Midnight Heat (Paperback)

In over her head
After escaping a jealous husband, Lana Gregory is done with men. Especially chauvinistic bullies like rival boat captain, Elias Sobol. But after she falls overboard during a storm, she’s stranded on a remote Alaskan island with the very man she hopes to avoid.

The catch of a lifetime
The first day Elias laid eyes on Lana, his selkie soul recognized she was his mate. The feeling is not mutual, however, and the stubborn female has hated him from the start. He's forced to watch from afar, and it's a good thing he has, because now her very life is in his hands.

Deepest secret
As the frigid Alaskan wilderness presses in and the heat between them builds, Lana wonders why she ever thought Elias was the enemy. Until he reveals his true nature, and she’s blown off course. She’s just learning to trust again… but can she trust a man who truly isn’t what he seems?

Reader note: This book contains explicit language and sexual situations. It is intended for audiences 17 years and older.

The sound of fiddling pierced the cold November air as Captain Elias Sobol hesitated outside the bar’s heavy wooden door. The flickering neon sign in the bar’s window was making his head swim, and the air had a crackly feel that told him a storm was coming. Even his inner seal was jittery, vibrating with anticipation like that moment right before he plunged into the ocean. It’s just being in a new town. He didn’t like encroaching on another selkie clan’s territory. But the entire crew of the Utkin was gathering to support Bobby’s first band gig, and Elias didn’t want to let him down.

His first mate, Jacob, pushed open the door from inside. “You coming? We’ve got seats up front.”

“Yeah, be right there.” Elias adjusted his pelt—to humans it appeared as a duster-length sealskin vest—and stepped inside. Warmth hit his face, carrying with it the overwhelming scent of humanity and spilled beer. Despite it being past the season for tourists, the bar was packed with people, faces lit by strings of Christmas lights criss-crossing the ceiling. Elias immediately spotted Walton’s sealskin hat at the front near the low platform where Bobby and his band stood belting out a fast-paced tune.

Turning, he slid sideways through the crowd, weaving between bodies like swimming through long fronds of kelp. Maybe after the band finished playing, he’d go to the beach and shift. Letting his seal out to swim would help clear his mind. As he approached the long bar, a delicious scent reached him—cinnamon and mocha with an underlying hint of what he could only describe as sex.

His heartbeat kicked up, and a single thought consumed him. Mate. His eyes came to rest on a short figure with brown curly hair sticking out beneath a pink winter cap. She sat on a bar stool with her back to him, but he could see her delicious womanly curves filling out the sweatshirt and jeans she wore. A true Alaska girl. He couldn’t hold back his seal’s low growl of approval.

She swiveled in the chair to glance at the band, revealing her profile. Her cheeks were flushed as if she’d just come in out of the cold, and her broad smile shot straight through Elias’s heart. The smile wasn’t directed at him, however. She was talking to a weathered man with shaggy, dirty-blonde surfer hair sitting beside to her.

Elias rolled his shoulders, shaking off the possessive aggression settling over him. Not all shifters found their true mates, but when they did, the physical attraction was supposed to be instantaneous and undeniable. He only hoped they had human things in common, as well.

He silently chided his inner seal, You knew she was here all along, didn’t you?