The Moon gifted me a wolf. But even for a witch, wild things are not easily tamed…
Author: Jess Mahler
Jess has never been one to do things the ‘easy’ way. Which is probably why she spent several years pulling together a family-of-choice from across the country. The family, including a demon, a dragon, and a cat, hopes to settle in the Appalachians where Jess’ heart has been rooted for as long as she can remember.
Health issues keep her from taking a more active role in tikkun olam, repairing the world, so she writes to spread knowledge and ideas. Her fiction and non-fiction both explore different ways of living and being.
Jess has 15 years in polyam relationships including dealing with legal challenges, abusive relationships, group living, LDRs, and a good bit more. As an autistic autodidact, you never know when she’ll pull an odd bit of knowledge out of her back pocket that gives a new perspective on an old problem.
Whips & Fangs
11 stories of power exchange, love, and magic, including:
Fealty
Beloved, The baron, my husband, is dead. I am fighting to secure these lands and title in my own right as his widow. If you still feel as you once did, come to me now. I have need of you and your sword both.
With all my love,
Myrtle, Baroness Fireridge
Eryk folded up the well-worn letter and tucked it away in his jerkin. Six months ago Baron Balmont of Cliffside had invited him to swear fealty and become one of Balmont’s knights. For the bastard son of the hated Black Baron, the chance to belong was a dream come true. He accepted the lord’s invitation without a moment’s thought. Three weeks later, Myrtle’s letter reached him.
Three weeks…
I Vant to Suck…
Marcus woke unexpectedly, groggy and disoriented. Before he opened his eyes, he knew he had woken early. Even buried in the basement, the sun’s weight sapped his strength. Blinking, he strained to bring the world into focus. A huge man with ebony skin stood over him, holding a stake to his chest. So, the ancient vampire mused, there were still things in the world he hadn’t seen.
The man met Marcus’ eyes and froze. Marcus would have laughed if he could. “Go on, hunter.” Speaking against the weight of the mid-day sun was like rolling boulders uphill, but then, nothing came easy. “I couldn’t stop you if I wanted to. And I am not sure I do.”
For a long moment, the hunter stared at him. The sun won, sending Marcus back into darkness.
A Hole in the Pack
The pack gathered at the end of a successful hunt. Flopping down to rest in a clearing, their bellies matched the curve of the full moon overhead. It had been a good hunt, a good night, a good month. They should have been relaxed and playful until the sun sent them on their way. But they weren’t.
One of their number was missing. The hole in the pack was an ache that pulled at them. Instinctively they left a space where he should be. At the kill, those below him in rank milled about uncertainly when it should have been his turn to eat. Those near him in rank snarled and snapped, seeking to establish precedence around the hole his absence left. He was one of them, but not one of them, and the pack was broken.
Sitting apart from the others, the pack leaders surveyed the world, ever alert for possible threat. But the greatest threat came from within. A glance, a flick of an ear, and a decision was made. It was time.
First Came Trust
A chance meeting on a beach. A last-minute rescue. Secret pledges and disapproving family members. These are the things that make a great love story. But this isn’t a love story — not yet. With Lilah’s life on the line, ey will take the chance that Noble Bethania offers em. But with that chance comes risk. Love may come later, but first, they will need to trust.
Excerpt
Sherzod and Dalma were surprised when the guards all left, not one remained on watch to keep them from escaping. But Lilah understood, and ey started laughing. Laughing and laughing, hysterical now, tears seeping down eir face.
Ey could escape in an instant, release the beast, and it would snap the ropes that bound em. But only if ey was willing to kill eir siblings. The guards did not dare kill Lilah themselves, though a few days earlier ey had begged them to. Instead, they had left em to die in a prison made of love.
Dalma yelled at Lilah, begging em to settle, to explain. Sherzod tried to soothe, to calm. Both fought the ropes, hoping for enough slack, enough leverage, to fight themselves free.
It was not Lilah’s siblings but the beast within em that snapped Lilah out of eir hysteria. The beast lunged for freedom, knowing it could snap these ropes in a moment. Snap them, and then…
No. They may be doomed, and Lilah may be damned, but Lilah would hold off the beast until eir last breath. While Dalma and Sherzod lived there was a chance they could survive this.
“I’m sorry,” was all Lilah could spare a breath to say. Ey threw emself into the most important battle of eir life.
