreas said something to the officer, then shoved her into his office. She walked away from him as she heard the office door close with a firm click. She shivered, wanting to kick something, and hugged her arms.

“That was unwarranted,” he said, his calm voice belying the censure. “My protection is not Marcus’s responsibility, and everyone is fine.”

Silence grew thick in the room. Ari didn’t trust herself to speak. Her pulse still beat double-time. The nearness of his magic made her skin quiver.

“If I did not know better, I would think my welfare was of some interest to you,” he finally said.

Damn, damn, damn! How had she gotten herself into this situation? Ari was appalled at how much she wanted to throw herself into his arms. She hugged herself tighter. “Of course, I’d be concerned,” she snapped. “We don’t need another vamp murder.” Her tone was too sharp. She swallowed and made an effort to fight the adrenaline still flooding her system. She felt exposed, realizing how much her actions must have revealed. “You’re our contact with the vampire court. We need your help,” she added, in a feeble attempt to divert him. The excuse hung heavy in the air.

“That did not seem to matter for the past eight months.”

“The vampire murders hadn’t happened yet.”

Andreas sighed. “I hope you are more honest with yourself than you are being with me.”

“What’s that mean? What are you implying?” Defiant, challenging, even surly wouldn’t have been a bad description of her attitude. She should have known he wouldn’t let her off the hook. She didn’t want to examine why she was so rattled. So she’d retreated into anger.

Andreas spoke from behind her. “The time has come for us to talk.”

As usual, she hadn’t heard him move. But she sensed how very close he was, an awareness sliding across her neck, light as a feather. She felt his hand touch her hair.

“A little truth would be helpful, Arianna. Admit you are attracted to me, as I am to you. Although sometimes I wonder what attracts me, when every time you come near you carry an invisible stake in your hand.” His breath blew softly over her ear. “These long months, I have missed you, little witch.”

Ari hesitated, the words to deny him stuck in her throat. Her witch magic had begun to sing, liking his nearness, and what came out betrayed her. “Me, too.”

His arms wrapped around and pulled her back against his firm chest. She relaxed, enjoying the feel of him, allowing the heady mixture that was Andreas to wash over her. “I thought you were dead,” she whispered.

“Would it have mattered so much?” His warm breath caressed the nape of her neck.

“Yes,” she said, as surprised by the thought as the fact she’d admitted it. “I’ve never denied the attraction. I’ve just tried not to do anything about it.”

“Hmmm. Is this so bad?” His fingers pushed the last strands of hair aside, as his lips brushed her neck. A silken touch that sent a fire through her. Ari shivered in his arms. Andreas laughed softly. A totally masculine sound.

AND HERE IS OUR WONDERFUL ANDREAS!!!!

Book Three in the Series is out now as well:

Blood and Fire blurb:

A dead body, black magic, and a vampire enforcer…

Ari thought her biggest problem was deciding if she should move in with her vampire boyfriend, Andreas. That was before they found the dead body at the bottom of the Riverdale cliffs. And before she realized he’d been cursed by black magic.

Just as she begins the murder investigation, the vampire rulers in Europe send an enforcer to make inquiries into the recent defeat of the Toronto vampire prince. While Andreas has taken responsibility for the brutal dictator’s death, there is much about the incident that he and Ari must keep to themselves—secrets the vampire elders would stop at nothing to learn.

With threats of retaliation hanging over their heads, Ari moves into Andreas’s Victorian mansion—for safety’s sake—while the enforcer begins a campaign of terror. Ari is caught between competing dangers and challenges: black magic, a ghost, a missing Native American artifact…not to mention a new roommate…all while trying to stay alive…

BIO:

Ally Shields was born and raised in the Midwest, along the Mississippi River, and considers herself a “river rat.” The setting and folklore of that area are often incorporated into her urban fantasy series. After a career in law and juvenile justice, she turned to full-time writing in 2009, and Awakening the Fire, the debut novel in her Guardian Witch series, was released in September 2012. When not writing, reading or spending time with family, she loves to travel in the US and abroad. Way too often she can be found on Twitter.

Author Contacts:
Website: http://allyshields.com

Blog: http://allyshields.com/blog.html

Facebook: http://facebook.com/AllyShieldsAuthor

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ShieldsAlly

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6527209.Ally_Shields

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/allyshields

The Guardian Witch Series:

Awakening the Fire (Book One)

Fire Within (Book Two)

Burning Both Ends (Book Three)

Blood and Fire (Book Four)

Fire Storm (Book Five) (tentative title), scheduled to release March 2014