Dungeon Master is Publishing Now! September 27, 2024
Dungeon Master is Publishing Now!
September 27, 2024
Dear Reader,
I finished the edits on Dungeon Master, and the chapters have all posted to the Valkyrie Riders Miniseries. I'm excited that it went so quickly, and shocked that I'm still working on adding the extra bits which surround this tale to the miniseries. The tale has formatted and is in the publishing process. Because of the day job, it's not a one day publish everywhere process, but usually takes a week to get it published everywhere in all the formats. So bear with me if you are looking for the book and it still hasn't manifested on your preferred platform. It's coming!
I'm over-the-moon thrilled the story will publish so early. I had worried it might not happen until Thanksgiving, so to be at this stage a month before Halloween is amazing. It has been a lot of hard work, but I might just be getting better at writing cleaner. I don't have to slog through the edits for as long as I once did.
This story is the first part of a novella duet. The second part is already in edits. Sorceress Valkyrie will publish chapters soon. Cut me a bit of slack while I tidy up and finish adding the extras for Dungeon Master. And on a related note, the projected time to publish Valkyrie Sorceress has moved to the week of Thanksgiving.
Podcasting on Substack!
I began podcasting Thread as a serial audiobook a couple of weeks ago on Substack. It went well, and I linked the podcast feed to Spotify. I'm looking at adding the chapters of A Pack Forms next, but I have to make sure everything works correctly. It looks as if my failed YouTube experiment has me branching out in a way I never imagined. The dream is improving and growing ever larger.
I'm excited about this next chapter in the behind-the-scenes efforts in building the dream. So stay tuned for further updates. Or tune in on Spotify or Substack to listen to the Ophelia Kee's Dream.
Preview of Sorceress Valkyrie
Homemade
Grace
“Did you choose one?” Blaze asked.
“Choose one what?”
Was he asking if she’d chosen a lover?
“Quarters? Upstairs or down?”
“I’m to live here?!”
The place was huge, the quarters massive. She thought they were for the guests.
“This house is for pack members. The guests will all stay at the hotel or have private quarters in the forest along trails leading back to the hotel, the stables, the parking garage, the entertainment area, and the farm.”
“I would live here? This was what Luke meant by room and board?”
Grace stood still, overwhelmed. Blaze nodded.
The rooms were beautiful, and the lavatories finishes were tile, marble, and granite. The living area and bedroom spaces had hardwood floors, and all the rooms included soundproofing and light-proofing, shutters, air conditioning, lights, and ceiling fans, which all had computer controls. It was too fancy.
“Where do you stay?”
Grace needed to know where Blaze would be. Would he be close?
“That depends on which quarters you choose. You had me written into your employment contract. My orders are to serve as your protection. I’ll stay wherever you do.”
Grace blew out the breath she hadn’t realized she held. She needed him to keep the nightmares away and to keep her safe.
As long as he stayed with her, everything seemed okay. She didn’t think about her recent ordeal. He made it seem as if it were someone else’s problem.
“If you would prefer, I can discuss it with Luke, and you can have your personal space. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
Blaze offered her something she adamantly didn’t want.
“No! Absolutely not. Look, I don’t understand this lifemate shifter thing, but you make me feel safe. If I sleep with you, I don’t think about what happened. I just smell juniper and whiskey, and I can sleep. I don’t know how long it will take for me to close my eyes and not see that place or those men, but until it happens, I don’t want to give up the one thing that has made it possible for me to deal with that living nightmare.”
Grace cried, and Blaze had her in his arms immediately.
He held her and talked low to her. He stroked her back and let her hold him tight. She breathed in his scent of juniper and whiskey, and the dream slowly righted itself for her.
“I’ll stay and do whatever it takes for as long as it takes, even if it means I stay forever. I don’t have anywhere else to be.”
He tried to soothe her.
“Blaze, I need you. I know you say otherwise, but I feel as if I’m imposing on your life. I’m sorry you somehow got roped into being my caretaker.”
Grace sniffed at him.
