Since the day Rey’s defiance earned her a blinding blow to the head, fear has hovered as close as the guide dog that clings to her side. But the terror that grips her now is almost beyond description. Like her sister before her, Rey has been sold to satisfy the lusts of one of the alien Beasts that now rule the Earth. If the towering, leather-clad Alpha discovers his prize can’t see, he could kill her with a flick of his claw. Or worse, send her home—where the only mercy she’ll get is a bullet. From the moment the Alpha Beast spotted Rey smiling tenderly at her flowers, his desire to own her, body and soul, roared louder than his bike’s throaty engine. But the only smiles his new pair aims his way are forced—and oddly off target. She is liquid heat in his arms, yet ignores the notes and gifts he leaves for her. If he can’t win her over, he can’t trust her with his own truth. And the combined weight of their secrets could destroy everything. ***This dystopian fairy tale features one brave heroine paired with one sweet, unapologetic, possessive, protective, and kinky Alpha male Beast. If you're looking for "mating trope" with fleshed out characters in a steamy romance novella and HEA click it.

    Campbell classic about an antarctic research camp that discovers and thaws the ancient, frozen body of a crash-landed alien. The creature revives with terrifying results, shape-shifting to assume the exact form of animal and man, alike. Paranoia ensues as a band of frightened men work to discern friend from foe, and destroy the menace before it challenges all of humanity! The story, hailed as "one of the finest science fiction novellas ever written" by the SF Writers of America, is best known to fans as THE THING, as it was the basis of Howard Hawks' The Thing From Another World in 1951, and John Carpenter's The Thing in 1982. With a new Introduction by William F. Nolan, author of Logan's Run, and his never-before-published, suspenseful Screen Treatment written for Universal Studios in 1978, this is a must-have edition for scifi and horror fans!

    After divorcing her never-home husband, Lauren Southall plucked up her courage, dusted off her power suits, and returned to corporate life. Two years later, there's just one six-foot three, testosterone-packed problem: her ex-husband's good friend and her current boss, Noah Reeves. Lauren aches for him. No other man will do. But she cant possibly measure up to the silicone-packed professional cheerleaders he dates. So she hides her desire behind a professional persona and fantasizes. For ten years, Noah Reeves has waited to make Lauren his. Once her divorce was final, he tracked down and hired the brilliant, dedicated woman. But when he's with her, it isn't spreadsheets and profit margins on his brain. Problem is, she's never seen him as anything but her ex-husbands pal. Now that she's finally a free woman and with him 40+ hours a week, well... he'd love to persuade her to throw in her nights and weekends. Noah decides to romance her by day. By night, he becomes a mysterious stranger devoted only to her pleasureand discovers shes hiding a naughty little secret of her own. Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language

    So shouldn't they be able to figure out a way to overwrite the persistent false memory that's wreaking havoc on both of their lives? Daniel thought he was holding it together, but the situation is sliding out of control. Now even his own equipment has turned against him, reminding him he hasn't had a date in ages by taunting him with flashes of an elusive man in black that only he can see.The Elijah character makes no sense. Not only does he claim to be straight--which has never piqued Daniel's interest--but he's appearing in manufactured memories in which he's never been programmed. Is it some quirk of the circuitry, or is Daniel's desire to connect with someone clouding his own memory?

    The kiddo is with a sitter, yummy takeout has been ordered and…wait…they have a murder to solve?

    Read on for more from this exceptional character. Please note: This story includes language that some might find offensive.

    To be a Docile is to forget, to disappear, to hide inside your body from the horrors of your service. To be a Docile is to sell yourself to pay your parents' debts and buy your children's future.Elisha Wilder’s family has been ruined by debt, handed down to them from previous generations. His mother never recovered from the Dociline she took during her term as a Docile, so when Elisha decides to try and erase the family’s debt himself, he swears he will never take the drug that took his mother from him. Too bad his contract has been purchased by Alexander Bishop III, whose ultra-rich family is the brains (and money) behind Dociline and the entire Office of Debt Resolution. When Elisha refuses Dociline, Alex refuses to believe that his family’s crowning achievement could have any negative side effects—and is determined to turn Elisha into the perfect Docile without it.

    She's also one of the best psychic detectives on St. Helen's, the earth colony recently cut off from the mother planet, yet not very different from home - a place where love still defies the most incredible odds. Lucas Trent, the rugged head of Lodestar Exploration, isn't keen on the prim and proper type - and, from her neatly buttoned up business suit to her cool evaluation of his request to bust a corporate thief, Amaryllis is EXCRUCIATINGLY proper!Amaryllis may have psychic powers, but she can't read minds - least of all her own. When a bold hunch leads them from a wild murder investigation to a red-hot love affair, Amaryllis is shocked, Lucas is delighted, - and no power on heaven, earth, or St. Helen's can keep them apart!

