When Zeke attacks her pack, Mary, a half-breed wolf, wants to save a young wolf, but to do so, she has to accept his bargain. She must be his toy until the next full moon. Mary despises the alpha she must now give her body to, but she can’t deny the response he inspires within her. Exploring the deceased pack’s lair Zeke stumbles onto something that could destroy all breeds of wolf. The leaders of Mary’s pack had been experimenting on wolves. The reasons why are still unknown, but Zeke will do everything in his power to find out the truth, especially when he discovers Mary was one of their experiments. Even before the end of the month Mary becomes all he can think about, and he’s determined to keep his toy safe. Then a twist of fate lets him know she’s more than a toy. Mary is his mate. Can he overcome her fear of him and convince her to stay when her month is up?

    Which is a real pain, because I’ve had it bad for curvy Adelaide Laurent ever since she sashayed into town. The fact that she’s forbidden fruit just makes my fantasies all the sweeter. But when she signs up to go on a weekend camping trip with the town’s biggest player, it’s time for a bear to step in and claim his mate. I don’t care if it breaks the rules. She’s mine, and it’s time she knew it.

    These days, women are quite capable of solving their own problems and slaying their own dragons (or demons, as the case may be).In this all-new anthology, Kerrie L. Hughes and New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine have collected original stories from thirteen of today’s most exciting urban fantasy and paranormal authors. Each story features a strong heroine who kicks butt and takes names in a dangerous world and makes that world a better place for everyone in it—except the bad guys, of course. And if she finds a bit of romance along the way, well, a little heat warms the heart and sharpens the mind…just as long as the man can keep up. Includes: Shiny by Rachel CaineIn Venito Veras by Karen ChanceHunt by Rachel VincentMonsters by Lilith SaintcrowVampires Prefer Blondes by P.N. ElrodNine-Tenths of the Law by Jenna BlackDouble Dead by Cheyenne McCrayA Rose by Any Other Name Would Still be Red by Elizabeth A. VaughnSuperman by Jeanne C. SteinMonster Mash by Carole Nelson DouglasWanted: Dead or Alive by L.A. BanksMist by Susan KrinardBeyond the Pale by Nancy Holden

    Told in dual POVs from Maximus Compass and Mischa Lebron. This is full length and standalone with a HEA. You do not need to read the Supernatural Prison trilogy first.Maximus Compass is a vampire without direction. Without heart. And without soul. He lost his true mate in the great battle against the dragon king, and now must face life alone. And yet … something is happening to his agony. It’s fading away, leaving him with barely a memory of the female he believed to be his one and only. As his mind clears he starts to wonder if the mate bond had been nothing more than a manufactured ploy? This suspicion explodes within him right around the time he runs back into a certain wolf shifter. Mischa Lebron is a complication he doesn’t need in his life. He can’t erase her from his mind though, and while memories of his supposed true mate continue to fade into mere shadows, his one night with Mischa is blazingly strong. But they’re not of the same supernatural race, so there’s no way for a true bond to exist between them. Right? When an old threat rips apart their pack, Maximus will come to realize that he would do anything to save Mischa. That the mate he thought was perfect and precious was nothing on the shifter he walked away from. Now Maximus truly has everything to lose.

    His wolf is howling for his mate, and Chris knows it is only a matter of time before his needs override everything else in his life. He casts the spell all the Becketts have used to call their mates to them. What he wants is a woman of an older lineage, of power to equal his own. And she has to accept the one aspect that sets him apart from almost every other wizard: his wolf.What Chris gets is Alannah Evans, a powerful witch of the Evans Coven. The petite, dark haired woman has no problems with the wolf. What she does have a problem with is the fact that Chris is a wizard. Since wizards and witches don’t get along very well, neither should they, but the sparks flying between them can’t be denied. Chris isn’t taking no for an answer. When it becomes clear that an old enemy has targeted them both Chris will wind up engaging his enemy in a duel that could cost him his life.Or worse: Lana.

    just when she receives a lucrative commission to ink a magic tattoo for a werewolf before the next full moon.Caught between the rough and tumble world of the werewolves, the law and order rules of the vampires, and a sexy man-in-black whose motives are in doubt, Dakota must tread carefully to survive - because she doesn't know whether her werewolf client is the tattoo killer ... or the next victim.

    As the nephew of Darius Reinier, he thought he knew his place in the world, rich, eligible, he had his whole future mapped out. And then he finds out he is one of them. A shifter. Does he still have a choice? Can’t he just hide from who he really is? Carry on as if the moon doesn’t call to him, doesn’t make him want to rip the flesh from his body and turn into… what? What is he? She has the answers. Amara. Beautiful, curvy, dangerous. She will turn his world upside down, and also make it whole. If he can only find the strength to let go of his past and embrace his future. To become who he is supposed to be. After a bitter war, the world is split, shifters live on one side of the border, humans on the other. Any shifter who enters the human world must wear a collar, silver threaded with copper, to stop the chemical reaction triggering the change. They can own no property, and can never be treated as equals. This is the world Amara finds herself in when she has to pay off her father’s debt. Despite having to wear the collar that keeps her lioness a shadow in her mind, she counts herself lucky, when her contract is bought by Darius Reinier. Her job working in his mansion is easy enough… until the moon beckons and she is thrust into the life of Kane Reinier. But as she learns about Kane, she knows she has to help him, not least because it means she will be able to go back home to Shifters Prime, but because he happens to be her mate. Although he has no idea. Can these two strangers learn to live together, will Kane master the beast that lives within him, and can he find the strength to avenge his past? Find out in Living a Lion. Contains scorching hot scenes meant for adults only.

