Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK
Length: 135,000 words
Cover: Natasha Snow
Blurb
Nothing can stop true love. Not time. Not even the devil himself.
1805. Laurent. Indentured servant. Desperate to escape a life that is falling apart.
2017. Beast. Kings of Hell Motorcycle Club vice president. His fists do the talking.
Beast has been disfigured in a fire, but he’s covered his skin with tattoos to make sure no one mistakes his scars for weakness. The accident not only hurt his body, but damaged his soul and self-esteem, so he’s wrapped himself in a tight cocoon of violence and mayhem where no one can reach him.
Until one night, when he finds a young man covered in blood in their clubhouse. Sweet, innocent, and as beautiful as an angel fallen from heaven, Laurent pulls on all of Beast’s heartstrings. Laurent is so lost in the world around him, and is such a tangled mystery, that Beast can’t help but let the man claw his way into the stone that is Beast’s heart.
In 1805, Laurent has no family, no means, and his eyesight is failing. To escape a life of poverty, he uses his beauty, but that only backfires and leads him to a catastrophe that changes his life forever. He takes one step into the abyss and is transported to the future, ready to fight for a life worth living.
What he doesn’t expect in his way is a brutal, gruff wall of tattooed muscle with a tender side that only Laurent is allowed to touch. And yet, if Laurent ever wants to earn his freedom, he might have to tear out the heart of the very man who took care of him when it mattered most.
Excerpt
Hound’s alarmed growling was coming his way, along with whines, when he reached the right door and opened it, only to have the massive Rottweiler’s body rush past him and into the corridor. Beast expected his pet to rush toward the room where the accident happened just minutes ago but Hound looked back at Beast, as if signalling he wanted to be followed, and rushed the other way, stirring the worst of feelings in Beast.
Was there an intruder somewhere in the house? With the sheer size of the former asylum that has served as the Kings of Hell Clubhouse for the last fifteen years, it was easy to overlook things happening in the disused parts of the property. They once had a bunch of teenagers who came over wanting to spy on the orgy. That thankfully didn’t end in blood, and out of the whole mess they got Jake to join their ranks.
Beast wondered whether he shouldn’t go back to the armory and get himself a gun but ultimately decided against it. There would be police and emergency services coming for Davy, and he didn’t want to run around with a firearm, no matter how good their relationship with the local police was.
Hound moved as if he were following a clear trail, but Beast couldn’t smell anything apart from dust and dampness. They were leaving behind the shouting and even the sound of the ambulance approaching, and eventually entered a corridor so disused it had a thick layer of dust on the floor. Now even Beast could see faint footprints in the dust, and next to them, dark droplets that could be blood.
Hound smelled the traces, looked back and broke into a run, which had Beast following him with the worst of expectations as to what he would eventually find. His heart beat faster as they ran down the dark hallway.
The building was a labyrinth, and this far away from where they all lived and worked, it wasn’t even wired anymore, so he breathed in the smell of mildew and followed Hound through the darkness in hope he would not stumble.
Windows in the doorless rooms on both sides of the corridor were the only source of light, now delivering a faint red and blue glow of the approaching ambulance. For all Beast knew, this could have been a gothic castle, something out of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with bloodthirsty monsters waiting for their next victim in one of the endless hallways, and yet he only ran faster, listening to the steady tap of Hound’s paws.
Without any hesitation whatsoever, Hound rushed inside one of the rooms and gave a growl so vicious something inside Beast mourned his decision not to take a gun with him. But no one shot at him when Hound let out a single bark. Beast pushed past the empty doorway, jumping over a fallen chair, only to see someone hiding in the shadows.
Judging by the long, wavy hair and small stature, Beast at first thought it was a woman, but then the person spoke with a distinctly male voice.
“I… I’m not certain where I am.” The stranger took half a step out of the shadow, and into the flashing light coming from outside. His accent was distinctly foreign. French maybe?
Beast took him in with a scowl. Blood covered the stranger’s face, hair, dripped from his chin, from the tips of his trembling fingers, and stained the outfit that looked as if he’d stolen it from the set of a costume drama. Knee-high boots, fitted pants, a vest worn under a tailcoat.
“What the fuck are you doing on our property, boy?” hissed Beast, watching the soft features of a very young man. “Whose blood is this?” he asked, still cautious. In his experience, a non-threatening presence could hide an adept fighter, so he was not taking any chances as he joined Hound in front of the stranger, who was so short in comparison to Beast’s own six foot five form that his red-stained head only reached Beast’s pecs.
The stranger backed away into the corner, whimpering in fear the moment Hound growled at him again and lowered his head, but Beast wasn’t having any of it and grabbed the boy’s arm. “Is the blood yours then? Someone attacked you? Where?” he asked, not hesitating to pat the intruder down, to make sure there were no weapons hiding under the fancy coat.