    How do you break time? Can something so bad happen that you fracture the world?" Benjamin Travers has been electrocuted. What's worse, he and his friends have woken up in the past. As the friends search for a way home, they realize they're not alone. There are other time travelers, and some of them are turning up dead. When Ben meets an enigmatic scientist and his charming, time-traveling daughter, salvation seems at hand, but escaping the dangers of the past may lead to a deadly future. If he hopes to save his friends, Ben must learn to master space and time, and survive a journey where past and future violently collide.

    Read Alanik’s story between Starsight and Cytonic.“Don’t trust their lies. Don’t trust their false peace.” That is the warning that Alanik of the planet ReDawn gave the human pilot Spensa after Alanik’s ship crash-landed on Detritus. While accepting an invitation to meet with her people’s enemy, the Galactic Superiority, Alanik heard Spensa’s cry for help across the vastness of space, and she used her cytonic powers to hyperjump her ship to the source of that cry. What she found there was a shock—a whole planet of free humans fighting against the Superiority. Were they the allies her people desperately needed? When she recovered from her injuries and met the friendly humans Jorgen and FM of Skyward Flight, she found that her warning to Spensa had gone unheeded by the government of Detritus, and they were considering a peace overture from the Superiority. Now having returned to ReDawn, Alanik is dismayed to learn that her own people are falling into the exact same trap. The faction in ReDawn’s government that wants to appease the Superiority has gained the upper hand. With Alanik’s mentor, Renakin captured, she has no one to turn to but Jorgen, FM, and their friend Rig. An ancient technology may have the power to save both of their planets from disaster, but can they discover its secrets before it’s too late?

    Lansdale - “Neighbors” by Megan Lindholm - “I Know How to Pick ’Em” by Lawrence Block - “Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell” by Brandon Sanderson - A Cosmere story - “A Queen in Exile” by Sharon Kay Penman - “The Girl in the Mirror” by Lev Grossman - A Magicians story - “Second Arabesque, Very Slowly” by Nancy Kress - “City Lazarus” by Diana Rowland - “Virgins” by Diana Gabaldon - An Outlander story - “Hell Hath No Fury” by Sherilynn Kenyon - “Pronouncing Doom” by S.M. Stirling - An Emberverse story - “Name the Beast” by Sam Sykes - “Caretakers” by Pat Cadigan - “Lies My Mother Told Me” by Caroline Spector - A Wild Cards story - “The Princess and the Queen” by George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire story

    Going undercover at a mass wedding as a bartered bride, Morrigan Blake has every intention of getting off the barbaric planet just as soon as it’s over. Or, more correctly, just as soon as she captures footage of the mysterious princes rumored to be in attendance. After a euphoric night, Morrigan discovers her spaceship left without her, and Ualan of Draig is claiming she’s his wife. It’s not exactly the story this reporter had in mind. And to make matters worse, the all-to-seductive alpha refuses to take no for an answer. Being cursed by the Gods was never so frustrating... Prince Ualan is prepared to follow dragonshifter tradition and marry the woman revealed to him during the Breeding Festival. When the stubborn, yet achingly sexy, Morrigan refuses to accept their shared fate and his supreme authority over her, it is all he can do to keep from acting like the barbarian she accuses him of being.

    Do avoid your ex like he's a bill collector 2. Do block his emails and change your phone number if necessary 3. Do bury your head in the sand while you try (and fail) to get over him 4. Don't talk to him when he shows up while you're in the middle of the blind date from hell 5. Don't agree to go home with him when says he needs to talk to you Let’s hope I don't come to regret breaking rules four and five within minutes of Mason Cleary swooping back into my life. Rated Ex is short and hot- the perfect dessert after a long day when you want something sweet but don't have time for a full length book.

    She wakes up at the bottom of a square-shaped hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved - the object's origins, architects, and purpose unknown.But some can never stop searching for answers.Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top-secret team to crack the hand's code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the relic they seek. What's clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unravelling history's most perplexing discovery-and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

    I have a successful business, great friends, and a community I feel a part of. I never felt like I was missing… well, anything.Until the day Craig walks into my coffee shop, The Grind. Then he jogs by my coffee shop—shirtless. That was when I knew I was in trouble. Not only was he a nice guy but he also had a killer body—a by-product of his job as a trainer to MMA fighters I guess.When he asks me out I’m flattered, but the man is almost ten years my junior and only a temporary resident of this town. But flattery gets you everywhere as they say and in this case it got him into my bed.It’s all fun between us until I start to wonder if we could possibly make this last?