Dragon Fire Preview

Since today is ALIEN ABDUCTION DAY, I thought I’d share a bit more about my upcoming book in the Prison Moon Series is set to release on April 24th! I’m beyond excited to share this new world I’ve created with Alexandra Marell. Take a peek below at the first chapter of my contribution to the series, DRAGON FIRE.

Prison Moon: Dragon Fire
by Lily Graison

Abducted by aliens and housed in an airtight room with twenty other girls wasn’t Sara’s idea of a good time. Neither was being dropped into the jungle of a Prison Moon, but for the rest of the galaxy, it was. She was the entertainment. The game? Survive the lawless alien criminals who ran wild or die trying, but there was no outrunning a dragon, and he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to let her go.

Toren has spent the last several centuries sleeping beneath the rubble of an abandoned temple. The wars decimated his world and now was used as a dumping ground for the most vile creatures in the galaxy. A Prison Moon where it was kill or be killed. He slumbers to escape but awakes when a female, the first he’s seen in centuries, stumbles into his lair. And now that he’s seen her, he’s not letting her go.

But the corporation that runs the Prison Moon One has other plans. Broadcasting a televised event across the galaxy of an Arena fight between a live dragon and any willing to fight him will bring in more viewers, and money, than they could imagine. All they had to do was catch him and to do that, they had to take the girl.

 

Pre-Order your copy exclusively at Amazon.com and Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon US: https://lilygraison.com/Lullaby_Amazon

 

 

1

__________

SARA

 

The screaming finally stopped. Sara closed her eyes and sighed in relief. The wild beating pulse in her head from the artificial light caused the headache she couldn’t get rid of to pound harder with each beat of her heart and the screaming only made it worse. Not that she blamed the girl. If it had been her on the receiving end of that last attack, she’d still be screaming too.

Everyone shifted nervously, some in small clusters talking in hushed whispers. Every face she looked at wore the same shell-shocked expression. Hers probably did too. Foul odors filled the room, the stink of unwashed bodies and human waste lingering in the air, and it took every ounce of willpower she possessed to not throw up. She tried to block it out, to imagine she was somewhere other than the cargo hold of a spaceship headed for who knew where. She snorted a laugh. Aliens. It was still too fantastical to believe but she did. She’d seen them. 

She’d been a skeptic until she stepped out of the shower and her entire dorm room was flooded with light so bright she’d been momentarily blinded. The darkness that followed was a blessing she fought to get back after opening her eyes to this. A small metal, doorless room filled with frightened women who either spent their time crying, complaining, or screaming to be let out. Hence the headache.

A section of the wall to her left opened to reveal a door that hadn’t been there before. The chirping noise she’d come to recognize as some sort of language filled the room moments later. One of the aliens she liked to call Big Heads walked in and the screamer started up again. Sara’s head throbbed more intensely at the shrill noise. She would have thrown a shoe at the girl if she’d had one on.

Three aliens stopped just inside the doorway. As many times as she’d seen these guys, she still stared. The alien’s neck was as long as her arm, its head three sizes too large for his body. She wasn’t sure how he even held it up but somehow managed. His bug-like eyes were large bulbs sticking off the side of his head and as horrid as they looked, they smelled even worse. Like ammonia mixed with wild onions. Every time one got near, her sinuses burned. Maybe it was the slimy substance that clung to their skin or some pheromone only other ugly aliens would find attractive. They were brown for the most part but dark green strips slashed across their flesh in neat rows. She would have nicknamed them something closer resembling a lion but Big Head had popped into her mind first. They all wore dark gray, one-piece suits of some kind, each with a wide belt around their waists where gadgets of varying size hung in small pockets along the belt.

The Big Head who walked into the room made a motion with his hands that looked as if he wanted them to stand. Those able to do so wasted no time obeying him, herself included. The last girl who didn’t was still lying in a heap over along the wall. Sara glanced the girls way. As she’d been most of the day, the blonde stared straight ahead at nothing, her eyes unblinking. Her torn clothing hung off her slim frame, scratches and blood staining her thighs. Tears filled Sara’s vision. She blinked them away and turned back to the same aliens who’d done such vile things to the poor girl. The memories still made her my stomach churn. If she lived to be a thousand, she’d never get the images out of her head. Had it been her, she’d be lying over there staring at nothing, too.

She gritted her teeth and turned her attention to the Big Heads, leaving the girl to her fate. She wiped tears she wasn’t even aware she’d been shedding away with one shoulder. They did no one any good to shed now, anyway. Life as they knew it was over.

The chirping language they spoke spilled from one of the Big Head’s fish-like mouth before he pointed at the door. He grabbed the blonde closet to him and shoved her out, then grabbed another. They were being moved. As much as she feared what these aliens were going to do with them, sitting in this stinking hole of a room was getting to be too much. She’d take a walk and breathe fresher smelling air if they wanted her to. 

