A drug addiction, numerous sexual partners, and a lonely lifestyle weren’t enough to fill the void that Carver left in Jones’s chest.Years later, the two meet under familiar circumstances, and Jones can’t help hoping for affection that Carver can never give him. While Jones tries his best to crawl under Carver’s skin and force him to feel something, he finds himself involved in a political war he had no idea he was fighting. Jones struggles to gasp for air in a dying city that’s sinking fast and pulling him under with wave after wave of addiction and betrayal.

    Hated because of their differences, these Ge-Mis live on the fringes of society where they scrounge and scrape to get by.Nevada is half Ge-Mi and hides that fact behind baggy clothes and by keeping distance between himself and everyone around him. One day, his peaceful life is shattered by an explosion and the arrival of a pack of wolves to sniff out the culprit.Wolves have excellent noses and as Alpha, Taylor can sniff out every one of Nevada’s secrets—and the harder Nevada tries to resist, the more difficult staying away from Taylor becomes.

    His job in a café doesn’t exactly set the world alight. But, he’s got his own house, a boyfriend, and a close-knit group of good friends. For him, that’s more than enough to lead a contented life. Then in one fell swoop, everything’s ripped away when he’s forced to flee the village with only his boyfriend for company. He doesn’t know why they’re leaving. He hasn’t got the faintest clue what’s going on, and he’s struggling to understand the actions and behavior of a man he thought he knew. A man that it soon becomes clear knows far more about what’s happening than he’s letting on. A man hiding a multitude of secrets. When the true extent of what’s happening comes to light, Blake is rocked to the core. Peril lurks around every corner. The smallest decision suddenly spells the difference between life and death. If Blake’s to have any chance of survival in this new and frightening world, he’s going to have to unearth buried secrets, figure out whether love really can conquer all, and face emotional, physical, and mental challenges the likes of which he could never have imagined. One things for sure, when life suddenly boils down to nothing more than the desperate need to find refuge, priorities change. Blake’s certainly have.

    They have been attached at the hip since they were kids, all through high school and even through the Army with the buddy system. From being stationed as MP's in Germany to graduating the police Academy and riding in the same patrol car night after night, where one was found, so was the other. They shared everything.Until six months ago… when Johnny got divorced.Mike's feelings for his best friend and brother changed; became more than just brotherly love and avoidance was his way of coping. However, the night he traded shifts to avoid his brother, once again, was the night he almost lost him. And more than anything else, that is Mike's biggest fear.Author Note:Contains m/m sexual practices and is intended for readers of legal age in the country in which they reside.

    The usual suspects are all present: cowboys, outlaws, and sheriffs. There’s plenty of dust, tumbleweeds, horses, and cattle on the range, but there are also magical gems, automatons, elementals, airships… even dinosaurs and genetically modified insects. Roaming among the buffalo and coyotes, you’ll encounter skinwalkers, mad engineers, mythical beings cloaked in darkness, and lovers who stay true to their oaths… even beyond the grave. On this frontier are those at the mercy of their own elaborate devices as well as men whose control of time and space provides a present-day vision of the West. There might even be a dragon hidden amongst the ghost towns and wagon trains.If you like your Westerns with a splash of magic, a touch of steampunk, and plenty of passionate romance between men, these genre-bending tales will exceed expectations. Hold on to your hats, cowboys and cowgirls. The West is about to get weird, and you’re in for a hell of a ride.

    When Dani O'Brien entered the Branch, she planned to trade her freedom so that her family could have a better life. But joining up with the mysterious organization is more than she bargained for. Branch head Connor watches over her closely--too closely. The training is brutal, the experiments are secret, and the missions promise to be anything but ordinary. The only thing getting Dani through each day is the hope that she'll run into Sam--a young man, about her age, who wears the world on his shoulders.Find out how it all began in this short-story prequel to Jennifer Rush's thrilling and suspenseful Altered series.

    He has plenty to do, being the head ranger of the Tahoe National Forest, but living alone in a cabin in the middle of the woods isn’t exactly the most riveting life. He’s known excitement, too. For many years he served as a sniper in the marine corps, but a devastating shoulder injury has reduced him to civilian duties. These days, a walker’s twisted ankle or a trapped raccoon is about as exciting as it gets. Nothing can prepare him, though, for the day he comes across a man lying in the middle of a lonely forest road. The man is alive, but he’d certainly been left for dead. When he wakes up in the hospital, it becomes obvious that he’s suffering from amnesia. With nothing to identify him save for the huge angel tattoo that spreads across his shoulders, the hospital staff name him Gabriel, and tell Hopper that with nowhere else to send him, once he’s recovered from his injuries he’ll have to be sent out into the world. Against his better judgement, but always a sucker for swarthy looks and piercing blue eyes, Hopper agrees to allow Gabriel to stay with him. Perhaps, together, they can work at finding out who this mystery man is, why he was left lying in the forest, and who could possibly have attacked him so badly. What Hopper can never prepare himself for is how deeply he will fall for this handsome stranger, and how he will be able to let Gabriel go when the past, as it always does, comes to catch up. Please Note: This book contains adult language and steamy adult activities, it is intended for 18+ Adults Only. Novel, approximately 82,000 words in length. HEA (happy ever after ending). Does not end with a "cliffhanger." Themes include: Forest Ranger, Amnesia, Angel tattoo, Lake Tahoe, Falling in love, ex-marine

    This was published as a Clarkesworld audiobook podcast in 2020.

