The proprietor of the new bakery in town is clueless about the dual nature of her nearest neighbors, but not for long. It’ll be up to Sheriff Brody to clue her in and convince her to stay calm—and in his bed—for the next fifty years or so. Yeah, that might be enough. Then again, maybe he’ll keep her forever. * PLEASE NOTE: This NOVELLA first released in the LOVE EVER AFTER box set, which came out on September 15, 2015. Meaning - if you already have the box set, you already have this story.

    One of the most startlingly original and entertaining SF anthology concepts in years, perfectly preserving the spirit of H. G. Wells's classic. H. G. Wells's immortal novel The War of the Worlds describes an invasion from Mars through the fictional dispatches of a London newspaper reporter. Yet we have been able to see only one segment of the global catastrophe - until now. Here is the Martian invasion that might have been, from the Earthlings best prepared to tell the tale. Besides the struggle in England, the reporter mentions similar battles taking place all over the planet. From Teddy Roosevelt in Cuba to the Dowager Empress in China, we see our fellow humans encounter the Martian menace through the eyes of science fiction luminaries: --In Providence, Rhode Island, an eight-year-old H. P. Lovecraft bravely seeks communion with an alien intelligence - and a return to his long-lost home; --In Russia, a letter by Count Leo Tolstoy describes the coming of the ultimate revolution; --In a dark woods outside of Zurich, a heroic Albert Einstein finds himself trapped inside a Martian craft, where survival itself is relative; --In Amherst, Massachussetts, Emily Dickinson leaves poetic evidence that she encountered the Martians eleven years after her death; --In Paris, a young artist named Pablo Picasso is inspired by the Martian carnage to create his most shocking and disturbing masterpiece.Contents:**(H. G. Wells): Foreword (War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches) • essay by H. G. Wells*(Teddy Roosevelt): The Roosevelt Dispatches [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Mike Resnick*(Percival Lowell): Canals in the Sand [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Kevin J. Anderson*(Dowager Empress of China): Foreign Devils [War of the Worlds] (1996) / novelette by Walter Jon Williams*(Pablo Picasso): Blue Period [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Daniel Marcus*(Henry James): The Martian Invasion Journals of Henry James [War of the Worlds] (1996) / novelette by Robert Silverberg*(Winston Churchill and H. Rider Haggard): The True Tale of the Final Battle of Umslopogaas the Zulu [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Janet Berliner*(Texas Rangers): Night of the Cooters [War of the Worlds] (1987) / shortstory by Howard Waldrop*(Albert Einstein): Determinism and the Martian War, with Relativistic Corrections [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Doug Beason*(Rudyard Kipling): Soldier of the Queen [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Barbara Hambly*(Edgar Rice Burroughs): Mars: The Home Front [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by George Alec Effinger*(Joseph Pulitzer): A Letter from St. Louis [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Allen Steele*(Leo Tolstoy): Resurrection [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Mark W. Tiedemann*(Jules Verne): Paris Conquers All [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Gregory Benford and David Brin*(H. P. Lovecraft): To Mars and Providence [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Don Webb*(Mark Twain): Roughing It During the Martian Invasion [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Daniel Keys Moran and Jodi Moran*(Joseph Conrad): To See the World End [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by M. Shayne Bell*(Jack London): After a Lean Winter [War of the Worlds] (1996) / novelette by Dave Wolverton*(Emily Dickinson): The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson's Poems: A Wellsian Perspective [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Connie Willis**(Jules Verne): Afterword: Retrospective (War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches) (1996) • essay by Gregory Benford and David Brin..

    While working on the set of a ghost-busting reality show in a haunted castle, she meets a sexy vampire, and together they prevent a Master Demon from killing everyone in the castle. In “Undead Sublet” by Molly Harper, executive chef Tess Maitland is banned from her five-star kitchen in Chicago to recover from “exhaustion.” Choosing a random rental house in Half-Moon Hollow to spend time in, she’s unaware that the house comes with a strange man. Even though Sam Masden’s ex-wife has rented the house out from under him, the divorce settlement allows him access to it for another ninety days. With Tess unable to go anywhere else, and Sam unwilling, a war of epic proportions is declared—and romantic sparks and heavy pots fly. Jessica Sims’s “Out With a Fang” features Ruby Sommers, a lonely were-jaguar who signs up for a blind date through the paranormal dating agency Midnight Liaisons. When she arrives, she finds out that her date, a vampire, was the human she’d been in love with four years ago but was forced to dump.