The corridor was dark with small green lights lining the floor of the walkway. It was colder here with a faint odor she couldn’t place but it wasn’t human waste so she inhaled deeply to clear her head. The metal under her feet felt like she was walking on ice and she’d have given anything for shoes—or clothes. She crossed her arms over her bare chest when she neared the Big Head on her way down the hall, not that it mattered. It wasn’t like he couldn’t see she was a fan of the Hollywood wax with just a glance. Thankfully it was growing back in but not nearly fast enough. 

Being the only girl abducted in her birthday suit drew more attention than she like, even from them. The blonde they’d taken turns amusing themselves with early came to mind and she shuddered before lowering one arm in an attempt to cover her bare lady parts. 

A doorway at the end of the corridor came into view. The line of girls in front of her slowed and she watched as each girl was ushered inside. No one screamed after going in so it was too soon to panic. As she was ushered forward, her headache grew along with her racing pulse. The doorway loomed ahead, the light coming from inside almost blinding. When she stepped inside, the room was bare. The walls were white, the light overhead, bright. A noise on the other side of the wall drew her attention and she peeked around the corner—and wished she hadn’t. Her racing pulse stuttered, then raced when the girl in front of her was grabbed, the Big Head just on the other side of the wall taking her arm and sticking it with something that resembled a needle. The girl fell as if dead, another alien there to catch her before she hit the ground.

Sara screamed as the Big Head waiting behind her pushed her forward, the needle-like thing in the other ones hand biting into her skin moments before the world went dark.

  

__________

SARA

 

Voices pulled her from sleep. Sara opened her eyes and groaned. Her headache was worse and a spot behind her right ear pounded so hard it stung. Raising her hand, she brushed her fingers over the spot and winced. It was tender and wet. Pulling her hand away, she saw her fingers smeared with blood. 

“It’s an implant.”

A girl with long red hair was staring at her. She looked ragged, her curly hair in tangles around her face. Dark circles lay like bruises underneath her green eyes and even though she was thin, her pixie-like features didn’t look as gaunt as some of the others. This girl had been taken recently. Sara sat up and wiped the spot behind her ear again. “What kind of implant?”

The girl tilted her head a fraction to the right, motioning to the front of the room. Three Big Heads were there, talking. Sara’s eyes widened. It wasn’t the chirping she’d been hearing since waking up on an alien spacecraft, but actual words. They were speaking English. Or rather, she was hearing English. She rubbed the spot behind her ear again. “It’s a translator?”

“I think so.” The girl slid closer. “I didn’t understand them before today so I’m assuming that’s what the wound behind my ear is from. They did knock us all out. I’m thinking it was to insert something into our heads.”

“Wonderful.

The girl looked at me and the corner of her lips turn up into a tiny smile. “I’m Marcy, by the way.”

“Sara.” A glance around the room told her it wasn’t in the same one they’d been in before. This one was clean and feces-free. “Do you know what’s happening? Why we’re here?”

Marcy shook her head. “Not really, but I don’t think its good, whatever it is.” She took a shuddering breath. “From what I’ve been able to hear, we’re to be used for some sort of entertainment.”

Sara raised an eyebrow. “Entertainment for who? And how?”

“Don’t know.” She motioned behind us. Sara turned and when she saw what Marcy pointed at, she gasped. 

A large section of the wall was glass, or something similar, and beyond it sat thousands of stars in a vast ocean of darkness. Since the moment she woke after the abduction, she’d prayed this was all a bad dream, that someone spiked her drink and she was having a really bad drug-induced trip, but what sat beyond that window wasn’t anything her imagination could come up with. 

There were two planets in the distance and sitting between them and the ship was a ring of scattered rock that spanned the entire length of the window from left to right. The rocks varied in size. Some were as large as a bus, others as small as a basketball. It looked like an asteroid belt of some kind. 

Further in the distance, behind the two planets, a massive cloud of stars glimmered like diamonds. The entire thing shined in shades of gold, blue, red and purple. A nebula, if she wasn’t mistaken. One large enough to see its brilliance with the naked eye. As much as she wanted this to be a bad dream, she could no longer deny it. She really was in an alien ship—in deep space. 

A series of hissing noises filled the air, and a few screams followed as gravity seems to disappear to leave them floating in mid-air. Sara reached out to grab anything she could and found Marcy’s arm. Long minutes later, the artificial gravity returned and they fell back to the floor. Grunts and groans followed, Sara’s elbow aching and she laid there a few moments, then sat up. 

She looked at the window again. They were landing. The planet wasn’t blue like earth. The colors below were varied with wide oceans of red, green and teal. As they drew closer, the window turned white, her view of the planet below gone.

Chortling laughter filled the room. Four Big Heads leaned against the wall looking at them. One said, “Welcome to your new home,” before they all started to laugh harder

“Get up,” another said. They stood and for the first time since waking, Sara realized she was clothed—sort of. The thin gown she wore was loose fitting and sleeveless. The cut was low in the front with a deep “v” which bared more breast than it should. Not that is mattered. It was barely long enough to cover her ass and nearly see-through but she wasn’t about to complain. It was better than being naked. Plus, everyone else was just as scantily dressed as she was. Soft sandal-like shoes were on her feet and held on with a series of straps that crisscrossed over the top of her foot and tied in the back. They weren’t much, the soles not very sturdy, but it was better than being barefoot.

