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- 10 Seconds: COLE Aftershocks EP 1 (A Phoenix Club series)
- Friends With Benefits: A Phoenix Club Prequel (Cole & Gabe)
** AFTERSHOCKS is a follow-up short story series to the COLE series. Each story will focus on one or two characters who were deeply affected or traumatized by the events of the COLE series.
Emotions run high as Angel's unwarranted accusations trigger a chain of events that culminate in a heart-wrenching moment of fear and realization. When a misunderstanding leads to a harrowing incident, Angel is forced to confront his own insecurities and trauma.
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At thirteen, Angel made a choice no child should ever have to make. For five years, he paid a price that wasn’t his to pay—so that his little brother Maddy never would. Now twenty, married, and finally learning what safety feels like, Angel was beginning to believe the worst was behind him.
Then something came for Maddy again. And when it was finally over—with Maddy alive and safe—the relief Angel expected never arrived.
Instead, the nights grow longer. The old fear finds new faces—including the face of the man who has never been anything but gentle with him. When Angel’s unraveling threatens to destroy the love that helped put him back together, he must reckon with the most frightening possibility of all: that surviving something and escaping it are not the same thing.
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COMPANION READS:
COLE: THE COMPLETE SERIES
THE PHOENIX CLUB: 5-BOOK BUNDLE
TRIGGER WARNING: Psychological trauma as a result of Sexual Abuse and loss/fear of loss of loved ones.
Editors:
Cover Artists:
Genres:
Pairings: M-M
Heat Level: 1
Romantic Content: 4
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Gay
Protagonist 1 Age: 18-25
Protagonist 2 Age: 26-35
Tropes: Everyone is Queer, Found Family, Hurt / Comfort, Married Life, True Love
Word Count: 12323
Setting: City
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Continuous / Same Characters
The nightmare combined elements of dream and memory. Angel found himself once again in the same park where Abel was discovered that horrific night… with the bodies hanging from the tree. Unlike reality, in the nightmare, the bodies weren’t covered with cloth bags over their heads—and they weren’t decoys.
In the dream, Angel was barefoot, and icy grass blades pierced between his toes like frozen daggers. Every nerve in his feet felt the ground's cold, sending sharp pain from his soles up to his ankles and calves. The cold slithered beneath his pants, almost alive. His thigh muscles started to ache and then tremble.
The agony of the freezing cold seeping into his limbs was hardly more than an afterthought as Angel stood beneath the high tree limb, staring up into Maddy’s dead eyes while his little brother’s bloody, naked, violated body swayed in the icy breeze. And hanging beside him… not Savannah.
Dane.
READ MOREHis beautiful, perfect form now torn… gutted… broken.
Angel clutched his head as his knees buckled, driving him to the hard winter ground. The scream gurgled at the base of his throat, bubbling up his esophagus and gushing across his tongue as his sanity twisted into a misshapen crux—
Ding.
The simple text notification—barely audible—somehow wrenched him from the nightmare, like the hand of God yanking him from hell's fiery bowels. Angel jerked beneath the blankets, eyes snapping open. Warm tears spilled onto his pillow, and his heart beat wildly—frantically—against his chest wall until it began to feel bruised.
Sudden nausea pinched his gut, and he started to vacate the bed for the bathroom when he heard the shower running. He lay back down, closed his eyes, and willed the queasiness to go away. Dane didn’t know about his nightmares. Angel didn’t want him to know.
COLLAPSEKathy Morris on Amazon wrote:These new short stories will help us all! They are needed to bring closure to all those who suffered from Cole’s past. I look forward to more episodes for these men to heal and be there for each other.
Bring out the tissues and find a quiet spot to read. This book is another tear-jerker. If you've read Cole's books, you know that everyone involved is a mental mess. This book is about Angel. His nightmares and the result of them.
This book is a must-read. This book is written with so much feeling and compassion for the people. CJ knows how to get under your skin. This book is amazing and so heartfelt. I can't wait to read the next one in the series. This book may be short, but it will leave you feeling it for a long time. Love it CJ Bishop.
