Midnight Untamed
A Midnight Breed Novella
By Lara Adrian
1001 Dark Nights
Midnight Untamed
A Midnight Breed Novella
By Lara Adrian
1001 Dark Nights
Copyright 2016 Lara Adrian
ISBN: 978-1-942299-58-5
Foreword: Copyright 2014 M. J. Rose
Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
Book Description
MIDNIGHT UNTAMED
A Midnight Breed Novella
By Lara Adrian
The mission was supposed to be simple. Infiltrate an enemy’s stronghold outside Rome and eliminate its leader. For a Breed warrior as lethal as Ettore Selvaggio, AKA “Savage”, stealth assassinations are only one of his many cold-hearted specialties. But the last thing Savage expects to find behind enemy lines—in his target’s bed—is a woman he once adored.
It’s been years since Savage last saw beautiful Arabella Genova. Years he’s strived to banish to his past, along with the fierce desire he once felt toward Bella...and the irresistible calling of her blood that stirs in him even now, despite the fact that she belongs to another male.
But when fate throws Savage and Bella together again in a race for their lives, will his long-lost love prove to be the one woman he can’t live without, or the perfect weapon to destroy him?
Acknowledgments from the Author
I am so excited to be part of the 1001 Dark Nights collection again with this new novella in my Midnight Breed vampire romance series. Thank you to Liz Berry, MJ Rose, Jillian Stein, and the rest of the creative, marketing, and editorial teams at Evil Eye Concepts for the incredible vision and enthusiasm you bring to each release in the collection. It’s a pleasure to be working with all of you!
To my amazing readers, thank you for your continued support and for joining me on yet another adventure within the Midnight Breed story world. I hope you enjoy Savage and Bella’s story, and all the rest still to come.
Happy reading!
Love, Lara
About Lara Adrian
LARA ADRIAN is the New York Times and #1 internationally best-selling author of the Midnight Breed vampire romance series, with nearly 4 million books in print and digital worldwide and translations licensed to more than 20 countries. Her books regularly appear in the top spots of all the major bestseller lists including the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Indiebound, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc.
Lara Adrian's debut title, Kiss of Midnight, was named Borders Books best-selling debut romance of 2007. Later that year, her third title, Midnight Awakening, was named one of Amazon.com's Top Ten Romances of the Year. Reviewers have called Lara's books “addictively readable” (Chicago Tribune), “extraordinary” (Fresh Fiction), and “one of the best vampire series on the market” (Romantic Times).
With an ancestry stretching back to the Mayflower and the court of King Henry VIII, Lara Adrian lives with her husband in New England, surrounded by centuries-old graveyards, hip urban comforts, and the endless inspiration of the broody Atlantic Ocean.
Connect with Lara online:
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Also from Lara Adrian
Click to purchase
Midnight Breed Series
A Touch of Midnight (prequel novella FREE eBook)
Kiss of Midnight
Kiss of Crimson
Midnight Awakening
Midnight Rising
Veil of Midnight
Ashes of Midnight
Shades of Midnight
Taken by Midnight
Deeper Than Midnight
A Taste of Midnight (ebook novella)
Darker After Midnight
The Midnight Breed Series Companion
Edge of Dawn
Marked by Midnight (novella)
Crave the Night
Tempted by Midnight (novella)
Bound to Darkness
Stroke of Midnight
Defy the Dawn
Midnight Untamed
…and more to come!
