Free Broken Heart 10 Some Lycan Hot by Michele Bardsley

source of his worry.
    Then the world exploded.
     
    THE SMOKE ROLLED over the dancers, who were now fighting with a group of men dressed in gray uniforms. Soldiers? Smoke rolled over the melee. Darrius saw Koschei driving off attackers with his powerful mental abilities. He didn’t even need to throw a punch.
    More smoke filled the air, and flames flickered in the distance. Houses were on fire! Fear skittered up his spine. Darrius knew the flames would soon reach the tree line. He turned to Alaya. “Go. Get to safety. I’ll follow as soon as I find my brothers.”
                  “No.” Alaya unsheathed the slightly curved blades that she’d been training with since she was young. She strode into the thick of the fighting.
                  “Alaya!
    Damian started to follow, but a soldier blocked his path. He didn’t even have time to fire the pistol. Damian’s fist plowed into his face. Once. Crunch. Twice. Crunch.
    The man’s skull shattered. He fell to the ground, dead.
    Damian was a lycan—much faster and stronger than these humans. Why would they attack the village?
    The fighting in the square had dissipated as lycans dispensed with their unknown enemies.
    Alaya was nowhere to be found.
    “Reiner! Have you seen Alaya?”
    The blonde lycan was streaked with blood and dirt. He dropped the limp soldier clutched in his hand. “No. But Damian went to his house to get Anna.” 
    Darrius turned and strode toward his brother’s house, looking for a glimpse of Alaya. Had she gotten out of the village? Was she safe?
    Please let her be okay.
    Drake reached the front door of the king’s house at the same time Darrius did.
    They discovered Damian kneeling next to the mutilated corpse of his wife.
    Drake cursed in German. Darrius felt sick. The dreams of the lycanthropes to be one people, to have healthy children, to be as one people—destroyed.
    “The village is burning, mien bruder . We must go.”
    Darrius helped Damian to rise.
    “The village,” murmured Damian. “Our people.” He offered his brother a glazed look. “Gone.”
    Drake grabbed Damian’s other arms, and together, they guided the newly widowed king out of the house.
    “Where’s Alaya?” asked Damian.
    “I don’t know, but I’m sure she’s fine.” He sounded confident, but in truth, he was worried. Alaya was strong and well trained, but she was also stubborn. Stubborn enough to get herself into trouble.
    “No doubt she’ll join us in the woods,” said Drake.
    But she didn’t.
    In fact, Darrius wouldn’t see Alaya for another seventy years.

 
    BOOK EXTRAS: CUT SCENES WITH AUTHOR COMMENTARY
     
    In the first version of Some Lycan Hot, I made a character, Mayor Sandra Ruthridge, into a villain. She called forth Nemesis with a special coin she’d found in Alaya’s shop. Using Sandra to bring in Nemesis was a complicated and ineffective way to create an urgent conflict for Darrius and Alaya. I knew something about the story was wonky—that the main hero and heroine were too passive, in fact, almost irrelevant to the story as written. My fellow writer and best friend, Renee George, came to my rescue. She read the draft and helped hash out the problems and the solutions. She picked up on the biggest issue right away: “You don’t like Alaya,” she said. “And by the way, Alaya isn’t funny.”
     
    I ended up cutting out all the scenes with Mayor Sandra Ruthridge. Nemesis was a great villain all on her own and she didn’t need human back-up. With some brainstorming help from Renee, I figured out a better reason for Alaya and Darrius to be apart: Alaya makes a bargain with Nemesis to save Darrius’s life. But the goddess of wrath extracts a cruel price: If her true love sees her face again, he will die. (Nemesis really is a bitch.) To fix the issues, I added a prologue, rewrote several scenes, re-formed Alaya into a more likeable, more “Broken Heart” character, and gave the poor girl a sense of humor.