She glanced at Marcy who still stood by her side. She’d said they were to be entertainment. In this getup, it wasn’t hard to figure out what kind.

They were ushered out of the room and back into the corridor, the same green lights as before glowed dimly along the edge of the floor. They were led into a massive room with a door on one end that was nearly as tall as the entire ship. The floor beneath her feet vibrated and shimmied, the hissing sound from before rumbling past her ears. A solid thunk and bounce later and she assumed they were on the ground.

The other girls murmured and huddled together. She tried to count heads but everyone was standing so close together she gave up. There were at least twenty. Maybe more.

She flicked a gaze to Marcy and noticed the worried look on her face. Her own probably held the same. She had no idea what lay beyond those doors and she didn’t want to find out. Marcy stared at that massive door probably wondering the same thing she was—what would they find on the other side?

“We’re going to die.”

The whispered words are spoken to her left. Sara turned her head to see who’d said it. The girl was tall, her skin tanned a warm tawny brown, her hair so inky black it looked blue under the harsh lights. When she looked over at them, Sara could read every thought going through her mind with one look into her eyes. She really did think they were going to die. 

As the door jolted and hissed, then started to lower, Sara’s first look outside at this alien planet came into view and she was inclined to believe the girl. They probably were going to die.

 
 

__________

SARA

 

The barren landscape on the other side of the door didn’t look inviting. If anything, it was terrifying. 

The Big Heads ushered everyone out and Sara lingered in the back as long as she could. Marcy looking her way was the only thing that got her moving. She knew next to nothing about Marcy but she was the only person who’d spoken to her and like it or not, she was closest thing to a friend she had at the moment.

Sara’s first look at the strange planet was deceiving. The dry, cracked ground they walked out on was a wide sea of nothing. It stretched all the way to the horizon. A shrill scream filled the air and she turned her head to the right, then sucked in a harsh breath.

On the other side of the ship was a jungle of trees, vines, and thickets of bushes so dense the entire area looked as dark as night. The scream she heard was followed by another, then a snort of breath, moments before the ground shook. “What the hell was that?”

Marcy took a step closer to her side. “I don’t know and I don’t want to find out.”

The tall black haired girl from the ship still lingered close by. She turned to look at them and shook her head. “I told you, we’re going to die.”

Marcy scoffed. “Well, aren’t you just a bucket of sunshine.”

“I’m not being a smartass, I’m just not foolish enough to think everything is going to turn out all right.” She pointed to the barren landscape we stood on, then to the jungle. “We either die out here in the nothing or die in there where I’m pretty sure there are things willing to eat us. We are on an alien planet, you know. I’d hate to even think what waits for us in there.”

Well, when she put it that way. Sara shook her head. “Safety in numbers, then?”

The girl looked at her, then to Marcy. “Safety in numbers.” She reluctantly nodded. “I guess its better than dying alone.”

Marcy crossed her arms over her chest and whispered under her breathe, “Bucket. Of. Sunshine.”

Despite their predicament, Sara smiled. It was the first time since waking up on the ship that she’d felt the desire to do so. Looking at the black haired girl she said, “I’m Sara, by the way,” then jerked her thumb to the right. “And this is Marcy.”

“I’m Emma.” She looked to the jungle. “Not that exchanging names will help us much.” 

“Well, if things go as bad as you say they will,” Marcy mumbled, “Then it’ll give you someone to scream for when you’re dying.”

Sara bit her lip and turned her head so Emma didn’t see her trying not to laugh. She understood Emma’s fear. Her own was climbing pretty high but fear kills and she wasn’t about to die. Not yet, anyway. She’d fight until she wasn’t able to fight anymore.

One of the Big Heads banged something on the metal floor of the ship and they turned in unison to look at him. He stood at the top of the landing staring down at them. 

“Humans,” he said, the words slightly accented. “Welcome to Prison Moon One.”

Prison Moon? That didn’t sound inviting.

Marcy leaned her way. “I hope his use of the word prison doesn’t mean the same thing it means back home.”

“Me either.”

“To prove we’re not heartless, we’re giving you two choices.” The Big Heads voice boomed in the stillness. He pointed to the barren landscape to our left. “You can take your chances in the Wastes or,” he paused and pointed back to the jungle, “try to survive in there.”

The other Big Heads standing nearby made that weird chortling sound Sara came to recognize as laughter. Whatever the joke was, it was apparently on them.

“The Wastes are uninhabited but there’s very little food and even less to water.” He shifted and pointed to the jungle. “In there, you’ll find fresh water, fresh meat if you’re lucky enough to catch and kill it, and an abundance of wild berries and fruits. It will be up to you to figure out which are poisonous and which are not.”

Someone in the front of the group snorted and said, “I’ll pick door number two.”

