The version now available is published under the title "Beyond the Darkness."Zack Banning hasn't had an easy time of it recently. After spending more than fifteen years in the Marines, he's discharged due to a head injury received in combat. With no missions to run or people to save, it's all he can do to get out of bed in the mornings. The pills the doctors have him on to keep his injury-induced delusions at bay don't help the situation. When he discovers a young man being accosted outside of a bar one night he sees it as a chance to feel the satisfaction of saving someone once again. He just doesn't realize until it's over that the young man came to the bar to warn him that someone is out to kill him. What Eljin tells him is a story so outlandish, Zack begins to wonder if he's having one of his delusions. Because if Eljin's story is true, the entire foundation of everything Zack believes just flew out the window. Fleeing through the countryside with Eljin, Zack tries to understand everything without telling the man he's nuttier than a fruitcake. But the more time Zack spend with Eljin, the more he wants him until he can't think of ever being separated from the little elf. The only way to save Eljin is to take him back home-through the veil between the two worlds. Arrival on the elf's side of the veil isn't perfect, however. They encounter a war between the elf worlds, the threat of human invasion, and a bias against humans. Zack and Eljin have to keep their wits about them as they try to save their home, their family, and themselves. Special Content Alert: M/M

    When he goes to drown his sorrows with drinks at a local bar the powerful vampire master claims to have just what he needs. Warning: There is hot man/man action.

    He's in awe of these magnificent warriors but has eyes for only one of them. Hondo is as thickheaded as they come. Everyone around him can see how Chris feels about the big, bad warrior-everyone except Hondo. When bizarre occurrences keep taking place in the demon realm, Chris is ready for action, rushing in where wise men fear to tread. Can Hondo keep Chris from running into a battle he may not survive, and can Hondo set aside their friendship and become a lover to the little demon who worships the very ground he walks on? Note: Each book in Lynn Hagen's Demon Warriors collection features a different romantic couple. Each title stands alone and can be read in any order. However, we recommend reading the series in sequential order.

    Long used to being bullied and maligned for his strangeness, he spends his days helping the paranormals that everyone else forgets about.But the people he hunts and the mysteries he solves take him along unusual paths, many of them dangerous. Chris has never been a fan of running from a fight—even the fight that takes him to the door of the most dangerous man in the city.

    As it is, he’ll be riding the edge of failure to graduation next month. Then Spence gets the news that his long-gone father is not only dead, but was a Coyote, one of three clans of tricksters in the City.With a near-catatonic mother on his hands, Spence couldn’t care less about the Coyotes’ ongoing feud with the Phouka and the Kitsune—until it lands on his doorstep. Suddenly he’s thrown headfirst into a dangerous world he knows next-to-nothing about. His only guide is Rourke, dashing King of the Phouka, plus a growing pack of half-siblings, a god, and Fate herself.As Spence embarks on a journey to learn the Coyote’s creed, the truth about his heritage, and how to handle his growing attraction to Rourke, he wonders when his life turned from TV sitcom to real-life danger zone. And what price must he pay to survive the next roll of the dice…Warning: Contains PG-13 rated violence, R-rated language and X-rated hotel scenes. Meta-humor, pop-culture humor, utter disregard for the 4th wall abound.

    But his happiness fades when he discovers his date cheating on him an hour before. Suddenly alone when everyone knows he's supposed to have a plus one, Julian is set for a long night until longtime acquaintance Ryan Dean bails him out of the embarrassing situation. During dinner, they discover they have more than just friendship between them: there is mutual admiration and heated attraction. But getting to know Ryan better-and finding a place in his life-will bring Julian surprises and danger he never expected or dreamed existed.

    Unlike the rest of his species, Dane has dedicated his life to caring for humans, looking out for them, fighting for them, protecting them — and never, ever letting them know what he really is.Wesley Byrne just broke up with his boyfriend, and he certainly isn’t looking for another. His twin brother, Ty, thinks a night out with some of the soldiers he serves with will be just what Wes needs to stop moping over a man who doesn’t deserve it.After four hundred years, the dragon inside Dane recognizes Wes as his destiny, but Dane doesn’t trust his dragon. He’s convinced that humans can’t survive a dragon’s heat, and if he gives in it will force him to break the vow he made the day he discovered his true nature — to never take a human life.But neither Dane nor Wes can resist the powerful pull of a fated mate, and each of them will get more than they bargained for when they finally come together.Heat: Fated Mates is a standalone novel with a HEA ending, a satisfying epilogue, and NO CLIFFHANGERS!Content Warning: This book is a steamy gay romance that contains explicit, unprotected love scenes and male pregnancy, or Mpreg. Adults only shifter romance!

    They lost, and to pay for their crimes, they became the slaves of the draechen, trapped by the provisions of the new Shifter Directive.Now, Alpha Graham Powers still maintains hope that he will be able to free his people. When he is captured by a draechen patrol, he finds someone who might be more important to him than freedom itself. His mate, Caelyn Sutharlainn.Caelyn is a sprite, belonging to a species that tried to cooperate with the nearly omnipotent draechen. But when Caelyn meets Graham, he knows he cannot allow the strong, proud Alpha to be crushed by the draechen’s ruthlessness.Together, the two attempt to flee the draechen forces. But does their love have a chance of holding its own against an empire? Can the werewolf and the sprite find their way in a world that refuses to accept them?

