ITEM #4: UNFORESEEN, UNVEILED, UNBOUND, UNBRIDLED

Alex was sure gifted was a term delusional parents applied to their strictly average children, vampires were gorgeous dead guys in her eighth-grade girls' novels, and Seers was a middle schooler's misspelling of a department store known for power tools. Teachers, however, don't know everything—it’s Alex’s turn to be educated.

Running alone the night before school ends, Alex is violently attacked. She quickly learns she’s being hunted for possessing a gift she never wanted, one that could kill her or provide the power she’ll need to protect herself and those she cares for. Hunted for her gift and haunted by her dreams, Alex is driven to fight, even if it means allying herself with those just as deadly as her enemies.

With strength comes vulnerabilities. With love comes loss. With power comes pain. The world Alex now belongs to hinges on such balance. Her every step seems to be lurching her precariously closer to one wrong side or another.

Alex had known her life as a Seer wouldn’t be easy. She knew her gift would be difficult to control and constantly sensing others’ emotions would be overwhelming. She even knew she’d be hunted for the power it would provide whichever coven of vampires controlled her. What she didn’t foresee were the difficulties she’d have with the parts of her life she ought to be able to control: her decisions, her actions, and her relationships.

It isn’t until she’s botched every facet of her new life that the opportunity arises to make things right. Rocky’s lover has been abducted, and Alex’s gift is the best shot at bringing her home alive. But even that will require tipping the scales in a direction no one but Alex can understand.

As a Seer in a city brimming with vampires who react rather violently to having their emotions manipulated, Alex has had enough of doom and death. She’s earned her happily-ever-after—or at least the small respite of mating Markus and officially becoming a member of the Rectinatti coven.

But the Vengatti and their Regan, Leonce, don’t do happy endings. And they certainly don’t approve of Alex’s attempts to unite the two opposing sides. Then again, neither do most of her so-called allies.

If Alex wants to survive to see her already postponed honeymoon, she needs to convince both covens that good and evil aren’t a birthright. They’re a choice. Just as the prophecy is not her destiny. It’s her decision.

“Think Law and Order SUV meets The Breakfast Club” was Ellie’s trite explanation of what Alex had been dragged into. Add a few fangs, Fifty Shades of Oversharing, and a dash of Dr. Phil, and she was in for quite a Thursday night.

Alex couldn’t deny she had become the pint-sized poster child for PTSD lately, but she didn’t exactly expect to find a support group for teachers turned vampire chew toys in Bristol, MA. Listening to the tales of the four other females gathered to help her heal, however, she accepts that perhaps both the worst and the best of life can blossom from the unexpected.

Unbridled is a novella-length collection of four connected stories focusing on the unlikely friendships and less likely lovers of the female characters from the Alex Crocker series.

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STARTING BID: $10

(Help one survivor get the support she/he needs!)

Donated by Lauren Grimley