Sara couldn’t agree more. The jungle held shelter and food. Only an idiot would stay in the Wastes.

The Big Heads fishy mouth split and it looked as if he was trying to smile. He glanced at the other aliens and they seemed to share in his amusement. “Here’s where the other shoe drops,” Sara whispered.

Marcy raised her hand and chewed her thumbnail. “I’m sure you’re right.”

“The jungle holds a few dangers. There are animals who will find you a tempting treat and will most likely kill you so I suggest if you see one, you don’t linger to see if it’s friendly or not.” A few gasps from the girls cause the Big Heads to laugh again. “There are also high cliffs and sheer drop-offs that you’ll need to be careful of and—“

“Here it comes.”

He raised his huge head an inch higher. “There are the prisoners.”

Someone up front said, “Prisoners?”

Sara couldn’t see who said it but it made little difference. Everyone had to be thinking the same thing.

“This is a prison moon,” Big Head continued. “A penal colony for the most dangerous beings in the galaxy. Death sentences are exchanged for banishment and as for the others, when no one else can control them, they are left here. And forgotten.” 

“I guess it does mean the same thing, Marcy.”

“Aren’t we the lucky humans?”

The Big Head drew her attention by doing some weird thing with his mouth again that she assumed was a smile. “Aside from being home to the most vile creatures in the galaxy, Prison Moon One has a duel purpose. You would think life would never get boring in the vast reaches of space, but it does so, everything that happens on this little planet is live streamed to the far reaches of the solar system and for a price, anyone can watch.” He paced to the far side of the doorway and pointed to the sky. “Those are the eyes and ears of this place. They see everything and they’ll be watching you, constantly.”

Someone near the front of the group yelled, “For what?”

The Big Heads laughed again. “For our entertainment, of course.” 

Sara turned to look at the monitors. They were huge triangle shaped prisms and as she watched, one piece broke off from the rest and flew over the jungle, another close behind the first. They were drones of some kind but far more sophisticated than anything she’d seen back on earth. “Reality TV,” she whispered.

“What did you say?” Marcy asked.

“I said, its reality TV.” She shook her head. “It’s like those, lost in the wilderness, shows, where the camera follows people around and watches them try to survive.” She pointed to another set of the prisms shaped drones as it broke off from the rest and headed their way. “Only this time, we’re the stars of the show. Us and those criminals they drop off and forget about.”

The Big Heads voice rose and Sara turned back to face him.

“Four times a year supplies are dropped off for the inmates,” he said. “Food, clothing, medicine. Nothing is rationed. It is every man for themselves here and everyone knows their place but … the inmates get restless after being confined for long periods of time with nothing to do but fight to survive.”

Marcy took a step closer. “I have a very bad feeling.”

She did, too.

“Every six months we drop a special sort of supply.” He mouth pursed. “The species of aliens kept here vary but they all have one similarity—the desire to mate. That would be where you come in. ”

Her heart slammed against her ribcage. “And there it is.”

 “As this moon is home to mostly males, female companionship is a prize worth fighting over—so we let them. Some of them are sexually compatible with your kind, some are not, but they won’t care. They’ll mate with you anyway, regardless of the outcome. Some of you will be selected and extracted for The Arena Games. Those inmates not fast enough, or are unwilling to chase you, are allowed to battle to the death in order to claim you. Those of you not selected for the games, will have to survive on your own, and not get caught.” He nodded to the monitors hovering in the sky. “And the entire galaxy gets to watch as you try. So you only have two choices. Let them catch you—or run.”

The moment the words were out of his mouth, Sara heard it. The rustle of branches, the pounding of feet against the ground, snarls, and growls that filled the air loud enough she barely heard the massive door on the spacecraft close. She glanced at it as the hiss of air stirred the dirt around her. It was leaving.

She turned back to the jungle. The noise was getting closer, blood rushing past her ears so fast she heard nothing but the wild pulse of it. 

The natives were coming.

She grabbed Marcy’s arm and tugged her forward, then grabbed the Emma. “Move!”

“But they’re in there?” Emma screamed.

“Then die out here of starvation.”

She didn’t wait to see if either of them was going to follow. Honestly, she didn’t give a shit. She barely knew them and their lives meant nothing to her but hers sure as hell did so—she ran.

She ran straight into jungle where the snarling and growling grew louder and hoped like hell she didn’t meet what was on the other side.

 

New Book, New Series, New Adventures!

I’m so excited to share a project with you I’ve been working on for months. I’ve had a secret love affair with science fiction romance for a very long time (Thank you Ruby Dixon) and after years of reading it, I took the plunge and wrote one myself. It has been an exhilarating change of pace and has allowed me the opportunity to let my imagination run wild and take a brand new adventure right along with my characters. I love my historical westerns and have NO PLANS to stop writing them so, fans of the Willow Creek Series and my new Silver Falls Series, don’t panic! I have more of those books coming in 2018, Nightingale, Willow Creek book 8 in the next few months.