Bound by his Oath
Reimund Swiđhun has it made. With the king’s blessing, he will capture Lady Mildthryth, marry her, and finally have land to call his own.
Lady Mildthryth Rúna has been fighting off would-be ‘suitors’ for months. She will marry on her terms or not at all. On their world, a noblewoman is expected to marry and accept her subordinate place.
Unfortunately for Reimund, Milthryth’s people have other traditions. She refuses give up and be a broodmare for any of the knights and lordlings the king sends after her. And before long, she has Reimund right where she wants him.
For Reimund, the only thing more shameful than being captured by a woman is bending knee to one, but he will do what he must to keep his friends and followers safe. Even if it means spending the rest of his life Bound by His Oath.
Excerpt
“I have a proposal for you, Sir Reimund. I doubt it will be to your liking, but you might find it has its merits.”
“I am, of course, at your service, Lady Mildthryth,” he said, choosing his words like his footing over those damnable rocks.
To his surprise, she laughed again. “Yes, precisely.” She took a deep breath, and Reimund braced himself for her charge. “You will take oath as my liegeman.”
She spoke softly, so only he could hear her. But the words landed like a blade through his guts. He snarled, unable to restrain himself in that moment of shock. “You dare…”
The warrior stepped forward, but Lady Mildthryth held up her hand, stopping him.
“I suggest you control yourself, sirrah.”
Reimund forced himself to step back, to uncurl his fists. “If you were a man, I’d challenge you for such an insult.”
She looked at him for a moment as if he had two heads, then shrugged, “If I understand you Norns, if I were a man, it wouldn’t be an insult.” She gestured out to the distant woods. “You have built your ship, invader. You may live with it or die in it.
“Your man was ready to die for you. Will you have the courage to live for him?”
She waited, but he said nothing. “For the time being, I would keep this oath private. Only you and I would know of it. Once you have given your oath, I will wed you, making you lord of Oak Haven. You will rule all here. I will rule you.”
What You Will
Viola is in love with Duke Orsino
Duke Orsino is in love with Countess Olivia
Countess Olivia is in love with Cesario
Cesario is really Viola in disguise…
or is he?
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a very queer play,
But what if you could make it queerer?
Excerpt
She continued down the road but could not shake Olivia’s token from her mind. “I am the man.” And the words roused a hope in her that she dared not look at. A hope she crushed ruthlessly. “If it be so, as ’tis, poor lady, she were better love a dream.” Without conscious thought, she wrapped her arms around herself. Her own dreams made no sense to her. “Disguise, I see, thou art a wickedness, wherein the pregnant enemy does much.”
She passed by a still pond, and her reflection caught her eye. The man Cesario stared back at her. “How easy is it for the proper-false in women’s waxen hearts to set their forms!” A hand raised to touch her — his! cheek. He was her; she was him. “Alas,” she murmured, “our frailty is the cause, not we! For such as we are made of, such we be.” His hands explored his face, confirming that eyes saw truth. Brushed the ends of the short hair. Hope and fear and disbelief warred in his reflected eyes. “How will this fadge?”
Viola forced herself to turn away from the pond, to closer her eyes to the image there. “My master loves her dearly; and I, poor monster,” her voice broke, and her eyes turned back to the pond, but she forced them forward, “fond as much on him.
“And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.”
She walked for a time, pausing again only when she came in sight of Orsino’s manor.
“What will become of this? As I am man,” and she bit off the words, “my state is desperate for my master’s love. As I am woman,–now alas the day!” and these words too were heartfelt, burdened with dredged up pain, “what thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe!”
A deep breath, a sterning of her features, and she strode up the lane to face her master and his disappointment. “O time! thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me to untie!”
The Price of Survival
Assaulted on two fronts and looking down the abyss of total extinction, the Long Valley Pack Father will offer full surrender to the lesser of two evils. Forced to serve their conquerors and ground down in humiliation and desperation, can they afford to pay the price of survival?
Author Discussion
Very few people know this, but The Price of Survival was heavily inspired and influenced by my Jewish heritage. One of the sad things about writing almost exclusively original worlds, is I don’t really get to include Jewish characters in my work. But not having Jewish characters doesn’t take away the fact that everything I write is influenced by my being Jewish and having a Jewish worldview.
It just had a bit more of a direct influence on this story than most.