Spotlight & Giveaway: Undercover Wolf by Paige Tyler

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Paige Tyler to HJ!

Hi Paige and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Undercover Wolf!

Tell us about the book with this fun little challenge using the title of the book.

U is for Undercover. This is going to be easy! There are several aspects of the story that fit into the term Undercover. The biggest is Sawyer, who is hiding his werewolf nature from his teammates.
N is for Naked. Okay, it really isn’t, but that’s where my mind tends to go sometimes. It’s an issue I’m working on. Actually, N is for Night, when a majority of this story occurs, because…well…it’s about supernaturals and darkness really brings out the colors of their eyes.
D is for Dangerous. As in there are so many dangerous situations and dangerous people in this story. And the scary part is, the supernaturals aren’t necessarily the most dangerous ones in the room.
E is for Edge-of-your-seat-Excitement (kind of a two-for-one deal). This story is going to have the reader running around the world out of breath from all the thrills, chills, and romance!
R is for Running. I’m not sure why, but our characters are always running around in our stories. Either running to catch someone…or running to get away from someone.
C is for Covert. Both STAT and MI6 are covert agencies, but still, they spend a tremendous amount of time running around fighting and shooting in the middle of crowded cities, with fangs and claws out. Not sure how covert that really is.
O is for Outsider. Sawyer Bishop goes through a majority of this story feeling like he’s on the outside, looking in. He doesn’t trust his own teammates with his secret, and when he sees how they react to the existence of the supernatural world, he realizes that he was right to hide everything from them. It’s only as he starts to help Harley accept her own nature that he comes to accept his own unique abilities.
V is for vulnerable. Strong heroes need to have a vulnerable side. It makes them easier to relate to and easier to fall in love with.
E is for Escargot. This particular food (or supernatural creature) never appears in this story, but our hero and heroine did go out for dinner in Paris, so I figured it fits (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). Besides, it’s entirely possible a slug shifter might show up in one of the next books, so we need to have our readers ready for anything.
R is for Romance. Can’t forget that. Even if you’re running for your life, trying to save the world, there is always time for a bit of romance. More than one way to get the heart beating faster!

W is for Werewolves. Because…well…obviously…this series is about werewolves. I could have said it’s for Wombats, but that would be silly.
O is for Over the top. Our editor is always saying that some of our action/thrill scenes are like that. I personally take it as a compliment. Go big or go home!
L is for Love. For all the action and thrills, Paige Tyler stories are always about people meeting the person they’re supposed to spend their lives with…and falling in love.
F is for Food. Werewolves eat a lot, so food plays an important part in my stories. Especially, yummy comfort food. Fortunately, werewolves can’t gain weight no matter how much they eat (I think I’m projecting here).
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Female alpha werewolf, Harley Grant, and her teammates on the Special Threat Assessment Team (STAT) are digging into a possible human-trafficking ring operating out of Paris that might involve supernaturals. The only question? Are supernaturals doing the kidnapping…or are they the ones being kidnapped? Or both? Soon enough, she and her team are joined by agents from Britain’s MI6, who are tracking the same lead as STAT. The only difference? MI6 has no idea that supernaturals exists. Well…that’s not actually true since there’s one member of the British team who obviously knows. That’s Sawyer Bishop. He’s an alpha werewolf, too. It must really suck having to hide something like that from your own teammates.
As the joint teams start working together, they have to overcome mountains of distrust while at the same time trying to stop a crew of bad guys hopping all over the world kidnapping people. And if that’s not difficult enough, Harley has to help Sawyer keep his werewolf identity secret from his teammates, even if they all need his abilities now more than ever.
 

Please share your favorite quote from the book.

“STAT has learned that when you’re dealing with supernaturals, it’s best to have a few on your side.”

