Hello Kittens
Alright, I’m back.
It’s not exactly simple, though. Life’s still a whirlwind, and things are far from settled. The cards aren’t all on the table yet, and the final hand is still up in the air. (But hey, I’m a sucker for a good poker pun, so sue me.)
That being said, I’m not letting the chaos steal my writing fire.
For those still with me on this crazy ride, I’ve got a little something brewing that I’m so excited to share with you all. Buckle up, because His to Mark is coming—dark, dangerous, kinky, and packed with that all-consuming, twisted love only a true soulmate can bring.
Here’s a first look at His to Mark, the debut book in the Blood Borne Queen series. You’re not ready.
Drop a heart, leave a comment, and share it with a friend who really gets you. Let’s make sure the world knows this love is coming.
XOXO,
Kat
Prologue: Their Lost Summer
Katya (age 15)
Summer heat beat down on my back as I made my way through a field of tall grass. Sweat dripped down my spine, as the world glowed in a golden hue all around me. Fingertips brushing the grass as I searched. Eyes never leaving the swaying grass heads. I would never see him before he saw me, but I felt a presence there. Somehow I knew what I could not see. I put down my stereo playing Bush and walked into the trees, the low thrum of Glycerine surrounding the forest. The presence I felt was raw and aching, like the pulse in my throat. The bass felt like a warning, beat after beat and still I kept walking. Turning. Searching. But it was useless.
I wasn’t the hunter. I never was.
“Can’t believe you’re listening to this again,” he drawled, suddenly just there, arms crossed as he leaned lazily on an old log, long legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankle. “The lyrics. Really, kitten?”
“It’s poetic,” I grumbled, dropping to my knees next to him, tucking my sundress under me. His eyes went straight to my legs, exposed up past anything considered decent, fabric so thin you could see through it in direct sunlight. I could feel his hunger, he had a need. So did I. Nothing he hadn’t seen before, but that didn’t dull the desire, it only seemed to grow every time. In the background Bush crooned ‘Don’t let the days go by…’
“Plus,” I said, “it’s popular.”
“Right, because popular things are good.” His smile crept over his face, only meeting his eyes when he grabbed me and held me against him, dress riding up higher still. My mom would be furious if she knew. She wanted nothing to do with him, or anyone like him. In a neighborhood of luxury, his family was the one scorned. The small old house. They’d been here forever, but they weren’t from wealth. Wrong family, too rough and Mother suspected Cassian clearly had designs on her daughter.
In other words, he’s perfect. “You sneak out again?” he asked.
“Always,” I mumbled, pressing my cheek to his chest, letting myself feel small in his arms, trapped in the safest way. “Apparently the woods are dangerous.”
He chuckled with a wry grin: “We aren’t in the woods, kitten.” His hands spread out, showing off the field we were sitting in. “Not a tree in sight, unless you count this one.” He knocked on the old log, then curled his arms around me again, taking my chin between his fingers and lifting it. “What, no hello kiss.”
“You need permission now?” I asked, raising a brow and leaning into him. “Never asked before.”
Cassian Thorne kissed like sin. All teeth and tongue, power and dominance. He nipped at my lips, pulling them between his teeth and sucking hard. After one of his kisses I could feel drunk for hours. “I wasn’t asking,” he growls with a devilish smile… And bites my lip again as we kiss.
He was on his feet in a second, so fast I barely felt him move, but the sting coming from my ass told me he had gotten a good smack in before he started circling me. Shirt half unbuttoned, it slid off one shoulder as he prowled around me, eyes blazing with amusement and desire. I rubbed my ass and got to my feet.
“Fucking bastard,” I grumbled, as I watched him stalk me. “You and your need to chase.”
“What can I say, kitten,” he murmured, eyes tracking me like I was already between his teeth. His fingers flexed, slow, deliberate. “The chase sharpens everything. Makes me hungrier. Meaner. But then you like that… don’t you.” From Cassian, it wasn’t a question. He knew me too well.
He stepped closer, close enough for the heat to roll off him. “Speaking of what you like, it's as if you want to be caught.” I rolled my eyes, with a playful smile.
“I run like a girl,” I protest, already looking around me for places that might trip him up. Places where I might hide. Not that I didn't want to get caught. I loved that part the best. “I can’t be that satisfying of prey.”
“Can I quote you on that?” he asked me, grabbing my ponytail and pulling my head back firmly but gently… back against his chest. One hand in my hair. The other around my throat. “Because you always let me win in the end.” The rumble from his chest felt like a purr, relaxing the bones in my body and filling me with contentment. “Now run, kitten,” he whispers, hand connecting with my backside again, this time holding cupping my ass for more than a brief moment. “Can’t fucking wait to catch you.”
