Hazel Young is a rare commodity in town: a young, single female whose first mating is nearly upon her. She’s spent the last two years fending off suitors who grow more determined by the day — after all, there’s nothing flattering in the attention of werewolves more interested in what she is than who she is, especially not when she gave her heart away to Oliver Russell years ago. But Oliver seems to feel nothing for her but fond kindness, and the time has come to choose a mate before the wolf makes the choice for her.

When Oliver happens across Hazel being pressured by a local who wants to be her first, it awakens protective instincts he thought he’d set aside with the death of his wife five years ago. With Hazel in heat and no time to get her to safety, they wind up in a fishing shack on Lonely River, waiting for her mating fever to pass. The last thing he expects is to be tempted by her inexperienced attempts at seduction.

# # #

It’s the next stop on our Down & Dirty tour!  Enjoy this excerpt from Calling the Bluff and remember you can go to Changeling Press now and get 5% off your purchase by using the promo code Down&Dirty!

Read an Adultish Excerpt from Calling the Bluff…

He ushered her inside and knelt by the hearth. “I’ll get a fire started, then I’ve got to check on my stock. Do you want to go back to sleep for a little while?”

She was more hungry than tired, and not just for food anymore. Which means if I want to stay sane long enough to eat, I need clothing. “Do you have something I can wear? Maybe just an old shirt or something?”

Instead of heading for the bedroom, he rose and stripped off his own shirt. “Here.”

Her gaze dropped to his chest. Warmth flooded her as she stared at his broad shoulders and the hard muscles of his arms that flexed as he held out the shirt. If she reached out she might touch him, and if she touched him she’d be begging him to fuck her before she could draw another breath.

Which was all rational and reasonable, and didn’t explain what made her release her hold on the blanket and let it slide to the floor at her feet. “Thank you.”

“On second thought…” His eyes darkened as he looked over at her. “If you can start the fire, I’ll head out to the barn.”

The fact that he wasn’t physically running didn’t help the urge to chase him. Hazel drew on the stubborn strength that had gotten her through the last few uncomfortable months and managed a short nod. “I can light the fire.”

“Good.” He turned and walked out the front door again, still bared to the waist.

When he was gone she let out the breath she’d been holding and picked up his discarded shirt. It smelled of him, which soothed the wolf as she pulled it over her head. The hem hung past her knees and the shoulders were impossibly wide, but at least she wasn’t naked anymore.

Of course, she wasn’t exactly in the mood to be playing with the fire, either. She built up her own fire every night during the winter, but it took four tries just to get a simple feeble flame to stay lit. Her mind kept skittering away from mundane details to linger on the curve of Oliver’s shoulder or his lean waist or the impressive girth of his cock, which had felt so damn good…

The piece of wood she’d been clutching slipped from her suddenly limp fingers and landed directly on top of her tiny fire, which promptly went out. Hazel swore and started over, struggling this time to fight the images that taunted her as the urge to mate grew inside her. You held out for months, she told herself sternly as she coaxed the fire back to life. Ten minutes won’t kill you.

But when he came back less than ten minutes later, the waiting had become almost unbearable. He took one look at her and cursed. “Is it rising again? The fever?”

Hazel closed her eyes and pressed her face against the side of the worn down couch she’d curled up against. “I tried to stop it.”

“You need to eat something.” Even as he spoke, he moved to the couch and knelt beside her. “Look at me, Hazel.”

His voice sent heat dancing up her spine, and she shivered as she turned to meet his gaze. “I tried.”

“Come on.” He gathered her into his arms, gentle and strong. “We can go to the bedroom, and eat later.”

“I’m sorry.” Even as she said the words she couldn’t keep herself from pressing her lips to his bare shoulder.

He shivered under her lips, and his hand stroked over her hair. “For what?”

“For not being able to control it like I should.”

“And who said you should be able to control it?”

It had never occurred to her that she shouldn’t be able to. “I’m supposed to be strong.”

His voice dropped to a husky whisper. “Sometimes, that makes it worse. The need.”

