Needing to Breathe
Two Is Never Enough,
Book 1
B.A. Tortuga
Genre: Gay, Menage, Wolf Shifters
Publisher: ARe Books
Date of Publication: 9/1/15
Word Count: 20,000
Cover Artist: Erin Dameron-Hill
Book Description:
Orphaned and scared, these cubs need an Alpha…and so do their caregivers.
Cast out of their wolf pack, Jock and Gus are skinny and wild but surviving okay out in the Colorado mountains. Winter is on its way, and Gus isn’t sure what they can do to stay warm and fed. To add to their problems, they’ve adopted a litter of abandoned wolf cubs, and suddenly there’s not enough food to go around.
Archer, a forest ranger and Alpha wolf, finds Jock and Gus in time to save them from Jack Frost, and from themselves. The moment he meets the two young males, he wants them, and he sets out to convince them to stay. Jock understands that Archer is what they need, but Gus intends to fight Archer every step of the way. He has to—it’s in his genes.
Can Archer keep this new family safe, from the elements and each other?
Excerpt:
Archer Tyson
smelled the shallow grave before he saw it.
The narrow trench
had been dug carefully, and rocks and brush covered what was left of the
she-wolf, but the fact remained that she was dead, and there was evidence of a
trap-death on the carcass.
Damn it all. This
didn’t look like poachers, who would have wanted the coat. Maybe the head. No
cabins or livestock this far up the mountain, so he had to assume this was
malicious. A wolf hater. That always meant a lot of work for him as one of the
two rangers who covered this plot of land.
Not to mention
that when a wolf died on his watch, Archer took it pretty personally.
It made him a
little toothy and more than a bit pissed off. The urge to sniff around and see
if he could follow a scent trail to the killer was strong, but Archer was on
the clock right now. The best he could do for this poor girl was mark the grave
with a locator so he could find it again later and make a report.
He sighed,
whispering a soft prayer in his native tongue for her, which okay, sounded more
like moaning and groaning than words, but whatever.
Another scent hit
him when he moved away from the makeshift grave, and Archer tilted his head.
No. Pups?
Where were they?
He sniffed again. They’d been here and been… taken.
A low growl rose
in his chest, and Archer wanted to howl with rage. Was that what this was
about? Wolves weren’t fucking pets, and no one should be killing momma wolves
to take their cubs.
He started
tracking, every sense tuned to searching out this motherfucker.
No, his wolf told
him. These. Two. Two scents. Two males. Damn it. He started along their trail,
which might as well have been cut with a weed whacker.
His radio
squawked, distracting him. “Archer. Can you read, over?”
“I hear you, Ben.”
He was busy, damn it.
“We got a small
brush fire over at Lizard Head. All hands on deck. What’s your twenty?”
“That’s a haul,
man. I’m near Whitehouse, and I have a poacher situation.”
“Okay. I’ll call
you in if we need you. Hang tight, over.”
“Ten four. Over.”
Shoo. He had puppies to find. Wolf cubs. Christ, what a mess. He didn’t need
this shit.
He followed the
scent, slowing as the smells became damn near overwhelming. The two males
started to make his nose twitch. They didn’t have the sour, greedy smell of
poachers, or the hyped-up adrenaline scent of hunters.
No, if anything
this scent was sweet, sexual, tinged with a dull hunger, a hint of worry.
He peered around a
bend in the trail, finding two men, shaggy and skinny and utterly underdressed
for the late autumn chill, sleeping in the afternoon sun around a pile of three
cubs.
Oh. The totally
unexpected sight made him smile. Look at that; the pups already trusted these
two. There was no way they’d killed the mom. One of the men, the older by the
looks of it, started sniffing, nose working hard.
Wait.
Wait, were they…
Could they be like him? Archer thought that was impossible, but no human would
be able to scent him from this location.
Dark eyebrows
lowered, and the man woke up, nudging the blond. “Jock, babe, someone’s here.
Get the babies into the tent.”
Without a
question, the blond got the pups moving, growling and nudging on all fours. The
cubs obeyed, falling over their big feet.
Once they were
safely tucked away in the tent, Archer stepped into the clearing. “I won’t hurt
anyone. I’m with the Forest Service.”
“We’re fine.
Thanks. We got a permit.” The blond was pushed behind, just a little, the
darker wolf trying to make himself big. All teeth and puffy chest.
Adorable.
About
the Author:
B.A. Tortuga Texan to the bone and
an unrepentant Daddy's Girl, BA Tortuga spends her days with her basset hounds,
getting tattooed, texting her sisters, and eating Mexican food. When she's not
doing that, she's writing. She spends her days off watching rodeo, knitting,
and surfing Pinterest in the name of research. BA's personal saviors include
her wife, Julia Talbot, her best friend, Sean Michael, and coffee. Lots of
coffee. Really good coffee.
Having written everything from
fist-fighting rednecks to hard-core cowboys to werewolves, BA does her
damnedest to tell the stories of her heart, which was raised in Northeast
Texas, but has heard the call of the high desert and lives in the Sandias. With
books ranging from hard-hitting GLBT romance, to fiery menages, to the most
traditional of love stories, BA refuses to be pigeon-holed by anyone but the
voices in her head.
For more information on other books
by B.A., visit her official website: www.BATortuga.com
Tour
giveaway
Readers choice of two eBook titles
from ARe Books.
