This is an excerpt from my first sequel to Sorcha's Heart!
Here is the blurb to help orient you for the excerpt:
Here is the blurb to help orient you for the excerpt:
Sorcha and Caedyrn's love has created a new breed of beings. Neither wholly dragon nor fully human, Sorcha's children shapeshift at will. The six fledglings have been raised as dragons, but the time has come to explore their human heritage. Aislinn and Taran are the first to leave the ice aerie for the world of men.
Aislinn discovers the lure of sexuality amidst the intrigues of King Leofric's court, while Taran learns the source of his debilitating malady. Both siblings face danger and prejudice among their mother's kin, but they discover love as well. Dragons mate for life, forcing the young shifters to make a choice.
Aislinn discovers the lure of sexuality amidst the intrigues of King Leofric's court, while Taran learns the source of his debilitating malady. Both siblings face danger and prejudice among their mother's kin, but they discover love as well. Dragons mate for life, forcing the young shifters to make a choice.
~~~
Excerpt from DRAGONS’ CHOICE: Sorcha's Children Book 1
Copyright: Debbie Mumford 2007
Publisher: Freya’s Bower
Aislinn soared through the midday sky. Warm sunlight and cool wind caressed her scaly hide. The nictitating membranes protected tender eyes and added a unique shimmer to her vision. She scanned the horizon and an excited bubble of anticipation inflated at the sight of the towering cliffs. She arrowed toward an assignation with destiny. Her mate waited atop that rocky sentinel. Her mate.
She tasted the words and acknowledged their truthfulness. Prince Ewan would be her mate. She’d always assumed she would bond within the flight, had anticipated the wild elation of leading her chosen male on a death-defying race through the heavens. She’d expected to allow the male to catch her only after they had attained sufficient height to complete the sex act before gravity dashed them upon the rocks of the canyon. How could mating with a flightless human compare?
Her dragon instincts wrenched. If she followed through on the course her human soul had set in motion, she would severe herself forever from the possibility of a dragon bonding. What was she thinking?
She banked and circled the meadow at the cliff edge. The prince stood in the center of the greensward, shielding his eyes and following her progress. Puny and flightless, like all of his kind. She could crush him with a flick of her tail. The men who guarded the path to the cliffs, his sworn protectors, would be helpless against her.
And yet, even in dragon form, she felt an irresistible pull. This earth-bound human held her heart in his hands.
Almost, she could see the strands of her life diverging from the rocky outcropping: remain in the sky, ignore the crawling mortal, return to the flight to bond with a true-born dragon and clutch many eggs to enrich the aerie; or land and follow her destiny in the arms of Ewan of Rossal.
Her resolve faltered, and she glanced north toward the windswept mountains and the hidden ice aerie of her youth…but her human half shoved a memory to the front. Ewan’s mouth on hers last night at the ball, liquid fire smoldering in her veins while absolute conviction of her destiny in his arms blazed in her soul.
She swooped low and landed on the sparse grass at the cliff-edge.
He approached, uncertainty evident on his face. “You circled so many times,” he said. “I thought you’d changed your mind.”
She lowered her head and studied him, her wings still widespread, ready for flight. “I’m not sure I haven’t,” she said. “Give me a reason to stay, Ewan.”
He sank to one knee and bowed before her.
“I’m not sure what I have to offer a dragon,” he said, but when he raised his gaze to meet hers Aislinn found all the reason she needed shining in his eyes. He loved her. Even now, when she appeared in dragon form, his eyes proclaimed understanding and steadfast devotion. Here was a male who would accept her no matter the skin she wore.
She folded her wings, shimmered from blue-scaled dragon to soft-fleshed woman, and launched herself into his arms.
Excerpt from DRAGONS’ CHOICE: Sorcha's Children Book 1
Copyright: Debbie Mumford 2007
Publisher: Freya’s Bower
Aislinn soared through the midday sky. Warm sunlight and cool wind caressed her scaly hide. The nictitating membranes protected tender eyes and added a unique shimmer to her vision. She scanned the horizon and an excited bubble of anticipation inflated at the sight of the towering cliffs. She arrowed toward an assignation with destiny. Her mate waited atop that rocky sentinel. Her mate.
She tasted the words and acknowledged their truthfulness. Prince Ewan would be her mate. She’d always assumed she would bond within the flight, had anticipated the wild elation of leading her chosen male on a death-defying race through the heavens. She’d expected to allow the male to catch her only after they had attained sufficient height to complete the sex act before gravity dashed them upon the rocks of the canyon. How could mating with a flightless human compare?
Her dragon instincts wrenched. If she followed through on the course her human soul had set in motion, she would severe herself forever from the possibility of a dragon bonding. What was she thinking?
She banked and circled the meadow at the cliff edge. The prince stood in the center of the greensward, shielding his eyes and following her progress. Puny and flightless, like all of his kind. She could crush him with a flick of her tail. The men who guarded the path to the cliffs, his sworn protectors, would be helpless against her.
And yet, even in dragon form, she felt an irresistible pull. This earth-bound human held her heart in his hands.
Almost, she could see the strands of her life diverging from the rocky outcropping: remain in the sky, ignore the crawling mortal, return to the flight to bond with a true-born dragon and clutch many eggs to enrich the aerie; or land and follow her destiny in the arms of Ewan of Rossal.
Her resolve faltered, and she glanced north toward the windswept mountains and the hidden ice aerie of her youth…but her human half shoved a memory to the front. Ewan’s mouth on hers last night at the ball, liquid fire smoldering in her veins while absolute conviction of her destiny in his arms blazed in her soul.
She swooped low and landed on the sparse grass at the cliff-edge.
He approached, uncertainty evident on his face. “You circled so many times,” he said. “I thought you’d changed your mind.”
She lowered her head and studied him, her wings still widespread, ready for flight. “I’m not sure I haven’t,” she said. “Give me a reason to stay, Ewan.”
He sank to one knee and bowed before her.
“I’m not sure what I have to offer a dragon,” he said, but when he raised his gaze to meet hers Aislinn found all the reason she needed shining in his eyes. He loved her. Even now, when she appeared in dragon form, his eyes proclaimed understanding and steadfast devotion. Here was a male who would accept her no matter the skin she wore.
She folded her wings, shimmered from blue-scaled dragon to soft-fleshed woman, and launched herself into his arms.