“Jewel, you haven’t roped me into anything. You aren’t imposing on my life. You are my life. I came here because I knew I’d find you here. Everything I’ve done since I arrived connects to finding you, helping you, or claiming you for mine. You can’t apologize to me for my choices.”
Blaze was too much. He was too kind.
Grace had lost everything. She had nothing to offer him, and yet he had willingly gifted her with everything he had, even if she told him to go away.
Blaze wanted to stay with her, care for her, provide for her, and protect her. He was attractive to her. Could a sorceress have a dragon lover?
“Why me? Why choose a broken woman with nothing left to offer you?”
“Grace, I don’t need material possessions from you. I don’t care if you’re broken. So am I. I don’t know why it’s you, but it’s you. You’re the only one in the dream who can give me what I need. If there is even a slim chance I can have it from you, I’ll do whatever it takes to convince you I’m right, and you’re to be my Valkyrie.”
“Okay, let’s go see the rest of the mansion.”
She needed time to think.
They toured the office spaces and the enormous conference room. The entire place was magnificent. To be living and working at Draoithe excited Grace.
The future no longer looked so dim. It was a bright prospect, but it paled in comparison with Blaze.
Somehow, amidst all the splendor and beauty of Draoithe, her dark, serious dragon was slowly drawing her in like a magnet.
“Blaze, could you prove it to me? I mean, is there a way for me to know I’m the lifemate you think I am?”
She needed to know.
“There is, but I doubt you’d be ready for the traditional method for proving a lifemate.”
Blaze answered as they left the house and walked out to the garage.
“What is it?”
“A true shifter lifemate-pair can link their emotions together during sex if they refuse to look away from one another until they both climax. If they’re mates, the link will open in the mind like a candle flame, allowing the linked pair to feel what each other feels. It’s usually done when a shifter determines a human who would need to be turned is their partner. It’s proof.”
Blaze explained it all in the third person. Grace appreciated him not creating a mental image of the two of them trying it. She suspected he’d explained it that way for both of them. He wasn’t comfortable with his desire for her because she wasn’t ready. It only added to her attraction to him.
“If the link worked, how would a dragon’s mate become a Valkyrie?”
She needed to know the details.
“It’s part of the shifter bonding ritual. A dragon bites his mate and drinks from her, starting the bond. A dragon’s bite is painful, but it turns their mate, giving them the ability to use the dragon’s magic. His mate has to bite him back and drink from him. Sharing blood allows the magic to ignite. When a dragon enters his mate and touches her center, his blood grants her wings and fangs. The magic forces both parties to climax, and it demands a lot of energy to merge the souls in the bond. It’s often a lengthy and violent encounter. To seal the bond, both parties have to drink from one another at the end. The dragon’s mate drinks her fill to allow her to use his magic completely. The dragon drinking his mate’s blood seals him to her as his only rider. A bonded dragon has only one rider, and she alone can command her dragon to serve her.”
They walked around and saw the stables and the two draft horses Kallik worked with every morning. They saw the nearly finished university, library, art gallery, and sound stage. Javier caught up with them before five and explained where some other buildings would be and how the horseback riding trails would work.
It would be a resort-like property after the construction. She had an idea where her shop would be, where she would learn the staff, and where she would practice her magic. She could almost see her new life.
Grace looked at Blaze. She still wasn’t sure how he fit in the vision, but it would feel wrong if he weren’t in it. No matter how she might like to refuse it, Blaze had become an integral part of her life.
Grace nodded to herself. It would be upstairs. No more dark dungeons for Blaze. He’d lived in the dungeons long enough.
Javier promised to lock up before he went back to Fox’s house, and Blaze took Grace to the coolest store, which was a restaurant when they left the retreat build-site. They had ice cream at a place called Braum’s. It was homemade.
I hope you enjoyed the excerpt from the upcoming tale, Sorceress Valkyrie. May your weekend be lovely and include a good book. I have dished to wash and floors to mop no matter how much I might prefer a good book myself. So I will leave you with the heartfelt plea to be kind and leave your honest reviews of the stories you love. and as always, welcome to the dream...
Be Careful!
Happy Reading,
Ophelia Kee
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