Mixed Blood

Author's Note

Rhia reached the top of the ridge just as the column of flames dissipated and the rest of the dragons landed. A chorus of their songs shook the earth in a way she'd never heard before. It was full of elation, and triumph, and love. At the center of the crater was Nekros's huge black form. With him, entwined in a loving embrace, was another dragon. One that Rhia had never met but knew instantly.

Bright red feathers, and under glow of orange and yellow magic, and fire-red eyes.

It was her. It was Phoenix.

She was alive.

~

Welcome to Mixed Blood, book 3 of the Ancient Blood Series.

If you haven't read Dragon Blood (book 1) or Blood Lust (book 2), I highly recommend you do that first. There is a lot of world-building, terminology, context, and almost all the characters are recurring, so you may not understand if you dive straight into book 3.

That said, do what you want. I can't stop you.

If you have read Dragon Blood and Blood Lust, welcome back and thank you so much for sticking with me for another book! At the beginning of the journey of this series back in 2020, I never once thought that I would have such a great following, or that anyone would be interested in my ramblings at all. You all remind me every day what I'm working towards, and I'm always so excited to see your votes and read your comments.

~

As always, there are a few things I want to address before chapters begin tomorrow:

1. This is a first draft

While there has been an insane amount of planning around this book, especially compared to the other two, pacing still might feel a bit inconsistent, there may be continuity errors, and there may be filler chapters when I don't know how to move from one plot point to another. 

This story also takes place over a much longer timeframe than the other two (months instead of weeks). I'm going to try my best to explain time jumps, but in the end, I might just have to post a timeline in a separate chapter.

In fact, let me know here if you would like that, and I can update it with every chapter in case there is any confusion to where things fall in the grand timeline of the story.

2. Posting schedule

Chapters will be posted on Thursdays, usually first thing in the morning. I say usually, because sometimes I sleep through my alarm and don't get to posting before I leave for work. Like with the other two books, when I've completely finished writing Mixed Blood, I will increase posting to 2-3 times a week until it's finished.

*As a note regarding the first two points, I'm not sure how long this book will be. Dragon Blood and Blood Lust were both around 175k words. I am predicting Mixed Blood to end somewhere around 200 to 250K, but I truly have no idea.

3. This book is rated mature for more reasons than just sexual scenes

There will be fewer explicitly sexual scenes due to the nature of this book, but they will continue to be marked (R) in the chapter title along with the little warning at the beginning. This does not have the same kind of romance as is in the first two books and have categorized it mainly as fantasy. But, in my opinion, this story does represent a much deeper level of romance than what I have shown so far.

Other mature themes will include emotional manipulation and abuse (such as gaslighting), mentions of torture and sexual assault, brainwashing, death, and terrorism. These topics will not be glorified, nor will I be going into explicit details of certain events.

This story is not appropriate for anyone under the age of 17, as per Wattpad guidelines, and my personal preference would be no one under 18.

4. This is first and foremost a story

It does not accurately portray my opinion on sensitive subjects such as racism, sexism, homophobia, politics, or religion. The things my characters say, do, or think do not always align with my personal opinions. To be entirely honest, I can't believe I have to include this part, but I have gotten comments in the past from people calling me a bad person because my villain characters say and do things that are, you know, evil.

5. This is (probably) the last of the central Ancient Blood Series

Unless this story ends up being so long that I have to divide it in two, Mixed Blood will very likely be the last of the main books. It has been an incredible experience getting here, and I am incredibly proud of myself and ecstatic to see the interaction from all of you.

On that note, I am ending the "main" series in a way that leaves the world open for any other side stories that I might want to explore. I have established a massive-ish working-ish world, and I might be able to incorporate other stories that don't necessarily require reading the main series to understand them.

I do have at least one side story that I want to tell, mostly because it is quite complicated and would take too much away from the main plot of this book to tell it here. I know I confused a lot of people with the constant back and forth in Blood Lust, and while there is still a bit of that here, I'm trying to limit the confusion as much as I can because there is already a LOT that is going to be happening.

So, there is a certain plot point that is going to feel like it suddenly vanishes and reappears with no warning, and that is deliberate. I will even point it out when it happens. The story will be told, just separate from Mixed Blood. Whether it becomes its own story on Wattpad or is added as bonus chapters, I'm not sure. I have a general idea of the events in the story, but because the timeline has to line up with Mixed Blood, I have to be careful about when things happen. We'll see what happens when I start writing it.

~

Um... I think that's it.

I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on the story, so feel free to comment to your hearts' content. I try to respond to comments as best I can, especially to clear up any confusion if there is any. I really hope you enjoy.

~M.C. Matthews~