In the meantime, take a look at DRAGON FIRE, my first contribution in the Prison Moon Series I’m writing with my author friend, Alexandra Marell. Her first book in the series, PRISON MOON: ICE HEART is available at Amazon.com and FREE on Kindle Unlimited!

Prison Moon: Dragon Fire
by Lily Graison

Abducted by aliens and housed in an airtight room with twenty other girls wasn’t Sara’s idea of a good time. Neither was being dropped into the jungle of a Prison Moon, but for the rest of the galaxy, it was. She was the entertainment. The game? Survive the lawless alien criminals who ran wild or die trying, but there was no outrunning a dragon, and he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to let her go.

Toren has spent the last several centuries sleeping beneath the rubble of an abandoned temple. The wars decimated his world and now was used as a dumping ground for the most vile creatures in the galaxy. A Prison Moon where it was kill or be killed. He slumbers to escape but awakes when a female, the first he’s seen in centuries, stumbles into his lair. And now that he’s seen her, he’s not letting her go.

But the corporation that runs the Prison Moon One has other plans. Broadcasting a televised event across the galaxy of an Arena fight between a live dragon and any willing to fight him will bring in more viewers, and money, than they could imagine. All they had to do was catch him and to do that, they had to take the girl.

 

Pre-Order your copy exclusively at Amazon.com and Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon US: https://lilygraison.com/Lullaby_Amazon

 

 

Read An Excerpt

They stayed by the pool for most of the day. It wasn’t until the sun lowered in the sky that Marcy’s stomach growled loud enough they both frowned. The moment she heard it, hers growled too. 

Sara stood and walked to the crumbling opening in the wall that led into the jungle. She hadn’t seen anything move out there in the entire time she’d been sitting there watching. Not a bird or even the sound of an insect buzzed nearby. It was as if the jungle around the ruins was portioned off as if some invisible barrier separated it from the rest of the world. Was it? Was this part of the jungle protected? She turned to Marcy. “What do you make of the silence surrounding this place?”

Marcy sat up from where she’d been lounging near the pool. “What do you mean?”

Sara gathered her hair and attempted to braid it, but with nothing to secure the end, it wouldn’t last. She stared at the silent jungle. The more she saw no movement, or heard the sound of anything moving, the more the entire place felt more—eerie. “Well, remember when we stopped in front of the ruins? And nothing moved or made a sound?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s like that here, too.” She motioned toward the jungle. “Nothing is stirring back here, either. It’s just weird.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the trees. “It almost makes me think something is keeping everything away?” Like maybe whatever made that loud sighing noise earlier? 

“I hope not.” Marcy stood, a worried look crossing her face. “If things aren’t hanging out near the ruins because of something bad, then us being in here is pretty stupid, don’t you think?”

She bit her lip and looked toward the doorway to the lower chamber again. Marcy had a point. “Maybe.” Her stomach growled again a moment later. “It doesn’t really matter. We can’t stay here anyway. We’ll starve if we don’t find food soon. My stomach already feels like its ready to gnaw at my backbone.”

“Same here.” Marcy crossed to where she stood. “As much as it terrifies me to go out there, I know think we don’t have a choice.” She took several deep breaths and lets them out before saying, “I’ll let you lead the way.”

“Why me?”

Marcy grinned. “Because if there’s anything out there going to eat us, it’ll get you first.”

“Unless it sneaks up on us from behind.” She laughed at the look on Marcy’s face and stepped out of the ruins.

They left the pool of water and the shelter of the ruins behind and ventured into the jungle again. The trees weren’t as densely packed here and they walked a good distance before she saw the first sign of disturbed dirt. She had no clue if the tracks were old or newly made, but she steered them in the opposite direction they were going just in case it was something large enough to eat them.

Something rustled the branches low on the ground a few feet ahead of them. They froze, both staring at the underbrush. A tiny blue creature the size of a small rabbit popped out from under the brush but it looked nothing like a rabbit. She wanted to say it was a small troll. Its body was skinny and it stood upright on two legs, its head was slightly larger than the rest of it and it had no hair. Ears that hung and drooped off the side of its head to rest near its shoulders made it look almost cute. It saw them, it’s large dark eyes turning their way. The creature blinked, looked toward the brush again, then scurried in the opposite direction.

“I don’t know what that was but I want one.”

Sara snorted a laugh. “For all we know that cute little critter had teeth sharp enough to chew bone in half.”

Marcy laughed. “I doubt that. It was too cute to be vicious.”

They kept walking, cautious now that they’d seen the first animal that inhabited this place. She was pretty sure not everything here would be tiny and cute like that blue thing was and she knew it was only a matter of time before they found it.

They’d walked nearly three hundred yards from the ruins when she heard the first grunt. Marcy grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. She must have heard it, too. 

A loud crash echoed behind them. The underbrush shook and small creatures came pouring out from under it by the dozens. A moment later something huge crashed through the brush and stepped into her line of sight. It stood on two legs the size of mini tree trunks, its arms muscular and long, its hands nearly touching the ground. Razor sharp spines jutted out of its back and the thing had tusks the size of her leg that curved up out of its mouth toward its forehead. “Okay, Marcy, I’ve seen enough.”

