​Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Sign up below with your name, blog and email and share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Your post needs to be live between 12:00 noon on Saturday 07/02/16 and 9:00 AM on Sunday 07/03/16. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.

I've been sharing from my WIP, The Tree of Life. Rio, in shapeshifter form, has been spying on the Vargas clan. A VIP has just arrived, and  he is busy observing the frantic activity  surrounding that arrival, when...

​Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Sign up below with your name, blog and email and share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Your post needs to be live between 12:00 noon on Saturday 06/18/16 and 9:00 AM on Sunday 06/19/16. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.

I've been sharing from my current work in progress, Book 2 of my Illuminati series, The Tree of Life. We just discovered that Rio, the hero is a Black Jaguar shapeshifter. He is in cat form and trying to discover who the intruders are in his jungle and what they are up to... ::Caution:: Some creative punctuation may follow to meet the requirements of the blog rules.

        ​  As soon as the men were far enough away, the cat jumped and raced after the vehicle. Sleek and sure-footed, able to move quickly through terrain where the truck must creep cautiously, it didn’t take long to find them; but once he did, he was surprised to discover their destination because he’d been to the ancient ruins many times in the past and it seemed an unlikely place to set up a base camp.
            He would have liked to get closer, but care was needed if he was going to remain undetected and gather information. Rio jumped into a tree about fifty yards from the entrance he knew led nowhere but a collapsed wall overgrown with vines and waited to discover what further secrets would be revealed. The truck parked and as he had suspected the area was quickly flooded with lights.
            Distracted by the activity of the men unloading, he didn’t at first notice Kirin because he scented her companion first. Ears back, nostrils flared, hairs bristling, his throat constricted, and only with a supreme effort did Rio manage to keep his other self from growling at the leopard brushing with casual affection against Kirin’s leg as she emerged from the darkness of the ruin.  Then the smaller cat, having sensed Rio’s presence and with no need for concealment snapped its head in his direction and growled a warning.
            “Easy, Raja,” Kirin said softly, bending to scratch the pet behind his ear, but she too looked in Rio’s direction as Roscoe stepped from the ruin and Rio’s nails dug deeply into the tree bark while he remembered the man’s remark regarding the tracking device and Rio becoming a pet. He looked at the leopard again, and was relieved to see that Kirin at least had the decency not to adorn it with a humiliating jeweled collar or bowed Velcro shirt.  She turned to speak to Roscoe as the men approached with the gurney. The cat moved forward and sat, staring at him, clearly placing itself as sentry between his mistress and the perceived threat, Rio.

I hope you have enjoyed this week's snippet. Be sure to visit the other Weekend Writing Warriors and fabulous #SnippetSunday authors! and enter my rafflecopter below to win some great prizes, and visit The Romance Reviews to play games and enter to win dozens of other prizes!

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their #8sunday posts. 

I've been posting from my current WIP, Book 2 in my Illuminati series, The Tree of Life.  Today you learn a little more about the hero, Rodrigo, whose nickname  the heroine has found out is Rio. ::Caution:: Tweeked for sentence demands of Blog rules!

             Rio walked deeper into the forest and breathed in the familiar odors, because the other, his darker, more primitive self that he kept locked away deep inside, hidden and almost tamed, was awakening and restless. 
            It was the other who increased his pace into a steady jog, and the other made his skin tingle and itch and his fingertips clench and uncurl and his toes scrunch up and squash within the confines of his boots. He pushed back, just a bit more, and the other squeezed his throat, making him growl, though it came out more a cough in sound. Almost there, he shoved through some interlaced root outcroppings and came upon a small pond.  At last, his shirt was wrenched from his pants and ripped open, and he shrugged it off quickly and let it fall. His pants soon followed, and then it felt so good to tug out of his boots and socks, wading into the water.
            Rio dove down, a few glorious strokes later, he let himself relax,and let the beast free. His skull broadened and his jaw widened, becoming powerful enough for the incisors this other was so fond of to fit in his mouth. He surfaced and breathed; the skin on his body had already been replaced by fine black hair with darker rosettes, widely spaced and dotted with dark spots. Reaching out with a wide paw, he sliced through the water and headed for shore.  Once there, he shook the water from his broad-shouldered, muscular body and stretched, relishing the release from physical restriction and confining domestic habitats the two-hundred-and–fifty-pound black jaguar padded over to Rio’s pile of clothes and raked the ground with razor-sharp claws so that they would remain undisturbed until his return because Rio might try to tame his inner beast, but his other self was king in this rainforest, and knew it.

I hope you enjoyed this week's snippet.  Be sure to visit all the other great Weekend Writing Warriors  & wonderful #SnippetSunday Authors. Also, be sure to enter to win a great prize in my The Romance Review's Sizzling Summer Reads Rafflecopter Giveaway & Visit their website for a chance to win dozens of more great prizes! The link is on my sidebar! You might even win a copy of Book 1 in my Illuminati series!

