‘Iron heart’ sneak peek & mini update

We are coming into spooky season, it’s Spring here in Australia and I wanted to start the season right with some IRON HEART. Fuck yeah. I’m going through my final proof now and busy getting everything ready for its October release. I have also gone ahead with digital signatures in the front of the paperback books with these ones and I’m hella impressed with myself for figuring out how to do them lol. They will be in the standard edition, no I wont be charging more for them, because I’m not an asshole.

Super quick writing update

I am over half way through the first vampire novella in the new INFERNO world I’m creating, and doing all the back end admin to set up my Ream Stories subscription. It’s the first time I have written a novella and it’s like Alessa on speed lol. Expect ALL the vampire tropes in this one. I’m having an absurd amount of fun.

I am super nervous and excited about the whole subscription idea to be honest. Expect a big long email all about it in the next few weeks when I have it up and running.

Reminder for my audio people! HERMES is going to be out on the 12th of this month. Don’t worry, I’ll send a quick reminder email when its live. Here is a link if you want to preorder it.

Now…for IRON HEART.

***

Our history is written in the blood of the holy, the stone of beasts, and the curses of gods.

– Kitezh Codex

Chapter One

Zori stood in front of a wall of glass windows and watched the snow fall over Moscow. She looked down at the street, waiting for the black town car to arrive, which would mark the beginning of her two weeks of freedom.

Come on, Maxim, leave already, she thought, hopping from foot to foot.

She needed to get out of the penthouse that she’d been locked into for days. She didn’t like the memories of that place, crowding around and constantly trying to drag her under.

Zori’s earliest recollection of being there was of Maxim taking her by the shoulders, looking deep into her eyes, and saying, “Magic is not real, Zoria.”

It was something he had repeated often, especially after her mother’s suicide.

Some people would have told their four-year-old ward that her mother had been turned into an angel and flown to heaven. Not Maxim. He was a scientist who did not believe in anything other than what he could see under a microscope. Instead of an easy, comforting lie, Zori had gotten the truth.

Your mother was my best friend, and I cared for her deeply, but she was sick in her mind, and she killed herself. You carry the same sickness inside of you. Always beware of voices in your head that aren’t your own, Zoria.

Like Zori would tell him if she did hear anything. Doctor Maxim Bogrov wasn’t exactly God’s chattiest person, but he had done his best with raising her and keeping her from dying. He had devoted his life to studying the brain disease that had eaten her mother’s sanity away.

Zori had been taking his cure since she was fourteen to make sure it never happened to her. Now at twenty-six years old, she was beating the odds.

That was why whenever she got the chance, she escaped Maxim’s security team and went to cause some trouble. She was on borrowed time, and she had to make the most of it in any way that she could.

Maxim had a conference in England for two whole weeks, and Zori was going to escape the building if it was the last thing she did. It was infuriating being locked up like a child.

Zori was planning on celebrating her first night out in months, and fuck, did she need it. A dying girl couldn’t live on vibrators alone, and with any luck, she would get a few hours of freedom to find a big Russian boy with long hair and lots of tattoos to fuck her blind before Maxim’s men tracked her down.

Zori checked the street beneath them again, impatient to get her night started. Her anxiety was up, and she needed to dance and fuck it out of her system. Still no car.

“Hurry the fuck up and leave already,” she grumbled.

Zori fidgeted with the necklace she always kept hidden in her bra. It was a pendant with a woman holding a skull in one hand and a bundle of twigs in the other. She didn’t know what it meant. It had belonged to her mother, and she had given it to Zori the night she had died.

Zori had memories of her mother, telling her stories of fairytales and magic and saints, but she couldn’t remember who the lady on the pendant was meant to be. She carried it for luck and because it was the only thing Zori had left of her mother. Maxim had gotten rid of everything else. She made sure she kept it out of sight.

Zori sighed and stared out at the city of her birth and her mother’s death. They hadn’t been back to Moscow since her mother had jumped from the balcony on the other side of the penthouse.

