Horror, various subgenres
Publication Date: October 30, 2024
Publisher: Dragon Soul Press
Ghosts, demons, and more monsters.
In a world where so many dark things go bump in the night, terror awaits
around every corner as these authors take horror stories to the next level.
Discover ghosts, demons, and your worst nightmares. Read at your own
risk.
Featuring twenty-nine stories by Joshua Williams, Stephen A. Roddewig,
Joseph Hirsch, Max Blood, Paul Lonardo, Matt Spencer, S.J. Walker, Kelly
Barker, Gregory Scott Matics, Gaetan Battaglia, Fred Phillips, Cassandra
Jones, Barend Nieuwstraten III, Sean E. Britten, Larry Hodges, Donalee
Moulton, Arlo Z. Graves, C.L. Hart, Robb T. White, Kelly Piner, Benjamin
Curt Unsworth, Trixie Nisbet, Jennifer Papillo, Justin Jones, Diana
Parrilla, Jared Thomason, J.M. Bengtsson, Caleb James K., and J.E.
Feldman.
Full Cold Moon
Story Genre: Shifters, werewolf
Wolf shifter Roza Van Rompaye awakens in a basement filled with Christmas
decorations with a silver manacle around her ankle. Her captor spiked her
drink with silver nitrate, and now he wants her to be his mate and to turn
him. Roza isn’t about to do either. She warns her captor that he will
die if she is still a prisoner when the full cold moon rises.
Excerpt
No matter how I struggled, I couldn’t get free of the chains I was
bound in.
“You’d better hope they hold when the full moon comes out, you
silly shit,” I snarled.
The cadaverous young man with the watery green eyes, blemished face, and
greasy disconnected fuchsia pompadour presented me with a rectangular box
wrapped in metallic celadon paper.
“I don’t want presents from you,” I snapped, turning away.
“If you think holding a woman captive on Christmas Eve is seduction, I
guarantee you’ll die a virgin. Gavril Kuroki, president of GrassHopper Green
Construction and renowned seducer of both men and women, would be horrified
to learn his son was holding his favorite architectural consultant prisoner
in a dungeon that looks like Santa’s elves got hammered and puked all over
the walls while he tries to win her affections with cheesy lingerie. What
the hell is wrong with you, Yair?”
“Roza, please, just look,” Yair insisted. He eagerly unwrapped
the box, revealing a silky puce nightgown. “I’m not trying to
turn you into a sexual object, and I’d never force myself on you. I
know you’re not like those easy women who ride the cock carousel any
chance they get. This negligee is elegant and ladylike, like
you.”
“I’ll never be the fawning captive princess of your
pathetic fantasies.”
“My love, it pains me to keep you prisoner, but until you accept me
as your alpha, I must.”
“Being chained to a concrete wall in a windowless basement stuffed
with Christmas decorations like a holiday goose full of apples and bread
pains me. This plot to make me fall in love with you by forcing a full-blown
English Christmas on me is insane. We’re in Cresval, South Dakota, for
Krampus’ sake, not jolly old London town. I’m the
thirty-five-year-old spawn of a Dutch-American agnostic farmer, not the
demure daughter of flipping Bob Cratchit.”
About the Author
C. L. Hart is an editor who writes or a writer who edits. She primarily
writes Lovecraftian fantasy and horror with the occasional sweet romance
thrown in to upset the cosmic apple cart. This is her second year
participating in the annual For the Love of Winter anthology from First
Coast Romance Writers. She is a member of ACES Editing Society, The Denver
Horror Collective, First Coast Romance Writers, The H. P. Lovecraft
Historical Society, Passionate Ink (writing as Lil DeVille), Regency Romance
Writers, and Rocky Mountain Romance Writers.
