To sequel or not to sequel…

I know that as a reader, I’m ambivalent about sequels. I like to know the hero and heroine (or whatever combination of main characters) are still living happily ever after. But too often, in books something nasty happens to one or another of them down the track, in a long series. Or even to an important secondary character, like JK Rowling’s Dumbledore.
But sometimes, even though the hero and heroine are satisfactorily together, the story just isn’t finished. Other characters are screaming for their turn in the limelight, the villain escapes from captivity, or something else just appears.
This has happened to me several times now, so in each case I’ve written a stand-alone sequel where the main characters remain HEA, but other characters pick up the storyline.
The “Born to Rule” series began with four books. They follow the stories of Terah, Raine, Flame, and Skye, women whose destiny will only be discovered after the world as we know it has gone forever. The planet Mu Arae 7 sends warriors to Earth on a mission. Each warrior must find his bride to complete his mission.
The problem was that eight Mu Araen warriors insisted on making the journey to Earth and yet each woman only wanted one man. Life would have been so much easier for me, the writer, if each woman had chosen two men. But the characters refused to make my life that easy. Each warrior chooses his woman. He recognizes her by her scent and the series is MF—one man, one woman.
Which meant when the four women had all been settled into their own happy ending, four warriors were left unsatisfied.
And they hounded me for their own stories. So I wrote two more books, “North” which is out now, and “South” which releases tomorrow.
Because really. How can I deny a hunky warrior with purple eyes, determined to find the one woman on Earth who will make him happy?

PG 13 Excerpt from “Born to Rule” book 1: “Earth”.
Terah took a deep breath in through her nose. “Danger. There’s danger here.”
She picked up her pack and screamed, “Run!” but it was too late. As the four of them scattered, a horde of enormous aliens burst over the hill and captured them. One of the giants grabbed her, sweeping her into his arms, and saying something in a language she didn’t know.
Terah kicked and screamed, struggling to get free from arms that were like ropes around her body. His hand, twice the size of hers, covered her mouth and nose.
“I found you and you are mine. By the laws of all Mu Arae I claim you.”
Terah went limp in his arms. She was a slave. The long walk, the days and days, hands and feet of them for her, for Skye, for Raine, and for Flame, were all wasted. Instead of escaping from the aliens they’d all been caught almost at the safe place. The aliens must have discovered it and waited here to trap them. Now she was this man’s slave forever.
The man called out something in the strange language, and then there was silence. He was holding her so tightly against his chest she couldn’t even say goodbye to her friends. Tears prickled behind her eyelids but she refused to cry.
Goodbye, Skye. Goodbye, Flame. Goodbye, Raine. I hope your aliens aren’t too horrible to work for.
The alien turned her in his arms and spoke slowly in English. “Do you understand that you belong to me now?”
“Yes.” Her voice was soft and defeated so she immediately squared her shoulders. She belonged to him and had to do whatever he told her. But inside he couldn’t change her thoughts and personhood. She would always be Terah in her heart.
“You are my bride. We belong together. You will stay with me and we will rebuild the land.”
Terah didn’t understand the word bride. But since she had to stay with him and work the land she guessed slave was close enough to the meaning. At least she knew how to scavenge food and which plants they could eat. He was so big she supposed it would take most of her time every day just to find enough food to feed him.
He put her down and began to undress. His purple clothing looked very strange to her, but then she’d never seen an alien before either. At least he had arms and legs just like hers, and his hair was blond. His eyes were different though. She’d never seen anyone with purple eyes before. When he was naked, he pulled her closer to his body and dragged her shirt off over her head. He pulled so hard she worried that it would tear.
“Let me do it.”
She stepped back and undressed, even taking her sandals off, and stood naked before him. She couldn’t decide whether he was just looking to see what he’d gotten, or if he was going to mark her in some way to show she belonged to him, or whether he wanted to have sex with her. As his slave there was nothing she could do to complain whatever he wanted to do with her. He’d told her twice she belonged to him and she accepted that. She’d known the aliens were coming looking for slaves. It was just bad luck that she and her friends had been caught.
“You are too thin. You need to eat more,” he said.
Yes, well, that was only going to happen if he permitted her to eat more, but it was a positive sign that he meant to feed her.
“Andreas.” He tapped his chest and looked at her.
Apparently they were exchanging names. “Terah.”
“Suck my cock.”

The best-selling “Born to Rule” series by Berengaria Brown:
Available at Bookstrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/earth-mf
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Born-Rule-Book-1-ebook/dp/B0167JJKXU/ref=pd_sim_351_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=512Azyy6JIL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=09JVFQ14C5VRPZA6E307
All Romance ebooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-earth-1901004-340.html
Evernight Publishing: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/north-by-berengaria-brown/

Berengaria Brown
http://berengariasblog.blogspot.com/