Reader's Edyn: Blitz: The Blood King (Inferno Rising #2) by Abigail Owen + GIVEAWAY

**The Blood King by Abigail Owen**

Good Morning, Everyone! So thrilled to see you all today! Today I am pleased to welcome back an author I featured not that long ago and who I adore. I have yet to experience this series, but I have read another and I immediately immersed myself within the pages. I’m talking about Bait ‘N Witch and if you haven’t read it yet, you really must! But for today, I am excited to find out more about this book and series! Please allow me to once again feature on the blog Abigail Owen and her release, THE BLOOD KING … Plus, a GIVEAWAY!

**ABIGAIL OWEN**

**BIO**

Award-winning paranormal romance author, Abigail Owen, grew up consuming books and exploring the world through her writing. She attempted to find a practical career related to her favorite pastime by earning a degree in English Rhetoric (Technical Writing). However, she swiftly discovered that writing without imagination is not nearly as fun as writing with it.

No matter the genre, she loves to write witty, feisty heroines, sexy heroes who deserve them, and a cast of lovable characters to surround them (and maybe get their own stories). She currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her own personal hero, her husband, and their two children, who are growing up way too fast.

To find out more about Ms. Owen, please visit:

**THE BLOOD KING**

Publication date: August 25, 2020

Series: Inferno Rising #2

Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance

**BLURB**

Ruthless dragon king Ladon Ormarr must keep his throne at all costs. And now, with war on the horizon, he’ll need a miracle. Luckily, the fates have dropped Skylar Amon right into his lap.

Except he may have met his match.

The feisty Amon sister has no fear — of him or any other dragon shifter — is brash, doesn’t stick to protocols, and regularly offends his warriors and advisers.

Skylar also has no intention of sticking around. She doesn’t believe in the whole destined mates thing and believes all dragon kings to be dangerous. But if it means taking out the High King who murdered her parents, she’ll put up with Ladon… temporarily.

But the fates have other plans. And when Skylar disappears in the middle of a battle, Ladon will burn down the world to find her.

**EXCERPT**

Skylar remained where she was on the floor, rubbing at her throat and glaring at the others with those bright, watercolor blue eyes. At least her skin had turned less sallow. Seconds ago, her pallor had him…concerned.

Ladon did his best to push adrenaline, along with the burning need to claim her immediately, down deep in his gut, though it tested the limits of his control. He gave the members of his guard—his closest friends—as well as the advisors who made up his Curia Regis, a sharp nod and waited in silence while they filed out.

Brand sat, too, saying nothing, probably sensing the dangerous edge on which Ladon’s emotions balanced.

“Damage my future mate like that again, and I’ll rip your arms out of their sockets.” The warning slid from Ladon. He couldn’t have held it back even if he wanted to. Not that he wanted to.

Still on the floor, Skylar’s back stiffened. “I’m not your future anything, asshole.”

“Not helping,” Kasia said pointedly, adding a glare at him for effect.

Shit. Where’d his control go? He’d just been telling himself to cool it with the claiming language. Ladon clamped down on more words.

Kasia held out her hands and pulled Skylar to her feet, allowing Ladon a view of Skylar’s face. His body tensed in reaction. Now that he had a chance to study her, he couldn’t deny her beauty. Darker and sharper than her sister, those glacial eyes a striking contrast to her midnight hair, her skin a darker shade than Kasia’s paleness, and those lips…

Kasia focused on her sister, her gaze settling. “I love you, but you got this totally wrong.”

Given her attitude so far, Ladon waited for an immediate rejection, but Skylar didn’t speak for a long beat, searching Kasia’s eyes. “My sources informed me that a rogue dragon kidnapped you and dragged you here to mate you to a king. Brand is the rightful King of the Gold Throne, right? He killed Uther, and apparently at least some gold dragons now bear Brand’s mark on their hands, which makes him king. A king you’re mated to. Am I wrong?”

Kasia sent a smiling glance at Brand. “You got it mostly right, but what you missed was that I didn’t mate the king I was intended to.”

Skylar turned those ice-blue eyes on Ladon. As realization dawned, her lips quirked. “What happened, big boy? Couldn’t close the deal?”

Ladon held her glance with an unaffected stare, hiding his reaction. Why the hell was her insulting him so amusing?

Mimicking her posture, he crossed his arms and smiled back. “You shouldn’t have revealed your presence to me, little firebird.”

Those blue eyes took on a hungry expression that sent an answering, inappropriate, inexplicable heat rushing through her, both the look and her reaction resulting in a reverberation of shock that pounded through her like an avalanche.

She returned his watchful stare with a narrow-eyed glare of her own, trying to cover her reaction. “And why not?” she challenged.

“Because now you’re mine.”

Silence settled over the room so thick it turned deafening. Skylar snorted to cover her sharp inhale. “Like hell.” She leaned around him to address Kasia directly. “I’m getting you out of here.”

The corner of the eye close to the scar twitched. “I can’t let you do that.” Ladon clamped a hand down on her arm.

“Bad idea, Ladon—” Kasia’s warning came too late—a warning for the king, not Skylar.

