Join us for a little Halloween fun in the Fright Night blog hop! Stop by each blog to check out their favourite paranormal or spooky reads and enter their giveaways!

To really whet your appetite for all things spooky, here’s a snippet from my paranormal romance thriller, Pack of Lies. Werewolves, anyone? It’s over 96,000 (plus novel) words of lies, deception and intrigue… a book you can really get your teeth into this Halloween 😉

*****

Then all they could do was wait. They had the power to initiate the change earlier, but there was no point. It was easier to wait until the moon forced them to, making the entire transition faster and much less painful.

“Okay,” Matthew said, after what felt like forever. “Here we go. See you on the other side, brother.”

Isaac nodded, and after a beat an invisible force made them drop simultaneously to the ground, their hands and knees crashing onto the unforgiving rock floor. But that was the least of their worries. Small fry compared to the agony they experienced as their bones began realigning, their muscles and tendons stretching, popping, tearing, skin stretching and sprouting hair.

Matthew wished, and not for the first time, that their human consciousness was not involved in the change. Because everything they felt, experienced as they morphed from man to wolf, was imprinted into their memories forever, and of course made them dread each and every time they changed. The pain and discomfort never got any less. The only saving grace was that the process had grown quicker over the centuries, so their agony was that much briefer.

Before long Matthew was aware he was no longer a man. He looked over at his brother, now totally unrecognizable as the tall, handsome doctor he’d been just a few minutes ago. Glancing down at his own huge, hairy paws with their long, scary-looking claws, Matthew remembered the other side of the argument. Yes, they had to endure and remember the pain they went through as they transformed, but as that consciousness remained throughout, it meant they knew exactly what they did when they were wolves and could control themselves.

Not that there was anything to control down in the caves. There was no temptation of any kind, unless you liked the taste of bats, spiders or insects. Both brothers had tried bats before, catching the darting winged creatures in strong, long-toothed jaws for entertainment value, but they’d agreed the next day that they weren’t worth the bother. They were so small and irrelevant to their huge wolves that they took more energy to catch than they provided.

And so, once they’d gone through the transformation, a night in the Stoney Middleton caves proved pretty dull. It was a means to an end, a way to let their wolves roam free without endangering anyone or risking the exposure of their secret. It was certainly better than being locked in cages. They loped around the areas of the cavern that were large enough and occasionally crawled along some of the side passages just for something to do. Neither of them found it easy to sleep in wolf form, as there was so much raw energy, so much adrenaline coursing through their veins. In a way, changing on Eyam Moor had been better because there had been room to run around, burn off some of that energy. But that wasn’t an option—especially not now.

Though they’d said they weren’t going to head deeper into the cave system, Matthew turned tail—literally—and headed across the Oyster Cavern and into Eyam Passage. He was bored, and they’d already been down there for hours—if he didn’t do something, he was going to go crazy. Continuing through foot after foot of dark, damp tunnel, he passed a turn off on the left that he knew was a dead end. He was roughly underneath the electricity substation by the side of the Eyam road by now, and he kept going. Now he was beneath the road, now the woods on the other side of it.

There was an old mine shaft that opened up in Eyam Dale, and he made for it. He had no intention of attempting to get out of it—it would be impossible in any case, even more difficult than trying to get back out of the Gin entrance in his wolf form. All he wanted was a change of scenery, an excuse to stretch his legs and something to occupy his mind.

Just then he got it. A loud scuffle from above, the sound of rocks clattering against one another, against the ground, and some swearing. A man’s voice. Christ, Tom and his gang hadn’t seriously decided to come and check on them after all, had they?

*****

Still not convinced? The book has over fifteen four and five star reviews… this isn’t your traditional romance 🙂

More about the book and buy links here.

Now, check out my giveaway, then scroll down and see the list of the other blogs on the hop. Have fun!

Lucy x

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