Red, the big jovial Viking from 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙖𝙬𝙠, the first medieval romance in the Band of Bastards series, was a character that grew on me the more than I wrote him into scenes and by the end of the book, I knew he had to have his own story. He is the hero who is most heavily influenced by the highland warrior heroes of Julie Garwoods Medieval romances. His book was the most fun to write.
Here is a little taste of Red’s story. If you liked him in 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙖𝙬𝙠, I think you will love him as the hero of his own story.
Excerpt:
Red was yet to know who the hooded man was to this woman, or why she was trying to escape him, but he would find out.
He held the woman close to him under his cloak, shielded from view, as he kept a watchful eye on the lane until he was sure the man was gone. He’d held other women in his arms before, but for some reason he couldn’t fathom, he was reluctant to let this one go. He kept rubbing his chin over the top of her head while he watched the man walk away. Her hair was particularly silky and soft to the touch, much like her lips. Perhaps it was the danger of the situation and his need to be a protector, but the woman in his arms was completely intoxicating, like a siren’s call.
No, not a siren’s call. More like the pull of a she-wolf on her mate. Red knew that when an alpha wolf found her, only death could part him from his she-wolf. He believed the same held true for men and women, if they were willing to believe in fate.
His mother told him often as a small boy the tale of how she’d known the moment she saw his father that no other man would ever have a place in her heart. It had been like a lightning bolt the first time they locked gazes. He chuckled, remembering how she’d said it took his father a little longer to admit they were fated to be together, but they’d been inseparable once he’d quit fighting it. It had broken her heart when he’d been killed in battle before either of them even knew she carried his child, and she’d never loved again.
Small hands pushed against his chest and the woman slowly tipped her head back to look up at him. Those eyes! They were the most beautiful he’d ever seen, especially now that the fear had drained from them. Her lips parted as though she planned to say something, but then she paused, and an expression of bewilderment crossed her delicate features. Red smiled at her then, a slow, knowing grin. Did she feel it, too? Had she recognized him as the match to her soul?
“Let me go,” she said evenly, as a sweet smile crossed her lips.
She had the slow, languidly sensual moves of a she-wolf. He stared at her, mesmerized.
“I said: Let…me…go.” Her tone was fiercely determined as she spoke through clenched teeth. Beautiful, white, perfect pearls of teeth.
Red couldn’t stop looking at her, wanting to touch every curve of her face. He opened his mouth to ask her name, taking his time to release her, when her sudden movement and an explosion of blinding pain made him flinch and bend toward the ground as the breath whooshed out from between his lips.
His breathtaking she-wolf had kneed him in the balls!