Before Kasia finished talking, Skylar rotated her hand in his grasp to grab his wrist in return. At the same time, she turned her hips, a move that shifted both his grip and his angle in relation to her, pulling him off-center and sideways. Needing him down fast, she followed up with a kick to the back of his knee. That should’ve put him on the floor, except his knee wasn’t there when she struck.

Ladon released his hold and spun out of her reach. She backed up quickly, needing to reset and reassess. Damn, he was fast for such a big man.

Ladon held out a hand to stay the men around the table who all appeared ready to step in and help subdue her. “I’ve got this.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Good. He was still underestimating her.

“I don’t want to force you,” he said, circling her slowly. “But I can’t let you leave.”

“You don’t have a choice.” Skylar prowled to the left, studying the way he moved, determined not to admire the powerful grace of his body, anticipating his attack.

Ladon lunged for her, and she blocked, then followed with a knee to his ribs. His grunt at the contact was music to her ears, but she’d gotten too close. He flipped her around and got an arm around her neck.

Luckily, he held her up against his body. Using his grip as leverage, she slammed her head backward, right into his nose.

“Fuck.” His grip loosened.

She shot a hand straight up in the air, then stepped back in to him, spun, and brought that arm down over both of his, breaking his hold and trapping his arms under hers. At the same time, she brought her other elbow across, intending to smash it into his face.

But he bodily lifted her with both limbs still stuck under her own. He tossed her back, away from him, then glared across the space between them. Ladon wiped his elbow under his nose, leaving a crimson streak of blood on the sleeve of his otherwise pristine button-down shirt, as well as across his face. “You’ve been trained.”

“No shit.” Dragon shifters were bigger, stronger, and faster. Her mother had been no dummy.

“Skylar?” Kasia choked as she rose unsteadily to her feet, her skin leaching color, leaving her now pale face in stark contrast to her dark red hair.

“Holy shit.” Kasia’s mate had to reach out to keep his chair from tipping over as he stood as well.

Maul raised his massive head from his paws and whined, a sound Skylar recognized as both a warning and a reprimand. He didn’t want her here? Too damn bad. Her sister needed her.

Ladon Ormarr stood as well, his gaze intent, penetrating even, though he said nothing. This close, she realized he had a cleft in his chin, which only added to his brutal looks. She shook off her strange awareness of him above all the others in the room.

A dragon king. So freaking wrong.

Arden was the only person to calmly remain seated, looking back and forth between Skylar and Kasia. “Who’s Skylar?”

Meanwhile, Ladon raised his head, sniffing the air. Phoenix smelled of smoke, like dragons, but with a sweeter underlying note. Would he scent the difference?

“Who are you?” He reiterated his sister’s question, but softly. Again, that shiver skated over her at the deep tumble of his voice, the command there.

“What are you doing here?” Kasia overrode his question before Skylar could answer.

“I’m here to save you from yourself.” She flung the accusation at Kasia more harshly than she intended.

Kasia scowled. “Dammit, Sky. I mated Brand by choice.”

“Not what I heard.” No way that could be true. They’d blackmailed her or brainwashed her. No other explanation made sense.

Granted, the year since her mother’s death had shown Skylar a different side to dragon shifters. Living with them after over five hundred years of running from their kind and despising all dragons would not have been her choice of hidey-hole, but that had been different. Those shifters had been in the American colonies, loners fighting against the laws and traditions of the clans—fighting the rule of the dragons in this very room.

Kasia flung out an arm. “I don’t give a shit what you heard. We’re supposed to stay apart—”

Skylar cut her off. “We were supposed to stay apart so we could be safe from dragon kings and the clans. You went and mated one.”

Another growled warning filled the space as Ladon’s warriors and advisors took offense to her words and the venom in her voice. She didn’t give a flying leap about their delicate sensibilities. Skylar advanced into the room. If she could get close enough, she could send Kasia away, somewhere safe. Her own escape would be more difficult, but they could hash that out later.

Ladon stepped into her path.

Incredible blue eyes gave her pause—deep blue and so intense they stole the thoughts from her mind. She hadn’t been close enough to see them like this, or to be under his direct influence.

What am I doing? So what, his eyeballs are pretty?

With a sneer, she ran her gaze down him, sizing him up. Then she lifted a single eyebrow, in deliberate insult, making obvious her finding him wanting.

“You’re not going near her,” he said.

She crossed her arms, unimpressed. She had abilities she was about to rely on to get Kasia out of here. All he could do was shift, and that was doubtful in a room this size. He’d need more space. “You’re not going to stop me.”

“Who the hell are you?” His lips flattened.

Awwww…the poor king didn’t like repeating himself if his frustration was any indication.

Skylar smiled in grim delight. “I’m Kasia’s sister.”

“Fuck me,” Dopey exclaimed, his bald head shiny under the lights.

The rest of Ladon’s guard stirred, but she kept her gaze on the king, who focused on her in a way that made everything else shrink into insignificance, fading into the background like white noise, leaving only the two of them to face off.

Mimicking her posture, he crossed his arms and smiled back. “You shouldn’t have revealed your presence to me, little firebird.”

She returned his watchful stare with a narrow-eyed glare of her own, trying to cover her reaction. “And why not?” she challenged.

“Because now you’re mine.”

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