She couldn’t help herself. She bit his shoulder and groaned as that very need became too much to contain. The wolf wasn’t interested in control, unless it was a prelude to losing it. Oliver had a power and strength in him that matched her own, and that was all that mattered now.

He nudged open a door to reveal a sparely furnished bedroom dominated by a large bed covered with a dark quilt. “We might be here a while, Hazel.”

She barely heard him. She wanted to be on that bed, naked. She wanted him behind her or above her, whichever way would get him in her. Her breathing was too fast as she forced herself to look up at Oliver’s face. “I need you.”

There was something gentle in his eyes as he laid her down and started undressing. “I know. You will for a while. Then you’ll feel better.”

Then I’ll feel worse. But she didn’t say it out-loud. Admitting the truth now might make him stop, and her body felt too warm and too needy for that. She rose to her knees and tugged at his shirt. “Just tell me you want me for now.”

He moved her hands and freed the buttons. “I want you.” He kept his eyes lowered, almost as if ashamed of the words. “I want everything from you, and there’s not a damn bit of it I should be thinking about taking.”

Her heart pounded. The shirt fell open and she caught his hands. “Tell me what you want, then. And you won’t have to take it. I’ll give it to you.”

Hazel Young is a rare commodity in town: a young, single female whose first mating is nearly upon her. She’s spent the last two years fending off suitors who grow more determined by the day — after all, there’s nothing flattering in the attention of werewolves more interested in what she is than who she is, especially not when she gave her heart away to Oliver Russell years ago. But Oliver seems to feel nothing for her but fond kindness, and the time has come to choose a mate before the wolf makes the choice for her.

When Oliver happens across Hazel being pressured by a local who wants to be her first, it awakens protective instincts he thought he’d set aside with the death of his wife five years ago. With Hazel in heat and no time to get her to safety, they wind up in a fishing shack on Lonely River, waiting for her mating fever to pass. The last thing he expects is to be tempted by her inexperienced attempts at seduction.

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Futuristic
Rating: Erotica | Publisher: Changeling Press
Themes: Werewolves in Heat, Shapeshifters, Post-Apocalypse, Gunslingers, Broody Alpha Men

Excerpt from Calling the Bluff

Available Now at Changeling Press

Oliver picked up his third whiskey and stared at it. He hadn’t meant to put that crushed look in Hazel’s eyes, but she’d left him no choice. He couldn’t give her what she wanted of him, but she’d left him no room, either. No way to go about his own business without hurting her.

Now, a simpler woman waited for him upstairs. Melinda, who was sweet and undemanding. Melinda, who he rarely thought about until his libido grew tired of his own hand and demanded the satisfaction of sinking into something warmer. More comforting.

“People around here are doing an awful lot of angry glaring today.” Lottie leaned her elbows on the bar and smiled gently. “Melinda’s waiting.”

He lowered the glass, untouched. “Not sure I’m in the mood today, after all.”

“Mmm, I’ll bet.”

Irritation gripped him. “Spit it out.”

She smiled. “Something’s been riding you hard these last couple weeks, Oliver. When you figure out what it is, you won’t need my pithy wisdom.”

Her quiet amusement set his teeth on edge, and he tossed a bill on the counter. “Be seeing you, Lottie.”

He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he heard her laugh as he stomped out. His horse shied away from him, and he had to spend several minutes soothing the gelding before he could ride.

Oliver carefully blanked out his mind, focusing instead on the rolling land surrounding him as he headed for home. At length, he spotted a lone horse in the distance and no sign of a rider. A stray, he reasoned, unwilling to let his mind wander to grimmer conclusions.

But those conclusions were unavoidable when he drew closer and saw that the brown Morgan wore full tack, including an exquisitely worked saddle he recognized as the one Lottie had commissioned for Hazel’s eighteenth birthday.

It had been at least an hour since she’d left the bar with Noah Hampton, and the sun had begun to dip toward the horizon. Oliver’s heart seized. She could have been thrown, or –

Or worse.

He didn’t waste time. He clucked to his horse and rode toward Hampton’s place, his throat dry and blood pounding in his ears.

He made it within a mile of Hampton’s before he came across Hazel, barefoot and disheveled with her dress hanging off one shoulder. His horse shied again as he drew up next to her, dancing nervously away from the anger that rolled off Hazel in waves.

