His Dead Bride: A Reaper Shifter Romance [Otherworldly Creatures Book 3]

By T.O. Smith

He's been searching for his mate for over two hundred years. The Reaper part of his soul yearns for its other half.

He vows when he finds her, he won't waste time. He'll claim her as soon as his eyes land on her.

~•~•~

She's been cursed to spend the rest of eternity in the ground, except she's able to rise from the dead every seven years on Halloween.

The only way that she gets to remain living and breathing above ground is if she finds her one true love.

And this Halloween, her luck may change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tiff Thomas
• Release date: May 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005329785

T.O. Smith

T.O. Smith believes in one thing - a happily ever after.Her books are fast-paced and dive straight into the romance and the action. She doesn't do extensively drawn out plots. Normally, within the first chapter, she's got you - hook, line, and sinker.As a writer of various different genres of romance, a reader is almost guaranteed to find some kind of romance novel they'll enjoy on her page.T.O. Smith can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and now even TikTok! She loves interacting with all of her readers, so follow her!

Book preview

ONE

Luella felt like her lungs were collapsing in on themselves. It was painful – so fucking painful that she could barely cope. All she wanted was a breath of fresh air – out of the dirt.

If only she could find her way to the top.

She hated that she could never figure out her way towards fresh air. All she could feel, smell, fucking breathe was dirt. And she hated that she knew that she would suffer until she found her way out of the Earth.

It was part of her curse. She could never die – only suffer in loneliness for years to pay for her family’s crimes against the witch of their land. And she would suffocate – never to actually die of lack of oxygen – until she managed to get out of the ground.

Though, now, almost two hundred years later, Luella knew that her family had long been dead, long been buried in their own graves. Their plantation had been sold a little over a hundred and fifty years ago when her brother fell terminally ill, eventually succumbing to his illness. There had been no other family, no heirs.

The plantation had been auctioned off to the highest bidder. And she got to hear it all since she the witch that had cursed her could give her insight into what was going on in the land of the living, but only she could give it to Luella. Otherwise, she was stuck in the darkness with only her thoughts to accompany her.

Luella knew that the evil, heartless witch would be waiting on her at the edge of her grave, waiting for her to rise from the dead like she did every seven years on Halloween. She would remind Luella of the curse and of the rules she was to follow if she wanted to break it.

Breaking the curse was damn near impossible, though.

One of those rules was that Luella must find her true love within the measly few hours that was granted to her before she sucked back into the Earth.

And if she happened to mate with a supernatural being, Luella must complete the mating with her soul mate in its human form.

And that would be a miracle to achieve because supernatural beings mostly ran on instinct, especially where their mates were concerned.

She clawed at the dirt around her, her lungs screaming for fresh air. Luella hated this part of waking up – hated that it made her panic no matter how many times she went through the pain.

Because when she was thrown into the Earth to sleep for another seven years, her body was stilled – cold and lifeless – almost as if she were truly dead, though her mind still worked, making her feel the loneliness she knew she would always feel.

And she was sure that loneliness would always remain because the only way to break the curse was basically the impossible.

She had to find her one true love in one, single night before sunrise. And time began to tick as soon as she came awake, trying to drag air into her deprived lungs and claw her way out of the Earth.

Luella resisted the urge to scream, knowing it would be useless.

She just wanted out.

♥ ♥ ♥

He could feel her.

The reaper side of him was clawing to be released so that they could find his other half – his soul mate – the one woman he would love for the rest of eternity.

He had been searching for her for hundreds of years – since the beginning of time itself.

It had been lonely without her, and he was determined to find her, but he couldn’t let his reaper out. If his other half happened to be a human, he knew his reaper form would only serve to terrify her, and he didn’t want to do that.

Elias just wanted to claim her, make her his, and spend the rest of eternity loving her and making her happy. Reapers were given three purposes in life: one, to reap the souls of the Earth and send them to their destinations in the afterlife; two, love their mate unconditionally; and three, breed the next generation of reapers.

Having her afraid of him would defeat that purpose. And God had made sure that all of his reapers understood how important their mates were to them.

A mate was a reaper’s other half – one of his sole purposes for living.

She is ours. We must find her. His reaper growled in his mind.

Elias gritted his teeth in frustration. His reaper was a downright pain in the ass sometimes. If she is human, we will frighten her. You have to let me take care of this. You need to trust me. He snapped back at his reaper.

Elias’s reaper growled, but