The Beast Within by Jennifer Lyon, Bianca DArc Erin McCarthy

was reassuring to see.
    It was Liv’s wedding day now.
    It was spring, just like it was for the bride’s special day in her dream.
    A new beginning for both of them.
    Sebastian stirred a little, reaching to wrap his arm around her, his eyes still closed. “Happy wedding day,” he murmured.
    Liv snuggled against his warm chest. Sebastian had proposed right after Scarborough had died, after they had dealt with all the logistics of telling the police they had all been fishing and Scarborough had been attacked by a wolf. That had been six months earlier, and while life as a werewolf has taken some adjustment, Liv was truly and blissfully happy.
    “It’s going to be a beautiful day.” The timing was right. It felt like everything had come full circle. A year earlier she had been mourning his disappearance, now she had Sebastian forever.
    “And you’re a beautiful bride.”
    “Are you sure we shouldn’t have spent the night apart last night?” Liv asked, even as she dropped a little kiss on his shoulder. “It seems weird to wake up together on our wedding day.”
    His eyes opened and he pulled her on top of him, giving her a deep, long, satisfying kiss. “If we’d spent the night apart, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”
    A little shift of her hips, and he was deep inside her.
    Liv sighed in pleasure, still relaxed and sleepy, his body hard and solid beneath her. “That’s very true,” she breathed.
    They moved together in a lazy, slow rhythm, her nipples brushing against his chest. Everything felt warm and snuggly and sexy, her heart filled with love, her body responding instantly to him as it always did.
    When she had a delicious and long orgasm, her hips spread wide over him, Liv stared into Sebastian’s eyes.
    “I can’t wait until you’re my wife,” he said, pumping a little more frantically inside her.
    “Me, either. Just a few more hours.” She clenched her muscles around him. “So I guess that was my last single-lady orgasm. It was a good one.”
    His eyebrows shot up. “We still have a whole hour until we have to be anywhere. I think you have another orgasm or two in you.”
    She laughed. “I wasn’t trying to challenge you.”
    But he got serious. “I’ll always do whatever I can to make you happy.”
    Her heart swelled at his sincere expression. “I am happy.”
    She was. Every minute with him.
    As happy as a bride on her wedding day.

Smoke on the Water
    B IANCA D’A RC

P ROLOGUE
    “O h, crap.”
    Donna Sullivan realized her mistake almost immediately as four big Chinese guys stood up from a table in the rear of the restaurant she’d just entered. All of them were staring at her as they headed her way and they didn’t look friendly.
    Maybe she’d asked a few too many pointed questions in the wrong places. She was new to all this femme fatale stuff. She’d only been recruited to join a top-secret military team a few weeks ago and then, only by default. She’d earned the dubious honor because she was immune to the contagion that had the country’s top scientists and a select group of Special Forces operatives scrambling to not only keep it secret but to contain it before anyone else died.
    It looked like Donna had gained the attention of some of the Chinese mobsters she’d been looking for, but in a really bad way. Cursing the tinkling bell over the door, she sprinted out of the restaurant and down the street as fast as her legs would carry her. She had to get away. She wasn’t far from the rooms her partner, CIA Agent John Petit, had insisted on renting in a rundown building off Grant Street. Maybe she could get there before those guys caught up with her. Maybe if she just cut through this alley…
    Donna ran for the narrow opening, trying to evade pursuit. Those seriously scary guys were definitely following her. A quick glance down the street before she turned into the alley confirmed they were running after her. She took off, looking over her shoulder to check the mouth of