The horror of nature is dwarfed by the terror of a man who would toy with it.

    

    The future of humanity hangs in the balance. But a team of women are preparing to save it. Even if they’ll need to steal a spaceship to do it.Despite increasing restrictions on the freedoms of women on Earth, Valerie Black is spearheading the first all-female mission to a planet in the Goldilocks Zone, where conditions are just right for human habitation.The team is humanity's last hope for survival, and Valerie has gathered the best women for the mission: an ace pilot who is one of the only astronauts ever to have gone to Mars; a brilliant engineer tasked with keeping the ship fully operational; and an experienced doctor to keep the crew alive. And then there's Naomi Lovelace, Valerie's surrogate daughter and the ship's botanist, who has been waiting her whole life for an opportunity to step out of Valerie's shadow and make a difference. The problem is that they’re not the authorized crew, even if Valerie was the one to fully plan the voyage. When their mission is stolen from them, they steal the ship bound for the new planet.But when things start going wrong on board, Naomi begins to suspect that someone is concealing a terrible secret -- and realizes time for life on Earth may be running out faster than they feared . . .Goldilocks is a bold and thought-provoking new thriller for readers of The Martian and The Handmaid's Tale.

    Scholey's popular science fiction & romance series are available in one ebook bundle, including:Book 1: SHIELDEarth is all but dead. With meteors exploding in their midst, the shuttle Grace boards takes flight in a last ditch effort to save human lives. With little food, water and eight stowaways the situation is volatile while they race to the new planet, Ulsy. A wormhole and a crash are their undoing. While fleeing into the strange surroundings on an even stranger planet two of Grace’s shuttle pilots are killed by a massive ebony creature with fangs as white as ivory.Rask is a full blooded Castian warrior who thinks his planet has been stormed. When he comes across the little being that cowers from him he is intrigued. After four hundred years and virtual immortality Rask thought he had seen everything. When the being before him declares herself to be a human female he is beyond amazed. Females have been extinct as long as he can remember. But there is no denying her sweet scent. One inhaled breath is all it takes to drop his shield and reveal the muscular tanned male beneath.Rask had thought his armor impenetrable - but one touch from a slender hand and he realizes he is powerless against the tiny human he must have.Book 2: ARMOREarth is a fiery pile of rubble. Amy, a woman left to fend for herself on the volatile planet, seeks to feed a pitiful group of women and children, misfits left to perish because of various and devious reasons. Amy was diagnosed with cancer the year her world fell apart and not given a shuttle pass to the new planet, Ulsy. That she is still alive is all but a mystery to her. When strange beings land on Earth’s surface, Amy presumes the armored, hideous creatures are looming death.Dasks is a full-blooded Castian warrior from Dargon. He and his warrior mate have come to Earth seeking human females to bond with. A male of almost four hundred years old, he can’t believe how captivating his new human female, Amy, is. But Dasks’ race can sense deception and lies—he can smell fear. Amy is keeping a secret from him.When a Castian mates, he mates for life. If Amy dies, so will Dasks. Dasks must decide if he can live without her—because if they mate he will surely die with her.Book 3: IMPENETRABLEKidnapped from dying Earth by the heinous Tonan race, Piper is locked in a small cell, deprived of light and human companionship and tormented on a daily basis. When the door to her hell opens unexpectedly Piper is blinded by the light and walks headlong into a massively built creature. She is tossed over a shoulder, taken on the wildest ride of her life then placed into a healing pool.Jago is a four-hundred-year-old immortal who has never seen a living breathing female before, but he knows of their existence. Their ship was headed to the planet Earth to see if they could find these rare human gifts when they accidently stumbled onto the Tonan vessel. Desperate to find a mate Jago was thrilled when the little female walked right into his arms as though she was waiting for him. Unfortunately Jago’s leader, Cobra, has asked to impregnate Piper, thinking Jago too young. Ultimately, the choice is Piper’s. Who will she choose?Book 4: APPARITIONHalf Castian and half Tonan, Doss is considered nothing more than a Tonian hybrid. A being to be feared, with the power to kill by penetrating what is supposed to be impenetrable.Loathed by many, feared by more, Doss has spent the last 700 years alone, shunned by the Tonans on his planet. He prefers it that way until a nude female rider on a huge, black stallion, fleeing for her life, catches his eye. If left alone, both beast and human would be killed by their pursuant, an enraged Tonan warrior. When the scent of the female invades his nostrils, Doss is captivated. He must have the female human and will go to great lengths to secure her safety.Zoe hates both Castians and Tonans. The promise of salvation from dying Earth, on planet Ulsy, had been nothing more than a lie. Human males were slaughtered, and human women were captured to lure secrets of the Castian planets, Bagron and co-planet Dargon, from enslaved warriors with the promise of sex. When met with the six-foot-six hybrid warrior who moved like an apparition in battle to save her and her beloved stallion Caveat, Zoe is unsure what to do. She has no idea of his intentions, but from the shiver that runs down her spine she is certain she's about to find out.Book 5: ENGULFFor a year, Abri and five other women have found themselves trapped on a lonely planet, after their shuttle crashes on its way to Ulsy. They have fled Earth and the fiery rubble it has become. The crash has left Abri deaf and hurting with her aloneness. When sound becomes nothing, her other senses heighten, especially when they encounter two huge, handsome aliens.Raiden has seen human women, but on his planet, females are few and far between. He and his warrior mate Cace can't believe their good luck when they stumble across six of them on a deserted planet. The little deaf female, Abri, catches Raiden's heart the moment her essence seeps into his skin. He must have her. Their healing waters or his shield will cure her strange malady once they have mated. Or will it?