He jumped down and snatched his rifle from his pack. “Where the hell is he, and what the fuck did he do?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Hazel wouldn’t meet his eyes, but her voice sounded more frustrated than upset. “Unless you’re going to shoot my horse for throwing me, put that damn thing away.”

“A bad fall’s dangerous, even for werewolves.” His hands shook, but he stowed the rifle. “But if that’s all that happened, where are your shoes?”

Anger returned, but more dangerous was the growing warmth around her, power rising in her tiny body and drawing an answering surge from him. She trembled on the edge of the mating fever, so close it should have taken her by now.

And yet she fought it. Even as she glared up at him, she fought it so hard it had to be hurting her. “Everything went wrong.” Her voice was clipped, edged with that same tense heat. “But it wasn’t him. It’s me. And you.”

Oliver couldn’t deny the role he’d played in her frustration, even if it wasn’t his fault. “You’re going to hurt yourself,” he told her gruffly. “The fever’s nothing to play around with.”

“Play?” Her voice rose. “You think I’m playing? I went there to fuck him and I wanted to. But I can’t give in to the mating without giving in to the wolf, and she almost ripped him apart for touching me.”

“Calm down.” The hair on the back of his neck rose, along with the animal inside him. The wolf stirred, awakened as much by the power rolling off her in waves as by the Siren call of her lust. He needed to get her to safety before the fever took her, but he couldn’t touch her. He knew what would happen the moment he did. “We need to get you somewhere. To Jack’s place.”

“No!” Hazel snatched up her mud-stained skirts and circled around him, her entire body rigid. “I’m not getting near Jack, and I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He followed her. “Like it or not, I’m what you’ve got right now. So you can act like a child, or you can let me get you someplace safe.”

Hazel wheeled so quickly he almost ran into her. “If you think I’m going to let you hand me over to the alpha so he can do his duty by me and break my best friend’s heart, you’re a bigger fool than I thought.”

“That isn’t what I meant,” he protested. “He and Ginny can find a way to help you. He doesn’t have to — it’s not –” He bit off his words with a growl. His hands were starting to itch. “Damnation, if you hadn’t waited so long…”

“Yes, I’m a fool. I’m a stupid, romantic fool.” She turned again, but her body had begun to tremble. “Go away, Oliver. I’m fighting her as hard as I can right now, but it hurts. And it won’t stop until you’re gone.”

“It won’t stop at all now. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” He had no choice, so he reached out and grasped her arm. “Hazel, stop.”

Her skin felt hot under his hand. A noise tore free of her, desperate yearning and need, and her arousal filled his senses. She took a gasping breath as her entire body went tense. “Oliver –” Her voice sounded tiny and maybe even afraid. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Shh.” He didn’t have a clue himself, aside from the obvious, but he drew her back against his chest and tried to soothe her. “Try to relax. You’ve got to — We have to get you somewhere.” There was a fishing cabin on the Lonely River, close to Ginny’s ranch. If he could get Hazel there, maybe he could help her until the fever passed. If not, Ginny and Jack wouldn’t be far away. “Just relax.”

She shivered under his hands even as she rubbed back against him in a way that was anything but innocent. “You don’t have to love me, Oliver, but please… please make it stop hurting.”

Available Now at Changeling Press

Poor Donna has admitted that Oliver was hell to write because he didn’t have much to say. If we’d had a heroine who was equally reticent, this book could have gone downhill fast. Luckily there’s nothing shy or withdrawn about Hazel Young. In fact, if Oliver had had something to say, he might have had trouble getting a word in edgewise. After all, with Ginny as one of her main influences growing up, there wasn’t much chance she was going to turn out quiet and demure.

Hazel also will always be special to me, because she helped me break my personal record of how many times I could use some variation of the word ‘fuck’ in one sentence. As seen here in this snippet from Wild Card:

Hazel’s snarl tore through the room. “Oliver fucking Russell can go fuck himself, with his fucking hands and his fucking growling orders and all of his fucking hotness.” And with that completely incoherent statement out of the way, the girl burst into hysterical tears.