    Jude Welton has two dreams: for humans to stop killing monsters, and for his strange abilities to vanish.But in no reality should a boy raised to love monsters fall for a boy raised to kill them.Nyx Llorca keeps two secrets: the moon speaks to her, and she’s in love with Dahlia, her best friend. Braeden Tennant wants two things: to get out from his mother's shadow, and to unlearn Epsilon's darkest secret.They’ll both have to commit treason to find the truth.During one twenty-seven-hour night, if they can’t stop the war between the colonies and the monsters from becoming a war of extinction, the things they wish for will never come true, and the things they fear will be all that’s left.27 Hours is a sweeping, thrilling story featuring a stellar cast of queer teenagers battling to save their homes and possibly every human on Sahara as the clock ticks down to zero.

    Magic. Dragons. In the land of Odri, the youngest princess of the royal family has broken her betrothal and run away. The zookeeper Arden is sent out with a creature called a tracker to bring her back to the palace. A servant of the king, Arden was born with a magical penchant to control animals. But the tracker turns out to be a handsome man, not a beast, kidnapped from his home and used to find people against his will. Although Arden tries to keep his distance, he is falling in love with the man in the cage.

    Ryan Donnelly of Earth, it might just be a fate worse than death. The union is meant to end a devastating war that has lasted for over a hundred and fifty years, but when the female bride intended for the fierce, sexy prince runs away, her handsome brother is substituted instead. Men are for mating as far as the Tygerian prince is concerned, but the colonel also happens to be Mikos’s sworn enemy, not to mention being completely irritating.Ryan is horrified to learn that the Tygerians not only expect him to take the place of his sister, marry the Bloody Prince of Tygeria, and go to live with him on his mysterious planet, but they also expect him to undergo physical alteration to have the man’s baby! And nobody is taking hell no for an answer. Ryan’s being asked to turn his whole life upside down and the handsome Tygerian gets under his skin like nobody else. But with the fate of the universe at stake, how can he say no? Can the two enemies put aside their differences and focus on making love and not war—not to mention a baby? As a powerful love struggles to take root, can they learn to trust each other and stand together against the forces that are trying to tear them apart?

    Poor, uneducated, and repressing all his sexual desires, he leads a life of misery, only sometimes sprinkled with gin and a rough tumble in a filthy back alley.But when he is abducted into Bylondon to be the slave of a wealthy crime family member named Erik Dal, his values are put to the test. His new master is obsessed with all things equestrian, and Reuben soon learns that if he obeys and performs well as Erik's horse, he might just get everything he yearns for: pampering, foods he never even dreamed of, and shameless sex with a demonically handsome young man in leather riding boots.As Copper, Erik's treasured dun stallion, Reuben must submit to his new master's obscene fancy of possessing another man completely. That is, if he yearns for treats and not the lick of a riding crop. Fake tails, harnesses, and a new haircut to his ginger mane help Reuben transform into Copper, but the fear of losing his dignity in the eyes of society might just prove to be a bigger restraint than any bit, bridle, or handcuffs.All that for the small price of his freedom. Though at times, Reuben feels it's his soul that Erik is after instead.Genre: m/m erotic romance, bdsm, darkThemes: class differences, slavery, steampunk, fetish, Victorian, master/servant, pony play, kink, organized crimeLength: ~95.000 words

    Landlocked, Wyatt faces a choice. Either he forfeits his deposit and stays home, or he finds an alpha to take care of his heat for him. It is not an easy choice, but with that with that much money on the line, Wyatt's not about to let his vacation go to waste. Playboy alpha Gage Weston is under constant pressure by his pack to find a mate and produce an heir, but even if it's for his own good, Gage won’t let anyone tell him what to do... at least, until headstrong omega Wyatt Morgan walks into his life, deeply in heat and need of a favor. Gage is more than happy to oblige. But when Wyatt walks away after their encounter, he’s traded his heat for a new set of problems. He's pregnant, and now Gage is on his tail, determined to make things right. And Gage is insistent in the way that makes it hard for Wyatt to say no. Taking the Omega's Heat is a 27k novella with a no cheating, no cliffhanger and a sweet HEA with an earnest Alpha, a grouchy omega and a second-in-command who earns his pay corralling the two into the same room.

    Wid is a young colonist who has been caught harassing the aliens. He and his friends are rounded up and sent to an alien warship patrolling the disputed space. His fate is to serve as a sex slave for the ship’s imposing captain. Wid, at first, fights against his enslavement, but soon learns that not only does he stand no chance against the much larger and stronger captain, he isn’t sure he even wants to.Like all Travian males, Kell is bound by duty to defend his people. Having risen to the rank of captain, he nevertheless chafes against the boring and endless patrol of the space invaded by the humans. His misses his family and constantly guards against his scheming first officer. He sees his reward of a human sex slave as more of a nuisance. Yet the pretty, fair-haired human’s exotic allure is hard to resist. He finds far more pleasure in the use of his pet than he would like.Kept naked and leashed, Wid’s days are filled with boredom, while his nights wrapped in Kell’s arms turn from fear into pleasure. Even as the humans plot their escape, Wid and Kell form a bond and their growing affection cannot be ignored. When tensions boil over among the aliens, Wid and his friends may be Kell and his crew’s only chance for survival.Reader Advisory: This book contains sex scenes of both non-consensual and dubious consent, as well as scenes of violence, abuse and torture.

    Come now, and follow us into these fantasy worlds where sultry shifters meet their fated mates and always get their happily-ever-after ending.