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The Bargainer by Laura Thalassa
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Variant Lost
Kaydence Snow - 2018
The Institute is world renowned for educating and training Variants – the 18% of the population fortunate enough to have superhuman abilities. As a human, she’s lucky to be admitted. She’s done with fake identities, running and lying but once again she finds herself surrounded by secrets. Some she’s been keeping her whole life. Some have been kept from her. Some she finds herself dragged into… Ethan, Josh, Tyler and Alec have some of the rarest Variant abilities Evelyn has ever seen. They fascinate, intrigue and attract her, but is it their abilities, their own secrets or something more that Evelyn can’t seem to stay away from? The secrets they keep could drag Evelyn so deep into their dangerous and exciting world that she’ll never be the same. And the answers she finds could get them all killed.
Wounded Kiss
Willow Winters - 2020
His chiseled jaw and silver gaze, I’ve only ever gotten a glimpse of, haunts both my nightmares and my dreams. There’s a treaty between us and them; mere mortals and the ones who terrify but keep us safe. The contract demands that every year there’s an offering and this year I’ll walk across that stage presenting myself. We have no idea what to expect if they choose someone, they haven’t in generations. The only thing we know is that the ones they take belong to them forevermore. If chosen, you don’t come back, or so the story of the treaty goes. Gather and present yourself.This is the offering…… and I… belong to him.
Girls Weekend
C.M. Nascosta - 2021
What could be better? That’s what three suburban elves think when they book a trip to an orc nudist resort, well known for its libidinous residents and hedonistic parties. The plan is to sample the DTF locals and work on their tans, not catch feelings. Confident Ris is single and ready to mingle, insecure Lurielle is open to adventure, but has her reservations, and Silva...well, poor Silva was tricked into the trip in the first place. When Lurielle meets a syrupy-voiced gentleman who seems interested in more than just a weekend fling, she finds sticking to the plan is easier said than done. From a public bathhouse to a back alley pub, the trip has unintended consequences on the lives of the three work friends and the orcs they meet. Can a weekend of no-strings sex actually end in love?
Dark Embers
Tessa Adams - 2010
It falls to him to protect his people—and their ancient magic. He has one more duty: to provide an heir.Like all dragons, Dylan can only procreate with his destined mate—for whom he’s searched for five hundred years. His dark, rampant sexual appetite has earned him quite the reputation, all in the pursuit of his one true match.But his search is delayed when a deadly disease sweeps through the Dragonstars, and Dylan must venture to the human world to find a cure. He tracks down renowned biochemist Phoebe Quillum, never imagining the beautiful scientist will be the mate he’s been seeking for centuries. But no sooner do they meet then Phoebe and Dylan are besieged by an obsessive, overpowering sexual desire.Their passion turns to something truer—and they know in their souls and bodies that they’re in too deep to get out. And when Phoebe is kidnapped by Dylan’s oldest enemy, he must risk everything to reclaim the only woman he’s ever loved, or his clan will be wiped out forever.
A Hunger Like No Other
Kresley Cole - 2006
Or partly one. Emmaline Troy is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.Sheltered Emmaline finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents—until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae—and their notorious dark desires—ebbs as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings.Yet when an ancient evil from her past resurfaces, will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be?
Ain't Myth-Behaving
Katie MacAlister - 2007
STAG PARTY Dane Hearne -- also known as the Irish fertility god Cernunnos -- must choose a bride quickly. His long-time goddess has run off with a salsa dancer, and Dane must be married by Beltane, just a week away, or become a mortal -- and die. When he meets American travel writer Megan St. Clair, he knows he's found his soul mate. But while Dane is a sexy Irish hunk with his fair share of blarney, can he convince Megan to marry him in just one week? NORSE TRULY Alrik Sigurdsson is cursed to sail his Viking ship along the same stretch of Scandinavian coastline forever. So when lovely American Brynna Lund skids her car off the road into the ocean, he and his men are happy for the diversion of rescuing her. Then Alrik discovers that Brynna is the only woman who can break the curse. Is it any wonder that he's determined to keep her...forever?
Flock
Kate Stewart - 2020
I gave into temptation and fed the beating beast, which grew thirstier with every slash, every strike, every blow.Triple Falls wasn’t at all what it seemed, nor were the men that swept me under their wing. But in order to keep them, I had to be in on their secrets.Secrets that cost us everything to keep.That’s the novelty of fiction versus reality. You can’t re-live your own love story, because by the time you’ve realized you’re living it, it’s over. At least that was the case for me and the men I trusted my foolish heart to.Looking back, I’m convinced I willed my story into existence due to my illness.And all were punished.
