Here's my stop of #StrangeLit: Killer Seasons Blog Tour, featuring an excerpt from Resto Rescue by Maira Rue. Vengeance: The Awakening by yours truly is also included in Killer Seasons Bundle. Enjoy the excerpt!
BTW, I'm doing the #AprilBookBash giveaway, in case you might want to win a paperback edition of 'Yearning for the One', it's a poetry anthology. Giveaway link below. :) Thanks.
#STRANGELIT: KILLER SEASONS
by Various Authors
Genre: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Available on Buqo app!
Links I Goodreads I Buqo I
by Various Authors
Genre: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Available on Buqo app!
Links I Goodreads I Buqo I
SYNOPSIS
All werewolf Rafe Redmoon really wanted was to cook real food not host reality food shows. Thirteen seasons in Resto Rescue has made him cranky and moody. Resto Rescue is a food reality show where Rafe uses his supernatural skills to ascertain what was wrong with the food and remodel the restaurant as a whole. His boss/alpha/aunt Vivian made him a deal. Make a killer season thirteen ender and she will personally fund the dream restaurant Rafe wanted. Easy, right?
EXCERPT
Resto Rescue
by Maita Rue
I. Season 13
“You turning Vegan on me, werewolf?” The devil asked him.
Rafe Redmoon, werewolf food host extraordinaire, made a face. His aunt Vivian was the said devil incarnate. She was also a werewolf and she was a rare alpha female. His alpha. Werewolves, sharing some genetic similarities with their wolf cousin, need sixty percent of protein in their diet. A vegan or even a vegetarian werewolf was unheard of. But that wasn’t what Rafe Redmoon wanted.
“It is my restaurant concept. It uses a lot of natural and whole ingredients not vegan and not vegetarian. I plan to do a cooking show in it,” he said. Rafe wanted his restaurant to have nothing but clean and healthy food. He didn’t want sponsors mucking it with seasoning and instant processed products.
“What’s wrong with your job now? Your shows are unique. Most people would kill for your job,” she pointed out, presenting her polished red nails at him. It looks like she had blood on her hands all the time. They were in her spacious office in Redmoon Roaring Studios, her private television and internet Production Company. True, he had a killer job. He was heralded as the Yummiest Reality Show Host Alive!
“I’m not most people,” he sniffed. “I’m not even most werewolves.” True. Most werewolves would have been contented to join politics. They spent their pent up energy making trouble for the humans- political trouble that is. Their other option is sports, hardcore sports.
Rafe Redmoon was the hottest food show host in the planet. He hosted a wide variety of food documentaries and food reality shows all across the globe. His latest show, Resto Rescue, was at the top of the charts. Resto Rescue was a restaurant rescue show with a supernatural twist. Using his werewolf senses, he’d tweak the recipes better and give the restaurant a full make-over. Sponsors were lined up to do every show. Rafe made it big because he had striking good looks and a grumpy persona. He was tall and had the body to die for.
He knew people watched his show to ogle at him or see the reactions people have in the show. Not many people watch the show for the food advice. Still, his aunt marketed his body like a commodity.
His aunt raised an eyebrow. “Well, I think your mother said your star charts dictated you’d be the most contrary werewolf in the family.”
“Ha-ha. Werewolves don’t believe in astrology. That’s the reason why most of us are either in sports or in politics,” he said. Most werewolves didn’t look at the horoscopes. They didn’t consult palmistry. They don’t even do the Feng Shui thing.
“Why the restaurant thing? I thought you were contented hosting food shows?”
“I am not. I told you my passion was to cook. Hosting is not the same as cooking. I want to cook my own recipes my way. There will be no food stylist or food enhancers from sponsors,” he said. “The whole world is going for organic now,” the errant werewolf pointed out.
Vivian sighed. She didn’t want to get into another argument with her delectable little talent, even if he was her nephew. Happy talents did a better job. Happy talents left her to enjoy her morning latte. She eyed the piece of candy standing before her. She built him from ground zero and she was proud of it. Not because he was her scrumptious little nephew but because he showed promise. Also, he didn’t let fame get to his head… much. “I’ll make a deal with you, Rafe.” That always got him to listen.
Rafe waited. What could his aunt offer him now? He already sold his soul, so to speak.
“Make me a great Season 13 ender and I’ll fund your restaurant. It has to pull the ratings up.”
“The ratings for Resto Rescue are good. They’re up. We are at the top,” he pointed out.
She shook her head. “Gorgon Ramses’ ratings are still high. High enough that he could dominate the charts if you aren’t careful. His show, Kitchen Conundrum and The Chef From Hell are still kicking and screaming. I want him taken down until he’s not even an afterthought. That raging beast is getting old yet he still at top ten. A young buck like you should have toppled him years ago.”
Rafe made a face. Gorgon Ramses was about a hundred years of age as well but he’d been in the industry for seventy years. Rafe started at werewolf puberty, seventy five human years.
“I don’t know who’s temper is worse, yours or his? He always claimed the devil spat him out of hell because he had his famous temper,” Vivian commented.
The young wolf grunted. He was sure he had a different temperament from the gorgon. Rafe was more the aloof kind of wolf but he took no bullshit from anyone. His aunt kept saying she patterned his first few shows after Gorgon Ramses’ shows. It grabbed at the same audience. From there, they expanded their audience by transforming Rafe into his own persons. Still, they loved his fiery temper in the shows.
“Maybe we should shoot in the US not in Asia? Most countries watch Hollywood only. Why’d you have to throw me to Asia anyway?” Five years ago, he was sent to Asia to shoot exotic food documentaries and now food reality shows. He was already making a killing in the States. His aunt insisted that every other season of Resto Rescue be shot in Asia. Why did Vivian have to uproot him and ship him to nowheres-ville?
“Asia is a rising market that I want to corner. It’s not that backward. They are more obsessive there than the States. The population of Asia is bigger than all the US territories,” she said. Also, production cost is lower. “Do we have a deal? Make this how I want it to be. I’ll put your restaurant anywhere in the territories. We’ll shoot Season 14 alongside your new restaurant concept. Sky’s the limit. Satisfied?” Vivian offered.
“Maybe,” he spat.
“You’re not satisfied?” She baited him.
Rafe knew there were always strings attached. “I want it in writing.”
Vivian growled. Not trusting your alpha was like a challenge. “Make me proud, Rafe. Otherwise, I’ll throw you back to your mother’s pack and you’ll be stuck doing sports. Maybe you ought to join your father’s pack in Budapest. They’ll force you into a suit and put you in politics. I heard King David needs a babysitter.”
Rafe roared in protest. Yup, his stars were right. He was contrary to the norm. When his mother chose to rejoin her original pack, he didn’t. He didn’t join his father’s pack either. Instead, he broke convention and joined a whole new pack, Vivian’s. In pack dynamics, you worked for your alpha. Vivian was in television. She owned forty TV stations, four cable channels and twenty two internet channels in most territories.
Vivian snarled back, showing him who was alpha and who was too young. “Get to work, pup! Or I might decide to cook you myself!”
When your alpha commanded you, you pretty much had to do it. Breaking an alpha’s command was like a challenge. Rafe couldn’t challenge her, not yet. He was only a hundred years of age, much too young. Vivian was already two hundred fifty. She was also too strong to challenge. Other pack tried to challenge her only to be handed their asses on a silver platter and recorded for her viewing pleasure. Yeah, she put it on live TV and made money out of it. She knew how to play and she played rough.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Meet Maita Rue, author and designer. She loves romance and happy endings. Her love of words has pushed her to write and publish her books. She's a single mother of four dogs and an aunt of one grumpy cat.
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