ABOUT THE SHORT STORY’S PRICE: Hello, you lovely people. Odd to talk about money straight up, but I know that some of you might be thinking, £1.99/US$2.99/CDN$3.99/A$3.99 is a lot for a short story. Let me explain how it works in the UK. A rate of 20% VAT (Value Added Tax) applies to eBooks. This doesn’t apply to ‘real’ paper books. That means 33p of the £1.99 goes straight to the British government. Amazon takes around 2p to deliver the story to your Kindle, then takes another 48p as its cut. The remainder, £1.16, goes to me. That's not a great deal, I hope you agree. A roughly similar story applies in foreign territories. In these times of falling sales, and authors losing their contracts, and only one in seven traditionally published authors being able to write fulltime, stories like this are a vital way of YOU supporting the authors whose books you enjoy. So THANK YOU for your support! Think of it in terms of a pint of beer or a cup of coffee: they cost £2-4, depending on where you live in the UK. This story will give you more enjoyment (I think!) than either of those things, and last for a longer time, and cost you less money. This is the third time I have self-published a short story. (Massive thanks here to Pete Simpson, who designed the cover for me!) It’s been an exciting project since the day I did the poll on Facebook, asking you lovely people which of my characters you wanted me to write about. Centurion Tullus won out, narrowly, and this is the result. The one hundred and something people who backed the Kickstarter campaign got to read this story almost 7 months ago, but now you can too. Oh, what's it about? The war of the Batos, or the Pannonian War, which took place between AD 6 and 9, a general emergency that had almost 100.000 legionaries sent to modern-day Croatia to sort out the rebels. Enjoy the story, and please email me if you have any questions about it or anything else – ben@benkane.net Ben

    A great story with lots of twists! I was literally spellbound." "I love J. M. Klaire's stories. They are hot, sexy, sexy stories of finding your true mate." Get every story in the Alpha Hunted series, all in one huge bundle collection of shifter goodness! BEFORE THE HUNT: PREQUEL When a wolf shifter with commitment issues teams up with a runaway bride to find her a new groom- the claws come out and the fur flies! Meet Sandra, a runaway bride looking to provide for her widowed mother, and Naythan, a wolf shifter determined never to settle down. This prequel to the Alpha Hunted series takes place about nine months before Alpha Hunted: Keelyn & Bane. ALPHA HUNTED: KEELYN & BANE Fate’s dark design brings them together... in a mating neither is ready for. Five years after witnessing her father's death, Keelyn has become what she never wanted to be: a were-hunter. Surprisingly good at the career she'd had thrust upon her that fateful day, she heads to the yearly gathering to pay her farm's rent with money earned from hunting werewolf hearts and pelts. Bane and his wolf pack are also headed to the yearly gathering when Bane, the pack's Alpha, finally scents the female his wolf says is to be their forever mate. There's only one problem- she also scents of death and wet wolf hide. When Bane follows Keelyn into the woods, neither are prepared for the passion, or the truths, they're each about to face. Can they survive the revelations that lie ahead? Or has fate doomed them to an impossible love? ALPHA HUNTED 2: BELLA & MAC Feeling desperate and alone, pregnant with a baby left behind during a rape, the last thing Bella needs is for her were-hunter sister to bring strange men home. Mac, a bear shifter traveling with his adopted wolf pack, scents pregnant Bella as his mate. Mac's first instinct is to provide for and protect Bella, but Bella's first instinct is to aim a shovel at his head. Secrets and shifters being welcomed into a house of were-hunters, who each hold secrets of their own. What could possibly go wrong? ALPHA HUNTED 3: IVY, DAVID & RYKER When two wolf-pack enforcers show up right in the middle of some serious family drama, Ivy is almost too busy with her own personal crisis to notice how hot the tattooed bad boys are. With secrets being revealed left and right, her family being hunted, and her own hidden identity a key to the whole thing, the last thing she needs is two lone wolves claiming that she, and only she, can complete their triad and become their mate. Not sure she even believes in fated mates, and needing to keep her family together while getting to the bottom of a mystery three generations in the making, she tells the men no. And no isn't a word they are used to hearing. ALPHA HUNTED 4: ENID & THE KING Enid raised her three young daughters to hate, and hunt, shifters. So, of course one mated a werewolf, the other a bear, and the third mated not one but two of the rag-tag pack's wolf enforcers. When Enid finds herself entwined in the lives of her girls, their mates, and their king, who just happens to be a sexy-as-sin dragon shifter, her first thought is, "FML.