I turned, looking at him once over my shoulder before I trotted away. I couldn’t win this. I never even pretended that I could. But I still tried every time. It was half the fun. Feet pounding the ground as I searched for the stream. It meandered this way and that through the woods behind my house. I read once that water can disrupt a dog from following a scent. I have no idea if it works for Cassian, but I was willing to try. To draw this out just a little longer. After all, it was the last day of summer. The last day I would be looking at those woods for a long time. Mother made sure that I was being sent as far as possible. If only to get me away from the boy that I belonged to. She had other plans.
The bubbling sounds of the creek finally reached my ears. I could still feel him behind me. Feel his eyes on me, the heat of his need following as I stumbled my way down to the water. He could have caught me a hundred times over. Last time he had grabbed me and had his wicked way with me where the grass started to grow beyond the tree to my left, I felt like I could still see the indentations in the grass but knew it was just my imagination. Every time he left me covered me in bite marks. Not cute little hickeys. Bite marks. Deep. Painful. Amazing. They’d last. And they didn’t always stay hidden under my clothes. I’d stumble my way back home with my head in the clouds, I’d feel one of them hit a chair, or throb and my body would start singing all over again. Normally, he was a patient hunter. Frankly, he enjoyed this all too much.
The water was cool against my skin, lapping over my feet as I balanced on each of the rocks, windmilling my hands as I crossed the stream. I took off into the woods as soon as I was through, forcing myself not to look back. I could feel him behind me, his breath practically bathing the back of my neck as I crashed through the undergrowth, knowing it was gripping and tearing at my skirt. Mother will be pissed when I get home, my long legs covered in scratches, my dress stained with green from the grass. But it will be worth it.
“I can smell you…” his voice floated to me on the wind. Then he growled loudly… and the sound traveled through the wind and into my body, trickling down my spine, making gooseflesh erupt all over me. “Keep running, makes you smell even better.”
“You’re so weird,” I grumbled under my breath as I grabbed onto a tree trunk and changed directions, going back towards the stream. The bank was steeper than I remembered, and I slid down it, scraping my knees along the way.
“There you are. Now you smell like… you smell like sex and vanilla, kitten,” Cassian smiled, stepping out of the woods, his bare feet making no noise as he navigated the bank like it was part of him.
I laugh, watching as he stalked me, his eyes a bright gold, flashing in the dappled sunlight. “What does that even mean?” I ask. But he’s not laughing, and it makes me shiver and squirm under his gaze. Stepping into my space, he picked a leaf out of my hair, and pulled me to my feet, dusting sand off my legs, and letting his hand wander a bit further before he wrapped fingers around my throat and backed me into a tree. My skin hit the bark, scratching and tangling my hair, his lips crushed mine. Teeth gnashing, growling in his throat as he eats at me.
“You let me win too quickly.” He tutted, tightening his hand on my neck, letting me feel how much more powerful he was than me. I don’t flinch, I relax, let him hold me in his grip and cut off my breath. He won't hurt me. Not in any way I don’t like. “Do you know what that means?”
Cassian stepped away, letting breath rush into my lungs. I can feel his gaze on my body as I sag against the bark, sliding down to the ground. “Means you’ve caught me, Cassian,” I whispered, fingers tracing where his were on my throat, still feeling the heat of his hand there. My heart is beating like crazy. “Means you win.”
That made his eyes light up. Cassian could be cartoonishly competitive even about the littlest things. “I know,” he growled, eyes bright.
His fingers lace with mine, and he pulls me back towards the field. “This summer changed everything. Better if it would never end.” I squeezed his hand.
“You’re leaving?” he stopped me, pulling me around. His hands are in my hair in an instant, tightening painfully, dumping a load of adrenalyn into my system, my body going limp against his, feeling how much he enjoyed the power I give over to him. “You won't be gone forever, yeah?”
“Schools starting soon,” I told him, letting him lay us back into the trampled high grass, cocooning us in our own little world, just the grass and the sky and us. “The parents are tightening the leash, need to send me off to become a proper lady to make Jane Austen proud.”
“You’ll come back… even if you don’t want to.” He leaned down over me, his body blocking out the sky as he laid a kiss on my lips, full of promise and patience. But his voice, for a change, had a hint of fear. This was unlike him. Then I understood–he was scared of losing me. He was slow, consuming, gentler than his usual rough and ready need. Slowly he pressed his lips to my cheek, jaw, throat. “Only one thing to guarantee it….” He strikes like a snake, hard and fast, his teeth buried into my throat so fast I don’t have time to react.
“Cain!” I scream as my body curls up around him, holding his lips to my skin as he cleans away the blood pooling in the punctures. “Why?”
“Because you’re mine.”
I would spend the next eleven years haunted by the taste of that kiss and the ghost of his bite, thin and white, on my neck, bold and visible. It marked me forever.
There is definitely more to come, and if you want just a little more of the story, come check it out on Wattpad.
Eeek! So excited to know you are loving writing again and finding your flow my friend 🥳 🐾 🦔
Holy hell friend! What a comeback! A thousand percent hooked!! 😍😍 I sure have missed you!