Sharp Change
by Milly Taiden
Book Blurb
Only the hottest sex can cool a wolf in heat...
After her sister is bitten by a werewolf, geneticist Sophia Reece begins researching shape-shifters and isolates a gene she calls Furry Beast--FB for short. But in her excitement over her discovery--dancing in the lab is never a good idea--she has a teeny little accident with the samples, one canine, one feline, and winds up landing on the syringes, pointy side up.
Werewolf Chase is head over heels in lust with Sophia. He can't stop thinking about the human's sexy body or how badly he wants to get her naked. But she acts as if he has fleas. So why, all of a sudden, does she stare at him like a wolf in heat? And what smells like cat?
When she experiences her first mating heat, Sophia isn't prepared for the new feelings she's experiencing, and her secret desire for Chase refuses to remain under wraps. For Chase, this is his wildest fantasy come true--to finally get his hands on the curvy, caramel-skinned Latina. But when some serious predators come sniffing around her research, Sophia will have to find out what she's really made of, and Chase will have to decide if he's man--or wolf--enough to make things permanent...
After her sister is bitten by a werewolf, geneticist Sophia Reece begins researching shape-shifters and isolates a gene she calls Furry Beast--FB for short. But in her excitement over her discovery--dancing in the lab is never a good idea--she has a teeny little accident with the samples, one canine, one feline, and winds up landing on the syringes, pointy side up.
Werewolf Chase is head over heels in lust with Sophia. He can't stop thinking about the human's sexy body or how badly he wants to get her naked. But she acts as if he has fleas. So why, all of a sudden, does she stare at him like a wolf in heat? And what smells like cat?
When she experiences her first mating heat, Sophia isn't prepared for the new feelings she's experiencing, and her secret desire for Chase refuses to remain under wraps. For Chase, this is his wildest fantasy come true--to finally get his hands on the curvy, caramel-skinned Latina. But when some serious predators come sniffing around her research, Sophia will have to find out what she's really made of, and Chase will have to decide if he's man--or wolf--enough to make things permanent...
Chapter One
Holy hell!
She’d done it.
Sophia stared at the computer screen and couldn’t believe her eyes. Number and letter sequences in front of her drove her excitement. A slow sliver of fear raced up her spine when she thought of what could happen if the information got into the wrong hands, but it wasn’t enough to stop her from smiling ear to ear.
She’d finally singled out the particular chromosome in the DNA strand that made shape-shifters shift. This little baby was the hottest ticket in Shifterville. It’s what bonded with the rest of a person’s DNA and created the furry beast that lived inside them.
If it were a person she’d kiss it, hug it, probably spank it for being bad and making it so hard for her to find it. She grinned; she couldn’t help herself. Julia would be able to have a choice in life now after being attacked by a rogue werewolf the previous year.
The one positive outcome was that her sister had met River, the beta of his pack and her current husband. Talk about love at first bark. His animal had taken one look at her sister and had literally rolled over for her to pet his tummy. It was sweet and kind of creepy, considering how damn big he was in his wolf form.
River was a real nice guy too, but nothing beat freedom of choice in Sophia’s mind. He loved her sister and treated her better than any other man she’d ever been with, not to mention the man was absolutely gorgeous. Then there was his brother, the pack alpha.
Thoughts of Chase, the alpha of the Black Meadows pack, made her heart torpedo in her chest and rockets go off in her stomach. The better-than-a-sundae, delicious-looking man, with golden brown skin and enough muscles to share with his friends, turned her into a puddle of goo.
The man had so much sex appeal her girl parts were ready to lift a white flag in surrender just by looking at him. Even thinking of him made her tongue wag. Seeing him was like having your favorite desert and knowing you couldn’t eat it.
She was very aware of her physical appearance whenever he came around her. She was short, fat, and shy, and now that she’d hit thirty-two, she also felt old.
She had long ago given up on the idea of finding Mr. Right and had started focusing on Mr. Right Now. Unfortunately, that hadn’t worked out so well either. She ended up dating boring, geeky people, and sex tended to be nothing to write home about.
Shit, sex tended to be nothing she’d want to try again with any of those guys, having been responsible for her own orgasms for as long as she could remember. Heat crawled across her skin when she thought of the last guy she’d been with, Jake the Snake, before she’d moved to town. He was the reason she’d ended up looking for a new job.
He’d stolen her research and tried to pass it off as his own. Luckily, she always backed up her work with multiple copies and had months of data to prove the work was hers.