This is like the unofficial tagline for this series, and it just fit into the dialogue seamlessly. I like when that happens!
 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The first scene in the book takes place in Paris, France. We’ve never been there, but we’ve have always wanted to go. Disney Adventures offers a “City of Lights” guided tour where they drag you around both London and Paris, and we’ve wanted to do that for years. In the meantime, we do Google research, but it’s not the same.
• You’ll meet a ton of new and unique supernaturals in this book! We had such a tremendously fun time coming up with all these new characters, even if it was hard to pick only a few to focus the story on. But I can promise you that you will see many of them again!
• There are parts of this series that may come off a little like a travel guide (we’re constantly throwing in the names of famous sights, streets, and stuff). You can blame the animated show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? for this bad habit. I love that show. A stylish coat with a hang glider inside? Count me in!

If you could have given your characters one piece of advice before the opening pages of the
book, what – would it be and why?

• Advice 1: Never split up. I don’t know why these alpha werewolf types are always do this. It always goes bad.
• Advice 2: Always look behind you. Why doesn’t the good guy know that the bad guy is always right there just inches away? Haven’t they read this kind of books before.
• Advice 3: Stop trying to outrun love. Sure, you’re a werewolf and can run really fast, but love is faster. It’s going to get you, so just give up and accept it.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

This is the scene in the dark, loud nightclub (those show up frequently in our stories) of Paris where our hero and heroine first meet. There’s lots of verbal banter and nonverbal communication. This scene will show us if the actors have the chemistry it takes to be together in this movie.