Goddess of the Sea
P.C. Cast - 2003
After drinking way too much champagne, she performed, of all crazy things, a goddess-summoning ritual, hoping that it would somehow make her life a little less ordinary...but she never believed the spell would actually work.When her military plane crashes into the ocean, CC's mission overseas takes an unexpected turn. She awakens to find herself in a legendary time and place where magic rules the land—occupying the body of the mythic mermaid Undine. But there is danger in the waters and the goddess Gaea turns this modern, military gal into a beautiful damsel so that she can seek shelter on land.CC is soon rescued (literally) by a knight in shining armor. She should be falling in love with this dream-come-true, but instead she aches for the sea and Dylan, the sexy merman who has stolen her heart.
Fae's Captive
Lily Archer - 2019
Cecile steals my food, brings guys over at all hours, and parties instead of studying. But those quirks pale in comparison to what she does next. She drugs me, and I wake up imprisoned in an alternate universe full of terrifying creatures.
Now, the biggest and scariest creature of all - a fae king - believes I'm his mate. He's freed me from the dungeon, but, keeps me close. So close, in fact, that I'm beginning to like his wintery gaze and ice-chiselled body. But, secrets and villains lurk throughout this new world. And I don't know if I'll survive long enough to figure out how to get back home.
Legendborn
Tracy Deonn - 2020
A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.A flying demon feeding on human energies.A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.
Afterlife
Stephanie Hudson - 2012
However, this new life she craves so badly isn’t the one she is expecting. Not after Draven gets one look at her and quickly decides her fate.But which fate will Keira choose, a willing slave to the darkness inside him or a prisoner in his arms for all eternity?After all, Dominic Draven, isn’t what he seems and Afterlife isn’t just a nightclub…No, for Draven, it’s a castle he rules from.Warning: This book is amazingly addictive, with its dark mystery, haunting horror, seductive twists and one sexy dark lord that has the reader drooling every time the name Draven appears on the page!
Fae
Cassandra Faye - 2015
Cursed. Enslaved. Fae just wants to live day to day. She doesn’t want to think about a future filled with another two thousand years of servitude. She doesn’t want to think about her past, or the way she failed the goddess she swore to serve forever. And she really doesn’t want to think about the men and women that suffer around her every day while she can’t protect them – no matter how hard she tries. She’s definitely not ready when her entire world is turned upside down and the one person she would never choose to spend a minute with shows up. After millennia of suffering, is it even possible to trust someone? To let herself believe that good still exists? Damned. Cursed. Corrupted. Kiernan doesn’t know what he wants. After centuries of bloodshed, and war, and killing – he’s waking up, and if the things he dreams in his sleep were only nightmares that would be one thing, but they’re all real. The only light in his darkness is a girl inside a glass, and he can’t stop watching her. Her bravery fascinates him, inspires him. Her suffering is what he deserves. Yet some part of him craves more, craves something good. But is there anything that can be done when gods have used you as pawns in their own war? Can good things come out of evil? Publisher's note: Fae is the first book in the Daughters of Eltera series. It contains dark themes, slavery, violence, damaged heroes, and gods and goddesses. If those things don't interest you, please seek another book.
A Heart of Blood and Ashes
Milla Vane - 2020
Then the Destroyer came. From the blood and ashes he left behind, a tenuous alliance rose between the barbarian riders of Parsathe and the walled kingdoms of the south. That alliance is all that stands against the return of an ancient evil--until the barbarian king and queen are slain in an act of bloody betrayal.Though forbidden by the alliance council to kill the corrupt king responsible for his parents' murders, Maddek vows to avenge them, even if it costs him the Parsathean crown. But when he learns it was the king's daughter who lured his parents to their deaths, the barbarian warrior is determined to make her pay.Yet the woman Maddek captures is not what he expected. Though the last in a line of legendary warrior-queens, Yvenne is small and weak, and the sharpest weapons she wields are her mind and her tongue. Even more surprising is the marriage she proposes to unite them in their goals and to claim their thrones--because her desire for vengeance against her father burns even hotter than his own...
All He'll Ever Be
W. Winters - 2019
There’s no magical rose or kiss that will turn him into a prince. All Carter Cross will ever be is a beast. A cold-hearted and ruthless, mafia king, trapped in a castle of his own making I’m the daughter of his enemy and his new possession. A mafia bargain for war. I thought that’s all I was to him, but I was never prepared for for the next page of our story…