Forged in Fire (Forgotten Series, #2)

Author Note

I apologize if the last few chapters felt rushed or if you are feeling as though the story is incomplete. But it was all I could get out, all that the story would let me get out. Which is something that sounds very strange. How can a story dictate something to the author when the author is the one writing it? The truth is, the story very much controls what is going on at any given time, how it happens, the dialogue, the characters, the timing, everything in this story wasn't truly dictated by me but by the story itself.

The story told me it was enough, that there was no more to be written and that was how it would remain. I have never experience worse writer's block than when I attempted to deviate from how the story wished to go. I was bound by the writs of the manuscript. I was nothing more than a tool the story used to write itself.

To start this author's note off. This story wasn't about finding love and having it grow peacefully between two people like Mari and Bennett. This story was about two shifters clashing at every turn because their circumstances and past had forged them into unbending steel. It was about how our pasts truly do dictate how we are as people and individuals. Whether it is good or bad we are forged in fire in so many different ways. But mainly this story was about how love. Even though it can come easy for some, others need to work at it. That even mates can be toxic and that sometimes love needs to be worked on, helped, and fixed.

Luka and Shey needed the separation to work on themselves. They needed that process of finding themselves and of becoming better as people before they could have a successful and healthy relationship. Relationships are hard work and sometimes love just isn't enough to hold it together when it starts falling apart. Sometimes you need to grab your partner and patch things up together, to build more trust and more respect so that your love can grow stronger and better. That was what this story was about. It wasn't about falling in love. It was about working for it, about fighting for it. Luka and Shey fight for that love or even against it through the entire book.

Their love wasn't easy or relaxed. It was a whirlwind of heat, tears, screaming, insecurity, hate, toxicity, and harshness. Something weak went into the flames these two people cast off and something strong and resilient came out. Their love was forged in fire just like they were. A love that matched them because nothing else would have done and no one else would have done for either of them.

This story was filled with incredibly complex characters that I am going to miss immensely. Shey and Luka, Gamgam, Jovan, Ainsley and Sombro, Benji, Lily, and all the others hold a piece of me within them and I doubt I will ever get that piece back. I am positive I wouldn't take it back if I even had a chance. You lose a part of yourself when you write a story but you gain that much more when you complete it. And to be honest, this story would not be completed without someone very special.

Shorty after I finished Red Ribbons and started writing Forged in Fire I met someone by the name of MiculLup (or Nisha as I call her). We bonded over the thought of creating a machine that would bring characters to life so we could brutally mutilate those we hated. We claimed we would rule the world on a hill of corpses sitting on disco chairs.

Sadly the disco chairs and the hill of corpses fell to the way side but our friendship remained. Nisha the 110% the reason this story was completed. She kicked my ass when I started to doubt myself and the book. She hounded me constantly about learning to write for myself and no one else. She was the one person I would run too if I needed to bounce ideas off of someone without looking crazy. I told her the insides of this story and the outsides. She probably knows just as much as me when it comes to Forged in Fire.

She is a wonder and she is a great friend. She showed me a kindness when we first met that has yet to be matched and so as a result. This book is absolutely, one hundred percent dedicated to her because it is as much hers as it is mine.

I love you, Nisha, keep kicking my ass.

Until the next story and with warmest regards,

Anna M.L. Koski