She blinked and squinted tired eyes, then rubbed cold fingers under her rimless glasses, drawing in a deep breath. A burst of energy rushed through her blood when she thought of what she’d just accomplished. Exhilaration made up for the lack of sleep. She’d been burning the candle at both ends working and doing her own private research.
She swatted away the guilt that tapped her shoulder over using the lab resources for her own experiment. Too much depended on the results of her first test to worry about being found out. And if she was—oh well, they did encourage “groundbreaking” and “outside the box” research.
Her sister Julia would have kittens if she knew. Or should she say puppies, now that Julia was a wolf shifter? The woman had been a straight pain before, but now that she had a dramatic animal inside, she’d taken theatrics to a whole new level. Her tears could appear and disappear faster than Superman at the scene of a crime.
As the older sister, Julia always wanted to take care of Sophia, so two years ago Julia had packed up her life and moved with Sophia to the town of Black Meadows.
Black Meadows was by no means a small town, but with only the research facility and a car plant, it was easy to see people as either scientists or engineers. Then there were the blue-collar plant workers and the small-business owners.
Looking through the microscope at the samples of the particularly special FB chromosome, Sophia had to smile. Yes, she had called the chromosome Furry Beast. It was her special way of keeping herself from losing her mind after working on this for what felt like forever.
Finally she’d pulled a sample of DNA from both sets of shifters and created a pure chromosome strand of cat and wolf. A slow smile slid across her face. She could swear she heard birds chirping and a Hallelujah Chorus above her head while she stared through the small eyepiece of her microscope.
“Goddamn, I fucking rock!” Laughter and excitement unlike any she’d ever experienced, not including meeting man-candy Chase, popped and fizzled through her until she was bouncing on her stool, grinning like a fool.
Now that she thought of man-candy Chase, her brain did the usual X-rated stripping of those rock-hard limbs. Mmm, man-candy Chase… He was her biggest temptation. If she had an affliction it was called Furry Beast Alpha, or FBA for short.
Side effects included, but were not limited to: making a woman stop, stare, and drool on the spot; panties somehow finding themselves off and thrown his way; and finally, if said subject were to smile, blacking out from sudden excitement.
She was still unable to figure out how one minute he could be smiling at her, and the next she would be sitting down on a chair counting fuzzy bunnies running across her field of vision.
Thank goodness she still hadn’t gone as far as the panty throwing, but she was tempted…God, she was tempted. Every single time she got near him, her hands itched to tear off the little slip of lace, wave her arm in the air, and yell “pick me, pick me!”
She giggled and bounced in her seat, causing her short hair to tickle the nape of her neck. Looking to celebrate, she turned on the radio at her desk to some dance mix. She stood up and stretched, lifting her white T-shirt in the process and showing her softly rounded belly. All alone in the lab, she didn’t care if she showed some skin.
Her full breasts strained against the cotton while her stonewashed jeans clung lovingly to her generous hips. When she bent down to stretch her back, the move made her jeans ride low, and cold air caressed her lower back enough to show off the one thing she had ever done to be wild—a tattoo of a pink and purple fairy on her upper right cheek. Thankfully, there was no one around to see that.
She started singing along completely off-key to some song that talked about being sexy and knowing it. Snorting to herself, she knew even singing it was a lie. There were no feelings of sexiness anywhere in her—they only happened when FBA was around.
She pulled out two syringes, filled each with both werecat and werewolf chromosome, and laid them on the small collection tube tray. She sang louder as she moved. It wasn’t like there was anyone around to hear her sad attempt at singing.
She needed to find her special vials so she wouldn’t confuse these specimens with any of her other samples. She put away the older mixed strands she wasn’t actively using in the cold storage only she had access to.
Because she was the head of the genetics department, she was allowed her own work space. It also meant she got a big lab to use for her research. Other than equipment and coded papers, the place was kept immaculate. Large and small machines were strategically placed to make the move of samples from one to the other quick and efficient, along with multiple computers and printers.
The lab was also really cold. Goose bumps broke on her caramel skin as she thought of the heater sitting by her desk. Outside the weather was beautiful, but an iceberg lived inside the building.
She knew complaining would do nothing, since the best way to keep instruments from growing bacteria was to keep them cold. She would have to go to her office, which was located right next door, to write her notes before she left, so at least there she’d be warm.
Bopping to the music, she was careful of the extension cable that crossed the floor. She’d used all the electrical plugs by her computer, so she’d run an extension cord to power the amplification machine.
Holding her precious tray of sharps, she walked toward her other metal table to get to her special colored vials.
Shaking her hips, she lifted one sneaker over the white cord and then the other. The cord caught on her right foot.