I have been sharing snippets from my current WIP, Book 2 of my Illuminati series, The Tree of Life. When we left off last week, Isis had just ordered her sons to hold  the tribeswoman Kirin has been treating still. The young woman is strapped to a gurney, in a zombie-like state, unaware of her surroundings, violently convulsing and pulling against her restraints.

I hope you enjoyed this week's snippet. Please visit the other fine Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday Authors!

When we left off in my WIP, Book 2 of my Illuminati series, The Tree of Life, Kirin and her brothers were at The Magic Ball in Rio and their enemy had just discovered they were there because the scientist they kidnapped, drugged and took to the ball with them is wearing a tracking device...so instead of rushing up the elevator to their penthouse suites they're headed to the ballroom to get lost in the crush...

                He stayed close behind as she wove her way through the throng of bystanders and then darted straight onto the dance floor, swinging around to clasp him against herself, and then spin away to the flash-paced rhythm of a Brazilian Samba.
            “I’ll explain later. I’m sorry, but if you want to get out of here alive, follow my lead,” she said into his ear as she gyrated in front of him.
            “Shouldn’t I be leading?” he quipped, surprising Kirin by raising her hand above her head and spinning her away, then quickly pulling her back against him and showing off some amazingly sensual moves for a man who spent much of his life in front of a microscope.
           The scientist pulled her up against his chest, nearly knocking her breath away, and not just because she was surprised by his sudden movement. The gleaming challenge in his eyes bore into hers as he looked down at her. She could imagine the mocking smile behind his mask, and she met his swiveling pelvis with her own sashaying hips, daring him to continue the knee-pumping, core-flexing duel.  Encouraged, he stalked her movements like a predator, the fluidity of his movements measured and seductive. Kirin, breathless and impressed, laughed up at her handsome captive.

I hope you enjoyed this week's snippet! Be sure to visit the other excellent Weekend Writing Warriots and Snippet Sunday authors!

Previously, in my WIP, The Tree of Life, Book 2 in my Illuminati series, Kirin and her brothers were about to enter the Copacabana Palace in Rio during the Magic Ball with a kidnapped scientist in tow..albiet he is disguised in a tuxedo and full face mask..slightly drugged, though they are passing him off as drunk....

            “What’s going on?”
            “Oh, you’re back once again. You look great in a tuxedo, by the way. I didn’t realize you were so tall.”
            “First time you’ve seen him upright,” Roscoe offered, helpfully.
            Molten gold signaled his anger from behind the oval eye-slits of a full face mask Roscoe had secured to the scientist’s face, letting them know that if nothing else the man recalled the security chief’s remark and harsh treatment from earlier, and that the effects of the drug-soaked cloth were beginning to wear off.
            “Move,” Andrew urged in a harsh whisper, shouldering the tightly grasped man in the opposite direction.
            Kirin looked up and noted that their security team had averted them from the elevators and the safety of their penthouse suites, instead directing them further up the marble staircase toward the ballroom, unmindful of the rumpled flounces and disgruntled minglers they jostled in their haste to make way through the crush of excited party guests. She instantly sobered and followed their lead, knowing their route must surely be blocked, probably by some previously off-duty revelers who just happened to be on site. But for their enemy to have discovered their whereabouts so quickly could mean only one thing--her blind date was carrying a tracking device and would need to be searched.

I hope you enjoyed this week's snippet! Be sure to read the clips from the other fine participants in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday!

This Week's Snippet from my WIP, The Tree of Life, Book 2 in my Illuminati series...

When we left off, the three siblings, Kirin, Luc and Andrew, had broken into a pharmaceutical  company owned by their arch enemy, who also fund some rather nasty International terrorists, to retrieve a specimen stolen from Kirin's research laboratory. She accidently knocks a scientist (who is going to be her love interest) off his feet, literally, and then her brother, Luc, clocks the guy so they can save explanations and get on with the job at hand. They have just jumped into a waiting van with some of their men...
​

         The siblings quickly shed their coats, revealing sophisticated  if elaborately embellished evening attire, and donned artisan-created masks. Kirin fastened the second dangling diamond and emerald earring and then pulled on gem-beaded gloves and watched as two of their men switched the scientist’s white lab coat for a tuxedo jacket, slapped a black bowtie around his neck and a mask over his face. It covered the swelling bruise on his chin nicely.
            Just then the man began to rouse and pushed against the mask, muttering, “Wha-what’s going on? Whe-where am I?”
            Roscoe lifted the mask, reached forward and held a cloth against the now struggling man’s mouth. “Easy, Cinderella, you’re about to go to The Magic Ball.”
            The van pulled around the corner to an emergency only parking zone and stopped beside a long, dark limo with smoky windows and diplomatic flags on the hood that allowed it to park anywhere, even in Rio. The party-goers, along with their once-more-docile-if-still-disoriented guest, quickly transferred vehicles.
          Ten minutes later, as they pulled to a stop in front of the Copacabana Palace Hotel, Kirin chuckled and said, "Well, this should be interesting--us, him, and fifteen-thousand of our closest friends."

I hope you enjoyed this Snippet! Be sure to visit the other great writers at Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday! #8Sunday #SNIPPETSUNDAY