Quantcast
Girls*Heart* Books: GHBT - 'Crossover' by Mireille Chester Blog Tour- Excerpt

Saturday, June 27, 2015

GHBT - 'Crossover' by Mireille Chester Blog Tour- Excerpt


Crossover
The Chosen One # 1
By- Mireille Chester
Genre- Fantasy/ Paranormal/ Romance
Publication Date- June 8th, 2015
Published By-  Booktrope Publishing


Twenty-three-year-old Hayden Carlson never led an exciting life, but that was how she preferred it. She never expected that an innocent trail ride in the woods would change her life forever.
Suddenly, Hayden is pulled into a world she never knew existed and discovers a future awaits her there she isn’t prepared to accept...until she meets the mysterious Jasper. Drawn to his quiet, conflicted spirit and entranced by his blue eyes, Hayden finds herself experiencing feelings she has never felt before and wondering where all this might lead.


Hayden’s presence in Quelondain creates tension. Amidst constant danger, she finds true love and through it all determines where she will take her stand in the conflict her arrival ignites between good and evil.

If you love fantasy, action, and romance, Crossover-Book One in a debut Fantasy Romance trilogy by Mireille Chester—is for you.


   


And now an excerpt from Crossover: 

He moved both of my hands to one of his and used the other one to brush some stray hairs back behind my ear.
I inhaled deeply and slowly opened my eyes.
“Ask away,” he said, keeping his eyes locked on mine. He frowned. “Wait.”  He turned to Dodge. “No. She needs to know. She’s about to have a meltdown.”
I started to object to that comment and stopped. He was right. I was having a meltdown. I was imagining that this absolutely gorgeous man sitting across from me was arguing with my horse about my sanity. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry, so I did both. It came out as a snort.
Jasper seemed about to say something so I held up a finger to stop him. I started with the obvious.
“Am I awake?”
He smiled. “Yes.”
“Is my watch broken?”
“No. Things from there don’t work here.”
“Where is here?”
“Quelondain.”
I paused and took a deep breath. “Did you turn into a tiger?”
“Yes.”
I looked into his eyes, trying to find any indication that he was lying, joking. “How?”
“I am one of the Namael. We are able to change our shape.”
“You can turn into anything?”  This was ridiculous.
He shook his head. “No. I turn into a tiger. That’s it.”
“You talk to Dodge.”
“And he talks to me. I can hear his thoughts. But I can’t do that with all animals.”
“What is he thinking now?”
“He is not pleased. It is not my place to explain things to you. My orders are to find you and get you to Queen Melana.”
“How does he know all of this?”
“He is one of your guardians. He is from here.”
“Does he change into a human?”
Jasper laughed. “No. He is just a horse.”
Dodge stomped his foot. Jasper laughed even harder and looked at him. “Oh, don’t be so sensitive!  I didn’t mean it like that.”  He turned back to me. “Anything else?”
I looked into his eyes for a moment, my train of thought slipping away even as my mind exploded with questions.
Dodge and Jasper’s heads snapped up to look at the other side of the clearing.
“A pack!”  Jasper growled. In a flash, he was on his feet. He picked me up and threw me into the saddle. “Go!” he yelled at Dodge. “I’ll meet you in the blue woods!”
Dodge spun and galloped off past the waterfall and deeper into the forest.
I couldn’t think; only years of riding were keeping me in the saddle. I held the reins but didn’t used them. Dodge seemed to know where he was going. Behind us, I heard a deep growl and some excited barks.
Dodge ran for all he was worth and, soon, sounds of the fight faded away.
I let Dodge have his head and he continued at a speed I had never thought possible of him. Just when I thought he might drop from exhaustion, he slowed to an easy lope but kept heading deeper into the woods.  We crested a hill and I caught my breath at the sight.
Jasper hadn’t been kidding. Atop the ridge, I found myself looking at a forest made up of blue tinged trees. I had almost managed to convince myself it was trick of the light when a flash of orange and black streaked through the trees to our left.
My heart jumped into my throat. Was it normal to feel this happy at the sight of a tiger?  I wasn’t sure, but I thought that in these circumstances, it was possible. One tiger seemed a lot safer than a whole pack of whatever was behind us.
Dodge slowed to a jog and we entered a field. Jasper slipped behind the cover of the blue trees and reappeared as himself.
“Are you alright?”  His eyes searched my face for an answer.
I nodded weakly.
“Let’s stop here for a bit. Dodge looks like he needs to cool down.”  He laughed and gave my horse a playful punch to the shoulder, though his breathing was just as labored. That sounded good to me. I needed a drink and some time to think before anything else happened. When I felt I could trust my legs, I dismounted and walked to the saddlebag where I had stored some water bottles and other supplies.
I grabbed a bottle of water and poured it into Dodge’s collapsible bucket.
I looked at Jasper, suddenly unsure if treating Dodge like a regular horse would be insulting. “Um. Is that ok?”
Dodge answered by coming to have a drink.
“How did Dodge know where he was going?  I got him as a weanling and he’s never been anywhere without me.”
“It is in his memory. Passed on from his sire and his sire before him.”
I grabbed two more bottles and handed one to Jasper.
I noticed some blood soaking the side of his shirt. “Are you ok?”
He shrugged. “I’m fine. It’s just a scratch.”
“Let me see.”
“No. Really. It’s fine.”
I ignored him and pulled his shirt up so I could have a look and apologized when he flinched as I wiped the blood away to see the damage better. The cut was a clean one, about five inches long, and not too deep. I grabbed my still-damp sweater from the saddlebag and put pressure on it.
“Stupid dog,” muttered Jasper.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “That doesn’t look like a scratch.”
“Trust me. Compared to what it could have been, it’s a scratch.”
“So, a dog scratched you?”
He laughed. “No. He sliced me with his dagger.”
I shook my head and closed my eyes. Was anything going to make sense today?
“He thought he could surprise me by dropping out of a tree while I was fighting the other two.”
I gawked at him. There were so many things wrong with that statement. “A dog was in a tree and managed to cut you with a dagger,” I repeated slowly.
He laughed. “He wasn’t a dog at the time. He wasn’t shifted.”
Shifted. Tiger shifters and dog shifters… Jesus.
He sucked in his breath as I shifted from one foot to the other and increased the pressure I was putting on his wound.
“Sorry.”
He rested his arm on my shoulder to keep it out of the way.
“It was three against one, and all you came out of it with is this?”  I looked up at him. “What happened to them?”
He grinned. “The two that were on the ground got away with a few scratches of their own.”  His eyes narrowed. “The one in the tree got to feel what his dagger felt like from the receiving end.”
“Oh.”  It was such a pathetic response, but it was all that came to mind. I pulled the sweater away to see if the bleeding had stopped. I was suddenly very aware of his arm on my shoulder and the fact that he was so close. “There. I think you’ll live.”
He chuckled. “I should hope so.”

About the Author-
Mireille Chester is a fantasy author who likes to spend time in made up worlds filled with magic. She is a firm believer that no hero is perfect and that all villains are burdened with a tiny shred of humanity.
Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Mireille now resides in the beautiful prairies of Saskatchewan. Wife and mother, she spends most of her time with her three children and husband. When she is not writing stories or grooming dogs, you can find her on the lake fishing with her family.


Social Media Links-


1 comment:

  1. Did you know you can create short urls with OUO and receive money for every click on your short urls.

    ReplyDelete

We love to hear from you!