     My name’s Jack. I’m a relatively average guy working as an IT consultant. I had some interesting experiences as a soldier before I took up my current profession, but basically, I'm an average normal guy since then. It was pure dumb luck that I met a gorgeous woman on an airplane, and we hit it off. I’m usually seated next to the fat, talkative guy, sweating alcohol out of his pores. Instead, I got to sit next to an exotic beauty, and she decided to be my companion for the day. You can’t make this stuff up! It all started with that ‘truth stranger than fiction’ scenario, and yet...that is the least crazy thing about everything that followed in my life after that day. Beings of myth and legend exist. No, really! If you ever read about fantastic beings in a fairy tale or myth, the odds are they exist - or they are based on something equally fantastic. I always enjoyed reading about them, but never dreamed they existed. What really twisted my noodle is that apparently, I am one. Hold onto your knickers, while I tell you about this crazy ride I’m on. WARNING: This story is an adult fantasy for mature folks. As such, this story includes unusual interpretations of myth and legends, faerie violence, descriptions of genitalia, descriptions of sexual activities, mixing of US, UK, and Indian idioms, panamorous relationships, harem relationships, romance, bromance, BFFs, cursing, bathroom selfies, off-beat humor, eating food while naked or partially naked, drinking, going to the bathroom, the insurance industry, the IT consulting industry, and many other things that might possibly offend someone in our judgemental society. If you are offended by any of those things, then go forth to enjoy life elsewhere. I wish you the best. If you’re not dissuaded, then...

    keep on lying, or tell the woman he loved the truth. He decided to tell the truth, and she threw him out of her life. He never stopped loving her, not stopped wanting her. Celeste Harper finally had everything she wanted—or so she thought. She’d escaped her past. She’d escaped her demons. But she couldn’t escape herself... or the man she’d left behind all those years ago. Looking into his eyes ten years later, she realizes it’s her turn to make a choice—let go of that pain and take him back. Or walk away... and face a future without him.Code Word: Storm - Sydney CroftThe extremely secret Agency for Covert Rare Operatives is the only thing that stands between the human race and complete chaos. Now, two agents with special abilities, Annika Svenson and Creed McCabe, are sent to stop a man who has harnessed the power of the supernatural world. But Creed and Annika have a history that puts them at odds - and in closer, hotter contact than they'd like. In this ACRO story, which falls in the series timeline between Riding the Storm and Unleashing the Storm, Annika and Creed grow closer, despite their resistance. And with their lives are on the line, they find they must not only work together, but be together, or risk a terrifying fate that could consume them both...These two short stories contain hot guys, determined women and some sexiness. Please note... they have been previously published, but we did add some new material.

    God help the living.It's too late to run. The zombies are everywhere. They stalk through urban jungles and across the carefully manicured lawns of suburbia. They shudder to unlife on the bloodiest battlefields of the Civil War and in the deepest tunnels of interstellar mining colonies. They lurk on your street, in you company boardroom, in your own bedroom. And they hunger.

    A Galactic dark elf. A woman who has given up her humanity to become something more. These stories and more are available in the first short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, covering year one on Earth. When the world ends, humanity steps up, finding new ways to survive in a world with Classes, magic and monsters. The anthology features exciting, new stories by five new writers and a new, never publicly released short story by Tao Wong. The System Apocalypse world was first introduced in 'Life in the North' and is a LitRPG science fiction and fantasy post-apocalyptic work that features monsters, science fiction technology, character sheets, supernatural races and ancient myths in one heady, LitRPG brew. Stories and writers featured in this anthology include: Craig Hamilton - "Hunting Monsters" has our protagonist doing what he does best. Finding those who would exploit the System and the people within. Except this time, there are even more complications than normal. Alexis Keane - "Tooth and Claw" is a heart-warming tale of friendship that knows no bounds of race or distance. Ix Phoen - "Rebel Within" tells a tale of hardship in South America, where the monsters are not always the ones outside the walls. Tao Wong – “Debts & Dances” covers the arrival of the System from the perspective of our favorite Truinnar Lord. R.K. Billiau – “Phoenix Rising” covers an unconventional hero, one whose mind is slipping from him before the apocalypse. Will the apocalypse be his salvation? Or doom? L.A. Batt - “Overture to Obliteration” brings us to far-off New Zealand to glimpse the wreckage the System has wrought.

