Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Explore 1.5M+ audiobooks & ebooks free for 30 days

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Forbidden Gift
    Forbidden Gift
    Forbidden Gift
    Ebook112 pages1 hour

    Forbidden Gift

    By C.L. Carhart

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Can an untried witch find true love while working at a magical brothel?

    Gisela recently came of age, and now her uncle expects her to go to work. At their people’s brothel. So he can spend the money she earns however he likes.

    Without a cent to her name, Gisela has no other options. Her uncle has threatened to chain her elemental magic if she refuses. The witches working at her city’s Teutonic brothel are permitted to have children, so at least she’ll help ensure her people don’t die out.

    And she’s not about to admit she has no experience with such things. As a virgin.

    Forbidden Gift is a fade-to-black paranormal (mmf) romance featuring an orphan heroine, a bisexual hero, and elemental witches combatting their culture’s prejudices.

    Buy now to start reading Gisela’s provocative love story today!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherC.L. Carhart
    Release dateFeb 27, 2025
    ISBN9781954807358
    Forbidden Gift
    Read preview
    Author

    C.L. Carhart

    C.L. Carhart has been writing since the age of 4, dabbling in everything from children’s books, to fantasy, to historical fiction. Eventually, her lifelong interest in European history inspired her to create a paranormal fantasy realm based on the Teutonic people groups. The His Name Was Augustin series provides a first glimpse at this other-world—a place rife with ancient mysteries and dark magic.Born and raised in southern New Jersey, C.L. spends her free time hiking with her husband, enjoying metal music, snuggling her feline familiars, and dreaming of the wonders of Germany.

    Read more from C.L. Carhart

    Related to Forbidden Gift

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related categories

    Reviews for Forbidden Gift

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Forbidden Gift - C.L. Carhart

      Forbidden Gift

      An Elemental Gifts Story

      C.L. Carhart

      Copyright © C.L. Carhart 2025

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from the copyright owner except in the case of brief quotations in a book review.

      Forbidden Gift is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

      ISBN: 978-1-954807-35-8

      https://clcarhart.com

      Cover Design © Fantasia Covers

      For Mark

      One of my first ARC readers

      Who ought to appreciate my sole attempt at a Teutonic reverse harem. Enjoy!

      Brief Pronunciation Guide

      Gisela – GEE-zell-uh

      Groh – grow (the English word grow)

      Hertha – HER-tuh

      Maňas – MAHN-yas

      Mühlbach – MOOL-bock

      Vibeka – Vih-BECK-uh

      Wels – Vells

      You can find a full pronunciation guide at the end of this book.

      Blurb

      Can an untried witch find true love while working at a magical brothel?

      Gisela recently came of age, and now her uncle expects her to go to work. At their people’s brothel. So he can spend the money she earns however he likes.

      Without a cent to her name, Gisela has no other options. Her uncle has threatened to chain her elemental magic if she refuses. The witches working at her city’s Teutonic brothel are permitted to have children, so at least she can help ensure her people don’t die out.

      And she’s not about to admit she has no experience with such things. As a virgin.

      ~*~

      Forbidden Gift is a fade-to-black paranormal (mmf) romance featuring an orphan heroine, a bisexual hero, and elemental witches combatting their culture’s prejudices. It is a standalone novella in the Elemental Gifts series and is Gisela, Radomir, and Gustav’s complete story.

      Notes & Triggers

      All stories in the Teutonic Fantasy Realm take place in a world much like our own. Major historical events—like the World Wars—occurred similarly to those in our present world. Major locales—like Wels and the Alps—can also be found in modern Austria.

      However, all Teutonic history, customs, and magic, are utter figments of the author’s imagination. As far as she knows, no actual elemental witches roam modern Austria or Germany in secret, nor is it possible for outsiders to seize their magnificent gifts. And no, the demon lord Wuotan is not a real being.

      We hope.

      This book begins in November 1955 and concludes on Christmas Eve of the same year.

      Words in the fictional Teutonic dialect are italicized.

      ~*~

      This book includes content that might be triggering for some readers. There are instances of profanity, social prejudices, and mature themes. This book is a fade-to-black MMF romance with a HEA.

