Excerpted from FROST AND VENOM by Christine Feehan:
Harlow cursed herself for being so emotional. She’d been raised to be stoic, to never show her feelings, but lately, she fell apart the moment she was alone. Now, Wilder had come at the worst possible time. She’d given herself permission to fall apart, to cry, scream, rail against injustice, believing she would be alone at three in the morning on a trail in the middle of nowhere.
Still, she was a nurse, and a darned good one. The scandal didn’t matter, only the fact that this man was injured. She took a deep breath, forcing air through her lungs. She could handle this. More, it was Wilder, and he was injured.
“Let’s get you to the garage. I can take you to the hospital.” She managed to keep her voice steady. In charge. She should have known it wouldn’t work.
“Not going to the hospital, woman. If I wanted to go there, that’s where I’d be. I was coming to you so you could fix me up.”
She matched her pace to his. Normally, Wilder moved with easy, fluid steps, but he was awkward. Hunched. Arms wrapped around his middle. One hand was pressed hard against his side. “Where is your car?” She hadn’t noticed one sitting in any of the parking places.
“Don’t have one.”
That didn’t make sense. “How did you get here? You’re injured.”
A faint grin sent her heart into overdrive. His smile was stunning yet terrifying in the way she reacted to it. She just didn’t—couldn’t—have such intense chemistry with any other person. But Wilder?
“Happy you finally noticed I could use a little assistance. It hurts like a son of a bitch.”
She kept walking, ensuring she didn’t move too fast. A fine sheen of sweat glistened on Wilder’s face. He hunched even more as they made their way slowly back toward her house.
“Ran into trouble on a mission. Parachuted in to you.” His low, velvet-toned voice was barely discernible. “Don’t want to take the chance of paperwork in the hospital that would lead straight back to me. If this is inconvenient . . .” He shrugged.
“As if I’d ever turn you away.” She wasn’t going to point out she was risking her license, depending on how bad it was. She could get in trouble if he’d been shot. That was something she would be obligated to report—not that she would, and she was usually by the book.
As if reading her mind, he took one hand and ran it down the back of her hair as they walked. “Things go wrong, you need anything at all, you reach out to Rainier. He has the pull to get you out of trouble.”
Her heart stuttered. “You stay here. I’ll go get the car.” Something was very wrong. She should have realized Wilder would never be sweating or stumbling the way he was if the injury wasn’t bad.
He kept walking. As he did, he slid one palm to her lower back and pressed gently to keep her moving. “Let’s just get there, babe.”
Under any other circumstances, she would have objected strenuously to being called babe by him. Now, she just wanted to get him safely to her home.
“Distract me. Talk. Tell me why you were out here when you know better and why you were crying.”
She heaved an exaggerated sigh. “I don’t understand how you can manage to be annoying even when you’re clearly seriously wounded.”
He flashed that faint grin of his that could melt the panties right off a woman. “It’s a gift.”
Harlow was slightly ashamed that she reacted to that little grin. He was wounded, and it seemed a little perverted that she was thinking of sex when he was most likely bleeding to death. His skin had a grayish hue and was beaded with sweat. He might act confident, but he was severely injured. Ordinarily, she would have taken charge, but Wilder wasn’t a man she could manipulate or control, not even when it came to his health. She kept walking, determined to get him to her house as soon as she could.
Excerpted from FROST AND VENOM © 2026 by Christine Feehan. Reprinted with permission from Berkley. All rights reserved.
FROST AND VENOM by Christine Feehan
Narrator: Alyssa Bresnahan
Deception and danger lay in wait in the beautiful, harrowing California backcountry in this gripping suspense novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan.
Surgical and trauma nurse Harlow Frye loves the small town of Knightly, where breathtaking views of the Sierra and a tight circle of female friends provides a refuge from her professional life. But lately, it’s Harlow’s personal life that’s causing all the chaos.
First, a series of anonymous threatening letters are left in her mailbox. Then, Harlow is dealt a blow when her friend Lawyer dies after reacting to some sort of toxin. And to top it off, Harlow finds her secret obsession, CIA operative Hawkin Wilder, bleeding out on a mountain trail.
As Harlow turns her home into a makeshift hospital, her infuriating, attractive patient insists on distracting her. But even in the face of their increasing connection, there’s no way Harlow can ignore the escalating storm, when someone else close to her is struck down by the mysterious toxin.
With little more than intuition to go on, Harlow turns to the five friends who have proved themselves to be a better family than her own flesh and blood. As the women attempt to unravel the killings, they will need to rely on their instincts and their connection to each other‑or else they’ll lose everything they’ve come to hold dear.
Romance Suspense [ Berkley, On Sale: September 1, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9798217191758 / eISBN: 9798217191772 ]
She Escaped Her Past—But Someone Isn’t Ready to Let Her Go
A Fierce Hero, a Guarded Heroine, and Danger Closing In.
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About Christine Feehan
Christine Feehan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Carpathian series, the GhostWalker series, the Leopard series, the Shadow Riders series, and the Sea Haven novels, including the Drake Sisters series and the Sisters of the Heart series. She also writes standalone thrillers set in the California backcountry.
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