In spite of Lottie’s attempt to raise a well behaved young lady, Ginny has obviously had an affect on her vocabulary.

But all joking aside, in Calling the Bluff Hazel is facing a pretty awful situation. Most of the single werewolf men in town are suddenly paying attention to her, but it has nothing to do with who she is. Hazel’s too much of a romantic to enjoy attention from men who are only interested in the fact that she’s due to have her first mating soon.

And there’s that unfortunate question of Oliver Russell. Hazel’s been in love with him for a long time (in fact, in the book she mentions the precise moment she lost her heart to him). She’s experimented a little bit with human men, but sex with other werewolves is a whole different ballgame…and one her instincts aren’t interested in experiencing with anyone but Oliver.

I love this picture because it pretty much sums up both halves of Hazel. She’s not tough and tomboy-ish in the same way Ginny is, but there’s that glint of something in her eyes that makes it clear that Lottie didn’t raise a perfectly behaved young lady, either. She’s strong and she’s going to grow up to be formidable, but right now she’s a young lady in trouble, and Oliver may be the only one who can help her. It just sucks that he’s the one who could break her heart, too.

Calling the Bluff: On Sale Now

Me: So, this would be a good time to expound on how you used to be a gunslinger type–
Oliver: Nope.
Me: Um, okay. Or how you gave up the outlaw life for your first wife–
Oliver: Uh-uh.
Me: –but she was never really comfortable with the animalistic side of being a wolf–
Oliver: Are you still here? Leave me alone.
Me: *sigh*

That’s OBVIOUSLY a dramatization (no actual conversations were had, so don’t send the psychiatrists after me!), but the truth of the matter is that I just couldn’t work that backstory in. Not many people in town, including Hazel, really know Oliver’s history, and he isn’t the sort of man to sit and dwell on the past and make narrative exposition easy. He’s terse and short with everyone, including me and (to a certain extent) himself.

As Bree has already said, we developed the concepts for the heroines of the trilogy and then “designed” their heroes. Since I’m not usually responsible for the true alpha bastards when we write–those are mostly all Bree, LOL–Oliver was a bit of a surprise. Yes, he used to be a bit of an outlaw and, yes, he walked away from that life for his first wife.

In a lot of ways, he’s more of a hardass than Jack, but he’s also not cut out for leadership. Because of his past, he’d rather be left alone with his cows and horses, and maybe a warm woman once in a while. Until Hazel comes along, anyway…but that’s the heart of the story, so I’d better leave you to your reading.

But here we go… the two newest books available from Moira Rogers!

Calling the Bluff (Down & Dirty #2)
Available Now at Changeling Press
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Futuristic | Rating: Erotica | Publisher: Changeling Press
Themes: Werewolves in Heat, Shapeshifters, Post-Apocalypse, Gunslingers, Broody Alpha Men
Hazel Young is a rare commodity in town: a young, single female whose first mating is nearly upon her. She’s spent the last two years fending off suitors who grow more determined by the day — after all, there’s nothing flattering in the attention of werewolves more interested in what she is than who she is, especially not when she gave her heart away to Oliver Russell years ago. But Oliver seems to feel nothing for her but fond kindness, and the time has come to choose a mate before the wolf ma… More Information

Last Hope (Mystic Valley Novels #1)
Available Now at Loose Id
Genre: Paranormal Romance | Rating: Erotic | Publisher: Loose Id
Themes: Shapeshifters, Psychics, Shapeshifter Dominance Games, Hot Cops, Badass Alpha Men
Sex has always been awkward for Kiara, mostly thanks to a strong empathic gift that men seem to find far more interesting than the woman who possesses it. Tired of men who assume a psychically shared orgasm is the end of their responsibility, she’s spent the last few years concentrating on her job. But when her latest patient brings her face to face with a shapeshifter private investigator with sexual energy to spare, she can’t resist the temptation to offer him what she senses he wants: her abs… More Information

Those of you who read Wild Card know that Hazel’s got a little bit of a problem.  She’s a young, strong werewolf who hasn’t had her first mating cycle yet, but everyone knows it won’t be long.  With single young women being at such a premium in the frontier-style town of Greenbriar, Hazel’s suddenly got just about everyone’s undivided attention.

