NEW from Nikki Noffsinger - CURSED AWAKENING

Take a look at the new release from Renegade Night author Nikki Noffsinger. Enter a world of passion, wolf-shifters, and love that conquers all.

New from XoXo Publishing™

Also available at Amazon.com

Blurb:

Ivy Morgan has re-invented herself and is looking forward to the future for the first time, in a very long time. Since fleeing for her life from an overzealous religious cult, she is able to be a modern woman that is gaining her independence; so taking up with a sexy stranger named Nyx is the last thing she needs. Or, is it?

Nyx Wahpeton can’t stop thinking about the young woman he’s met. It couldn’t have come at the worse possible time with the clans meeting and his family wrapped up in a centuries old war that’s nothing short of what horror movies are made from. He’s been a protector of his people and those that reside at the Reservation. There’s betrayal and evil at his front door; but, in his heart he knows Ivy is the one for him. She’s surrounded by secrets that he’s vowed to unlock, as well as her heart. However, can he keep her safe from his own secrets?

Read an excerpt and be enchanted:

Lorna drove down the street to a salon. Ivy was going to get her hair cut. She was excited as they went in and started looking through the hair magazines for a new hairstyle. Ivy had long hair for her whole life and felt as if she should be nervous about cutting it, but it symbolized a life that she had no desire to live. A petite blonde woman came over to where they were sitting and ushered Ivy to her chair.

“You have really gorgeous hair, you know that! Are you sure you want it cut?” the beautician asked as she fingered through Ivy’s waist length hair.

“Yes! I am quite sure! I was thinking something to my shoulders and layered perhaps.” Ivy replied.

“Alright, I know just the style that would be perfect for you that would complement your face shape!” the beautician said as she took Ivy to a shampoo bowl.

Lorna looked on as the beautician shampooed, conditioned and wrapped a towel around Ivy’s head. Ivy had certainly come a long way from the scared girl that she’d rescued from the Shepherds of the Flock religious group. The Shepherds of the Flock were a cult that was similar to the LDS church that she had fled herself fifteen years ago. It had taken her three years to help Ivy get to where she was today. Ivy had been married to an elder as his seventh wife and it had been hell getting her out! She had first met Ivy in a hospital where she had been taken for not just a miscarriage but also being beaten nearly to death. A nurse, Millie Shugart had called Lorna and she had broken a number of traffic laws getting to the hospital to see Ivy. Lorna shuddered in her seat as she remembered how battered and beaten Ivy had been.

She had been like a frightened child and Lorna had told her of her own life with the LDS church, and had offered Ivy a way out. Ivy had been so distrustful but she took the help that Lorna had offered. Lorna immediately called Terrance McGee and got a police guard at the hospital and filed the necessary paperwork and police report. Ivy had been a child bride and had gotten pregnant but due to a beating by her ‘beloved’ husband, she had miscarried the baby. One of the sister wives had brought her to the hospital and left her there. When the hospital released Ivy, Lorna had taken her in and for a solid year it had been a nightmare! Ivy had terrible nightmares and for the first part of that year, she wouldn’t even talk to the psychologist.

It was like getting a wild and feral animal to trust, and Lorna was amazed she’d been able to salvage Ivy through the layers of abuse. This was her job, her calling and Ivy was a success story. Ivy would have the life she was meant to have, not the one she had been born into. Lorna smiled as she watched Ivy’s face scrunch up as the hair stylist took that first cut off those long locks of hers. ‘Breathe Ivy! Breathe!’ Lorna thought to herself. Lorna knew all too well that first cut had been not just a big step but more like a jump across the Grand Canyon.

“Are you okay, hon? You’re not going to cry or anything are you?” the beautician said frantically as she noticed that Ivy had an odd look to her face. It was a look that blended well with panic. Ivy wasn’t panicked but it was like some invisible fear that suddenly the world was going to fall apart or she’d be struck down by God for cutting her hair.

It wasn’t until Lorna walked over and bent down to her ear. “Ivy, Ivy open your eyes!” Lorna urged. Ivy slowly lifted her lids. Lorna smiled, “See, the world is still turning and you’re not a crispy critter! No cracking earth or devil to drag you through the floor!”

It was true, and she felt stupid for overreacting but for some reason she had to have that verbal assurance that nothing Papa Paul had said was true. The beautician waited until she relaxed again in the chair. Ivy smiled slightly and told the girl to go ahead with the hair cut. Lorna patted her shoulder and returned to her seat in the shop’s lobby. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to freak out! This is my first haircut!” Ivy admitted. The girl smiled and nodded, “Well it’s going to be the best first hair cut anyone has ever gotten.” The two young women laughed.

In about an hour, the beautician was finished. Ivy looked at her hair that came just past her shoulders. It had layers that had been cut in with a razor and she looked modern, stylish, and pretty instead of looking as if she dropped out of the 1800s. Papa Paul had always told her and the others that for a woman to cut her hair was a sin and abomination in the eyes of God and her husband. A woman who cut her hair, wore make-up and wore the garments of Satan would be subject to the wrath of God. Next to adultery and being barren; the sin of cutting one’s hair was right up there with the seven deadliest.

Anything that caused the displeasure of one’s husband and God was grounds for beatings, seclusion, starvation, and the worst - Purification. In her lifetime, Ivy had watched as her own mother had been whipped and taken out into the wilds to fend for herself with no clothing or even shoes. Her own mother had beaten into Ivy, physically and mentally the duties as to which Ivy would one day carry out. Ivy pushed those thoughts out of her head. Today she was starting her new life officially and the past was not going to play any part in it! She stood as Lorna met her giving her a reassuring look.

“Woo hoo! Look at you girl! Now that is what I call a very attractive hair do!” Lorna praised. Ivy blushed slightly at her friend’s assessment. Lorna paid the woman and they both left.

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