Also:
The Midnight Breed Series Coloring Book
The 100 Series (billionaire contemporary romance)
For 100 Days
For 100 Nights (forthcoming)
For 100 Reasons (forthcoming)
Masters of Seduction Series
Merciless: House of Gravori
Priceless: House of Ebarron
Phoenix Code Series (with Tina Folsom)
Cut and Run (Books 1 & 2)
Hide and Seek (Books 3 & 4)
Historical Romances
Dragon Chalice Series
Heart of the Hunter (FREE eBook)
Heart of the Flame
Heart of the Dove
Dragon Chalice Boxed Set
Warrior Trilogy
White Lion's Lady (FREE eBook)
Black Lion's Bride
Lady of Valor
Warrior Trilogy Boxed Set
Standalone Titles
Lord of Vengeance
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection One
Click here to explore
FOREVER WICKED by Shayla Black
CRIMSON TWILIGHT by Heather Graham
CAPTURED IN SURRENDER by Liliana Hart
SILENT BITE: A SCANGUARDS WEDDING by Tina Folsom
DUNGEON GAMES by Lexi Blake
AZAGOTH by Larissa Ione
NEED YOU NOW by Lisa Renee Jones
SHOW ME, BABY by Cherise Sinclair
ROPED IN by Lorelei James
TEMPTED BY MIDNIGHT by Lara Adrian
THE FLAME by Christopher Rice
CARESS OF DARKNESS by Julie Kenner
Also from 1001 Dark Nights
TAME ME by J. Kenner
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Two
Click here to explore
WICKED WOLF by Carrie Ann Ryan
WHEN IRISH EYES ARE HAUNTING by Heather Graham
EASY WITH YOU by Kristen Proby
MASTER OF FREEDOM by Cherise Sinclair
CARESS OF PLEASURE by Julie Kenner
ADORED by Lexi Blake
HADES by Larissa Ione
RAVAGED by Elisabeth Naughton
DREAM OF YOU by Jennifer L. Armentrout
STRIPPED DOWN by Lorelei James
RAGE/KILLIAN by Alexandra Ivy/Laura Wright
DRAGON KING by Donna Grant
PURE WICKED by Shayla Black
HARD AS STEEL by Laura Kaye
STROKE OF MIDNIGHT by Lara Adrian
ALL HALLOWS EVE by Heather Graham
KISS THE FLAME by Christopher Rice
DARING HER LOVE by Melissa Foster
TEASED by Rebecca Zanetti
THE PROMISE OF SURRENDER by Liliana Hart
Also from 1001 Dark Nights
THE SURRENDER GATE By Christopher Rice
SERVICING THE TARGET By Cherise Sinclair
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1001 Dark
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Table of Contents
Book Description
Acknowledgments
About Lara Adrian
Also by Lara Adrian
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection One
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Two
Foreword
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Three
Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights
Discover More Lara Adrian
An excerpt from Defy the Dawn by Lara Adrian
Special Thanks
One Thousand and One Dark Nights
Once upon a time, in the future…
I was a student fascinated with stories and learning.
I studied philosophy, poetry, history, the occult, and
the art and science of love and magic. I had a vast
library at my father’s home and collected thousands
of volumes of fantastic tales.
I learned all about ancient races and bygone
times. About myths and legends and dreams of all
people through the millennium. And the more I read
the stronger my imagination grew until I discovered
that I was able to travel into the stories... to actually
become part of them.
I wish I could say that I listened to my teacher
and respected my gift, as I ought to have. If I had, I
would not be telling you this tale now.
But I was foolhardy and confused, showing off
with bravery.
Arabian Nights, I traveled back to ancient Persia to
see for myself if it was true that every day Shahryar
(Persian: شهريار, “king”) married a new virgin, and then
sent yesterday's wife to be beheaded. It was written
and I had read, that by the time he met Scheherazade,
the vizier's daughter, he’d killed one thousand
women.
Something went wrong with my efforts. I arrived
in the midst of the story and somehow exchanged
places with Scheherazade – a phenomena that had
never occurred before and that still to this day, I
cannot explain.
Now I am trapped in that ancient past. I have
taken on Scheherazade’s life and the only way I can
protect myself and stay alive is to do what she did to
protect herself and stay alive.
Every night the King calls for me and listens as I spin tales.
And when the evening ends and dawn breaks, I stop at a
point that leaves him breathless and yearning for more.
And so the King spares my life for one more day, so that
he might hear the rest of my dark tale.
As soon as I finish a story... I begin a new
one... like the one that you, dear reader, have before
you now.
Chapter 1
The palatial villa two hours outside Rome glittered like a jewel beneath the starlit night sky. Lights glowed from within the sprawling mansion and along the circular drive out front, where half a dozen sleek sports cars were parked on the cobbled stones.
From his vantage point on a tree-studded hill five hundred yards away, Ettore Selvaggio watched as a beautiful red Ferrari rolled up to the villa and took its place between a silver Bugatti Veyron and a blue Pagani Huayra. Add in the pair of Lamborghinis, the Maserati, and another Ferrari, and there was well over ten million dollars’ of automotive luxury parked outside Vito Massioni’s mansion. Plus a collection of vehicles worth twice that amount stowed inside the massive bays of the reputed drug-dealing Breed male’s private garage.
If nothing else, Massioni and his criminal associates had impeccable taste in cars.
“Apparently, selling your soul to Opus Nostrum pays well,” he muttered into the wireless mic that linked him to the Order’s command center back in Rome. “You getting my visual on this place?”