    But now, Eric is the only one who knows about a secret AIM plot to steal Pym's greatest invention! Can the two men get along long enough to save the day?Collects Ant-Man & Wasp #1-3.

    A free preview of New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver's next blockbuster Lincoln Rhyme thriller.

    Cooper's latest alternate history novel, a new contribution to Eric Flint's 1632 Universe, the romance between Juan Cardona, an officer in Spain's Manila garrison, and Huang Mingyu, a young, beautiful Chinese woman, is threatened when a Dutch-Japanese force launches a surprise attack on 17th century Manila. Manila falls and Juan is rescued by Huang Mingyu, who proves to have hidden talents and connections. It is then up to Juan to warn the incoming Manila galleon of the Dutch-Japanese threat before it blunders into Manila Bay, and to prove his worth to Mingyu's family. Who have interests of their own in the region....Will true love prevail when Japan (the chrysanthemum), Spain (the cross) and China (the dragon) come into conflict?For readers unfamiliar with the 1632 universe, it posits a cosmic catastrophe -- the RIng of Fire -- that throws the West Virginia town of Grantville into 17th century Germany. By 1633, the ripples caused by this event have reached East Asia, and the Japanese are determined to forestall the missionary-instigated Shimabara Rebellion of 1637.

    Anderson (THE SAGA OF SEVEN SUNS: VEILED ALLIANCES) comes to the DCU for this epic starring the World's First Super-Team!Set during the Golden Age, STRANGE ADVENTURES begins when fumbling Johnny Thunder decides to become a big-time writer by chronicling the adventures of the JSA. Taken under the writing wing of legendary, real-life science-fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson, Johnny tries his best -- and when a deadly new villain called Lord Dynamo appears on the scene, flying a deadly zeppelin crewed by robot zombies, it's up to Johnny and Jack to help Hawkman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Starman, Dr. Mid-Nite, The Sandman and the rest of the JSA save the day!

    They've been having some serious problems with the white stuff—not snow, but cocaine—and their highly-paid, isolated, somewhat stir-crazy employees have been overdosing at an alarming rate. Kate's job is to identify the dealer and staunch the flow before more people die. It's never that simple, of course.In Play with Fire, Kate and friends stumble across a naked, decaying corpse in the woods. Judged death by misadventure by the Troopers, Kate's sense of justice demands that she launch her own investigation, leading her to ask some very uncomfortable questions of a frontier faith community. Questions that might drive someone to kill…again.In Blood Will Tell, Kate is forced to involve herself in Native politics, attending the annual Federation convention in Anchorage and investigating the deaths of several board members. Opposition to a new development project seems to have been the link tying the victims together, but when Kate poses the question that all detective work begins with—cui bono?—she finds there are more suspects on the list than not.Also included: the two Kate Shugak short stories, "Wreck Rights" and "Cherchez la Femme."

    Ginger Munz, a woman dying of cancer hires him to find the son she lost as a baby. The child’s father is a sadistic sociopath named Moon who has vowed to kill her and Josh’s girlfriend Cass, for ratting him out. The trail leads to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and west into no-man’s land where Josh learns the monstrous fate of the stolen child.Josh is the BIKER, caught up in a race for survival against a human monster on the road between heaven and hell at the end of which lies either salvation or damnation. Baron spins a tale of unrelenting suspense and horror that moves across his narrative landscape like the roar of a chopper’s engine.

