Embedded Files
Paranormal Women’s Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Date Published: May 2, 2025
A big cat and a woman without magic could just be the right combination.
Meela Durning swears she doesn’t belong in Eerie. She’s not magical. Never has been, but she’s the child of paranormals. When she’s forced to return to Eerie to sort out the problems from her past, she finds a big, fluffy cat. The animal lover in her has to make sure the feline gets home. He could be missing. Someone has to want him, right?
Aslan Maine has known from the moment he met Meela that she was destined to be his. He’s seen her in his dreams. When she picks him up to return him to his rightful home, he can’t hide his secret any longer. He’s no ordinary cat!
She can’t believe her eyes when the fluffball she rescued shifts into the sexiest man she’s ever seen. When he offers her forever, she’s got to decide if she deserves to be alone or to have a future with the handsome shifter.
If she can survive her past, she can have him. Right?
EXCERPT
“Christ, I’m tired.” Meela Durning stretched and cracked her back. She shook her head, then closed her laptop. She hadn’t spoken to anyone in particular. There wasn’t anyone there to hear her. Just as well. When she’d had someone there to listen, he hadn’t listened. Hadn’t wanted to be there, either.
She’d grown used to being alone.
Tonight, she didn’t want to be by herself. It wasn’t like she could poof a man into existence. She’d wanted to try that for ages, but with no magical abilities, a spell was out of the question. She supposed she could summon one, but that only worked in her dreams and she swore it had nothing to do with magic. Just her overly active imagination.
She shrugged, then stretched her legs before standing. The man of her dreams might only be in said dreams, but that didn’t matter. He couldn’t let her down that way. Didn’t have faults. He wanted to be there. Wanted to please her. Wanted to be with her.
Unlike her ex -- the rotten troll.
She sighed and pushed in her chair. She didn’t even have a fish. She’d wanted a cat, but the building manager didn’t permit animals that had fur. Ridiculous rules.
She checked that the apartment door was locked, then picked up her phone before switching off the lights. She padded into the bedroom. Once she tossed the phone onto the bed, she made her way into the bathroom. She stripped out of her shirt, and bra, then her jeans and panties, returning to the bedroom long enough to don her sleep shirt. She brushed her teeth, but her thoughts turned to the man of her dreams.
She paused, mid-brushing. Man of her dreams. That sounded so silly. The only time he’d ever appeared physically, she’d been asleep.
A vision of him formed in her mind. Tall, muscled, but not huge… thick dark-blond hair with just a bit of shag to it. Enough to remind her of a superhero, with his hair blowing in the breeze. Twinkling green eyes, a wicked smile that hinted at mischief, but he’d been a gentleman. A dusting of hair from his navel to below the belt.
She’d never seen his cock, but she’d felt it. Heat washed over her. She swore she’d felt his hands on her body, the way he’d touched her and kissed every inch of her. He took care of her. Treated her like a treasure. Like she had worth.
She knew damn well she had value. It’d taken her years to figure that out, but now that she knew, she wasn’t about to let anyone tell her otherwise. She refused to be a doormat again.
Meela finished in the bathroom and switched off the light before crawling between the sheets. Something in her bed vibrated. For a moment, she thought she’d left a toy from the night before. When a rectangle lit up beneath the blankets, she remembered -- her phone. She must’ve lost it under the blankets when she climbed into bed. She retrieved the irksome device and checked the notifications.
An email. Now what? She swiped to retrieve the message. Overdrawn.
“You have to be kidding me,” she muttered. She swiped to her banking app. Sure enough, the money she’d expected to be deposited there… wasn’t. Her ex-husband hadn’t bothered to pay alimony. Again.
She scrubbed one hand across her forehead, then checked her texts. The asshole hadn’t messaged her. Hadn’t bothered to let her know he’d be a bigger asshole by not paying. She did the math in her head. This was the sixth month in a row he hadn’t bothered to deposit the money. The fucker.
She switched back to her banking app and shifted money from her savings to the checking to cover her bills. Once satisfied everything would be paid out of her wages from the software company, she brought up the chat box to her lawyer.
Eerie, Ohio, wasn’t exactly her favorite place to go. She didn’t belong there. She had paranormal blood, but no magic. Couldn’t conjure, summon, wake the dead… wasn’t a shifter, vampire, necromancer, faerie… Nothing about her was extraordinary. She’d simply been the child of a conjurer and a celebrity psychic. All she had was her bloodline.
But if she wanted to meet with her lawyer, she’d have to go back to the place of her birth. She’d have to head back to Eerie. Would have to talk to Norm Slone, divorce lawyer gnome. His name had a distinctive ring to it. No one forgot him. Thankfully, he could be a junkyard dog in the courtroom, too.
She opened the chat box and sent him a message.
Need to meet with you. Tiernan isn’t paying alimony. Sixth month in a row. Tired of being shafted. Help?
She hit SEND, then darkened the phone and tossed it onto the side table. If Norm Slone had time for her, he’d let her know in the morning. Besides, she didn’t want to give her ex any extra space in her mind. He owned too much as it was. Some days, he lived there rent free. Those were the days she second-guessed divorcing him. She’d loved the troll once, hadn’t she? Thought they could make a future together, right? A woman with no magic and a troll could make things work, in theory. The more she considered her past, the faster she remembered the reason she’d left Tiernan. He’d only married her under the assumption she’d inherit money from her parents.
Wrong.
After the wedding, when he found out she was penniless, he’d walked out. He claimed he wasn’t interested in her any longer. He had to work late. He’d made friends with other people. Their lives were going in different directions. Other days, he simply didn’t speak to her.
He’d packed his belongings up in the middle of the night and walked out.
Her head ached. She’d lost a dozen years of her life to him. Years she could’ve been happy. Could’ve been single but making the best of her situation. Instead, she’d tried her damnedest to keep the marriage together. Tried to make herself loveable to him again.
What a waste. He wasn’t going to love her then or now… or ever. She had to stop living in the past and thinking about what wasn’t going to happen in order to focus on the future -- whatever future she had.
She switched off the light and snuggled in her blankets. She might not be living with anyone, but then again, she didn’t have to share the bed. Didn’t have to argue with anyone. Didn’t have to explain herself. But the loneliness overwhelmed her at times.
She closed her eyes and allowed herself to forget the day, forget her situation for a little while. Forget her Ex. Time to dream. She loved her dreams. Her mysterious stranger showed up when she closed her eyes.
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About the Author
Megan Slayer, aka Wendi Zwaduk, is a multi-published, award-winning author of more than one-hundred short stories and novels. She’s been writing since 2008 and published since 2009. Her stories range from the contemporary and paranormal to LGBTQ and white hot themes. No matter what the length, her works are always hot, but with a lot of heart. She enjoys giving her characters a second chance at love, no matter what the form. She’s been nominated at the LRC for Best Author, Best Contemporary, Best Ménage, Best BDSM and Best Anthology. Her books have made it to the bestseller lists on various e-tailer sites.
When she’s not writing, Megan spends time with her husband and son as well as three dogs and three cats. She enjoys art, music and racing, but football is her sport of choice. She’s an active member of the Friends of the Keystone-LaGrange Public library.
Author on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendizwaduk.meganslayer/
Author on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MeganSlayer
Author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendizwaduk/
Publisher on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok: @changelingpress
Pre-Order Today: https://books2read.com/takenbythemainecoon
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