Unfortunately, the only person whose attention she wants seems to be the only single man who isn’t looking at her.  When he finally does… well, Hazel may wish she’d been a little more careful what she wished for.  Having Oliver for a few days might be enough to break her heart for a lot longer.

Of course, the question becomes… whose bluff is being called? And who is doing the calling?  Well, if I answered that you wouldn’t have to go read it tomorrow.    In all seriousness… I really do like this book.  While it deals with the same themes as Kamikaze (werewolf in heat in trouble) I think the complicated emotional situation makes it a very different story.   And, well, Oliver may be the silent broody type, but maaan.  He has no problem expressing himself in bed. 

First off, I’m test-driving our new forums.  A lot of people like to leave comments on the website, but it’s not the best place for us to be able to reply!  So we’re going to give a forum a go and see if anyone wants to talk to us.    (Talking to each other is of course, encouraged as well!)  If you’d like to sneak in and register before I start posting it all over the place, I would be grateful for a few people smacking at it to see if they can break anything.  Find the details here:  http://www.moirarogers.com/forums/

Second, we’ve got 3 new releases in January!  We’ll be running a few different types of contests here on the blog, so check it out for a chance to win gift cards, free books and more!  The books coming out are:  Last Hope (Mystic Valley Novel, possibly first in a new series), Calling the Bluff (Down & Dirty #2, Hazel & Oliver’s story) and The 13th Step (a Mystic Valley erotic short, about a bounty hunting wolf and the vampire he can’t seem to stay away from.)

Finally, I have a very pretty thing to share today!  We finally get to post the Crux cover!  God, that thing is beautiful… so brace yourself.

Are you braced?

No really, are you?

I don’t know why I’m asking since it’s sitting right next to these words, and if you’re like me you might not even be reading them anymore because the awesomeness of the cover has blown you away.  That Anne Cain sure knows how to make an author happy, huh?

Right now Crux is scheduled for a March 3rd release, and we are pretty darn excited.  This is the book that we started with, the one that made the contest rounds (okay, 2 contests before we accidentally became disqualified by selling a novella, but hey!)  This universe is full of characters we know, plots we want to explore, intrigue, politics and so much grey area that the heroes have migraines trying to keep up with who the bad guys really are.

In short: I love writing Southern Arcana books. 

Finally, I’m including a poll because I’m curious for those of you who have read some Moira Rogers books.  Which one is your favorite?  Huh?  Tell us!

Anger returned, but more dangerous was the growing warmth around her, power rising in her tiny body and drawing an answering surge from him. She trembled on the edge of the mating fever, so close it should have taken her by now.

And yet she fought it. Even as she glared up at him, she fought it so hard it had to be hurting her. “Everything went wrong.” Her voice was clipped, edged with that same tense heat. “But it wasn’t him. It’s me. And you.”

Oliver couldn’t deny the role he’d played in her frustration, even if it wasn’t his fault. “You’re going to hurt yourself,” he told her gruffly. “The fever’s nothing to play around with.”

“Play?” Her voice rose. “You think I’m playing? I went there to fuck him and I wanted to. But I can’t give in to the mating without giving in to the wolf, and she almost ripped him apart for touching me.”

“Calm down.” The hair on the back of his neck rose, along with the animal inside him. The wolf stirred, awakened as much by the power rolling off her in waves as by the Siren call of her lust. He needed to get her to safety before the fever took her, but he couldn’t touch her. He knew what would happen the moment he did. “We need to get you somewhere. To Jack’s place.”

“No!” Hazel snatched up her mud-stained skirts and circled around him, her entire body rigid. “I’m not getting near Jack, and I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He followed her. “Like it or not, I’m what you’ve got right now. So you can act like a child, or you can let me get you someplace safe.”

Hazel wheeled so quickly he almost ran into her. “If you think I’m going to let you hand me over to the alpha so he can do his duty by me and break my best friend’s heart, you’re a bigger fool than I thought.”

