When a worn journal falls into her hands revealing the secrets of a legendary group of warriors, Mikayla realizes it holds the answer to her dilemma. A marriage of convenience is the only way to protect the Raasa people.Overlord Vaan Galip is the commander of the Warlord army tasked with protecting Kabanians and bringing peace to his lands. Betrayed by one of his own, joining with Mikayla S'Apul would provide her people with protection while giving him the opportunity for vengeance. Falling for the Raasa female was never part of his plans.When a common enemy threatens, Vaan and Mikayla learn the true depth of what it means to be bound not only by marriage but by honor.

    When the new heir to the Reigh throne, Lord Nagrad, demands restitution, the phrase “‘a life for a life” turns the intergalactic calamity into an arranged marriage contract between Lord Nagrad and sharply intelligent diplomatic analyst Deirdre Lebed… and the negotiation of terms becomes anything but formal!Warning: this story is one big dirty joke. There is no actual sex, but there is a lot discussion about it. It was written on a dare. Someone told us that we couldn’t write a short story around one particular phrase, and we did. So I recommend this for people 18+. Because you know, we wouldn’t want to corrupt your minors.

    Left to their own devices, however, the claws develop robots of their own. II-V, the second variety, remains unknown to the few humans left on Earth. Or does it?Second Variety was adapted into the film Screamers.

    Rated: R. Restricted. Contains space battles, killer AI, intergalactic ass-kicking. Read at own risk.She is programmed to kill.He’ll do anything to survive. Ex-con Captain Caleb Shepperd believes being good is overrated. All he wants is to smuggle illegal cargo through the nine systems and live a prosperous (likely short) life on the wrong side of the law.But there's a problem with that plan. The priceless synthetic stowaway on his ship is a distraction he doesn't need.Torn between selling her and tossing her out the airlock, Shepperd fails to realize the synth is a killer, and he's the one locked in her sights.In a world where only one thousand synthetics were built, synthetic number One Thousand and One should not exist. She is no ordinary synth. Memories locked inside her code could bring Shepperd—and the entire nine systems—to its knees.Captain Shepperd and the oppressive corporations are about to learn that you can't hide from the sins of your past, especially when that past has orders to kill.WARNING: 18+ only. Contains adult content, including sex, drug use, violence, and swearing.Older cover editions of this ASIN can be found here & here.

    Pulsing with romance and danger, Brooke will leave readers desperate for the conclusion to this epic and unforgettable saga.The only fight she can't win is the one for Perry's heart. Following the stunning climax in Through the Ever Night, the Tides have been forced to seek shelter from the Aether storms in a dismal, secluded cave. But Brooke's memories of the cave go back much further, to when she and Perry used to come here together. That was before Perry fell in love with Aria and before Vale's dealings with the Dwellers altered the course of the Tides forever.Now, with her sister back from a haunting year in captivity and Aria lying unconscious in the sick bay, Brooke struggles to put the pieces of her life back together. Without Perry, who is she? And what is her role in this frightening new world? As these questions swirl about her, an old threat to the Tides resurfaces, and Brooke is forced to put the lives of her people before her own. But in taking this step outside of herself, Brooke may finally discover what she truly wants.

    Did she forget to mention he was naked too? Abducted, decontaminated and dressed like a harem girl, she’s been chosen to become the hunky alien’s mate. Kor asked his ancestors to find him a biddable, docile mate, instead they found him Diana - a curvy, argumentative earthling who sets his pulse pounding and his loins on fire. He might be an alien who doesn’t understand the meaning of love, but he sure knows what he feels is more than lust.

    Due to the noxious gas covering the planet, she can’t conceive a child, and the Council, determined to repopulate the planet, have ended her third—and most precious—relationship. They insist she pick a new mate and try again, but she’s sworn off love and the possibility of ever having a real family.When a ship from the thriving planet of Urslat crashes on Zerris, Marlee rescues the ship’s daring captain, Tyris. His ship is grounded, winter is setting in, and he won’t survive without help. She offers him a deal…he can live with her if he pretends to be her mate so the Council will leave her alone.Tyris agrees and a hungry desire sparks between them as they battle the harsh winter and primitive conditions. Their attraction grows, and soon, keeping their distance becomes impossible, even more challenging than the snow, the Council, and, for Marlee, the risks of a real relationship.Will she risk her heart one last time for a chance at her dream? Or will Tyris be her undoing?

    Imagine a drug that flips the valleys and makes them peaks, too. You react now to an event based not on the pleasure or pain that it brings, but solely on the intensity of the emotion created. Pain brings pleasure, grief gives joy, horror renders ecstasy.Now give this drug to a soldier. Tell them to kill. Not in the historically acceptable murder of war, but in a systematic corporate strategy--of xenocide.They will kill. And they will revel in it.Welcome to the world of Scream.Jason Trelayne is a Screamer, a soldier forced to take part in the destruction of entire races. But when Trelayne falls in love with a beautiful Scream Angel, an alien who produces the addictive drug, he sets off a chain of events that pits him and a small group of followers against an empire.An award winning novelette of rebellion, love, and an unlikely hero."A dark and powerful story with a first line that sets the tone for what is to come: 'They stopped beating Trelayne when they saw that he enjoyed it.' (A++)" --Fantasy Book Critic"A visceral work. A true pearl of the fantastic literature. Breath-taking." --Café de Ontem"...the book's most skillfully crafted story...quickly becomes one that holds the reader's attention until the very end." --SpecFicWorld"...remind me of the reasons I love the author's writing: his characterization, attention to detail and recurring themes of love, faith and redemption." --SF Crowsnest Reviews"The story has so many layers that I'm still sorting them out. And like an onion, I'm not sure if I'll ever find the final layer." --Tangent Online"One of those rare ideas that seems at once so perfect and so natural that someone must have come up with it before; but if someone has, I haven't heard about it, and regardless Smith exploits the potential of the idea extraordinarily well here." --Strange Horizons

