Title: Hearts of Destiny
Series: Chevalier, Book Four
Author: Kay Doherty
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: March 30, 2020
Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 40700{
Genre: Paranormal, LGBTQIA+, MM romance, gay, pack dynamics, feud, wolf shifters, dragon shifters, multispecies shifters, bonded mates
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Synopsis
Ean and Matthias have known they’re
mates for a while, but Matthias has been unwilling to claim Ean. He believes
his past and age-old secrets are too big for Ean to overcome, so instead keeps
Ean away by irritating him.
Depressed and no longer able to be near
the dragon-shifter, Ean leaves the pack house and, after a night of heavy
drinking, makes a life-changing decision that pushes Matthias into action.
As the blood moon draws nearer, the
Chevalier Pack is called before a tribunal of paranormal leaders to assess the
Alpha’s rumored mysterious abilities. Matthias decides to share his secrets
with a little help from Colby. And to top everything off, they face another
attack by the McBane Pack, which the Chevalier decide will be the last.
Excerpt
Hearts of Destiny
Kay Doherty © 2020
All Rights Reserved
Prologue
Duray Horde Vault
After adjusting the stack of scrolls
tucked beneath his arm, Matthias opened the door to the vaults and headed down
the stairs. He had no idea what was contained in the newest additions to the
horde library, but Sadie had insisted he take them, look through them, and
archive them appropriately. The sheer number of scrolls he was carrying
guaranteed weeks of sequestered reading, and he was looking forward to it.
Matthias often disappeared for days within the vault stacks, and no one cared.
He was moody and antisocial at the best of times and preferred his own company
to that of other dragons.
At the back of the library, he dropped
the scrolls unceremoniously on top of the desk he’d claimed as his, decades
ago. Since no one came down to the vaults, no one had challenged his claim. As
far as the horde was concerned, the vaults were Matthias’s domain. The soft
thump of little feet echoed in the cavernous space, dulled slightly by the
papers and leather-bound tomes that filled the shelving. Matthias knew who
those steps belonged to, and his disposition lightened a bit. Sadie’s son had a
thirst for knowledge that Matthias admired, even if it did mean his quiet sanctuary
was invaded on a regular basis by the child.
“Hi, Matthias.”
“What are you doing down here, Luca?”
The fledgling hefted a book that was
nearly a third his size, and Matthias recognized it as an old human-written
story about a witch. He wasn’t sure it was an appropriate choice for a
fledgling of just eight years to read, but he’d learned early on that Luca was
not an ordinary little dragon. There was something special about him: something
that reminded Matthias of the child he’d raised centuries before.
“Nothing in that book is factual,”
Matthias told the boy.
“That’s good, because the witch ate the
kids.” Luca winced before turning around and disappearing into the shelving.
“Don’t make me come behind you and
straighten up,” Matthias ordered, his voice carrying through the room despite
him not raising it the slightest bit.
Twenty entirely-too-quiet minutes passed
before Matthias rose from his chair to go check on Luca. He found the book the
boy had brought back exactly where it should be, but Luca wasn’t there.
Returning to the main aisle, Matthias glanced down each row as he passed until
he finally found Luca sitting on the floor with his back against the stone wall
with a book opened across his little legs.
“This isn’t a row you’re allowed to be
in,” Matthias said, shocking the little boy who was clearly immersed in what he
was reading.
Matthias squatted in front of him,
closed the book, and willed the panic he felt explode in his chest to not show
on his face as he pulled the book from Luca’s grasp. He stood and placed the
tome well above the boy’s head. Luca was entirely too curious for his own good.
“But I liked that story,” Luca
complained. “It had a dragon married to a wolf, and I didn’t know that could
happen, and I want to see what happens next.”
Matthias swallowed thickly. Luca thought
he was reading a fictional story, but Matthias knew all too well that the
Chevalier family had been real, and he’d be damned if he put the idea of
interspecies matings into the head of the horde matriarch’s son. Pushing the
memory of his own interspecies mating to the back of his mind—because what did
it matter anymore?—he looked down at the fledgling.
He steered the boy into a more
appropriate area of the vaults to be explored and then returned to the tome
he’d confiscated. Pulling it off the shelf, Matthias thumbed through page after
page of his own historical account of the Chevalier, removed the most
informative and thereby damaging chapters, and then replaced it on the shelf.
Luca was only going to get older, taller, and more curious with age. Matthias
wouldn’t risk him finding the book again.
Later that night, after darkness had
fallen and the compound had grown silent with slumber, Matthias burned one of
the last firsthand accounts of the Chevalier—his own. Why he’d thought it was a
good idea to put that horror down on paper, he’d never understand. Youthful
folly. All that was left to do was locate and obtain Alietta’s journal, the
final remaining written history of the family and subsequent events Matthias
had yet to destroy. For now, he was content knowing the only memory of the
Chevalier that existed in the Duray Horde was now locked safely away inside his
head; a place no amount of childhood curiosity could penetrate.
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Meet the Author
Kay Doherty is an omnisexual/polysexual who lives in Colorado with her poly-family, Mike, Keri, and Tigz. Her house is overrun with cats and dogs. Family is important to her so there are daily texts, frequent visits to her parents, and constant banter with her brothers. She happily suffers a severe addiction to coffee and Mexican food. She loves to read and write and can easily become consumed by it for hours, much to the dismay of Mike and Keri (Tigz is an enabler). On occasion she can be convinced to venture out into the world of the living despite being annoyed by the sun shining in her face.Website |Twitter | Pinterest
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