The Queen of Paranormal Romance, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Gena Showalter, returns with THE DARKEST WARRIOR, a searing Lords of the Underworld tale featuring a beastly prince and the wife he will wage war to keep. THE DARKEST WARRIOR is now available where all fine books are sold. Grab your copy today!

THE DARKEST WARRIOR Synopsis:

He is ice…

Puck the Undefeated, host of the demon of Indifference, cannot experience emotion without punishment, so he allows himself to feel nothing. Until her. According to ancient prophecy, she is the key to avenging his past, saving his realm and ruling as king. All he must do? Steal her from the man she loves—and marry her.

She is fire…

Gillian Shaw has suffered many tragedies in her too-short life, but nothing could have prepared the fragile human for her transition into immortality. To survive, she must wed a horned monster who both intrigues and frightens her…and become the warrior queen she was born to be.

Together they burn.

As a rising sense of possession and obsession overtake Puck, so does insatiable lust. The more he learns about his clever, resourceful wife, the more he craves her. And the more time Gillian spends with her protective husband, the more she aches for him. But the prophecy also predicts an unhappily-ever-after. Can Puck defeat fate itself to keep the woman who brought his deadened heart back to life? Or will they succumb to destiny, losing each other…and everything they’ve been fighting for?

Grab your copy of THE DARKEST WARRIOR here!

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EXCERPT

Pain seared Puck, shoving a roar past his lips. A demon had entered his body, and now tore into his organs. It bit and clawed, too, and yet he experienced no outward signs of injury.

Frantic, he dropped his sword to rake his nails over his chest, slicing skin and muscle—to no avail. The creature remained inside him, a dark presence, howling with a toxic mix of hate and pleasure.

The blood in Puck’s veins might as well have been fuel; every cell in his body seemed to catch fire, melting him from the inside out as he...changed? Two rings of fire erupted on the crown of his skull, as if circles had been burned into the bone. He reached up and felt...horns?

Breath wheezed through clenched teeth as he yanked at hanks of brown fur sprouting on his legs. Next, a hard shell grew over his feet—hooves?—as his leather boots ripped apart at the seams.

Changing shapes wasn’t new to him, but this transformation had control of him, not the other way around. He couldn’t stop it.

Jagged black lines appeared on his chest, small rivers of lava burning as they spread. An image formed. A butterfly with wings as sharp as shattered glass. Different colors shimmered in the firelight, one after the other, altering as various emotions flooded him.

Mostly, panic grabbed Puck by the neck and held firm, choking him. Was this a hallucination, caused by smoke?

Or was he becoming a monster for good?

His knees gave out, unable to support his weight. As he lay on the ground, panting, the panic died. His gaze landed on the sword, and the pride he’d experienced only moments before faded before disappearing altogether. The devotion he bore for his realm and people...gone. He felt nothing. The sword was a scrap of finely honed metal, the realm a meaningless location, its citizens a nonentity.

Puck searched for emotion, any emotion, hidden anywhere. There! Love for Sin, a shining beacon.

He would protect the younger male from this...whatever this was. But, as he attempted to reach for his brother, muscle locked on bone, holding him immobile, and panic returned.

“Sin!”

Sin wouldn’t meet his gaze.

Something’s wrong...

A terrible nothingness began to creep through Puck a second time—this one directed at his brother. Precious Sin. Treasured Sin. Puck’s reason for...everything. But an invisible dagger cut into his heart, affection draining out...draining...

Still, he fought. “Love you,” he rasped. Can’t lose Sin. Can’t... But even as he spoke, his heart emptied.

One moment his love blazed, a light inextinguishable by war, persecution or travesty, the next it was nothing but a snuffed-out torch.

Puck blinked up at Sin and felt...nothing. He hadn’t forgotten their past, or the many ways his brother had aided him throughout the centuries, or everything Sin had given up on his behalf, but he cared not at all.

Muscles unlocking from bone at last, he stood. Silent, he backed away from his brother. He would go for a walk, think about what had happened and what he should do next.

“Puck—”

He strode out of the tent, never once glancing back.

About Gena Showalter: Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of the spellbinding Lords of the Underworld and Angels of the Dark series, two young adult series--Everlife and the White Rabbit Chronicles--and the highly addictive Original Heartbreakers series. In addition to being a National Reader's Choice and two time RITA nominee, her romance novels have appeared in Cosmopolitan (Red Hot Read) and Seventeen magazine, she's appeared on Nightline and been mentioned in Orange is the New Black--if you ask her about it, she'll talk for hours…hours! Her books have been translated in multiple languages. She’s hard at work on her next novel, a tale featuring an alpha male with a dark side and the strong woman who brings him to his knees. You can learn more about Gena, her menagerie of rescue dogs, and all her upcoming books at genashowalter.com or Facebook.com/genashowalterfans