    It’s a sort of organized chaos to be sure, but when a planet is inhabited by the Alva, a hostile race of aliens from a far off world, chaos is inevitable. The Randoran from planet Dorn are a warrior race who has feuded with the Alva for centuries, and when they discover that the Alva have taken the Earth for their own, they want to help protect the humans if they can. And so a rescue mission is mounted for Earth, and they arrive in style, speaking with the humans to assure them they come in peace before moving on to find the Alva. What they find is awful. The Alva living like kings while humans suffer, some selected ones kept in cages like pets. Malachi, known as the Champion of the Randoran goes to speak with the Alvan leader, to tell him that his time is up. He expects threats, maybe even violence. What he doesn’t expect is a pair of green eyes to follow him as he walks or to find himself captivated by one of the Alva’s prisoners. As a show of their ‘good faith’ the Alva sell the human woman to him. Malachi means to set her free, but finds that she clings to him, begging him to save her planet, telling him what things used to be like. He finds himself enchanted by this woman and the way Earth once was, and his resolve to see the Alva gone only grows. CAUTION: Includes hot sex scenes and intense action! 18 or older.

    She's spent her life on the run, one step ahead of the megalomaniac who hunts her. All she wants is to stay out of trouble and haul her load of grain to Gladow Station--but trouble finds her in the form of a sexy stranger called Wizard. He has the trucking pass she needs, and she has to drag him out of a brawl with the very people she's trying to hide from in order to get it. She may have rescued him, but Raina's not foolish enough to see Wizard as anything close to helpless. He's hard and honed and full of secrets--secrets that may destroy them both. As they race across the Waste, trying to outrun rival truckers, ice pirates, and the powerful man bent on their destruction, Raina's forced to admit that trouble's found her. And this time, there's nowhere left to run.

    The next target of a time traveling killer, crime reporter Jane Colby finds herself in the hands of a warlord from the future sent to protect her--and in his hands is just where she wants to be.

    When a shuttle crashes on one of their planets the search and rescue mission turned into something much more complicated.Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Wharton had agreed to guide a group that had wanted an adventure on her mountain. They got more than they bargained for when they were all abducted by a group of aliens called the Ganglians. Badly beaten and barely alive Mac finds herself in the arms of the largest male she’s ever seen. She should fear him, should be fighting to get away from him, but there was something about the massive male that called to her.A traitor threatens the Empire… Someone wants Nikhil dead…. The Zaludians want Mackenzie back… And then there was the secret she is keeping…. Would it be the one thing that finally brought down the Kaliszian Empire? Or would it be the first step in its rebirth?

    But this particular job she would gladly take on for free because Captain Zachary Knight has been a thorn in her side ever since she stole his starship ten years ago.Back then he was a genuine hero and poster boy for the army's hybrid breeding program. Now things have changed. Zach has been accused of a massacre on the planet of Talmare and is being shipped home to stand trial. But certain influential people want to make sure Zach never reaches Earth and Mel and her crew on The Revenge have been hired to intercept him and return him to Talmare.It should have been easy money. The problem is, Zach is impossible to resist and once Mel gets her hands on him she doesn't want to let him go. Now those same people are also after Mel.

    Where only two years have passed by for the crew of the Methuselah, fifteen hundred years have ticked by on Earth. Alex and her crew were prepared for that eventuality. What they weren't prepared for was a nuclear war and the resulting catastrophic meteor shower that sent them hurling into Earth's very distant, eerie future. Welcome to earth in the year 100,000,007 A.D. Prepare to scream.

    After all, she’s been on a self-imposed losing streak since her survivalist parents died: she’s stopped painting, broken off her engagement to Adrian and dated a real jerk. Rectifying her mistakes has to wait, however, because Cassie and her friends have just enough time to escape Brooklyn for her parents’ cabin before Bornavirus LX turns them into zombies, too. This is difficult enough, but Cassie’s tag along ex-boyfriend and her friend’s bratty sister have a knack for making everything, even the apocalypse, more unpleasant. When the two attract a threat as deadly as the undead to their safe haven, Cassie’s forced to see how far she’ll go to protect those she loves. And it’s a lot farther than she’d anticipated. This, coupled with Adrian’s distant voice on Safe Zone Radio and, of course, the living dead, threaten to put Cassie right back into the funk she just dragged herself out of. Survival’s great and all, especially when you have leather armor, good friends and home-brewed beer, but there’s something Cassie must do besides survive: tell Adrian she still loves him. And to do that, Cassie has to find faith that she’s stronger than she thinks, she’s still a crack shot and true love never dies.