    Another breaks her heart. Both want Cadence in this erotic story about shattering the rules and blurring the lines. Hooking has four important rules. Cash only. Use protection. Carry mace.Don't fall in love. Twenty-year-old Cadence is a prostitute and she lives by the rules. They keep her alive, and they keep her heart protected. But when she agrees to take one last job to get out from under her pimp, she discovers some of the rules might be worth breaking.Installments 1-4: Blurred Lines Distorted Lines Crossed Lines Dirty Lines

    This steamy anthology includes 5 hot stories from various authors in which steamy fantasies come to throbbing life! These sexy tales are a mix of first time stories and naughty, dubious behavior! Includes: • Teachable - Ivana Shaft 
• Teaching Daphne - Ivana Shaft
 • A Welcome Intruder - Anita Swirl 
• Taken for Granted - Rowena
 • Deviant: Calla & Jason - Rowena
 **Check out individual author pages for more titillating reads!**

    Until, that is, she is reunited with Mr Handsome Stranger, aka Rob Sutter, who, it just so happens, lives in the very same town...Daisy's Back In Town:Jackson Lamott Parish thought he'd seen the back of Daisy when she ran off with his best friend years ago. He vowed then he'd never let a woman get close to him again, and he's been breaking hearts ever since. But now Daisy's back in town and has a secret - one she can confess only to Jackson. So why is he the one person staying well out of her way?

    They make the rules and negotiate with their masters -- though sometimes they also get off on being pushed just a little too far by men they know they can trust. It's as if the doms who enter their lives see the potential for submission in these women and want to arouse them more than ever before by providing an opportunity for them to let go. The editor of the bestsellers He's on Top and Yes, Sir, Rachel Kramer Bussel has chosen 22 stories that celebrate the thrill of submission by women who know exactly what they want. The characters in Please, Sir may be doing the bidding of their dominants, but the tops are just as much subject to the will of their subs, in their own way, by making them ache, moan, and quiver. With stories by Shanna Germain, Elizabeth Coldwell, Alison Tyler, and more.

    "I'm claiming you as mine, right here, right now." SILAS I want a wife who knows what it means to live off the grid, cook my food, and keep my bed warm. In exchange, I'll give her a lifetime of happiness in the form of my c*ck. But d*mn, Everly's more than I bargained for and I don't think she has any idea what it means to be mine. Hell, I wanted a wife, but I'm not sure I know how to live with a woman. EVERLY Did I expect to be a mail-order bride at twenty-two? No. But honestly, my life could be a helluva lot worse. The agency says this Alaskan mountain man is rich, hot as heck, and willing to pay off my student loans. I'm crossing my fingers he's everything I signed up for. But I may be a little over my head. Mostly because I'm marrying a stranger and also because I've never dated. Period. Clearly I have no clue how to be a wife ... but it's too late to back out now. *WARNING: This story features a mountain man who knows exactly what he wants. And how he wants it. Don't one-click if you want a tame mail order bride story ... this is a classic Frankie Love romance ... steamy as hell with a HEA.

    Power. Domination. The shifters in our Alpha's Claim: Manlove Edition anthology have one thing in common—they won't take “no” for an answer. Whether they lead packs of their own, or whether they walk a solitary path, these alphas won't let anyone stop them from claiming their men. Lose yourself in these ten sinfully delicious love stories. After all, who could deny an Alpha’s claim?The Becoming by Tyler Robbins Bite Harder by Avril Ashton Bad Moon Rising by Pelaam Waking Up Wolf by Nikka Michaels Laid Claim by JC Holly Out in the Cold by Lucy Felthouse His Great Dane by Karly Germain Claiming Ayden by Eileen Griffin One Mate by Tamsin Baker Be the Boss by Giselle Renarde

    [2:35] [3] Babycakes [4:54] [4] Cold Colours [16:11] [5] The White Road [20:57] [6] Banshee [25:41]DISC II: THE LONG HAUL [1] Chivalry [32:55] [2] Troll Bridge [28:35]

    A party girl’s addiction gives birth to a monster within. Man’s best friend must fend off a woman’s greatest nightmare…Scare Street is proud to present eleven chilling tales of the supernatural, in one monstrous volume. Horror authors Ron Ripley, David Longhorn, Sara Clancy, and many more unite to bring you a terrifying collection of short stories, each one guaranteed to haunt your dreams. And each one more chilling than the last.Once you start reading you won’t be able to stop. Because when these authors sink their teeth into you, it’s already too late.The only way to escape from these nightmares… is to wake up screaming.