“Good. You know what happens next.”

He smiled. He did indeed. He’d known the moment he saw Akane Russo sitting there in her car, doing her best to look innocent and vulnerable. He’d known better from the start.

Akane Russo was in no way innocent or vulnerable. Not by a long shot.

“Take care of my daughter, Shane.”

“I will. I swear it.” He allowed that small touch of magic to enter his voice. If anyone would sense it she would. He hung up and stuck his hands in his pockets. Whistling softly, Shane Joloun Dunne left the room, intent on hunting down his mate.

About the Author

Dana Marie Bell wrote her first short story when she was thirteen years old. She attended the High School for Creative and Performing Arts for creative writing, where freedom of expression was the order of the day. When her parents moved out of the city and placed her in a Catholic high school for her senior year, she tried desperately to get away, but the nuns held fast, and she graduated with honors despite herself.

Dana has lived primarily in the Northeast (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, to be precise), with a brief stint on the US Virgin Island of St. Croix. She lives with her soul mate and husband Dusty, their two maniacal children, an evil, ice-cream stealing cat and a bull terrier that thinks it’s a Pekinese.

You can learn more about Dana at www.danamariebell.com or contact her at [email protected].