“That isn’t what I meant,” he protested. “He and Ginny can find a way to help you. He doesn’t have to — it’s not –” He bit off his words with a growl. His hands were starting to itch. “Damnation, if you hadn’t waited so long…”

“Yes, I’m a fool. I’m a stupid, romantic fool.” She turned again, but her body had begun to tremble. “Go away, Oliver. I’m fighting her as hard as I can right now, but it hurts. And it won’t stop until you’re gone.”

“It won’t stop at all now. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” He had no choice, so he reached out and grasped her arm. “Hazel, stop.”

Her skin felt hot under his hand. A noise tore free of her, desperate yearning and need, and her arousal filled his senses. She took a gasping breath as her entire body went tense. “Oliver –” Her voice sounded tiny and maybe even afraid. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Shh.” He didn’t have a clue himself, aside from the obvious, but he drew her back against his chest and tried to soothe her. “Try to relax. You’ve got to — We have to get you somewhere.” There was a fishing cabin on the Lonely River, close to Ginny’s ranch. If he could get Hazel there, maybe he could help her until the fever passed. If not, Ginny and Jack wouldn’t be far away. “Just relax.”

She shivered under his hands even as she rubbed back against him in a way that was anything but innocent. “You don’t have to love me, Oliver, but please… please make it stop hurting.”

Erotic Post-Apocalyptic Gunslinging Werewolves.

I keep typing that over and over because I just can’t tell you how much it amuses me.  What does it even mean?  It means we get to wipe out society, rebuild it however we like, drag werewolves out into the open, give them a little bit of that delicious Wild West feel and then write about the dirty, dirty adventures they have finding love in a world gone crazy.

Oh yes, I love the erotic post-apocalyptic gunslinging werewolves.

The Down & Dirty trilogy is three stories with three heroines who are friends.  They’re also female wolves living the hard lives in a frontier town when all of the world’s rebuilding is taking place in the cities.  They’re all strong in different ways, but they are three tough ladies, which made it all the more fun to try to decide who was going to be man enough to handle them.

So who are these ladies who are about to find lust and maybe something a whole lot more serious?

Virginia “Ginny” Howard.  Ginny is a rancher/cowgirl who inherited her operation from her parents.  Their marriage had gone to hell after the War and the plague, and Ginny’s got herself a boatload of issues about being vulnerable to another person–or being in a place where she can let them down.  That makes the fact that the Alpha of the Lonely River Pack has been eyeing her all the more dangerous.  The male wolves aren’t too pleased that they’re getting their butts kicked by a woman at business, especially when female wolves are so scarce and Ginny’s turned down her share of advances. (Ginny’s book is Book #1: Wild Card.)

Charlotte “Lottie” Daniel. Lottie is also a business woman, and a shrewd one at that.  She runs the very popular Full Moon Saloon, a bar and restaurant with its own real live brothel upstairs–one with female wolves and a human willing to offer their companionship.  What really pissed off her competition was her decision to allow her girls to entertain human men if they liked.  With money coming in from most of the men in town, Lottie has established herself as a dangerous rival, one who some people might consider getting rid of permanently. (Lottie’s book is Book #3 : Ante Up)

Hazel Young.  Hazel is the youngest of the three women, and without a doubt the most impulsive.  Orphaned at twelve, Hazel has Lottie to thank for taking her in and giving her a home.  Though Lottie has done her best to raise Hazel as a proper young lady, a good dose of Ginny’s influence has produced a wild streak likely to intimidate the bravest of men.  In a city, Hazel might find herself lacking in suitors, but with her first mating nearly upon her, she’s all but surrounded by men hoping to be there when passion finally overrules common sense.  It’s too bad for Hazel that the only man she’s ever loved isn’t one of them. (Hazel’s book is Book #2: Calling the Bluff.)

So there you have it…three women with different strengths and weaknesses and different stories that need telling.  They’ve all got a lot to learn, both between the sheets and outside of them (or on the kitchen table, or maybe a conviennent desk…) but throughout all three stories, you’ll see them trying to learn together.

And tomorrow, I think, I’ll give you a little Behind the Hero action for Jack, the Alpha who has been watching Ginny with the patience of any good predator.