The trees behind him moved and more—things—come crashing out into the open. The locals had found them.

Marcy screamed so loud it caused every hair on her body to stand on end, her own screams joining in when those things started toward them. They both turned and ran.

It didn’t take long for those creatures to close the distance between them, the ground shaking as they ran, the snarls and growls she’d heard earlier once again filling the air. They should have stayed inside the ruins. Whatever kept animals from getting too near it had to be less scary than the mass of bodies slowly gaining ground on them now.

A bellowing roar tore through the air long minutes later, a flash of red light filling the sky in her peripheral vision. Intense heat flared at her back and those snarls and growls turned into screams. Gooseflesh dotted her arms at the sound. Was something larger than those creatures they’d seen chasing them in pursuit off them now? 

Sara hiked up her knees, her arms pumping at her sides as fear drove her to run faster, Marcy half a step behind her. She hoped she kept up. She didn’t want to die because her new friend was three-seconds slower than she was. 

The screams behind them grew and her heart felt ready to race from her chest. The dense thicket of trees seemed to thin as they ran, then disappeared completely when they ran out onto a grassy area. It took her only seconds to realize the ground ahead of her was gone. 

“Sara, stop!”

Marcy’s scream joined her own as she saw the edge of the cliff and tried to stop but momentum kept pushing her forward even as she tried to turn and reach for Marcy. The landscape flashed by, then she saw nothing but the blue-pink haze of the sky as she fell. Her screams echoed through the canyon as she tumbled, the ground below her hundreds of feet down. Her stomach crawled into my throat, Marcy’s voice as she screamed her name fading as she plummeted, the cliff growing further and further away. 

Your life really does flash before your eyes right before death and all Sara could think of was how she’d wasted what time she’d had. Her impending death caused her muscles to relax, her pounding heart racing so fast she grew dizzy, her vision going out of focus moments before a dark shadow blotted out the sun. It fell over the side of the cliff and headed straight for her. She stared at it, her vision going dark around the edges as one clawed foot came into her field of vision before clamping around her body as another burst of heat and flame filled the air. 

Her last thought as she blacked out was, there’s no such thing as dragons.


 

Pre-Order your copy exclusively at Amazon.com and Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon US: https://lilygraison.com/Lullaby_Amazon

 

 

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Get These Two Holdiay Romances FREE!

 

 

Looking for a few Holiday reads? Both of my contemporary romance Christmas stories Blame It On The Mistletoe and That First Christmas are both on Kindle Unlimited AND FREE as part of a special book promotion Dec. 16th – 20th. Pick up your copies at Amazon.com!

 


Blame It On The Mistletoe
by Lily Graison

Contemporary Romance
Format: eBook
Length: Novella
Released: Dec. 2009

When Macy Carter’s parents order her to bring her live-in boyfriend Sean home with her for Christmas she has no idea that her little white lie is just about to snowball into a fabrication of monstrous proportions. Sean isn’t her boyfriend, he’s her boss. Now she has to reveal the lie she’s been telling her family for the past two years or hastily concoct an elaborate ruse to fool them instead.

When Macy tells Sean Mathis of her predicament he does what any gentleman would – he laughs and then agrees to help her out. Little does he know that one misplaced word in their little scheme will backfire and land them both in the hot-seat.

Secluded in the mountains, surrounded by snow and good will, Sean and Macy can’t help looking like the perfect couple. So perfect that the family decides a Christmas wedding will make it a holiday none of them would ever forget!

GET YOUR FREE COPY:

kindle

 

 

 


That First Christmas
by Lily Graison

Contemporary Romance
Format: eBook
Length: Novella
Released: Dec. 2008

Meredith Gunter has always been Daddy’s little girl. Spoiled all her life, she’s never had to ask for anything and expects to get exactly what she wants. When she wrecks her car on the way home from college for Christmas break, she finds herself stranded on the mountain in the middle of a snowstorm, in a one-room cabin with a man she can’t help but want.

Travis Gregory has lived alone on the mountain for the last four years. He has little contact with the outside world and prefers it that way. When he spots a girl on the side of the road, his conscience won’t let him abandon her. The redhead captivates him instantly.

Worlds collide when Travis and Meredith try to co-exist in his one room cabin. Can they fight their growing attraction when the nights get longer and the storm isolates them from the rest of the world? Can two people, from such different worlds, ever truly be happy together?

GET YOUR FREE COPY:

kindle

 

 

New Release – Lullaby, A Willow Creek Short Story

Can’t get enough of Jesse and Alex from WILD HORSES? Their short story, LULLABY is now available at all retail outlets!!

Lullaby – A Willow Creek Short Story
by Lily Graison

Willow Creek residents, Jesse and Alexandra Samuels, await the birth of their baby in the only way they know how. By getting on each other’s nerves.

*Note: This short story is part of the WILLOW CREEK SERIES and does not stand alone. It follows directly after WILD HORSES and gives us a little glimpse at the birth of their baby.