“Visual acknowledged, Savage.”
The deep gravel voice of his comrade, Trygg, was never easy to read, and tonight was no exception. Not that Savage actually expected the menacing warrior to appreciate the fleet of fine Italian machinery belonging to Massioni and his cohorts.
And not that it mattered, anyway.
In a few minutes, the cars, the mansion, and everyone in it would be nothing but ash and smoking rubble.
Damned shame about the cars.
“Status,” Trygg prompted over the earpiece as Savage hunkered down to watch the coming fireworks.
“Packages have been delivered and the last party guest just arrived. We’re good to go.”
“You collected the receipt?”
“Right here in my pocket,” he said, tapping the flash drive Trygg referenced.
Twenty minutes before Savage arrived at his observation position on the hill, he’d been inside Massioni’s villa on a covert solo mission to download key computer data, then take out the target. According to intel newly obtained by the Order’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., Vito Massioni was the European distributor of a dangerous narcotic that turned otherwise law-abiding Breed vampires into blood-obsessed, murderous Rogues.
This new drug with the street name Red Dragon was said to be even more powerful than its predecessor, Crimson, which had cost countless Breed and human lives when it hit the streets twenty years ago. Now, thanks to Massioni and his collusion with the terror group, Opus Nostrum, Rogue outbreaks were on the rise again in the States and across Europe, creating panic among an already anxious human public. As leader of the Order, Lucan Thorne had made it clear that he wanted the problem cut off at the source, and cut off swiftly.
Savage was more than happy to be tapped for the covert assignment. It had been a serendipitous bonus to learn that Massioni had called a private meeting with his lieutenants tonight. So, instead of a data grab and stealth assassination—one of many lethal specialties that had earned Savage his nickname in the Order—the scope of the job had expanded to mass elimination.
To that end, four explosive devices with enough firepower to level an entire city block were now planted around Massioni’s villa. All Savage had to do was set them off by remote detonator and Opus would lose yet another key ally. The Order wasn’t about to rest until the entire organization was dismantled, the cabal of members at its helm unmasked and destroyed.
Savage lifted his field glasses to his eyes and peered at the mansion. Although his vision as one of the Breed was superhuman, the lenses allowed him to zoom in on the illuminated window of the grand salon where Massioni and his men were gathered.
The seven Breed males evidently had plenty of cause for celebration. They greeted one another with a lot of laughter and back patting, a lot of ingratiating smiles and kowtowing for the dark-haired, hawk-nosed Vito Massioni from his underlings. No doubt the Red Dragon dealer and his cronies had been handsomely rewarded for their part in the spike of Rogue attacks the past few nights. Savage couldn’t wait to send them all to their final reward tonight.
“Light it up at your ready,” Trygg advised.
Savage smiled behind his binoculars. “With pleasure.”
Glancing away from the meeting taking place inside the mansion, he reached to retrieve the remote detonator. Normally he didn’t get invested in witnessing a target’s demise, but it was hard not to take some satisfaction in crashing Massioni’s little party
tonight.
He brought the field glasses back up to his face—just in time to see that a woman had entered the room. The petite blonde wore a flashy red dress that clung to her slender body like liquid silk. The neckline plunged low in front, the slit in the skirt slicing high up her leg, baring a lot of creamy thigh with each gliding step she took toward Massioni.
What the fuck?
Savage hadn’t realized there was a female in the mansion. Not that he felt much sympathy for anyone who associated with a thug like Massioni. And not that it should stop him from pushing the button on the detonator. But still…
His thumb froze, hovering over the trigger.
“Unidentified female on the premises,” he murmured into his mic. “Stand by, base.”
“Standing by,” Trygg said. Then he made a low, appreciative noise that might as well have been a wolf-whistle, coming from the eternally inscrutable warrior.
Yeah, the female was hot. Savage barely contained his own primal growl at the sight of all those slender curves poured into a column of scarlet silk. He’d long avoided blondes—for personal reasons of his own—but everything male in him responded to the sight of this one like flame to gasoline.
He stared through the lenses, watching as every head in the room turned to look at her as she approached Massioni. As soon as she was close enough, the vampire’s beefy arm snaked out to hook her around the waist, pulling her roughly against him as his buddies grinned and chuckled.
More than one of the Breed males gathered in the room wore an expression of unabashed lust as their boss crudely cupped the young woman’s breast in front of them all.