    He’s still alpha enough to rescue a young woman from the predatory Red wolf pack, but when she shows up at his office—as his sexy new intern—she stirs up feelings that need to stay buried…Mia’s just trying to earn her degree and dig her way out of poverty. Keeping her shifter nature secret is key, but her internship at the hottest dot-com development firm in Seattle also has the hottest boss… and he’s a wolf. Who just happened to save her life.She’d break all the rules for this guy—except he wants nothing to do with her. And the wolves who do are the Big Bad Wolf kind. The kind she’s always heard about.Mia’s in the middle of a pack war with nowhere to turn… but to the one guy who doesn’t want her at all.Claiming Mia is a super-hot complete story with HEA, the first in the Dot Com Wolves series.

    . . but he can’t make her obey . . .The war is over. Danger has passed. Cara Kayrs is healed after decades of illness and ready for a break.Too bad her brooding, alpha vampire husband can’t seem to change gears. In their twenty-five years together Talen Kayrs has learned to sense every shiver of her body, to ignite her desire with a word or a look. She would think he could learn she’s not some fragile damsel in distress.But Talen is on edge, watching their backs, treating her like she’s made of glass. Like there’s something following them, a deadly threat that somehow none of their intelligence has uncovered. It’s enough to drive a woman crazy, and Talen has plenty of those tendencies already.But what’s even more maddening is that he seems to be right . . . Librarian Note: This novella is also included in 'Wicked Burn (Realm Enforcers, #3)'

    Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through supernatural glamours.She’s also about to find out that she may be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.So much for normal.

    He gets a whiff of the most intoxicating scent, the man Travis Carlyle, his mate. But he quickly finds out that before he can claim the handsome veterinarian, Rainy has to convince Travis that he’s worth coming out of the closet for.Travis leads a quiet, discreet life, avoiding any situation that could possibly out him to his family. After so many years alone, Travis finds the love, affection, and acceptance Rainy offers him too hard to resist. But just when he decides Rainy might be worth the persecution of revealing his sexuality, he discovers Rainy has been keeping secrets, a lot of secrets: Werewolves, Shifters, Mates? When he watches a shift with his own eyes, Travis is forced to accept the truth.Too bad not everyone wants Travis to know the wolves’ secrets, tossing him into a feud between shifters. When Travis’s father tries to come between them, can Rainy convince Travis to choose a dangerous, love-filled life with him instead of the comfortable, quiet existence he’s led with his family?

    And helping out an elderly woman with her shopping to earn some extra cash seemed easy enough.Mindless, hour-long walks through the thick woods that surrounded said village also sounded ideal. No Internet. No television. And just the bare basics to get me by.Perfection. Stress-free. Exactly what I needed.Or maybe I was wrong about it all.I felt someone or something watching me from the darkened, dangerous woods.I felt someone—something—stalking me.I didn’t know what or who it was, but I knew with certainty it wasn’t human… and that it wanted me.RenI wasn’t human, not completely.A Lycan—a centuries-old wolf-like creature that was feared by all, stronger than anything on the planet, and who was only ever after one thing.My mate.For over three hundred years, I had one purpose in life. Find her, the one female born to be mine. My female who’d cause the Linking Instinct—that supernatural connection that told me she was mine and I hers—to finally take root and make me whole.And for hundreds of years, I’d been alone, saving myself for my mate, never stopping the search.Until I scented her, saw her, finally felt my heartbeat and the blood rush through my veins with hope and anticipation.Mine.She didn’t see me, but she sensed me. And she ran. She couldn’t possibly know how much the chase turned me on.I didn’t know how I’d make her understand I could never let her go, that nothing and no one would stop me from making her mine.Because once a Lycan found his mate… nothing in this world, nothing supernatural or human, could keep him from her.

    And the only protective shields he’s never been able to find a way around are those of the powerful Keene Family.For a long time, Jeff has only had eyes for the beautiful Fallon Keene. Unfortunately, she is the only sister of the lethal North American Central Pack Apex Gabriel Keene. The intricate balances of power and politics make it all but impossible for Fallon to trust her feelings.But fate takes a hand when the Pack’s totem is stolen—threatening the Keene family’s rule—and Fallon enlists Jeff’s help to retrieve it before the Pack is thrown into chaos. Can she and Jeff find the totem, and restore order, before it’s too late? And will Jeff finally be able to prove himself to the only person he truly loves?

    Now she is out looking for adventure. She just doesn’t expect to discover a shifter-only town and one six foot eight, grumpy, bear-shifting sheriff named Aleksander Arkadion.Aleksander Arkadion only wants to date shifter females after working a brutal homicide case that has him returning to the shifter-only town of his youth. Which is why is he curious to discover a human in town and shocked when he realizes the tiny woman is his mate.As the attraction between them grows, Aleks realizes that he can’t stay away from the petite female, but the realization may come too late. Although her body was never in any danger, he may have destroyed her heart by pushing her away. Now he has to convince his mate he really does want her while keeping her safe from rogue hyenas bent on taking her.

    But that doesn’t stop her from hunting the werewolves who slaughtered her human family. She’ll have her revenge, but only if Kyden, the elite guardian, would get the hell out of her way.Kyden can’t decide if Nexi wants to get herself killed or if she just has no clue what she’s doing. But her father made it clear: keep Nexi safe…or else. Of course, the more Nexi runs toward revenge, the more she needs Kyden’s aid, and as she grows into her power and confidence, so does his desire to protect her. The only problem? She’d rather he dropped dead.But when a vampire paints a bull’s-eye on Nexi’s back, she’s hard-pressed to deny Kyden and the help he’s offering. Even if it means getting her revenge will be a little bit harder. At least it will still be as sweet.This story was previously published elsewhere under the title The Willow in 2010, and has been revised and expanded for Entangled Publishing.