The Golden Gryphon and the Bear Prince

Book #1 in the new Fantasy Romance series from award-winning bestselling author Jeffe Kennedy. Follows The Long Night of the Crystalline Moon in the Under a Winter Sky fantasy holiday anthology.A Legacy of HonorCrown Prince Astar has only ever wanted to do the right thing: be a credit to his late fathers legacy live up to his duties as heir to the high throne of the Thirteen Kingdoms and cleave to the principles of honor and integrity that give his life structure-and that contain the ferocious grizzly bear inside. Nowhere in those guiding principles is there room for the fierce-hearted wildly free-spirited and dizzyingly beautiful shapeshifter Zephyr. Still even though theyve been friends most of their lives Astar is able to keep Zephyr safely at arms length. Hes already received a list of potential princess brides who will make a suitable queen and Zephyr is not on it.A Longtime ObsessionZeph has wanted the gorgeous charming and too-good-for-his-own-good Astar for as long as she can remember. Not that her longing for him-and his perfectly sculpted and muscular body-has stopped her from enjoying any number of lovers. Astar might be honorably (and foolishly) intent on remaining chaste until marriage but Zeph is Tala and they have no such rules. Still she loves Astar-as a friend-and she wants him to at least taste life before he chains himself to a wife he didnt choose. Theres no harm in him having a bit of fun with her. But the man remains stubbornly elusive staving off all of her advances with infuriatingly noble refusals.A Quest to Save the WorldBut things change when a new terror threatens the Thirteen Kingdoms. Following prophecy Astar and Zeph-along with a mismatched group of shapeshifter warrior and sorceress friends-go on a quest to stop a magic rift before it grows beyond anyones ability to stop. Thrust together with Zephyr Astar finds himself increasingly unable to resist her seductive invitations. And in the face of life-and-death battles with lethal monsters he begins to lose sight of why having her just once is such a terrible idea...