    For the first time, the Batman stories from legendary comics writer Archie Goodwin are collected together.Collects stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #437, 438 and 440-443, DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #3, SHOWCASE '95 #11, BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE #1 and 4, BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #132-136, and BATMAN: NIGHT CRIES.

    Wild magic, unexpected allies, a conflagration of sorcery and shifter magic the likes of which has not been seen in centuries... That's what awaits the peaceful town of Grizzly Cove. That, and love...lots and lots of love. This anthology contains books 4 thru 6 of the Grizzly Cove series. Book 4 is novel-length, while books 5 and 6 are slightly shorter. The titles are: Alpha Bear What’s a bear to do when he learns the woman he wants is a witch, and already knows he’s a shifter? Can a town full of bear shifters deal with having a mage in their midst? And when evil attacks from the sea, can they afford not to have a witch willing to give of herself to protect them? Or will the Alpha have to give up Grizzly Cove in order to keep the woman he loves? Saving Grace Jack never expected to find a badly injured mermaid washed up on shore. Grace never expected to live through her encounter with the leviathan. When she wakes up in Jack’s care, she finds herself drawn to the handsome grizzly shifter, though the sea, and the leviathan, calls to her. Can she resist the allure of the ocean? Can she stay with her bear, on land, or will she break both their hearts? Bearliest Catch Drew spends his days fishing in the Pacific, far from Grizzly Cove, seeking the peace of the ocean. Jetty lives in the ocean, part of a hunting party of mer folk, in near-constant danger now from the evil creature that roams the deep. When they meet, sparks fly and the ocean comes alive with danger. Can they get her people to safety?

    Already entrenched in the Batcave and his official training complete, young Dick Grayson has a world of experience to gain and a ton of new enemies to make--beginning with the truly insane Mad Hatter! The early days of the Boy Wonder begin here!

    Transmetropolitan combined black humor, political scandal, and moral ambiguity to look into the mind of gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem and The City he inhabits. Aided by his embattled Editor and his two Filthy Assistants, Jerusalem blazes a path through a futuristic world of skyscrapers and technological wonders, dark alleys, and unspeakable depravity.Transmetropolitan: All Around The World is a lovingly crafted and designed tribute to a seminal work. Contributors include: Aaron Alexovich, Stephanie Buscema, Jim Calafiore, Stefano Caselli, Cliff Chiang, Richard C. Clark, Kevin Colden, Molly Crabapple, Camilla d’Errico, Kristian Donaldson, Ryan Dunlavey, Gary Erskine, Richard Friend, Dan Goldman, Cully Hamner, Lea Hernandez, Phil Hester, Rantz Hoseley, Matt Howarth, K Thor Jensen, Seth Kushner, Jonathan Luna, Milo Manara, John McCrea, Moritat, Dean Motter, Darick Robertson, Jimmie Robinson, Stuart Sayger, Tim Seeley, Fiona Staples, Bryan Talbot, Pete Woods, and many, many others.[text from http://cbldf.org/homepage/transmetrop... ]

    Now kids and adults alike can bring SpongeBob home and laugh their "squarepants off with Mad Libs!

    With Batman crippled by his fiercest foe, a new hero tries to fill his shoes in protecting Gotham City. But his methods are brutal and dangerous, and the future of Gotham City is uncertain. In June 2005, Batman Begins will be released in movie theatres, starring Christian Bale and featuring Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, and Liam Neeson. Interest in the Batman franchise will surge, with a huge marketing campaign and the star power casting.

    2: WELCOME TO THE PIZZA DOME, from writers SHOLLY FISCH (THE ALL-NEW BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD), MERRILL HAGAN (THE ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN), AMY WOLFRAM (TV'S TEEN TITANS GO!) and artists BEN BATES (SCRIBBLENAUTS UNMASKED: A CRISIS OF IMAGINATION), LEA HERNANDEZ (KILLER PRINCESSES) and more!