    But when a demon murders his brother, Caleb knows he has to avenge Ben’s death, no matter what the cost. Unfortunately, his only allies belong to an extremist group who would kill Caleb if they found out about his talent.Gray is a wandering spirit, summoned to hunt and destroy demons by drinking their blood. This hunt goes horribly wrong, and for the first time in his existence Gray is trapped in a living, human body. Caleb’s body…and Caleb is still in it.Hotshot federal agent John Starkweather thinks he’s seen it all. But when he’s called to exorcise Caleb, he finds a creature which isn’t supposed to exist outside of stories. For Gray is a drakul: a vampire.Having spent his life avoiding the government as an unregistered ‘mal, Caleb can’t let himself trust a federal exorcist, no matter how sexy. And he certainly isn’t going to give into the heat growing between them and sleep with Starkweather.Can Starkweather win Caleb’s trust and convince him he isn’t the enemy? Can Caleb keep Gray under control, as the drakul experiences the temptation of a living body for the first time?Because if he fails and Gray gives in to bloodlust, Starkweather will have no choice but to kill them both.Novella: 33,643 words

    Remy is a wolf shifter who loves getting under the hood of a beauty with lots of horses and hates his mother nagging him to start having pups. When he is summoned to his asshole alpha's house, things go from bad to worse as he fails a test of loyalty by refusing to torture and kill a vampire. He's forced to challenge for the position as Alpha. No one is more surprised than he is when he actually wins. But what does he know about running a pack? Remy soon realizes the severely wounded male vampire is his mate. Skylar’s coven sent him to investigate rumors about a poison targeting vampires. Skylar is drop-dead gorgeous, with the brightest blue eyes Remy has ever seen. He's also blind. Will forces outside their control and the new responsibilities facing Remy put a stop to their mating and their life together before it begins?

     Maelgwn, leader of a clutch of gargoyles in Durango, Colorado, only planned to be in Stone Ridge a few days to help a fellow gargoyle’s mate through laying their first egg. His plan to leave changes when he scents his mate in the hospital. He discovers his mate is Bobby Truman, a human who has no idea the paranormal world exists, even though a number of his friends are shifters. Maelgwn begins the arduous process of watching and waiting, searching for that perfect opportunity to make contact with his mate. Bobby Truman is tired of his boyfriend, Seth’s, abusive friends, especially when Seth doesn’t do anything about their antics. The broken nose, compliments of Seth’s buddy Grant, is the final straw. When he’s attacked by muggers and rescued by a mysterious stranger in the dark, Bobby hopes it’s the opportunity he needs to make a clean break from Seth. Even if it doesn’t work out with Maelgwn, maybe Bobby can keep his new love interest’s attention long enough to prove to Seth they are really done. Bobby thinks it’s odd that Maelgwn won’t come into the light, always meeting him after dark, but he’s nowhere near prepared for the truth when it finally comes out. Can Maelgwn convince Bobby that the things that go bump in the night aren’t always bad and to take his place at Maelgwn’s side in a paranormal world? Even when that means uprooting his life and moving?

    Los Cerros is famous for its fairy village and its supposedly welcoming attitude toward magical beings like Ray, but Ray is one of only two beings on the police force. While dealing with human prejudice, Ray and his partner have to solve crimes relating to magic, and are forced to rely on the department’s part-time magical consultants, something Ray tries to avoid—and not only because werewolves are uncomfortable around magic. Enter Cal Parker, the son of the department’s most admired detective. Cal is brilliant, contemptuous of the police, and half-fairy. He’s also Ray’s mate, a fact that Ray has kept secret despite his every instinct screaming for him to claim and worship, because weres mate for life, and fairies… don’t. Everyone knows that. Fairies are beautiful, flighty, and fickle. But perhaps it’s not only the humans who have prejudice about beings. Cal isn’t shy about his desire for Ray—not that fairies ever are—and Ray’s resistance is crumbling. But the situation is growing more dangerous as they get closer to the killer, and by the time Ray accepts the truth of a fairy’s heart, it might be too late. A Being(s) in Love StoryMagical creatures known as beings emerged from hiding amid the destruction of the First World War. Since then they’ve lived on the margins of the human world as misunderstood objects of fear and desire. Some are beautiful, others fearsome and powerful. Yet for all their magic and strength, they are as vulnerable as anyone when it comes to matters of the heart.

    The Oracle has prophesized an epic battle to come—a war between good and evil that will test the warriors as never before.When Echo arrives on their doorstep, cold, naked, and hungry, they immediately realize he is their mate, and the prophesized “heart” that beats between them. Echo may be the ultimate weapon in the war, but he’s also a spitfire, and he instantly turns their world upside down.If fighting an angry god weren’t enough, the warriors learn Echo has escaped from a secret lab hidden away in the mountains, and it isn’t long before trouble comes looking for them. Can the demons keep their new mate safe when it seems the entire world—and the Underworld—is against them?

    It’s a land of good and evil, and Lu is the mayor. He didn’t ask for the job, but someone with some sense needs to keep order, and after going against Archangel Law, Lu knows he must pay the price. Though his crime may have cost him his Heavenly home, when trouble shows up in The City, his brothers send Lu reinforcement in the guise of a good-looking bodyguard named Dominic Ramos.Used to having any man he wants, Lu isn’t happy when his charms don’t immediately have the desired effect on Dominic. He sets out to seduce the gorgeous man using every weapon in his arsenal. When a night of unbridled passion culminates in a public coupling, Lu’s feelings on random sex are forever changed.Who says there aren’t Angels in Hell?

    Rejected by his parents, kicked out of his pack and now his car breaks down on his way south. What else could go wrong? He soon finds out when the police rock up, and the sexy cop turns out to be his mate. What he didn’t expect was his mate to walk away from him, without so much as a backward glance.Marcus Holland was having one hell of a week. Breaking up with his girlfriend, and then copping an earful from his mother about settling down and having kids. All he wanted was to go home and relax. Little did he know one last call-out on his way home would change his life for ever.Can Marcus come to terms with the fact his mate is a man or will he risk losing Brian forever. However, not everyone in the pack is entirely happy with this mating.NOTE: UM has been re-edited, and expanded by over 17 K.