After they had left Moscow, Maxim had promised to look after Zori, and they had lived all over the world. She’d had new teachers and tutors in every country they had lived in. She spoke Russian, English, German, and French fluently. She had a voracious mind, and Maxim had made sure to keep it busy.

She hadn’t been allowed to go to public schools or universities, and with the way they moved, there had been no point. When she suggested that she get a job, it had been shut down immediately. Her job was to stay alive and help Maxim with his research.

It wasn’t that she was ungrateful to him, but God, she was lonely. He was rarely around, and when he was, it was to make sure she was healthy and was studying whatever new thing had caught her interest. They weren’t close in the way she had read other families were, but he was all she had.

The building they were now in was Maxim’s main research facility in the Tverskoy District. Like all the other places they had resided in, Zori always had her own apartment-sized rooms, like some kind of princess in a tower.

Or a lab rat in a pretty cage, she thought gloomily and pressed her forehead to the cold glass.

It was why Zori made sneaking out of the buildings they lived in an art form.

Outside, snow was falling again over the city in steady drifts. They had spent the last few months in a warm, tropical climate, so seeing snow again was beautiful.

Zori stared out at the night, her heart fluttering strangely in her chest, yearning for something she couldn’t name. All she knew was that she wasn’t going to find it in her cage.

Down on the street below, Maxim’s black Mercedes pulled up, and she saw him climb in. She held her breath as it pulled from the curb to take him to the airport, and a grin spread over Zori’s face.

“Finally!” She rushed to her wardrobe and pulled on a black low-cut top, her corset, and harness.

Zori might have been a shut-in, but she had full internet access and a weakness for online shopping and music. She had already found a club three blocks away and was going to make sure she blended in. She pulled on her leather pants and boots and went to check her make-up in the bathroom.

Zori had naturally Nordic silver hair and full lips like her mother’s. Her blue eyes she got from a father she had never met. She unraveled her braid, letting the waves fall down to her breasts, and painted her lips red.

Zori pulled on a black fur coat that came to the back of her knees before she cracked open the door to her bedroom. It was almost 11 p.m. when the building’s security teams changed over, and the daily cleaners left. If she timed it right, she could blend in with the group of people leaving.

It wasn’t like the cleaning staff knew what she looked like, and if anyone asked, she would say that she had been working in the labs or offices on another floor. No one would ask. No one ever did because Maxim’s staff was so big, there was always a new face.

The new security guard she had encountered that day certainly hadn’t known who she was when she flirted with him and stole his key card off his belt.

Amateur, she thought and grinned. Really, someone should have warned him.

Zori had learned if she wore a tight enough top, she could pick most men’s pockets.

Zori took a deep, calming breath, slipped out of her bedroom, swiped the card on the fire escape door at the end of the hall, and stepped inside. It was freezing cold, so she pulled on her leather gloves and hurried as fast as her boots would take her.

She’d learned from Maxim’s other buildings that he never installed cameras on the fire escape stairs. Why? She couldn’t guess other than he didn’t want to pay for them. He might have been a scientist, but dear Uncle Maxim was also a businessman and didn’t waste money on things he didn’t need.

Zori’s legs were jelly by the time she got to the ground level of the building and into the staff room where men and women were pulling on heavy coats and gloves.

Zori pulled the hood of her coat down further before joining the back of a group of women talking loudly about one of their daughter’s new babies and how fat and sweet she was.

Zori’s heart pounded as they moved through the underground parking lot and out of the staff door. No one stopped her or called her name as she followed the women down the street in calm steps. They rounded a corner, and she was free.

Zori tried not to do a victory dance, but there was a definite skip in her step as she followed the map on her phone. Almost there, deep breaths.

Zori heard the club before she spotted the door to it. Two bouncers stood on either side of it, smoking cigarettes. It was still early, so there wasn’t a line yet. They both looked her over, and she threw them a flirty smile as they opened the door.

“Have fun, baby,” one of them said.

Zori winked at him. “I always do.”

