[Sleeping with Monsters 03] • The Hated

*The third in the Sleeping with Monsters series, about strong women and the monsters they love, **The Hated** is a BDSM-themed vampiric science-fantasy.*

Confined inside a magnificent palace, Queen Ilylle chafes at the sheltered life she leads. Her council rules in her stead – she’s never met her people, or been allowed outdoors. She won’t even get to choose her King – her council’s brought in a warrior trapped in stone for her to be married to soon in a ritual ceremony.

When she discovers an ancient text that talks about the Queens of old, who had both immense magical powers and personal freedom, she realizes her current life is not the way ‘it’s always been’ – and learns how to free her King from stone on her own, releasing Zaan.

Zaan is a Zaibann, a magical warrior who needs blood to survive. Turned to stone to protect Ilylle’s ancestor, the woman he adored – and then trapped as a statue for the subsequent twenty-thousand years – he wakes to find himself bloodbound to Ilylle, who bears no resemblance to the fierce Queen of his own time, the woman Ilylle wishes she was.

Trapped by his need for Ilylle’s blood, Zaan’s furious about the loss of his love and old life -- and Ilylle’s as frightened by the dark man she’s unleashed, as she is intrigued by his stories and power.

When they discover the council’s plot to assassinate Ilylle, Zaan knows he has to do whatever it takes to train Ilylle in the use of her powers – and Ilylle knows she has no choice but to submit to his whim.

** *The Hated* ** combines elements of Elric of Melnibone, Gormenghast, and Dune, along with explicit sexual activity and BDSM. It is a standalone novel, as all Sleeping with Monsters books are.

From the author of the Edie Spence urban fantasy series (*Nightshifted*, *Moonshifted*, *Shapeshifted*, *Deadshifted*, *Bloodshifted*), comes an exciting new paranormal erotica with an entirely original setting.