What came next she would later tell herself was due to her own stupidity at trying to sing, dance, and walk when she was not as coordinated as she liked to think.
Falling forward in a sickening loss off balance, she saw the floor rush up to meet her face. Instinctively she let go of the tray to stick her hands out and break her fall. Everything around her narrowed to just the sound of her breathing. Distantly, she heard the metal tray clatter across the concrete floor, and she landed on top of it.
Something stabbed her between her breasts.
She winced and picked herself up off the floor. The damn underwire in her bra, it always tended to break through the casing. She wouldn’t have bothered with them if they didn’t make her breasts look so lingerie-catalog good.
“Ouch, dammit!” Looking down at the tray, she saw that the sharps were not on the floor. Panic seized her, and sharp blades of terror stabbed her gut while she scanned the ground. A pinching sensation in her chest drew her attention to where the two long sharps dangled from the area between her breasts.
Icy fear numbed her brain and lodged in her throat, making it impossible for her to breathe. Frantic, she pulled the two long needles out carefully and examined the amount in each.
There was a minute amount missing from each of them.
A panicked scream wrenched out of her. Her first thought was to take a blood sample and check for any alterations in her DNA. After a second thought and some frenzied breathing, she decided a few days of wait were probably best. No notable change would show up straight away if there was a delayed reaction. If there had been any life altering changes to her DNA, she would see it for sure in a few days.
Tears of frustration filled her eyes. Had she destroyed all her hard work with a stupid accident? She’d have to wait until Monday when she returned to the lab to run tests, unless there were any strange occurrences sooner.
Her stomach churned at the thought of her foolishness, but there was not much she could do other than wait and see. She stood, carefully grabbed the two vials with shaky hands, and stored her previously untainted samples.
She secured her storage freezer with her fingerprint and voice, which turned on the double-locked safe. There was no way in hell she was going to take any chances with what was in there. It was a good thing the freezer was made of the thickest metal out there and resembled a bank vault.
She headed for her office. Her previous happiness turned into a desolate sense of impending doom when she thought of the notes she would have to write to detail the calamity from that night. Then she would head home for a nice long soak and finally catch up on much needed sleep. She was going to get the rest she’d denied herself for the past long months
Amazon Buy Link
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Author Bio
Milly Taiden was born in the prettiest part of the Caribbean known as the Dominican Republic. She grew up between New York, Florida and Massachusetts. Currently, she resides in New York City with her husband, bossy young son and their little dog Speedy.
She began writing when she learned to put words together and her first book consisted of two homeless dogs living in a park for her second grade English class. She didn't win a prize, but she acquired a love for writing that never went away.
When she's not working full-time, texting with her best friend Heidi in England, chastising her son for pulling the dog's ears, shopping with her sister Jewel or watching scary movies with her husband, she can be found writing on her laptop. She's addicted to shoes, chocolate, Dunkin Donuts coffee and all Jimmy Thomas covers.
A major reader when she can get her hands on a good book, she loves reading all Mina Carter, Cynthia Eden, Cynthia Sax, Dianne Duvall and Laurann Dohner among others.
She began writing when she learned to put words together and her first book consisted of two homeless dogs living in a park for her second grade English class. She didn't win a prize, but she acquired a love for writing that never went away.
When she's not working full-time, texting with her best friend Heidi in England, chastising her son for pulling the dog's ears, shopping with her sister Jewel or watching scary movies with her husband, she can be found writing on her laptop. She's addicted to shoes, chocolate, Dunkin Donuts coffee and all Jimmy Thomas covers.
A major reader when she can get her hands on a good book, she loves reading all Mina Carter, Cynthia Eden, Cynthia Sax, Dianne Duvall and Laurann Dohner among others.
To celebrate the release of Sharp Change, Milly is giving away a $10 Amazon gift card (INT) to one lucky Riverina Romantics follower. All you have to do is fill out the Rafflecopter form below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway





Hi Milly,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your new release of Sharp Change! Chase & Sophia's story sounds great! I love the cover!! I admit I'm a cover hussy :) I love finding new-to-me authors. Thanks for the giveaway!!
~Selena Mc
Selena I'm going to keep coming here to do giveaways. I just ordered stuff for Mr. Buff, next month's release :D. I love how my bio photo matches w the background of the page :D hehehe purple is my son's favorite color!
DeleteThanks for stopping in Selena! I loved writing Sharp Change and hope everyone that reads it loves it too. My cover is awesome! I still grin like an idiot a little whenever I stare at it. hehehe.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds great...I'm adding it to my "to read" list. Have a wonderful day and thanks for the giveaway! :)
ReplyDeleteElizabeth L.
