Dragon’s First Rule
Dragons of Midnight
Book One
Silver Milan
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Silver Milan
Date of Publication: October 1, 2017
ASIN: B0743F9XYV
Number of pages: 200
Word Count: 55,000
Cover Artist: Melody Simmons
Tagline: When newly turned lion shifter Ariel stumbles into the realm of the dragon shifters, she catches the eye of the dangerously attractive dragon king, Jett, and the pair is swept up in a maelstrom of magic and forbidden passion.
Book Description:
Ariel, a newly turned lion shifter, stumbles into the subterranean city of Midnight, home of the dragon shifters. Alone and vulnerable, she catches the eye of the dangerously attractive dragon king. Jett. He charms her and promises help, but can she trust him? After all, he is the King of the Dragons. Why would such a powerful man come to the aid of a common girl?
When Jett realizes Ariel has no one, he vows to protect her, as the girl has been turned against her will in dragon territory. He plans not only to shield her, but to hunt down the very outlaw who hurt her.
But Jett soon finds himself growing attached to his quirky yet beautiful lion shifter. He begins a dangerous game with her, skirting the razor's edge of passion. He must take care because if he surrenders to his desire, he will forfeit not only his throne, but perhaps both of their lives.
Note: This book contains explicit love scenes and is intended for mature readers who like their paranormal romance on the steamier side. Inside you'll find sexy dragons, strong women, and kick-ass magic.
Excerpt:
Ariel stared
into the darkness. She could see a surprisingly good distance inside, thanks to
her enhanced vision. Nothing stood out to her, and the terminus of the passage
was lost to the murk. The darkness seemed welcoming, somehow.
It seemed safe
to turn her back on the cave, and she did so, gazing out from the precipice to
survey the valley in front of her. Ordinarily, she would have thought the wide,
tree-filled expanse so beautiful. She loved nature and hiking. It was one of
the reasons she had come out here in the first place.
But she felt
nothing now, only emptiness. She wondered if she would ever be able to
appreciate such beauty again, given what she had become.
She glanced at
the cave once more. Again, she felt drawn to it, but she shook her head.
Not going
inside.
Though she was
incredibly upset, she didn't have a death wish. There might be a bear or
something sleeping inside. Or maybe a dragon, like that stupid sign had said.
Wouldn't surprise her anymore, not in the least: she was being hunted by lions
who could become humans, after all. And she was one of those lions.
For now, all she
wanted was to get away from those hunters. She would stay here for a few hours,
long enough to be sure the animals had gone away. And then she would climb back
down and get the hell out of here.
And what then?
Well, she figured she would have to live out the rest of her days in the woods.
It would be a solitary life, away from the technology that drove modern
society. She would have to give up all her friends and family.
Maybe she could
get a sat-phone or something, so she could still talk to her family
occasionally. But she couldn't return, at least not until she could get the
beast inside of her under control. That was something she doubted would ever be
possible. Then again, moments ago she had exerted her will on the lioness and
prevented her from ripping out of her skin. That was something, at least. A
reason to hope.
She sat down on
the precipice and settled in for a long wait. She decided she would stay here
until nightfall. That would be the best time to retreat, since her beast
operated best in the dark.
But so do the
other lions, she reminded herself.
Maybe that
wasn't such a good idea. Well, she'd sit here for a while, and make up her mind
on what she wanted to do.
Maybe a minute
passed before she heard a voice behind her. "Well hello."
Ariel spun in
fright; when she saw the man standing at the cave mouth, she momentarily forgot
all fear, forgot where she was and how she got there, and instead simply
stared, spellbound.
Standing in
front of the cave entrance towered the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He
had to be at least six and a half feet tall. He was too gorgeous to be a model.
Too breathtaking to be a movie star. She got butterflies in her stomach just
looking at him. Where to begin? His hair… oh yes, his hair. It was as if
someone had taken several bars of gold and melted them down to form the bouncy
curls that fell around that spectacular face. His eyes were a fiery gold like
his hair, almost unnaturally so. They were almond-shaped and beguiling, shining
with intelligence.
His broad, bold
nose jutted aristocratically from his face, perfect in every way. The plump
lips of his chiseled, sensuous mouth had such gorgeous curves—if any lips were
created for kissing, it was those. He had a strong, aristocratic jaw that
matched his nose, and blemish-free, smooth bronze skin.
His thickly
corded neck disappeared into the collar of a black and gold dress shirt, whose
sleeves were rolled back to the elbows, revealing his muscular forearms. Black
and gold tribal dragons were tattooed from wrists to elbows on each arm. The
shirt did little to conceal the outline of his wide, powerful shoulders, and
the hard muscles of his pecs that pressed out from beneath the fabric. She
could make out the lines of a six-pack.
A designer belt
cinched his lean waist, and below that he wore dark-washed, fitted jeans. Her
eyes lingered on his groin, where—
Ariel blinked as
she realized the brazenness of what she was doing, and the spell broke. She
quickly lifted her eyes back to his face.
