Beta Test by Karenna Colcroft

Karenna Colcroft is here today talking about her latest release Beta Test and giving away a copy to one lucky commenter!

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Imagine waiting over fifty years to find the one you’re meant to be with.

Now imagine finding her, only to realize that just being in your life puts her in danger.

What would you do?

That’s the question that faces Justin Ruel, the hero in my newest novel Beta Test. Justin is a seventy-year-old werewolf pack Beta (though he looks—and thinks—as if he’s in his early thirties) who has given up on ever finding his mate. And then he finds her, on a Boston subway of all places.

The problem is, Tareth McConnell is human. Humans aren’t supposed to know that werewolves exist. And given that someone has ordered attacks on members of Justin’s pack, Tareth might not be safe around him.

For Tareth’s part, she trusts Justin completely, even though she doesn’t want to. Although the mating instinct isn’t quite the same for humans as for werewolves, she feels a connection to Justin and knows they belong together. Even after she’s attacked at the office where they work. And even after Justin tells her the truth about himself.

The question is, will knowing they’re mates be enough to keep them together, especially when Justin himself tries to separate them?

Beta Test is available from Passion in Print Press, http://passioninprint.com/ShowBook.php?10=KC_BETATEST, as well as on third-party sites such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and All Romance Ebooks. To celebrate its June 16 release, as well as my June 30 birthday, I’ll draw from all comments that are left for one person to receive a PDF copy of the novel. The drawing will take place this Saturday, June 30, at noon Eastern time, so any comments left between now and then are eligible to win.

You can find out more about Karenna Colcroft and her books by visiting her website, www.karennacolcroft.com, or join her Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/261093317316839/.

EXCERPT from Beta Test:

Justin set Tareth down beside the car. She leaned against the hood and breathed deeply. Now that she was safe, she couldn’t stop crying. An aftereffect of her adrenaline rush, maybe. She had always been that way. She would remain outwardly calm until a situation ended, then she lost it. She hoped Justin didn’t mind her crying on his shoulder.

While Justin told the officer what had just happened upstairs, Tareth tried not to listen. She’d just lived through it. She didn’t need to hear about it. The officer radioed for a police officer to come take statements from them, and the other officer arrived within minutes.

Minutes too long, as far as Tareth was concerned. She just wanted to go home and sink into a hot bath. Hide from everyone and everything, even Justin. He could be there with her. She wouldn’t mind that. But she didn’t want to talk to him. The last thing she wanted to do was keep reliving that afternoon’s events.

She didn’t have much choice about answering the officer’s questions, so she did her best to remember the events in the order they’d occurred and to stay calm while doing so. She and Justin both gave the officers descriptions of the kids, though the officer didn’t seem too positive about the possibility of finding them. He asked her and Justin to go to the precinct and fill out a formal statement, but when Justin argued the officer suggested they wait until the next day. He seemed a little afraid of Justin. Tareth didn’t mind that a bit if it meant she could go home sooner.

Finally they were allowed to get into Justin’s car and leave. As soon as Justin drove away from the curb, Tareth started to cry again. Justin took a handful of napkins out of the center console and held them out to her. “Here.”

“I’m sorry.” She wiped her eyes and blew her nose. “I can’t stop.”

“You don’t have to. You must have been scared half to death. I would have been.”

She glared at him. “You’re lying. You’re a freaking werewolf. How could you be scared of kids like those?”

“One of them had a knife. Knives do the same thing to werewolves they do to humans.” He rested his hand on her knee. “We just heal faster, unless we die first.”

Tareth shuddered. She didn’t want to think about Justin being stabbed or injured in any way. “That isn’t helping.”