ELUNED

a novel

Had she invoked the Beast? Despite her apparent calm, the weight of this query pressed upon the queen, heavy as the castle in which she stood.  

It is the late 8th century and a ruthless Saxon has swept into Wales like a raging fire. Some believe him a demon and no one knows his name. Across Britain he is known only as the Beast. Awaiting his final onslaught, Queen Eluned's advisers council her to flee. But as the battering ram shakes her castle, the young queen cannot tear her eyes from her favorite childhood tapestry and the ferocious creature mysteriously woven into it who has long fueled the secret life of her imagination. 

Abducted from her kingdom, Eluned's fantasies come to violent life when she is taken to the Beast's crumbling castle and thrust into the exotic world of his courtesans. Having long lived with tremendous isolation and shame over her desires, the unexpected realities of her subjugation convince the young queen she is damned. 

Despite her inner darkness, she begins to forge the first intimate friendships of her life with the five concubines, whose vivid tales transport Eluned from a lively village alehouse to the eerie majesty of an abandoned Roman fortress. As her affection for the women and her understanding of her brutal captor grows, Eluned will be forced, once and for all, to confront her desires, her faith, and the deepest secrets in her nature. 

Inspired by the Brontes, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott and the Marquis de Sade, ELUNED is an exploration of loves contradictions and the relationship between surrender and freedom. Hoping to provoke meaningful discussion within the current trend of BDSM in literature, ELUNED explores intense themes within a captivating storyline and a vividly realized world.