The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance

with our pig keeper?”
    Two days later.
    “I still can’t believe Glory wed that little round man,” Lucy said, shaking her head in disbelief. “After all of her years of declaring that only a man whose beauty matched her own would do, she is overcome with joy to have secretly married a man who is a head shorter than her, at least five stone heavier and who has very little hair.”
    “Ah, but he loves her beyond distraction,” Ian replied, putting his hands on her waist. “There is much to be said for that. Happy birthday, my love.”
    “I may become ill,” Rhys pointed out as the annoying human kissed Lucy. Not that either of them could hear anything besides their own maudlin prattle. He held the reins of the silver mare he’d acquired for his niece and watched closely as Ian, after aiming a perfunctory glare Rhys’ way, helped Lucinda into the saddle.
    “Have a care as to how you lay your hands on a princess of the High House of the Seelie Court,” Rhys snapped.
    Ian smiled and deliberately raised Lucinda’s hand to his lips. “My future wife and I will lay our hands on each other however we want, Uncle.”
    “Don’t call me ‘Uncle’,” Rhys said between clenched teeth.
    Lucinda arranged her divided skirt on the saddle, sighing in either dismay or resignation. “Is it going to be like this all the way across Elvania? Because if you two cannot manage to come to some form of accord, I may have to strike off on my own and abandon both of you.”
    “You can’t—” Rhys began, offended.
    “You would never—” Ian began.
    “Watch me,” Lucinda interrupted.
    Rhys scowled fiercely at her, trying his best not to let his own smile escape. “You’re my sister’s daughter, all right,” he admitted, swinging up onto his own horse. “The stories I could tell you ...”
    “Wonderful,” Ian put in as he settled into his saddle and manoeuvred his horse closer to Lucinda. “Lucy and I will have no time to ourselves at all on this trip, will we?”
    Rhys smiled as his expected companion stepped out from behind the stable door and stood waiting quietly, her arms held up to him. “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Rhys said, stopping to catch the beautifully voluptuous woman by the waist and lift her onto his horse in front of him. “I may be a little busy at times.”
    Ian blinked. “Who—?”
    Rhys smiled again but said nothing, enjoying the smell of the lass’ lavender-scented hair. She snuggled back between his thighs with a contented sound.
    Lucy looked startled for an instant, but then slowly smiled. “Ian, meet Magda.”
    Ian’s eyes widened. “Magda? The pig keeper?”
    Magda smiled shyly and nodded. “I had a bath.”
    The End (In which they all lived happily ever after. Or at least for a very long while . . .)

At Second Bite
Michelle Rowen
    “Do you know who I am?”
    The handsome man’s gaze searched hers so thoroughly she felt as though she was being strip-searched at the airport, not just propositioned at a singles bar called the Meet Market.
    “That’s an interesting line,” she said.
    “Pardon?”
    “The ‘do you know who I am’ line. It’s a bit of an alternative to the whole ‘do you come here often’ thing.”
    “My name is Evan Frost.”
    “Julia,” she offered after a moment’s hesitation. “Julia Donner.”
    He offered her his hand and she took it expecting a handshake. His warm fingers curled around hers and he brought her hand to his mouth to brush his warm lips against her skin.
    “It is you,” he said. “I know it truly.”
    “You know what truly?” She raised an eyebrow.
    Was he going to buy her a drink? Should she buy him a drink? Damn, she hated getting dragged along to these kinds of bars with her desperate friends. It so wasn’t her scene.
    “She told me it was you, but I did not initially believe. Now I do.”
    “Who told you what?”
    “The witch. The one who led me to you. I have searched 300 years and you are finally returned to me.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    He looked at her very seriously. “You, Julia Donner, are the reincarnation of my beloved soulmate.”
    She actually laughed out loud at that. “You are kidding me, right?”
    He frowned at her reaction. “I do not kid you.”
    She had to admit to being a little disappointed. At first glance the guy had potential - serious “introduction to her bedroom” potential. At second glance, he was just another loser. Pretty on the surface, but crazy