The music was loud, and the club was dark, just the way she liked it. Zori left her heavy fur coat with the coat check and let the heady beats draw her down the hallways. There was a bar on either side of the dance floor and shadowy alcoves everywhere. The decor was black and silver with candles melting on tables and along the bar. It was full of people but not so packed that she would have to wait forever for a drink. It was perfect.

Zori let out a happy cry and allowed the pull of the dance floor to take her away.

Chapter Two

Zori stamped her feet, trying to push out all her frustrations into the movement. The music was loud enough that when the cry of anguish and helplessness broke free from her, it blurred into all the other sounds.

This was what Zori had needed for months—the physical release of not feeling like the patient, the dead girl in waiting, the burden child of a man who wasn’t interested in being a parent but had taken on the task anyway.

She was still panting heavily when a tingle spread down her spine and a hand closed on her hip.

“Are you okay?” a deep voice asked in Russian by her ear. “You look like you were getting crushed in this crowd.”

“I’m fine,” she replied in English. She swore and repeated herself in Russian. She turned slowly, still moving with the beat, and let out a startled squeak. “Damn, you’re tall.”

The man’s face was sharp in the flickering lights. Straight black hair fell to his shoulders, and blue gray eyes shone in amusement. He was exactly what she needed, thank all the saints.

“Thank you. Are you sure you are okay?” He was frowning in concern, and she really couldn’t figure out why.

Zori took the chance. “I could use a drink. Can I buy you one…”

“Vladik,” he replied, his bulk already parting the crowd to lead her off the dance floor. “And I’ll have a vodka.”

“Of course,” she said, lips twitching into a grin. “I’m Zori.”

She headed for the closest bar. With a light touch of his fingers on her back, Vladik made sure he didn’t lose her in the throng.

Zori’s heart fluttered with adrenaline every time he grazed her bare skin. It had been over a year since her last one-night stand in New York, and the physical contact was jarring her in all the best ways.

Zori squeezed her way in at the end of the bar and gave the guy behind it a little wave.

“What can I get you, beautiful?” he asked, tugging on his lip ring as he stared at her tits.

“Two vodkas on ice,” she called over the noise, passing him the cash. The bar tender’s smile lost some of its shine when Vladik moved to take one of the vodkas. They moved out of the crush of the bar to one of the shadowy alcoves.

“Na Zdorovie,” Zori said, tapping her glass against his before they both took a drink.

“What accent am I hearing in amongst your Russian?” Vladik asked in English. Zori’s panties melted a little at his own deep accent.

“All sorts. I’ve lived in a lot of places. I’ve only just come back to Moscow from three years in America,” she replied and let out a small laugh. “It’s the first night out I’ve had in the city actually.”

“First night and all alone?” Vladik smiled, making his stern features soften. “It’s just my luck I found you.”

“Or mine,” Zori said, looking him over from his lace-up leather boots, black jeans, and shirt. He had enough stubble that it would burn deliciously against her skin.

Vladik was staring back at her just as intently. “I like these little straps.” He looped one of his fingers under her leather harness, stroking down it and lightly grazing the top of her breast.

Zori’s breath stuttered. “You do?”

Vladik’s eyes darkened, and he gave the strap a tug. “This harness makes me want to clip a lead to you and make you my little puppy.”

Zori’s pussy clenched, and she quickly had another mouthful of vodka. “You haven’t even kissed me yet. I need to assess whether I want you clipping a lead to me.”

Vladik tugged on the harness, bringing her closer. “If you wanted to be kissed, puppy, you only needed to ask.” He tilted her head up and pressed his full lips to hers. It was a soft, tasting caress that had her rising up on tiptoes to meet it. She opened her mouth for him, and a deep growl vibrated through his chest.

Zori was suddenly pressed up against the wall, his leg between hers and his tongue sweeping into her mouth. Zori’s hands dug into his shirt, and she kissed him harder, her teeth nipping against his lip. She was on fire, her heart pounding in her ears. He smelled crisp like a winter forest with a spice that she didn’t know the name of.