The beautiful
man's lips were upturned in amusement.
She realized she
was stark naked and quickly covered her breasts with one arm, twisting her
torso away and covering her bum with her other hand. She kept her gaze on him,
staring at him over one shoulder.
"What are
you looking at?" she said.
"I'm
looking at you," he replied defiantly. She hadn't noticed it when he spoke
before, but even his voice was sexy as hell.
As she gazed at
his haughty expression, the fear returned. Not of him, but for him.
"Are you
one of them?" she said.
"One of
who?" the man said, still smiling.
"You're
obviously not a backpacker or camper," Ariel said. "You don't find
many people who dress like European fashionistas in the wilderness of the
Midwest."
"No, you
don't," the man said hypnotically.
Then again, if
he was one of the lion-men who pursued her, he would have been butt-naked, like
her.
"Look, it's
been a rough few days," she said. "I'm not in the mood for
games."
"You seem
in surprisingly good spirits to me," the man said.
She smiled
fleetingly. "Call it a defense mechanism. Listen, if you're not one of
them, then you're putting yourself at risk. I'm not someone you want to know. I
have to get myself as far away from civilization as I can. Those lions did…
something… to me. I could change at a moment's notice. You could die."
"Change?"
he said.
She heard the
distant roar of a lion echo from the valley below.
That triggered
the beast, and the lioness in her clawed to get out. Clawed clawed clawed.
"I—"
she said. But the words came out a growl. "Run," she managed to
finish.
About the Author:
Silver Milan is a USA TODAY BESTSELLING author of paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels. Publishing under different pen names since 2013, Silver has sold more than 300,000 books.
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17056321.Silver_Milan
Interview with Silver Milan
Hello and thanks for having me!!
Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
I get inspiration from a lot of places. Sometimes I’ll look in the yard and see robins eating last year’s shriveled crab apples hanging from a neighbors tree, and I’ll think of a story the hero’s love interest can tell him or her, using the birds and the crab apples as a metaphor.
Or I’ll be at the gym working out and then an idea will hit me and I’ll quickly thumb type it into my phone.
Or I’ll be lying awake in the middle of the night, thinking about my story or a problem I’m having with it, and then inspiration will strike and I’ll quickly turn on the bedside lamp and write down my idea on the notepad I keep on my nightstand for that very purpose! Of course it can be a bit tricky when the morning comes and I find myself trying to decipher the nearly-illegible handwriting penned by my half asleep self.
How did you do research for your book?
When I’m writing the book and need to describe a topic I know nothing about (a certain city, a special meal, a certain occupation) I’ll usually make a quick note in the text with angle brackets like this << find out what it’s like to live on the streets of Belgrade >>. Then when I finish the first draft, I go back and search for the angle brackets and then pull up Google and Wikipedia and start researching away.
If it’s a story-blocking problem and is something that needs to be resolved right away (for example a character’s occupation) I’ll usually look it up right away and make notes.
Besides using the Internet for research, I also have a bunch of different ebooks on call that I pull up: The Urban Setting Thesaurus, The Rural Setting Thesaurus, The Writer’s Guide to Weapons, and so forth.
Lastly, sometimes if I’m really looking to get into a certain character’s head, and really portray them with the realism I’m looking for, I’ll go ahead and buy books related to the subject matter, both fiction and non-fiction. For example when writing a sexy Navy SEAL romance, I’ll buy a bunch of Navy SEAL romances and read them all. Then I’ll go ahead and buy actual SEAL memoirs and training guides and study them.
Do you have another profession besides writing?
Nope. I’ve been writing full time since 2013. I gave up my day job and never looked back. The first two and a half years were very, very lean, and I learned how to live on very little money. My thriftiness shows through in a lot of my characters.
It’s only in the past two years that I’ve started breaking out, and here I go deciding to start a new pen name again. I guess I want to prove to myself that I can do it again. Sort of like what Steven King did back in the 80s when he started his Richard Bachman pen name.
I wonder if anyone will write in after reading books by Silver Milan and tell me they’ve figured out who I am from my voice ;)
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
Definitely to visit the dinosaurs. I’ve always loved all things prehistoric, and the dinosaurs are so majestic and beautiful and awe-inspiring. Dinosaurs are why I like dragons so much, and I guess it shows in my book, Dragon’s First Rule. Of course, I’d have to be in a protective bubble or experiencing some kind of “view only” type of time travel, because while the dinosaurs were beautiful, they were also deadly. Like dragons, too, I suppose.
What is your next project?
I want to write a few more volumes in the Dragons of Midnight series, based on reader interest levels of course. I’ve arranged the books to form a trilogy, with a Happy Ever After at the end of each book, or in the case of Ariel and Jett, a Happy For Now. The story continues to follow Ariel and Jett in books 2 and 3, but other characters also get their love stories in those books.
After book 3, I’ll continue with more books, focusing on the love stories of minor characters from previous installments. I plan to hold polls on my Facebook page and mailing list to involve my readers so that fans can help pick who gets their story next.