      Sign up for the author’s newsletter to download Gift of Air, another novella set in the Teutonic Fantasy Realm.

      https://bf.clcarhart.com/6w57qgfhc9

      Table of Contents

      Brief Pronunciation Guide

      Blurb

      Notes & Triggers

      Unprepared

      My First Client

      Gathering Intel

      Butterflies

      Turbulent Emotions

      A Peculiar Family

      Looming Adversaries

      Bloodletting

      Voided Contract

      Also by C.L. Carhart

      Pronunciation Guide

      About the Author

      Chapter One:

      Unprepared

      What had I signed? How had I found myself in this mess?

      My body shuddered as I paced the floor of my prison. Of a bedroom layered in gaudy fuchsia, five steps from the plush twin bed to the vanity table and back. Why had I let my uncle talk me into this when I hardly knew how to paint my face and flirt with men? The telegraph office was familiar, a place where ladies outfitted in plain attire guided messages along the wires. Connecting people from far away through the miracle of technology. But this?

      Gnawing on the inside of my cheek, I braved a glance toward that magenta-draped altar where I must offer myself tonight. For three years I had made a decent living at the telegraph office, the repetitive tasks granting me the freedom to dream about a brighter future. One where I could escape Onkel Hubert’s critical eye and cultivate friendships with witches and outsiders alike. Maybe even match myself with a young Teuton who saw me for more than just my unfeminine element.

      No self-respecting man wants to settle down with a woman of metal, my uncle informed me just this morning while I packed the duffle bag clutched to my chest—my sole reminder of the life I had left behind. That’s why your mother went mad after she lost the priest who molded her iron heart to his will. It’s a dangerous thing to bond with a stalwart element. You’re much better off this way. Providing a needed service to the Teutons in our hometown.

      Of course he did not specify the service I must provide. Trembling fingers tightened on my bag as I thought back to what had happened after Onkel Hubert dropped me off at the gated pathway. As soon as I shut the passenger door behind me, he hit the gas pedal so hard a cloud of dust wafted between my lips and turned my farewell into a cough. Apparently he feared being recognized at such a place.

      At the Scarlet Butterfly, the only Teutonic brothel in Wels.

      For all I knew, the only one in all of Austria and Germany combined. Most Teutons were socially conservative, elevating marriage as the goal for each young person. But the war had incited widespread upheaval. According to recent census results, the number of Teutons able to invoke their elements plummeted from two and a half million to just over seventy thousand, an appalling population decline. Some of our elders feared our people might go extinct, since many of our men did not return home from battle. My uncle often grumbled that there were too many unmarried witches available and not enough males to preserve our magic for future generations.

      The priests on our city council seemed to agree, for the Scarlet Butterfly first opened its doors in 1951. Now if a young witch could not find a mate, she could serve her people by having babies with virile Teuton males. Couples eager to adopt and raise such offspring stepped forward in droves, our duties as working women granting hope to our people as a whole.

      Or so Frau Betty Groh had claimed when she thrust the contract across her desk and pressured me to sign it. After I had spent twenty minutes scuffing my shoes in the dirt beneath the hedgerows that marked the brothel’s property, asking myself whether I could really do this. Sleep with a different man every night until I got pregnant, and then give the baby up for adoption. Relinquish my dreams of a committed relationship in order to serve my people. Have lots of babies. Make sure Teutonic magic never went extinct.

      The contract included multiple pages. The elderly witch with wire-rimmed glasses balanced at the end of her nose and a fat silver bun poised atop her head had no wish to wait for me to read through it all. Sign it so we can get you seen by Clara before she leaves for the day.

      Wrinkled fingers pushed a pen into my hand, and then I was signing. I made a desperate attempt to skim that first page, but only a few phrases caught my eye out of a huge block of text. Private bedroom with bath. Clients must be. Fertility monitored.

      At last I forced my feet to stop pacing, my bag tumbling from my hands as I sank into the cushioned stool before the vanity table. I shouldn’t have agreed to this.

      Chastising myself in a ragged whisper, I wrapped my thin arms around my torso and tried to convince my body to stop shaking. Brothel workers must appear confident and seductive. Not timid and terrified. Right?

      May

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 9