Harley wove through the crowd, circling dance floors and around tables, then moved through an archway that led to a set of dimly lit concrete stairs and the lower level Jake had asked her and Caleb to find. She absently listened to her teammates reporting in over the radio, saying they still hadn’t found anything. Tuning them out, she focused on her nose, trusting it to lead her down the steps even as she lost the trail more than once.
There was yet another dance floor downstairs, this one filled with people moving to a much less chaotic rhythm than those on the level above. There were fewer flashing lights, too. That should have made it easier to scan the room and locate the source of the scent that had drawn her down there, but nobody stood out.
Maybe she was completely wrong about the scent.
Maybe it wasn’t a werewolf at all.
Then she caught a glimpse of someone out of the corner of her eye that made her snap her head around, but she didn’t see anyone. Sure she’d seen something, she skirted the outside of the dance floor in that direction. She was starting to question herself again when she spotted a tall, attractive guy with broad shoulders, casually disheveled brown hair, and scruff on his square jaw. He was circling the dancers on the floor in much the same way Harley was but in the opposite direction, keeping pace with her so they stayed exactly opposite each other.
Yeah, like that’s a coincidence.
A little voice in the back of her head told her to get on the radio and call Caleb and the rest of her teammates, but she ignored it, too mesmerized by the handsome man across the room from her. Every few seconds, piercing blue eyes locked with hers, making something inside her—­maybe her inner wolf—­feel a sensation she didn’t recognize.
Even if she hadn’t picked up on the scent, Harley would have known he was a werewolf from the graceful, animalistic way he moved.
He was a predator, no doubt about it.
Was he a kidnapper as well?
She wanted to say he’d never do anything like that, which was an asinine thing to consider about a man she’d never met.
Tired of stalking in circles, Harley stopped, turning carefully to keep her eyes on the big werewolf as he moved closer. She wasn’t sure, but for a brief moment, she thought she caught sight of what might have been a smile tugging at his sensuous mouth.
The other werewolf—­an alpha most definitely—­strode past the last few people separating them and came to a halt a few feet away. Harley couldn’t ignore that the man in front of her was possibly the most gorgeous guy she’d ever seen.
Which pretty much guaranteed he was one of the bad guys. Because that was how her luck worked out when it came to the opposite sex.
Harley took a single step forward and felt a tingle in her stomach when he did the same, that dangerous smile showing up again. She took another few steps toward him when his head whipped to the side. She looked that way, too, trying to see what had attracted his attention, and caught sight of two men slipping behind a black velvet curtain covering a section of the far wall. The second guy cast a furtive glance over his shoulder before disappearing.
That isn’t suspicious at all.
She turned back to the alpha werewolf, but he was already striding in that direction. She quickly followed, knowing she should call the rest of the team, but once again, her instincts insisted she hold off. By the time she slipped behind the curtain, all she saw was another set of stairs. The mysterious werewolf was nowhere to be found.
She paused long enough to slide a hand under her dress and pull the small frame Glock 9mm from the tiny holster strapped to her upper thigh, chambering a round as she started down the steps, rather proud of how comfortably she handled a loaded weapon. Considering that before joining STAT she’d never even held a gun, she thought she was doing rather well.
From down below, she heard the rhythmic sound of rapid footsteps along with the soft murmur of voices but no music or partying people or anything else to make her think this was a part of the dance club open to the public. Whatever the hell those two guys had come down here for, it probably wasn’t on the up-­and-­up.
Lit only by three low-­watt bulbs mounted in cobweb-­covered fixtures hanging from the rough stone ceiling, the room at the bottom of the steps was filled with crates, racks of empty bottles, and bags of trash. The dim glow was barely enough to throw shadows, but Harley didn’t need a lot of light to see the werewolf standing a few feet away, his broad back to her, a pistol down at his side.
“You always bring a gun when you go to a nightclub?” he asked without looking at her.
His voice was as deep as she’d imagined it would be, a little rough with a hint of a British accent, like he’d traveled extensively for much of his life and lost a bit of the distinctive sound over time.
“A girl has to be careful these days,” Harley said, smiling even though she was standing in the middle of a filthy storage room twenty feet underground with an alpha werewolf who’d probably lured her down here with kidnapping in mind—­or worse. “I’ve heard big cities can be dangerous.”
The man turned to look at her, blue eyes piercing even in the dimness as they slid up and down her body. “If you think it might be dangerous, why come to Paris? And all the way from America, if I’m not mistaking the accent.”
The Brit’s perfectly sculpted nose lifted a little, his nostrils flaring the slightest bit, like he was trying to take in a scent he found tantalizing. Harley knew he was picking up her pheromones and couldn’t help wondering what she smelled like to him.
Did he like her scent?
Did she care if he did?
“You know the song ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun,’ right?” She approached him slowly, glancing around and trying to figure out where the other two men had gone. “Maybe visiting potentially dangerous places is how I have fun.”
“Strange hobby,” he said, his voice dropping down an octave to practically make her tummy vibrate…as well as regions a bit farther south. “I prefer reading, but whatever. You do you.”
Harley lifted a brow, lowering her gun to a safe position. “Is that what you’re doing down in this dank, dark room?” She stepped to the side a little, making him circle to the right as they resumed the little dance they’d done upstairs. “Looking for a good book?”
He snorted, coming to a stop again a few feet away. “We both know that’s not what I’m doing down here anymore than you’re here looking for some fun. So, as entertaining as this banter is, I think it’s time we get on with what really brought us here.”

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

These books are about adventure and romance around the world. I hope you get caught up in all of this—finding someone who makes you complete and happy, experiencing that tingle of living on the edge, and getting a chance to see (at least through the character’s eyes) parts of the world you might never get to see others. These stories are escapism at its most basic. Daring, steamy, and exciting!

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print copy of Undercover Wolf by Paige Tyler

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Excerpt from Undercover Wolf:

In this scene, our hero and heroine take a walk through Paris, talking a little about what it means to be a werewolf.