Thanks Elizabeth! I hope you like it!
DeleteCongrats on the new release. This book sounds fantastic. Can't wait to read it. Is this part of a series or a stand-alone?
ReplyDeletee.balinski(at)att(dot)net
Hi Joanne! Its part of a series. The first of the Black Meadow Pack. Thanks for participating.
DeleteCongrats on the new book. thanks for the great giveaway. The book is on my TBR list.
ReplyDeletecrystaley73 at yahoo sot com
Hey Crystal thanks! I hope you like Sharp Change :)
DeleteCongratulations on your new release Milly! I loved that excerpt! I'm adding this to my shopping list - I love shapeshifter books - especially ones with a sense of humor!
ReplyDeletejunegirl63 at gmail dot com
Maria I love books with a sense of humor. So I tend to write that way most of the time lol. I hope you enjoy Sharp Change. Thanks for stopping in.
DeleteCongratulations, book look great.
ReplyDeletemagic5905 at embarqmail dot com
Hi Joy! Thank you so much for entering and stopping by
Deletethats book sounds interesting and I loved bookcover :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for giveaway^^
I looove the book cover too! If you pop on my site you'll see the cover to Mr. Buff. Omg I drool every time I look at it. Super awesome!
DeleteCONGRATS Milly on your latest release! Can't wait to read it... based on first chapter alone it sounds like a great read!
ReplyDeleteThanks yadny :D I think it is lol but I may be a little biased lol
DeleteThanks for a fun post and congrats to Milly on the new release!
ReplyDeleteThank you Erin!
DeleteSounds like a great book
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteHi again Milly, Congrats on the release of Sharp Change. I'm looking forward to reading it. Thanks for this opportunity.
ReplyDeleteCarol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
Hi Carol! Good luck. Hope you enjoy Sharp Change :)
DeleteSounds like a great book, I love the cover.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lori! I love it too!
DeleteCongratulations on your release Sharp Change sounds like an amazing read.Have a fantastic week.
ReplyDeleteThanks Wanda! You have a great week too!
DeleteHi Wanda! Thaks a lot! Have a great weeks!
DeleteThis book sounds awesome! I will definitely be buying it. I can't wait. FBA, I love it. I was laughing so hard when reading the excerpt. Thanks for making my day a litlle brighter!
ReplyDeleteslinkydennis@yahoo.com
Hi Rhonda, Sophia always made me laugh. I loved writing her and Chase's story.I hope you enjoy Sharp Change :D
DeleteI want to read more of that excerpt! Congrats on the release! YAYYY!
ReplyDeleteHi Gisele! Thanks! The rest of the book is pretty good too lol
DeleteI love that bit of humor I see in the description of the book. I think it's great that Sophia is a smart scientist too. Looks like a fun read.
ReplyDeletesallans d at yahoo dot com
Hi Di. Its one of the things I like about this story. There's some funny parts all over.
DeleteI have not read a paranormal romance, so I am ignorant of the genre but your novels sound deep and romantic so I will give it a try.
ReplyDeleteannfesATyahooDOTcom
Ann its different is you haven't read paranormal, but have no fear, I have a contemporary (Mr. Buff) coming out next month :D
DeleteCongrats on the new release.Its sounds really good.Thanks for sharing the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteThanks Elaing. I hope everyone that reads it enjoys the book.
DeleteLove the cover. Congrats on its release. INtriguing excerpt.
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com
I love the cover too Debbie. I hope if you read Sharp Change you like it :D
DeleteThanks for the giveaway! Congrats!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Theresa! Good luck with the raffle.
DeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the great expert and the give away.
Big congratulations to Milly on the release. I look forwards to reading it.
Hi Killie! Thanks! I hope you enjoy it :D
DeleteThanks for the giveaway. Please enter me in contest. I would love to read this book. It sounds very good. Tore923@aol.com
ReplyDeleteHi Tore! Good luck! Thanks for stopping by.
DeleteCongratulations on the new release! Whew, that excerpt left me wanting to keep reading... need more LOL
ReplyDeleteLOL! Thanks! I hope you get a chance to read it.
DeleteSHARP CHANGE looks like an amazing read. Loved the excerpt thank you.
ReplyDeleteI loved writing Sharp Change and hope everyone loves reading it :)
DeleteCongrats on the release! It sounds really good. Looking forward to checking it out.
ReplyDeleteHi Donna! I hope you get a chance to check it out and like it :)
DeleteThe book sounds great! I added it to my tbr. Thank you for coming and for making the giveaway international! I love to try new to me authors :)
ReplyDeleteHi Aly! Thanks so much good luck and I hope you like Sharp Change :)
DeleteHi everyone! Thanks so much for participating! I'm having a great time visiting!
