New Release | Sacred Struggle, A Dragon Rider Fantasy Romance by Rochelle L. Wilcox #romantasy #darkfantasyromance #darkromance #fantasyromance #bookboost
- N. N. Light
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
Title: Sacred Struggle, A Dragon Rider Fantasy Romance
Author: Rochelle L. Wilcox
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Book Blurb:
An elf hiding from a malicious queen.
A rider whose dragon will be tortured if he chooses his fated mate.
What will they risk when forbidden love threatens everything else?
In the land of Vanatia, Sifa’s doomed to the elven prison if she’s found.
Desperate to unearth the queen’s secrets, Sifa’s chasing answers by doing the city overseer’s dirty work. But when her boss sends her with a dangerously handsome dragon rider to the brutal prison she barely escaped years ago, she fights desire even as she confronts demons she’s still battling.
Fhord’s torn between his dragon and fated mate.
When Sifa joins him on a job, he spurns their bond because in Vanatia, dragons suffer when their riders sin. If he flouts his oath to the crown by harboring an elf, Fhord won’t be able to shield his beast from the queen’s wrath.
Terrified Fhord will discover her secret and betray her to the monarchy, Sifa battles their growing passion. And though Fhord’s dragon will pay the price if he falls for Sifa, his need for his mate may outweigh the risk.
Can Sifa and Fhord overcome their yearning for each other as they journey toward the prison that could threaten her freedom and his bond with his dragon?
Excerpt:
The dragon is calling to me.
I have no idea how I know it, but I do. While I slept, he found me and started whispering in my dreams. I woke up with his image in my thoughts — the terrible, majestic, tortured dragon I saw earlier in the trip. When I heard his screams, I knew what I had to do.
Fhord tried to stop me. What else would he do? We both realize what a bad idea this is. How easily it could go wrong. That even if I succeed, the dragon and I will be outcasts, forever hiding in a land that won’t be nearly big enough. But I couldn’t have stopped myself if I tried. And I didn’t see any reason to try. This is bigger than anything else in my life. Bigger, even, than going home.
When Fhord and I hide behind the bush, I reach out to the beast, caressing him with my thoughts. His response is everything. Relief sits highest atop his emotions, his weary spirit desperate for an end to his torment. Shimmering just below that, though, is anger. Hate. Spite.
Vengeance.
He’s so f**king strong. They’ve tried — the gods know how cruelly and sadistically they’ve tried — but they’ve never broken his will.
I will free him. And then I’ll join him in serving retribution on everyone who harmed him. All those who hold dragons in their grip, taking but never giving back.
I was born for this. It’s why I was drawn to this world. The next few minutes will set my fate, or end me.
My thoughts reach out, gently probing at the trainer’s mind. I’m on edge, ready to yank them back if I get any hint he realizes I’m here. He doesn’t, as far as I can tell, but my search fails. He’s built walls of steel around his psyche. I won’t get access.
Freeing the dragon won’t be easy. The trainer is powerful and I don’t know if I can beat him.
Slowly, a plan takes form in my mind. I’m turning toward Fhord when I feel his breath in my ear.
“Can you come up with a distraction?” He asks. I find his eyes, dark and solemn. He shifts a bit to again whisper directly into my ear. “I can attack while his focus is on you.”
My lips find his ear, mimicking his caution. “I need to do this Fhord. I’m not sure how I know, but I have to be the one who takes the guard’s life.”
Pulling my head back, I watch as he wrestles with my decision. I have no idea what this is between us, but I do know Fhord is driven to protect me. It pains him when I expose myself to risk. He has to fight to control some urge to smother me and keep me safe. Eventually, though, the rational side of him prevails. He nods his head.
“I’ll provide the distraction.” His voice is resigned, echoing with fear and doubt. My chest swells with the knowledge of what this male will risk for me. How important he’s become to me, despite our efforts to push each other away.
And then his lips are on mine. This kiss is different from the first one. It’s gentle, probing. He’s asking me to open to him, to trust him with this part of me. When I respond, parting my lips and letting my tongue taste him, he doesn’t pull back. He leans into the embrace, wrapping his arms around my back to pull me closer.
Every single part of my body responds. My stomach flutters, launching a kaleidoscope of butterflies to the tips of my toes. I burn for him, like I never have for a male before. In that moment, I want nothing more than to open myself, letting him see every part of me.
When I feel the dragon purr in my thoughts, I pull away. I can’t get this close to Fhord. Ever.
Fhord holds my gaze for a moment, his face a chaos of emotions. “This is why I can’t be with you,” he rasps out in a low voice. “If you are in my life, my little rabbit, I can’t see past you. I can’t see anything but you. Too many will suffer if I let myself lose sight of them.” His lips find mine, more reckless this time. Desperate. “But know this,” he adds as he pulls himself away. “If not for my dragon—everything she would suffer for my happiness—I would choose you. Even if it doomed everyone else.”
Fhord stands abruptly, backing away as he watches me. His eyes flare, a war of emotions reflected in their depths. “Be safe, my rabbit,” he whispers before spinning to slip away from me.
I can’t move. I can barely think. He’s so f**king dangerous. To me. To everything that matters to me.
Because I realize he may matter more than anyone or anything else.
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Author Biography:
Rochelle Wilcox writes stories about love and angst and human drama, which happen to include some elves and dragons and gods.
Rochelle was born and raised in Las Vegas, where she learned at an early age the value of fantasy and escape. Raised by a single mom, Rochelle spent more time in casinos than most adults. She and her husband decided to leave the desert behind and raise their sons in Northern California, where they spent as much time on the water with their boys as they could.
Despite her lifelong passion for storytelling, Rochelle’s path took her to law school and then to a practice focused on media law and appeals. But her love of writing wasn’t sated with briefs bound by legal principles and a fealty to facts. And so she set to paper the story that had been playing in her mind for years, based on the Norse mythology she loved as a child. Rochelle retired from her legal practice in 2022 to travel and write.
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