Showing results by author "Lucien Vale" in All Categories

Davan is a scholar with a folio and a plan. He's going to document the Kenara — an ancient festival where mourning and sensuality intertwine — observe everything, participate in nothing, and return to Nalanda Academy with the thesis of a lifetime. His professor laughed when he promised not to participate. This year, something is wrong. The festival is supposed to be about sharing, but the woman chosen to lead the ritual draws everyone to her. The sacred balance collapses. The River Priestess becomes everyone's obsession. But Davan said he would observe. And his stubborn refusal to ...

A fae nymph. Cold iron chains. Three men who don’t understand what they’ve caught. Lyralei of the Auburn Spring has spent centuries walking the border between worlds. She seduces merchants, blesses harvests, and nudges mortal fortunes with a smile and a touch of magic. But in the alleys of Belquarry, one mistake is all it takes for everything to vanish. When cold iron manacles snap around her wrists, Lyralei’s power drains away. Her glamour fades. Her carefully planned diplomatic mission lies in ruins. Stripped of magic and locked in a cellar, she faces three captors who have no idea ...

A thief. A statue. A woman who visits him in his dreams. Branimir has pulled off impossible jobs before, but nothing like this—slipping into a guarded manor to steal a pale alabaster statue with an unsettling half-smile. The moment he escapes with it, the dreams begin. Vivid. Intimate. Impossible. A woman he’s never met appears in the steam of a bathhouse, the silence of a library, the shadows of his past… and she knows exactly how to unravel him. Each night, the dreams grow deeper. More real. More dangerous. Meanwhile, the city tightens its search. The safehouse walls feel smaller. ...

When wounded nobleman Anton seeks refuge at Alys’s remote mountain inn, he expects only to recover and move on. What he doesn’t expect is the innkeeper’s playful suggestion that he serve her for a month as payment— or how much he’ll discover about himself in the process. Each evening, Anton kneels to unlace her boots and follow her gentle commands, awakening desires he never knew he possessed. Alys—skilled in more than just innkeeping—guides him with authority and genuine care. What begins as necessity deepens into something neither anticipated, as Anton learns that submission...

Sterin has spent his life at the forge. He speaks more easily to silver than to people, finds comfort in routine, and wants nothing more than to be left alone with his craft. When he once forged a collar for a cursed woman, he didn’t ask questions. He simply made it well. Now the Hunter’s Guild wants to know his secret. Their silver kills. His contains. And they’ve sent someone to learn why. Maera Temlin arrives with credentials, a commission, and questions that show she’s actually listening to his answers. She doesn’t fill silences with chatter. She brings him food he can’t ...

She’s never been worshipped by a mortal man. Her sisters think that’s laughable. On Beltane, everything changes. Nerida has lived centuries as a forest nymph, yet she has never once known the intoxicating reverence her sisters collect with ease. While they are showered in offerings and devotion, she has remained on the outside, unsure of her own power. Determined to prove herself during Greywold’s Beltane festival, Nerida sets her sights on a village watchman—but her borrowed charms and awkward appeals falter. Then Thane risks his life to protect her from an ancient evil. For the ...

When a telepathy experiment reveals what was meant to stay hidden, a brilliant sorceress and her assistant must decide what happens when perfect understanding replaces careful distance. For three years, Third Mistress Celara and her assistant Tomás have worked toward a singular goal: achieving true telepathic projection. Tomorrow, they'll test whether thoughts can be transferred through a conduit mind and amplified by the resonance frame they've built. The experiment is supposed to be simple. Clinical. Tomás will act as passive channel while Celara's thoughts activate the frame. He won't ...

When Elena’s name is drawn to be sacrificed to the Storm Dragon, she expects only death. For three seasons, the rains have failed, and Pyraxis—once a gentle guardian—has become savage. No tribute has ever returned. But the dragon’s hoard hides more than gold. Among its treasures lies a presence that calls to Elena with a power she cannot resist. When she encounters a creature so vast she mistakes him for the mountain itself, she realizes her village’s stories are only half-truths. To save her drought-stricken valley, Elena must unravel the mystery of what truly ails the Storm ...

Cassandra has one goal: to become the greatest sorceress of her generation. No distractions. No indulgence. No weakness. But when she unlocks a forbidden spell, her carefully guarded discipline shatters. From the magic emerges the side of herself she’s spent a lifetime denying—sexy, shameless, and impossible to control. Now Cassandra is caught in a dangerous struggle with her own seductive alter ego. Every rule she breaks, every forbidden temptation, pulls her deeper into a spiral of pleasure and peril. Can the Academy’s brightest mind survive when her darkest self refuses to be ...

When a werewolf hunter captures a monster that begs for death, he discovers something far more dangerous— a woman who needs to be saved. Dirk has hunted werewolves for years, following a simple code: kill the beast, collect the bounty, move on. But when the wolf terrorizing a remote village does the unthinkable—surrendering rather than fighting to the death—everything changes. As dawn breaks, the creature transforms into Lyra, a woman cursed and desperate, her humanity hanging by threads of silver rope. Bound by silver-threaded restraints that keep her human but remind them both of ...

Eight years ago, healer Senra Grail found the one man who saw every hidden part of her—and wanted her exactly as she was. For five unforgettable nights, Corven matched her desires, her needs, her soul. Then he vanished, leaving her alone with grief that froze her heart. Now he’s back—bleeding out on her healer’s table. Saving him was her duty. Keeping him is her choice. After years of emptiness, Senra can’t let him slip away again without knowing what his absence truly cost her. But the fire that once bound them still burns, and some needs, once awakened, never die. A sensual tale...

When hunger drives a desperate huntress across forbidden borders, she finds herself face-to-face with the divine—and binds him. Arielle's village is dying. Three years of famine have reduced her people to shadows, and the forest that once provided has gone silent. When her father—the village alderman—grows too weak to rise from his bed, she takes up her bow and ventures past the streams that mark the boundary between the mortal world and the wild. She seeks only a deer to feed her people. What she finds is Ceridor—god of the hunt, keeper of the forest, magnificent and impossible. ...

A missing actress. A festival in chaos. A director forced onto the stage. When the lead actress vanishes on the night of the Daybreak festival, theater director Vivienne must take her place in the most demanding role of her career. She knows every line of the legendary play commemorating Mireille Shadowcrown's defeat. What she doesn't know is how it will feel to experience the tyrant's public punishment firsthand—bent over the bench of shame while the crowd cheers each strike. As Vivienne discovers the intensity of theatrical humiliation and unexpected pleasure, she must navigate the ...

Step into the refined world of Mind Your Manners, where intellect, elegance, and influence converge. Hosted by the enigmatic Lucien Vale, this podcast takes you beyond the noise of modern life to explore the art of power, strategy, and grace.Each episode delves deep into thought-provoking topics, from mastering human connection to navigating the chaos of social media, always with an emphasis on sophistication and purpose. Through sharp analysis, captivating storytelling, and actionable insights, Lucien guides you on a journey to elevate your thinking and refine your approach to life.Whether ...