ReplyDeleteI love the storyline, and after peeking at the fantastic reviews at Amazon, I can't wait to read Sharp Change.
ReplyDeleteHi Cathy! I hope you like it :)
DeleteIt sound like a great book, can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteHi Angeles! I loved writing it. I hope everyone that reads it likes it.
DeleteThanks for sharing the excerpt! I enjoyed it and looking forward to reading more. Also, love the cover for this! :)
ReplyDeleteI love the cover too, Winnie! It goes so well with the story :D
DeleteOh wow!! My kind of book!! Love all types of Paranormal, and this rates right up there!! Thanx for the giveaway and congrats on the release!!
ReplyDeleteNaomi @ Nomi’s Paranormal Palace
Hi Naomi
DeleteI wish you luck on the contest and hope you like SC :D
Amazing excerpt! Thank you for stopping by Milly! Congrats to the book!
ReplyDeleteHi Veronika. Thanks! I love this story :)
DeleteCongratulations on your release. It looks really good and the cover is great
ReplyDeleteHi Diva! I'm very excited about my book and totally love the cover! I hope everyone likes it. Good luck on the giveaway!
DeleteBook sounds interesting Thanks for sharing & <3 the excerpt :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the release
BeckeyWhiteATgmailDOTcom
Hi Beckey! Thanks! Good luck on the contest.
DeleteI hope you like SC :)
Sharp Change sounds great! Thank you for the excerpt! I'm definitely going to read it, maybe tonight :)
ReplyDeleteHi! I really hope you like Sophia and Chase's story! They are one awesome couple :D
DeleteSounds great, thanks for doing all this!
ReplyDeleteseyma_bennett@hotmail.com
You're welcome! Good luck :)
DeleteSounds Great! Thanks so much for the hop!!!
ReplyDeleteforettarose@yahoo.com
Thanks Foretta! Good luck on the contest :)
DeleteVery nice excerpt. The book sounds good.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Good luck!
DeleteThis book and author are new to me but I will definitely be checking both out. I loved the blurb and excerpt of this book. Thanks for both and for the giveaway.
ReplyDeletemanning_j2004 at yahoo dot com
Thank you June! I hope if you read SC you like it. Good luck w the giveaway!
DeleteOoooh this book sounds so good!! I love sexy shifter books! Thanks for sharing and for the awesome giveaway!!
ReplyDeleteehaney578 at aol dot com
Thank you Elizabeth! I love writing and reading sexy shifters too! Enjoy Sharp change :)
DeleteYour book sounds amazing and I love your cover!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway! <3
Hi Tobi! I love the cover too :) good luck!
DeleteBook sounds really good! Thanks for the contest
ReplyDeleteswkimbell@yahoo.com
Wow! I love the blurb and excerpt for this dress! Congrats on the release! I've got to tell my cousin about this book. She would love it too!
ReplyDeletesuz2(at)cox(dot)net
This is the first shifter novel I've read that is set in a lab and actually involves someone looking for a shifter gene. I like when paranormal books are based on science. Thanks for the excerpt!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the release! Sounds interesting, can't wait to see how the rest plays out!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the first release! You must be so excited. Where did you get the inspiration for the storyline?
ReplyDeleteIris
Congrats on your release, I absolutely love the cover and look forward to reading Sharp Change. Thx for giveaway.
ReplyDeleteblinkysthebest at aol dot com
Hi
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new release, a cat/dog shifter will sure be an interesting read! How did you come uo with the idea?
Great concept! It isn't like regular shifter books because it goes above & beyond. lol Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeletekaylyndavis1986@yahoo.com
Congrats on new book I loved the excerpt Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGReat giveaway thank you very much!
tishajean@ charter.net
liked the excerpt, makes me want more! thanks for the giveaway - regnod(at)yahoo(d0t)com
ReplyDeleteThis sounds great!! Thanks for sharing and for the great giveaway!
ReplyDeleteSharp Change sounds like a great book. I've added it to my wish list. Werewolf stories are my favorite of the paranormal romance genre.
ReplyDeleteSharp Change sounds like a fantastic read! I can't wait to check it out...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the amazing giveaway!
elizabeth @ bookattict . com
The book sounds awesome!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway!
Excellent excerpt and congratulations on your release, Milly! Definitely going to add this to my list! On a side note~ I'm loving the font choices of the cover. :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book!! Thanks for having this giveaway.
ReplyDeletekandj7299 at verizon dot net