Courting Death

Sarah Reynolds Courting Death The House of Marchese Saga,Book Two Ychews Press Contents Company Ready She Burns Bright What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Demon Visitation My Empire of Dirt Spit it Out Times of Joy in Wretchedness Mud-foot and Other Inconveniences Hero Complex Mississippi Waterfowl Contrapasso Greek Mythology 101 Feelin’ Froggy CRASS On my Knees Tardy Every Bit as Wicked The Answer is No Not My Best Work Mortified SADD not SAD Fractious A Murmuration The Saddest Apple Wild Magic Clever and Funny Give Us a Wee Spin Shit Stirring Dinner Theatre The Empress has no Clothes Rumpelstiltskin Silver Attitude The Party Trick Death and Taxes The Inevitable Girl The Thessalian Horse Enjoy in Good Health Prayin’ for Rain The Cephalopod Experience Do the Right Thing The Meteor Zeppole These Violent Delights Achilles, Come Down Now Meatloaf A Vast and Secret Throne Mercury in Chains Bond-walking for Beginners Author’s Note Hello! Welcome back to the House of Marchese. This is book two in a planned series of four books. If you’re feeling foggy on the details, skip ahead to the “Previously” section and read a recap of book one. About the Spice This book is a why choose, often termed reverse harem. It’s representative of a polyamorous relationship between one woman and, at present, four other people. There are two plot lines and romancing happens in both of them. Sunday has two mates with her and two mates who are away for much of the book. They too, develop a relationship with each other. There is also a very brief observed scene of FF, that does not involve any of our main characters. Please pay attention to Content Warnings - Courting Death is quite a bit darker than its predecessor. This series will be handling issues that include immigration and refugees. My main characters are always going to be in favor of improving the lives of every being but we will see prejudice and explore it to some degree. Content Warnings A full list is available on my website at www.sarahreynoldsbooks.com Here is an abbreviated list. This book contains violence, gore, torture, imprisonment, mentions of past sexual assault and CSA - though not detailed, drug and alcohol use, venom used as a drug, supernatural sexual elements, light BDSM, degradation, light humiliation, voyeurism, blood play, objectification and forced orgasm/ orgasm denial. Consent between main characters is always enthusiastically given. Acknowledgments Let’s pour one out for your beleaguered author’s sophomore effort. It was hauled uphill, both ways, but I’m thrilled with how it turned out. Courting Death wouldn’t be here without a whole village of alphas, betas, and ARC readers. Alphas are a very particular breed of reader, willingly slogging through unedited, hypothetical content is exhausting and repetitive. Amanda, Kayla, Genevieve, Saoirse, Francine, and Anna, thank you so much. I also had a great team of Betas who decorated my first draft with no less than four hundred comments. Thank you, Holly, Nat, Missy, Wolfgang, Courtney, Cas, and Britney. Please stick around for Dreaming Death. Next, I want to shine a light on the incredibly supportive community of authors that I’ve been lucky to become part of. Vera Valentine, Merri Bright, Elizabeth Dear, Sam Hall, Sylvia Morrow, and Harper Wylde—from the bottom of my heart, your generosity has been humbling. Thanks also to Latrexa Nova who maintains a discord server that’s safe and supportive. It’s the first place I go to vent my frustrations and celebrate my wins. Before I get played off-stage, Andrea Calsing, you’re the real MVP—endlessly knowledgeable, wickedly smart, and incredibly supportive. This book wouldn’t be half as good without you acting as my full-time researcher and editor. I hit the friend lottery with you. I have a family too and they have made the long days and nights so much easier by picking up the slack and listening to me when I needed to work out plot points. JB, I have endless love and appreciation for you. Thanks for making my dream your dream and doing everything you can to help it come true. MVB and DJB, I got so lucky with both of you. Tim, welcome to the family. Previously... In the house of marchese Saga Has it been six months since you read Cheating Death and you don’t want to reread it? I got you! Here’s a quick refresher on the events that have brought us to this point. Spoilers for book one—it’s kind of the point. Oh, and it’s long. There were just a few things that happened. Sunday Prescott is a buyer for an auction house in Las Vegas. She’s having a normal day in an average week until her brother Colton and his best friend CJ show up. It’s late Wednesday night when Sunday discovers that Colt is in the lock-up under the Ruby Star Casino. He likes to gamble but subtlety is not one of his gifts, so she heads off to rescue him. Grayson Marchese is the owner, CEO, and head vamp in charge at the Ruby Star. While Sunday is making friends (Ben) and annoying the security guards (Tomas), Grayson’s chyld Vivien decides to have a nibble on Colton, allowing them both to be pulled into an orange portal by a hooded figure. Sunday uses her empathic powers to barge into Grayson’s meeting with his very evil vampiric sister (and ex-wife from his human days) Roxana. In a moment of inspired pettiness, he announces that Sunday is his fiancee, though he’s never met her before. Sunday is okay with this; Grayson is hot as hell and if he owes her a favor, he might release her brother. Sunday learns that vampires and shifters exist, then discovers that Colt and Vivien have been taken. Ben tells Sunday that she’s his mate, Grayson is suspicious of her motives, and Tomas is just suspicious. And Tomas doesn’t need any more problems. He was meant to be the Alpha of a wolf pack in Alaska. Instead, he’s Grayson’s unacknowledged mate and his