And then he meets his new partner. Investigator Kayle Perrine is a Variant: one of several races of once-thought mythical creatures who now live among and lord-over humankind. Led by a group of vampires called the Clan Gentry, the Variants protect their own, just as they did when Derek’s previous partner was killed by one, nearly a year ago. Now that Perrine’s on the case, Derek expects a cover-up. Kayle Perrine has worked his whole life to prove himself, but being paired up with a boorish mundane like Derek Childress is feeling more like punishment than reward. Derek is so blinded by his prejudice against Variants, that he refuses to see the evidence Kayle finds blatantly obvious. The sooner Kayle can close this case, the sooner he can go back home and forget about the infuriating human detective. A brutal attack forges a fragile truce between the two men, driving them together. Derek and Kayle must learn to trust and depend on each other while tempers flare and passions of every kind run hot between them. Yet as they begin to grow closer, one fact continues to keep them apart: they are from different worlds. With time running out to solve this case, Derek and Kayle understand that love may not be enough to overcome prejudice, politics, and murder.

    For over a thousand years, he has been trying to free his lover and himself from a cruel curse – to fall in love in every lifetime, but never to be together. What will be their fate this time? ~11,000 words

    He doesn’t believe in fate, true love, or fantasy. But then a fertility goddess whisks him away to another world. A promise has been broken, and if Mike is ever to return to California—and his comfortable if lonely life—he must complete a pilgrimage to the shrines of a death goddess.A humiliating event convinces Mike to hire a guard to accompany him, and hunky Goran is handy enough with a sword, if a little too liberal with his ale. A man with no home and no family, Goran is deeper than he first appears. As Mike learns more about Goran, his disbelief wavers and his goals become less clear. Contending with feuding gods, the challenges of the journey, and his growing attraction to Goran, Mike faces a puzzle far harder to solve than simple rows of numbers.

    Quinn has suffered the pain of the ongoing contention in ways no man ever should. Once the respected son of the Vam'kir king, his life was forever altered the day his father realized a truth of which even Quinn was unaware. As the Ba'Kal ruler, it is up to Manning to seek justice for the vicious attacks the Vam'kir have perpetrated against his kind, but his very beliefs are called into question when he discovers his mate is also his enemy. To keep Quinn safe, he must learn to trust in the impossible--that love might exist beyond boundaries, for failure means the end of his future and the rest of his race.

    They lived through the first blast of the plague, but they may not last much longer among survivors scrambling for dwindling resources. They agree to hike from the city and to the safety of the mountains.They don’t count on the storm they hoped would cover their exit developing into a Nor’easter, though, and they sure don’t think their visibility would shrink so badly that they’d hike into the leading edge of a zombie swarm, either. In the chaos of escaping the ravenous horde, they are separated, with Graham racing toward feral dog packs to the east and Riley sprinting to hostile survivors hunting them to the west.Nobody said finding and keeping a quality guy (alive) during the apocalypse would be easy.

    Together, they planned a long happy life with each other. When Christian was diagnosed with terminal cancer at twenty-two, they fought for his life but despite his youth and strength he succumbed to the disease.Two years later, Sean is still struggling with overwhelming sadness and Christian, who pleaded with higher powers to be allowed to watch over his love, hates watching helpless as his partner spirals into dark depression.He is granted the ability to go to Sean at night and try to comfort him and make him happy once more. Only he must not tell Sean who he is and can never let Sean or any other human see his face. He must come up with another way to let the grieving Sean know that he’s kept his promise.That no matter what they would always be together...

    It is said that if a human catches the eye of one of the fey, they are either doomed or blessed.Wulfren & the WarlockWhen Wulfren wakes from a strange dream of a human captor with long silver hair, and grey eyes, his brothers tell him they rescued him from a warlock, and take Wulfren back home to the goblin king's palace. But Wulfren isn’t so sure the matter is that simple. Why was he missing so long? What are the strange dreams of the beautiful man with the silver hair? Dalliances with humans are severely frowned upon, especially by Wulfren’s father, but Wulfren is willing to risk the scorn of his family to find the human who haunts his dreams.Quiller & the Runaway PrinceAfter a hard winter, Quiller is sent deep into the forest on a family errand, and is surprised when a human stumbles into his path. Quiller swoops in to pester him, perhaps even eat him, but there is something special about the human: his scent is royal, though he protests that he is not, and soon Quiller finds himself agreeing to help the human with his troubles—in exchange for a kiss.

    The course of history seems set... until one innocent Andari mage changes everything and claims a greater prize—the heart of the Nikari emperor.Behnivyr ‘Ivy’ Erethe knows his duty is to wed another Andari Pure-Blood. Craving one moment of freedom before his loveless bonding, he escapes his father’s suffocating protection and goes to a masquerade ball, only to unexpectedly meet a mysterious Nikari named Kris. Kris makes Ivy ache with a need he barely dares to acknowledge. One kiss, one dance—and Ivy’s life changes forever. Unbeknownst to Ivy, Kris is actually Kristelien Fezenda, the Nikari emperor. Forced to make a difficult choice, Ivy picks love over duty and becomes Kris’s concubine.Poorly prepared for the whirlwind of emotion Ivy summons inside him, Kris now faces the hardest battle of his life. In a ruthless world where all weakness is exploited, where allies become enemies in the blink of an eye, where love can mean death, he will have to defeat more than his own personal demons to breach the rift between him and Ivy.