The boy tried to weasel out of his grip, but he didn’t seem adept at using force. “N-no. I don’t think it’s mine. I don’t know. Is this hell?”
Beast groaned, staring at the silly-looking young man, whose white shirt was completely drenched in red. Someone must have died to produce this much blood.
“You will explain yourself to King.”
4 Stars
Interesting time-travel/MC combo tale. Love Laurent's love of a certain modern day...material.
Once again, I was lucky enough to beta this tale for the authors, and once again, they gave me the unexpected. I mean, they're known for their hardass biker types who end up felled over the love of their life, right? Wrong, in this one, we get Beast, who might look rough, tough and mean, but who has a vulnerable core and a lot of love in his heart for the delicate Lauren, who plops into his life one day. There's no sudden felling, as we get to see Beast's heart from the start...and we also get to see why Laurent can't entirely show his.
I really liked how the authors transported Laurent from historical times, where he feared for his life and where he'd just suffered the most horrendous of awakenings, into Beast's world, and that Beast was prepared to take him and all his...quirks...on good faith. I was torn between Beast's sweetness and decency, and Laurent's innate, though deliberately hidden, decency...and his secrets. Secrets that involve Beast, the club and King, Beast's father-like-no-father-should-be...
This is a tale that needs to be read slowly so as not to miss any of the little details, and more than one person isn't who he/she seems. There's a fair bit of sadness in this, as well as quite a lot of laughs concerning Laurent's love and fascination of a modern day material that we take for granted. The sex in this isn't as full-on or plentiful as I'd expect in a MC tale, or in a KAM tale, which isn't a complaint - there's a reason for this, and yes, it might seem that games are being played, but there's more than meets the eye at first glance.
It ends in the start of the leads' HEA, but with a price of sorts. I'm pretty sure that it won't be long before there's more in the series, which again might involve Laurent's lineage to a degree, with a more bad-boy biker type, who's Beast's BFF.
K. A. Merikan is the pen name for Kat and Agnes Merikan, a team of writers, who are taken for sisters with surprising regularity. Kat’s the mean sergeant and survival specialist of the duo, never hesitating to kick Agnes’s ass when she’s slacking off. Her memory works like an easy-access catalogue, which allows her to keep up with both book details and social media. Also works as the emergency GPS. Agnes is the Merikan nitpicker, usually found busy with formatting and research. Her attention tends to be scattered, and despite pushing thirty, she needs to apply makeup to buy alcohol. Self-proclaimed queen of the roads.
They love the weird and wonderful, stepping out of the box, and bending stereotypes both in life and books. When you pick up a Merikan book, there’s one thing you can be sure of – it will be full of surprises.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Once again, I was lucky enough to beta this tale for the authors, and once again, they gave me the unexpected. I mean, they're known for their hardass biker types who end up felled over the love of their life, right? Wrong, in this one, we get Beast, who might look rough, tough and mean, but who has a vulnerable core and a lot of love in his heart for the delicate Lauren, who plops into his life one day. There's no sudden felling, as we get to see Beast's heart from the start...and we also get to see why Laurent can't entirely show his.
I really liked how the authors transported Laurent from historical times, where he feared for his life and where he'd just suffered the most horrendous of awakenings, into Beast's world, and that Beast was prepared to take him and all his...quirks...on good faith. I was torn between Beast's sweetness and decency, and Laurent's innate, though deliberately hidden, decency...and his secrets. Secrets that involve Beast, the club and King, Beast's father-like-no-father-should-be...
This is a tale that needs to be read slowly so as not to miss any of the little details, and more than one person isn't who he/she seems. There's a fair bit of sadness in this, as well as quite a lot of laughs concerning Laurent's love and fascination of a modern day material that we take for granted. The sex in this isn't as full-on or plentiful as I'd expect in a MC tale, or in a KAM tale, which isn't a complaint - there's a reason for this, and yes, it might seem that games are being played, but there's more than meets the eye at first glance.
It ends in the start of the leads' HEA, but with a price of sorts. I'm pretty sure that it won't be long before there's more in the series, which again might involve Laurent's lineage to a degree, with a more bad-boy biker type, who's Beast's BFF.
Author Bio
K. A. Merikan is the pen name for Kat and Agnes Merikan, a team of writers, who are taken for sisters with surprising regularity. Kat’s the mean sergeant and survival specialist of the duo, never hesitating to kick Agnes’s ass when she’s slacking off. Her memory works like an easy-access catalogue, which allows her to keep up with both book details and social media. Also works as the emergency GPS. Agnes is the Merikan nitpicker, usually found busy with formatting and research. Her attention tends to be scattered, and despite pushing thirty, she needs to apply makeup to buy alcohol. Self-proclaimed queen of the roads.
They love the weird and wonderful, stepping out of the box, and bending stereotypes both in life and books. When you pick up a Merikan book, there’s one thing you can be sure of – it will be full of surprises.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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