“It can be tricky when you’re new to the whole werewolf thing,” Sawyer said as they paused across the street from the Eiffel Tower. They both had to crane their necks to see all the way to the top, but it was worth it. Up close, it was truly spectacular. “I know my instincts got better over time. How long has it been since you went through your change?”
Harley doubted that was the issue, and even though she knew the exact date she’d turned, she did the math in her head anyway for the hell of it. “Eight years. I was twenty when I turned.”
When Sawyer didn’t say anything, Harley looked away from the gorgeous gigantic tower in front of her to see him standing there looking a little uncomfortable. It wasn’t hard to figure out why.
“Let me guess,” she said drily. “You’ve been a werewolf for less than that, right?”
“Yeah.” He gave her a sheepish smile. “I turned four years ago. But I don’t know much about our kind, so maybe it’s less about time and more about experiences. Being part of MI6, I kind of had to figure out how to make this thing work for me—­fast.”
Considering she’d spent the vast majority of her time as a werewolf completely ignoring that part of herself, she imagined Sawyer was probably right, though she doubted if he’d understand. Not wanting to talk about the reasons behind why she never tried to tap into her inner werewolf, she turned and took a few pictures of the Eiffel Tower. Harley had to fight the urge to talk Sawyer into joining the ridiculously long line of people waiting to climb the steps to the top for a view of the city. But the wait was probably two or three hours. They didn’t have the time.
Reluctantly turning away from one of the places she’d wanted to visit her whole life, she fell into step beside Sawyer as they began walking again.
“How far is it to the Pont Alexandre?” she asked, praying Sawyer didn’t start asking questions she wasn’t ready to answer as they made their way to the bridge. She might trust Sawyer with her life, but she wasn’t ready to share all her secrets. Not when she refused to even discuss most of them with herself.
“About a mile,” he murmured. “Probably less than twenty minutes.”
Harley wasn’t so sure about that, considering how much stuff there’d be to look at along the way, but she didn’t bother pointing that out. She followed the sidewalk as it began to veer to the right, figuring she’d walk faster when there wasn’t as much to see in this area. That would give her extra time for the good stuff.
They mostly talked about the sights as they walked and it quickly became apparent Sawyer knew a lot more about Paris than she did. That only made sense considering he lived across the channel. When they weren’t discussing the buildings, scenery, or passing people, the main topic of interest was Adriana and her story about the supernatural auction. No matter how many times Harley thought they were done with the subject, she found her mind coming back to it. She couldn’t understand why a group of supernaturals would do something like this to others of their kind. Wasn’t it bad enough they had to worry about being grabbed up by the torch and pitchfork crowd? To have to look over their shoulders for other supernaturals coming after them was all kinds of wrong.
“Do you think there’s any chance the kidnappers could have gotten their hands on a werewolf?” she asked.
She wasn’t sure why that thought terrified her more than the idea of someone like Adriana being grabbed. But for some reason, it did.
“I’d like to think it’d be impossible to catch a werewolf by surprise,” he said as they made their way across the ornate Pont Alexandre that spanned the Seine River, to the Champs-­Élysées beyond it. “But considering they have other supernaturals working for them, like that guy who can disappear and reappear at will, it’d be silly to think we wouldn’t be as vulnerable as anyone else.”
That wasn’t very reassuring.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

When these two agents are under fire, they’ll have to reconsider everything they know…

Werewolf Harley Grant isn’t exactly comfortable with her inner wolf. Even though she’s on a STAT team where she can use her abilities openly, she refuses to do so, putting herself—and sometimes her teammates—at risk.

Alpha werewolf Sawyer Bishop would give anything for his MI6 team to know about his inner wolf, but his teammates are mistrustful of anyone or anything with inhuman abilities. When he meets Harley on an overlapping case and realizes she’s a fellow wolf, he’s more than a little intrigued.

Now that STAT and MI6 have to team up to stop a crew of supernatural bad guys intent on causing a nuclear meltdown, Harley can no longer deny her wolf and Sawyer can no longer hide his. As they grow closer to resolving the case and grow closer to each other, they discover things aren’t what they seem and revenge could cost them their lives.

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Meet the Author:

Paige Tyler is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sexy, romantic fiction. Paige writes books about hunky alpha males and the kick-butt heroines they fall in love with. She lives with her very own military hero (a.k.a. her husband) and their adorable dog on the beautiful Florida coast.