“Fuck, puppy, you are delicious,” he said, voice husky as he kissed along her jaw line. “I want to kiss you everywhere.” His lips sucked against her ear lobe, and she ground herself against his leg. He chuckled softly. “Sensitive ears? Good to know.”

His hands dropped to her hips and pulled her up against him as he kissed down her neck. Zori whimpered, her senses overwhelmed and pussy aching. She shouldn’t have been this turned on by some making out and light grinding, but damn, she wanted more.

Vladik’s hands slid up her corset. “Can I touch your pretty breasts, puppy?”

“Touch me anywhere,” Zori stammered, her own hands tightening on his shirt. No one could see them in their shadowy nook unless they were really looking. She was fast becoming too horny to care.

Vladik lifted her up as if she weighed nothing. God, she loved strong men. She wrapped her legs around his waist, her hands moving over his chest. He had some thick muscles under his black T-shirt that she would love to get to know better.

Vladik’s mouth took hers again, and Zori gasped as he cupped one breast, his thumb brushing over her nipple. He pulled back from her with a wide grin.

“Your nipples are pierced?” he asked and tugged at the small hoop through her top.

Zori let out an involuntary moan, her legs clenching around him. “Y-Yes. Fuck, that feels good.”

“I have to taste them, puppy. Please let me,” he said, and the hand still on her ass gripped her tighter.

“Yes, do it,” Zori panted, her hands going around his neck and into his silken hair. He lifted her higher with one hand, the other one tugging down the side of her top and bra.

His mouth fixed over her nipple, and the soft, wet heat of it made Zori cry out. Fuck, it felt too damn good.

Her fingers tightened in his hair as he toyed with the piercing, sucking and tugging in a way that sent little shock waves straight to her clit. She was going to come with her pussy untouched if he kept it up. She needed to get him into a bathroom stall and get his dick inside of her before she ran out of time.

Vladik’s fingers snagged on a chain, and her mother’s necklace came free. He stared at the pendant, curiosity and confusion on his face. “What’s this?”

“Nothing. Just a good luck charm from my mother,” Zori said, taking the necklace from him and shoving it into the pocket of her pants.

Vladik cupped her cheek, his eyes searching her face. “You are not what you seem, my puppy.”

“I’m exactly what I seem, and that’s a woman who really needs to be fucked, so if you want to continue this in the bathroom, I’m—”

“Zoria, it is time to go home,” a deep voice said behind Vladik. Zori jumped and quickly made sure she was covered. “Sir, please put her down before I make you.”

Vladik lowered Zori to her feet but didn’t let her go. He moved to reveal Anton, Maxim’s head of security.

Vladik’s lip curled. “She’s not going anywhere that she doesn’t want to.”

“Zoria, you had your fun. It’s time to go home. Dr. Bogrov is expecting your call,” Anton said firmly.

Vladik went to move, but she grabbed his arm. “Don’t. It’s fine, Vladik.”

Zori gave his hand a squeeze before moving around him and going to Anton. He somehow already had her coat and put it around her shoulders.

Zori swallowed hard and looked back at Vladik. His eyes were troubled, but his face was stone cold. “It was nice to… Nice to meet you.”

She turned away, her heart clenching, and let Anton lead her out of the club. There was no point in fighting. She’d learned that long ago.

Outside, the snow was falling heavily. Anton opened the back door of an SUV, and she got in. Vladik came out of the club entrance, and she gave him a small wave, helplessness crashing over her. She just wanted one night of freedom.

“You could have taken longer to find me, Anton. Let me have some fun for once,” she said, hating how sad she sounded. In the past, he’d given her at least three hours.

“I’m sorry, Zoria, but Moscow is a dangerous place, and I couldn’t risk it,” Anton replied. “Dr. Bogrov has enemies in this city, and he would never forgive himself if he lost you.”

Zori doubted Maxim would notice she was gone, but instead of saying it, she leaned her head against the glass and said nothing.

****

I hope you liked this delicious little snack. Make sure you drop me a comment below if you enjoyed it! You can also preorder it here if you want to.

I’ll be back soon with all the Ream Stories stuff so keep an eye out for my email,

Alessa xx