Read the entire first chapter HERE

GET YOUR COPY AT THE LINKS BELOW

Amazon US: https://lilygraison.com/Lullaby_Amazon
Kobo: https://lilygraison.com/Lullaby_Kobo
Smashwords: https://lilygraison.com/Lullaby_Smashwords
Nook: https://lilygraison.com/Lullaby_Nook
iBooks: https://lilygraison.com/Lullaby_iBooks

Reader Group Holiday Giveaway!

 

For the month of December, I’ll be holding a huge Holiday Giveaway over on my Facebook Reader Group. Every other day from Dec. 1 – 25th, there will be a giveaway with prizes ranging from ebooks to print books and special gifts with a grand prize drawing for a Kindle Fire which will be given away on Christmas Day! Join me and a bunch of my author friends as we shower you with Christmas goodies. Just follow the link below to join. See you there!!

Lily Graison’s Reader Group

New Series….New Release

Welcome to Silver Falls!

Tucked away at the base of a Montana mountain is the tiny frontier town of Silver Falls. With fur trappers, hard-working cowboys, ladies as sassy as the sky is wide, and an eccentric old Scottish Highlander who always has a story to tell, there’s never a dull moment. Head back to the 1800’s in this brand new historical western romance series.

 

Running away from home to marry the man she thought was the love of her life should have been the happy ending Victoria Stanford expected it to be, but things rarely work out as one plans. When her husband suddenly dies and leaves her stranded in the middle of nowhere, alone and scared, she thinks she’s saved when she sees three men headed her way. Relief turns to fear when she realizes they weren’t the type of men a single woman should trust. When they chase up the side of a mountain and overtake her, she does the only thing she can. She screams and hopes they kill her quickly.

Gideon Hart has spent the last six years roaming the mountain after tragedy changed his life forever. Since then, he’s never encountered another living soul other than his brother—until now. The scream he hears echoing through the trees brings back memories he’s been trying to forget. When he finds a woman being attacked, he does what he has to in order to ensure her safety. Getting her to town should be his only concern but the trek across the mountain with Victoria causes his world to shift and for feelings he’s denied himself for too long to surface. He doesn’t deserve to be loved. With a past like his, no one would love him once they found out what he’d done. Getting Victoria to Silver Falls is the only way to save them both but as the nights grow longer and winter settles in over the mountain, one soft kiss may change both their lives.

The Avery’s of Willow Creek Boxset – .99¢ Sale!

 

Yesterday, I saw memory pop up on my Facebook page for THE AVERY’S OF WILLOW CREEK. November 12th, 2014 was the date this boxset hit the USA TODAY list. I’m still in awe three years later. I would have never bit that list without readers buying the book so–I’m giving back! To celebrate, this week, I’ve set the price of the boxset to .99¢ over on Amazon.com! If you haven’t picked up your copy, hurry and do so now. The price goes back up to $6.99 at the end of the week.

 

A USA TODAY Bestseller!

 

The Averys of Willow Creek by Lily Graison

The Averys of Willow Creek
by Lily Graison

Part of the Willow Creek Series

Historical Western Romance
Format: eBook
Length: 4 book Boxset
Released: July 2014

 

Travel back to the 1800′s and tangle with ornery town marshals, Indians and schoolmarms who are anything but docile. Willow Creek may be a sleepy little frontier town but the characters who live there are as untamed as the land itself!

BUY THE EBOOK:

kindle

 

 

BOOKS INCLUDED IN THIS BOXSET

 

The Lawman
by Lily Graison

Book 1 in the Willow Creek Series

Historical Western Romance
Format: eBook/Paperback
Length: Novella
Released: Nov. 2011

 

On the run from her ex-lover…
Jilted by a no-show husband…
And now mistaken for a whore in the Diamond Back Saloon…

Abigail Thornton doesn’t think things can get any worse. That is until a single slap to a man’s face starts a barroom brawl that lands her in the last place she expected to be.

Town Marshal Morgan Avery wants nothing more than to wash away the trail-dust and sleep for a week, preferably with a soft, willing woman by his side. Instead, he gets Abigail Thornton – all one hundred pounds of her thrust at him seconds before a fist connects with his face. Breaking up the fight takes more effort than he wants to admit and when the last man falls he finds Abigail still standing and not looking the least bit contrite.

Throwing her into the town jail for the night would salve his wounded pride and then he will let her go. Or that was the plan. When morning comes he finds himself oddly reluctant to do so. Miss Thornton is hiding something and he aims to find out what, even if he has to bed her to do so. But will one night in her bed be enough?

 


 

The Outlaw
by Lily Graison

Book 2 in the Willow Creek Series

Historical Western Romance
Format: eBook/Paperback
Length: Novella
Released: March 2012

Sarah Hartford always dreamed of a grand adventure. She just never expected to find it in the arms of an outlaw.