    I submitted it in July 2011 and only later found out that no decisions would be made until February of 2012. So I decided to just try to forget I ever wrote this one. Then in February it was returned to me, because SMP had not received enough submissions to put out the anthology. I was going to just file it, but I thought, what the hell, I might as well post it here for a while.The anthology call was for stories about an encounter between a human and one of the Fair Folk on Midsummer’s Night. No HEA or HFN ending required. And that’s what I wrote. The end isn’t particularly dark or painful, but the guys don’t walk off into the sunset either. The fae are often complicated and seldom kind, to each other or to the humans they meet by moonlight.

    In fact, the whole of Kazuo’s life has been about his obligations to his father, never about what he wanted for himself. Anything alien absolutely fascinates Kazuo, but the majority of Kazuo’s alien education has come strictly from his studies.To help Kazuo gain more business experience and contacts, his father requires him to attend an industry gala held by one of the most well-known extraterrestrial importers on Earth, a Sirynthalian known as Aethos. While Aethos is certainly a main attraction in attending the gala, Kazuo also remembers a past visit to the property’s enormous extraterrestrial greenhouse— a visit he’d like to repeat, as long as he can avoid touching the plants this time around.As far as decisions go, leaving the party to look at the exotic flora seems to be a fairly harmless one to Kazuo. But a walk through the greenhouse becomes a life-altering event when Kazuo comes across an alien plant with a mind of its own... and a desire for Kazuo. Now Kazuo has a life-or-death decision to make. The question is: does he have all of the facts he needs to make it?This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love’s Landscapes" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. Photo Description: An illustration in the style of Japanese manga artwork features a young Asian male, nude from the waist down, blushing in embarrassment as thick green plant tentacles hold him aloft, binding his arms behind his back and spreading his legs wide. A wide tentacle protruding from the center of a large pink blossom penetrates his anus. Three smaller yellow tendrils, also from the center of the flower, reach toward his erect cock.This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    He’d been betrayed by his family, exiled, and sentenced to slavery in the desert lands where he doesn't know the language or the customs. Yet, as he faces the scrutiny of an interested buyer, Wyl realizes he was wrong. With an exchange of coins, he could go from life as a warrior and a prince to that of a pleasure slave. Lysander finds the stench of the slave-trading city almost unbearable. He longs for the quiet shelter of his home. Yet, Steed’s Hold is under siege and he has come to the city to find a warrior willing to fight for the cost of his freedom. However, Lysander does not expect to find the handsome Northerner or the new desires he sparks inside of Lysander. He also does not expect the terrible stipulation attached to the man’s sale, one that would demand a heavy price of them both. Lysander is a mage more used to commanding earth, metal, and wood than people. How is he to be master of a slave, and the slave’s desire, when Lysander hasn’t fully mastered his own?

     I'm paid to create unique masterpieces and I enjoy my work. I'm the best there is because I'm patient, kind, and quick. I wear the mask of humanity when I need to, and I play the part of just another stranger walking past you on the street, but there's something I want that I can't quite seem to get my hands on. For all of the blood I shed—for all of the flesh I've stripped, there's only one touch that I long to feel. I may be a master of manipulation, yet when it comes to the hope of something that's just mine—something unexplainable toward another living creature that I long so desperately for, I'm a coward. But there's only so many times I'll be willing to stand by and watch what I want walk away from me before I acquire it. I've had enough patience and I've scolded myself more than once over this and I refuse to wait any longer. We belong together.

    In a world struggling to recover from a war that swept humanity to the brink, Evan struggles to learn about and control a power he knows nothing about. He can create and awaken living stone gargoyles. When he receives a message from his contacts that a large gargoyle is about to be destroyed by the Church, Evan rushes to save it.Adel has been asleep for centuries; this century -- with its mechanical devices and human beings set on their own destruction -- holds no interest for him. Yet, through the haze of his hibernation, he hears a voice calling to him, needing him. When he awakens, he is restrained by those he is sworn to protect. Struggling does him no good, and he is about to close his eyes on a world that no longer wants him, when he hears that voice calling again. Calming, soothing, it draws him forth, softening his stone heart like no other ever has. Between the evil that hunts Evan and the Church that wants Adel destroyed, will the two be able to find love, wrapped up in Adel's Purr?

    Everything changes: Amy has enough and leaves him stranded in a Scottish castle tower overnight. He wakes up in medieval Scotland. Mistaken for the castle's future laird, he is forced to make a dangerous cross-country trek with a beautiful woman wielding a knife, pursued by English soldiers and a Scottish traitor, to raise men for the critical battle at Bannockburn.Niall Campbell, Shawn's opposite in everything except looks, is no more happy to find himself caught in Shawn's life, pursued by women, the target of an angry girlfriend, expected to play a sell-out concert, and hearing the account of his own death and Scotland's annihilation at Bannockburn. He vows to figure out what went wrong at the battle, and find a way back to change it.Blue Bells of Scotland is both an action-packed adventure and a tale of redemption that will be remembered long after the last page has been turned.

    That choice was taken away from him when the High King of Naverya, Adam Radcliffe, met Tobey and wanted him for his own. Against Tobey's will, his body and also heart fell prey to the man everyone called High King and the man he simply called Adam. As Tobey becomes Adam's favourite concubine, jealous rivals threaten to tear asunder the love that they have created together.