The pre-order for Building a Home will be up on Pride Publishing website on August 30th, so a week from now. To celebrate the upcoming release, today I’m sharing an excerpt from the book!
First, though, look at that pretty cover one more time:
Zack Harrington noticed David Dewitt the day the guy showed up in Harrington Hills, but their first meeting was far from perfect. A few months later, Zack still can’t forget about him, and now that the two of them belong to the same pack, their paths cross even more. The problem is, David is barely twenty-two, and Zack still remembers how stupid he was at that age.
David knows he’s young, but he’s tired of hearing about it all the time. He’s not a kid, and he hates being treated like one, even—or especially—by the hot deputy sheriff. But as they get to know each other better and the sparks between them turn hotter, David’s willing to forgive and forget.
Can they move past the age difference and their own personal hang-ups? Or will they ultimately fall into a trap of miscommunication and hiding?
And here’s the excerpt:
David hadn’t cared about joining a new pack at first. He and Charlie had spent years without one and, as far as David was concerned, they would be fine like that going forward, too. But Charlie had really wanted this. And since he’d done so much for David in the past, saying yes, when Charlie had finally come to ask, was a no-brainer. David would never be able to fully pay off the debt to his brother, but he could do this.
By the time the Joining Ceremony rolled around, David was actually into the idea. After being invited to a few celebrations and getting to know the locals better, he was happy that if they were going to be a part of a pack, they would end up in this one. Most of the people he came into contact with in Harrington Hills seemed really nice.
And by ‘most of the people’, David meant everyone except Zachary Harrington, one of the sheriff’s deputies, whose picture could be in the dictionary under the definition of Hot and Angry.
They’d met during David’s first visit to the town, after he’d picked up a last-minute job for a wedding party. David had noticed Zack as soon as the man had gotten out of the sheriff’s cruiser and headed his way. The deputy was hot and very tall, and his uniform fit nicely over what looked like the body of a seasoned football player. David spent his days working in construction, and he could only dream of shoulders like that.
The spell had broken right after the guy had opened his mouth.
“You’re the boss here?” he’d asked in that disbelieving tone that always made David grit his teeth. He’d managed to be civil only because it had been his first day and the guy had worn a uniform. The fact that he’d introduced himself as Zachary Harrington helped as well.
They hadn’t exchanged more than a hello ever since, but David still couldn’t forget and move on. Any time he saw Zack now, he was torn between the impulse to walk away without looking back and a desire to confront him, to walk up to him and give him a piece of his mind about not assuming things about people.
Meanwhile, his wolf just wanted to rub his muzzle all over Zack.
Which he almost—almost—got to do during the Joining Ceremony. When the big, black wolf walked up to him and he looked into those clear blue eyes, David had no doubt about who it was. He felt like they stared at each other for a long time, but then Zack looked away and let out a huff that David didn’t know how to interpret. Did he have a problem with David joining the pack? Or was it something else? David wasn’t a pushover, and he had pissed off a few people over the years, but, as far as he knew, he didn’t usually rub people the wrong way right from the start.
He didn’t usually react to others like he did to Zack, either, though, so maybe they both were just destined for a collision of some kind.
But then Zack stepped closer and brushed his shoulder against David’s, and David had to push his claws into the ground to stop himself from dropping down. He drew a deep breath, hoping to calm himself, but then Zack’s scent hit him—metal and coffee, and something he couldn’t decipher—and it just made things worse. When Zack pulled back, David leaned slightly to the side to follow, but caught himself in time. He was in a very public place and he was the center of attention. It was the worst time to act crazy like that.