Paranormal Romance Blog

Lori Devoti has a paranormal romance two-for in December! First she told us about her novella in Holiday with a Vampire II.  Now, she joins us again to tell us about Captured, a new story in her popular “hellhounds” shape-shifter series, from Nocturne Bites…

by Lori Devoti, author of Captured, Wild Hunt, Unbound, and Guardian’s Keep

When my editor at Nocturne approached me about writing a Nocturne Bite based on my Unbound world, she had only one request—make it a hellhound story. This was enough to tell me exactly what character I wanted to feature.

Like a lot of authors when writing a short piece based on a world they’ve already created in longer prose, I wanted to expand on a story that had been started in one of my books, but not fully told. And while it isn’t obvious, that’s what I did in Captured.

You see, Leve is Venge’s (the hero of Wild Hunt and Risk’s son) mother. She hasn’t appeared in any of my books, but she was certainly mentioned. She, like Risk (hero of Unbound), was owned by Lusse (an immortal witch from Unbound). She, like Risk, was seen as property, but unfortunately being female, she was seen as a source of more hellhounds. Thinking Leve’s use was gone, Lusse sold her.

Sometime after that is where Captured begins. And none of it is necessary to know to enjoy Captured; I just thought you might like a little insider tidbit.

Leve’s back story isn’t a pretty one. She’s gone through more than any of my male characters—even Risk. But she is a survivor. I love that. She’s been beaten, raped and basically had to fight to exist. When the story opens, she’s been thrown into a cell and knows all of this is about to start again.

She is determined it won’t, that this time she will kill the male thrown in with her rather than go through the abuse again.

What she doesn’t know is this time, the male is unusual. Gray Barsk is a hellhound, but he has trained to control his bloodlust. When the fog of pheromones is pumped into the cell, he is able to resist—even when Leve can’t.

And slowly, Leve begins to see that maybe she can trust a male. Maybe she can do more than survive.

I could have saved Leve and written a full length novel for her, but honestly, the Bite feels right. It shows her at the most important point in her life—the point where she finally wins and finds love.

Captured also introduces another piece of my world–the Kamp. The Kamp may appear again. It’s a horrible place ran by some as yet unidentified being. But I think this being just may have a connection to some others my readers have met before…

Happy reading! I hope you give Captured a try.
Lori