When her father’s bank is robbed, Sarah doesn’t make the gunslingers’ escape easy. Putting her own safety behind those she hopes to protect backfires when she’s kidnapped by one of the escaping men. Now her only hope for survival lies with the same arrogant man who laughed at her while staring down the barrel of her gun.

Colton Avery spent months planning the perfect heist, every detail fine tuned and executed with precise timing. Nothing could go wrong. That is until he comes face to face with a determined woman holding a shotgun. She aimed at his head and never flinched when she took a shot at him. He wanted her the moment the smoke cleared and he saw her face.

Robbing the bank, and handing over the gang of notorious outlaws to US Marshals, would be routine and boring. Sarah Hartford made it anything but. Taming the woman who stole his heart the instant he saw her was a challenge he was more than willing to take on. All he has to do now is escape the gang of outlaws he just double-crossed, hideout from an Indian raiding party and elude the town marshal who just happens to be his little hellion’s new fiancé.

 


 

The Gambler - Historical Western Romance

The Gambler
by Lily Graison

Book 3 in the Willow Creek Series

Historical Western Romance
Format: eBook/Paperback
Length: Novella
Released: April 2012

Emmaline Hunt only had one thing she could call her own. A piece of land that held a secret not even her drunken stepfather knew about. When he gambles it away in a high stakes poker game, Emmaline does the only thing she can. She tries to steal the land deed back.

Tristan Avery has seen his share of bloodshed while sitting at a gaming table and knows its time to lay low when he wins a wad of cash and a piece of land. Especially after his opponent ends up dead at his feet. High tailing it out of town is his only option but things take a drastic turn when he finds a woman in his hotel room trying to rob him blind.

The botched robbery attempt is only the start of his troubles when Tristan finds his new land occupied by the same girl who tried to rob him. When he realizes he’s left her homeless, and killed her stepfather, his conscience forces him to do the right thing. Taking her to his hometown and setting her up with a new life will make up for all he’s taken from her.

But Emmaline has other plans. She wants her land, and Tristan’s money, and she’ll do whatever it takes to get them. All she has to do is convince him she’s there to stay, outwit him, find a way back home and not let a single soul know she has a gold mine bursting at the seems with untapped wealth.

 


 

The Rancher
by Lily Graison

Book 4 in the Willow Creek Series

Historical Western Romance
Length: Novella
Released: Aug. 2012

Laurel Montgomery wanted a new life, one that didn’t include a man. She’d had enough of their pretty lies and broken promises but one night of reckless abandon weeks before taking a job as the new schoolteacher in Willow Creek would come back to haunt her. The man she thought to never see again turns out to be the father of one of her new students. A man so handsome and rugged he takes her breath away. Too bad she’s sworn off men forever. If only the stubborn man would take no for an answer.

Holden Avery was love-struck the moment he saw Laurel Montgomery and cursed himself for a fool every waking minute since letting her walk out of his life. When she turns up in Willow Creek he’s handed the second chance he didn’t think he’d ever get but thoughts of pursuing Laurel are cut short when a stranger shows up in town. A man who claims to be Laurel’s husband.

The happily ever after Holden thought to finally have is plagued with obstacles but he sets off to prove he’s the man Laurel wants. Convincing her to give him a chance is nearly impossible but he’s waited too long to find her to give up now. One way or the other, Laurel Montgomery would be his wife.

 

SaveSave

Cover Reveal – A Soft Kiss In Winter

There’s nothing more rewarding then being able to share a story you’ve worked so long to create and I can’t wait to share this one with you! I’ve been hearing these characters whisper to me for over three years now and I’m thrilled to be able to finally tell their story.

A SOFT KISS IN WINTER is book 1 in a brand new, historical western romance series, that takes place in Silver Falls, Montana, a fictional town nestled at the base of the mountain waterfall. There are four books planned and a few cross-over characters from Willow Creek will show up from time to time. The book is scheduled to release on November 16th. Take a look below to find out what this story is all about.


Running away from home to marry the man she thought was the love of her life should have been the happy ending Victoria Stanford expected it to be, but things rarely work out as one plans. When her husband suddenly dies and leaves her stranded in the middle of nowhere, alone and scared, she thinks she’s saved when she sees three men headed her way. Relief turns to fear when she realizes they weren’t the type of men a single woman should trust. When they chase up the side of a mountain and overtake her, she does the only thing she can. She screams and hopes they kill her quickly.

Gideon Hart has spent the last six years roaming the mountain after tragedy changed his life forever. Since then, he’s never encountered another living soul other than his brother—until now. The scream he hears echoing through the trees brings back memories he’s been trying to forget. When he finds a woman being attacked, he does what he has to in order to ensure her safety. Getting her to town should be his only concern but the trek across the mountain with Victoria causes his world to shift and for feelings he’s denied himself for too long to surface. He doesn’t deserve to be loved. With a past like his, no one would once they found out what he’d done. Getting Victoria to Silver Falls is the only way to save them both but as the nights grow longer and winter settles in over the mountain, one soft kiss may change both their lives.

To be notified with purchase links on release day, sign up for my Newsletter Here.

SaveSave

SaveSave