    A collection of science fiction stories written by acclaimed author Poul Anderson.Poul Anderson is best known for sci-fi adventure stories in which larger-than-life characters succeed gleefully or fail heroically. Anderson's also famous for writing 'Call Me Joe' (not included in this volume) which featured the premise of a paralyzed man whose mind is remotely controlling an alien body. This same theme also appears in James Cameron's 2009 movie "Avatar" – similar enough that some reviewers are calling for Anderson to receive some form of credit.Included in this volume:Story One: Duel on SyrtisBold and ruthless, he was famed throughout the System as a big-game hunter. From the firedrakes of Mercury to the ice-crawlers of Pluto, he'd slain them all. But his trophy-room lacked one item; and now Riordan swore he'd bag the forbidden game that roamed the red deserts ... a Martian!Story Two: SecurityIn a world where Security is all-important, nothing can ever be secure. A mountain-climbing vacation may wind up in deep Space. Or loyalty may prove to be high treason. But it has its rewards...Story Three: The Valor of Cappen VarraWe have said that there are many and strange shadows, memories surviving from dim pasts, in this fantastic universe of ours...Story Four: Industrial RevolutionEver think how deadly a thing it is if a machine has amnesia—or how easily it can be arranged…Story Five: The Sensitive ManOne man stood between a power-hungry cabal and world mastery--but a man of unusual talents...These are the original and unabridged versions of these classic science fiction treasures. A must-have for fans of classic sci-fi!

    They lied to us. They changed us. They hurt us. They controlled us. The government used us to improve the human genome through gene modification. Earth was dying and they needed the humans to be stronger, faster, and harder to kill while traveling through space in their search for a new home. Then they took it even further when an alien species called the Koci were shot down right before the last Exodus ships were scheduled to leave. What they didn't count on was our determination to win back our minds and bodies. We have awakened, now it is time to take back our freedom.

    Rakesh’s interest in me extends beyond slave and master, however. Out of all the things I expected to happen in my life, becoming Rakesh’s pet wasn’t it. I was taken due to mistaken identity. Dumb creatures thought my surname meant I was a warrior. They thought to extract military secrets from me. Being a pet is humiliating, but it’s not above me to do the role. To let them do anything they want with me.… Rakesh certainly wants my body. But he won’t take my mind… This collection includes: A Pet For The Commander - Book 1 Property Of The Commander - Book 2 Owned By The Commander - Book 3 This is a complete series with an HEA. Over 90,000 words of pleasure! 18+ Only. Enjoy!

    for me It was supposed to be a fun day out. A pleasure cruise in space, to see the stars. But our ship never made it home to Earth. Five brutal alien princes invaded our ship. And they stole five Earth girls away. The Dark Star princes rule the galaxy. They're fierce, cruel, and impossibly handsome. Prince Stravon plans to take me back to his palace for the royal mating ceremony. He wants me to give him an heir. But what happens next shocks both of us. Trouble has hit the Dark Star empire. And I'm right in the middle of it. Will I ever make it home? STRAVON is the first book in the DARK STAR PRINCES alien romance series. The romance stories are complete in each novel, and there's a continuing storyline over the series that resolves in book five. Reading order: STRAVON THEMIS RADEK KODAL ZERIN

    DESTINY CAN BE CHANGED.Jutland, Denmark: a billionaire industrialist seizes control of a top-secret project that the European Defence Agency calls Destiny, manipulating it for his own ends.Edinburgh, Scotland: physicist Neil Aldridge’s life is saved by an elite EU special forces team, codenamed KESTREL, drawing him into a race against time to prevent a disaster that will claim millions of lives.As the chase leads to London, Amsterdam and beyond, Aldridge and his allies must battle a ruthless adversary: a trained killer with an unnatural ability, who seeks to hasten the cataclysm.With time running out, Aldridge discovers that he and his enemy share an astonishing secret, which may be the key to salvation — or cause death on an unprecedented scale…

    While I fully intend to end up in a dive, I think there is only one way to get rid of the pent up aggression I’m feeling.”“Well, considering how you're decked out,” Eric said, “I think you believe we need to work out our aggression?"“What I’m thinking,” John said, “Is that the best way to get rid of aggression is to mess up some people who desperately need to be messed up. So, I’ve had Frank help me locate a few places that need help. Now, we might not make it to all of them, but by the end of the night we will have done some major good, and I’ll start feeling a little Karmic balance restored. If you guys aren’t full up, well, we will just have to schedule it again.” Bellatrix A young woman, a bad boyfriend, a small black female german shepherd puppy.One of these has got to go...The story of Yelena, her relationship with Bellatrix and how they met the Bethany Anne while the two were trying to save her brother from a Wechselbalg.And beer...Let's not forget the beer.For fans of The Kurtherian Gambit series and world. This is set between books 13 and 14 in The Kurtherian Gambit and explains how Ashur's mate Bellatrix comes to be in the group.And why Bellatrix knows how to properly respond to terrorists in outer space. (For those who LOVED that scene!) Challenges Tabitha has one night to challenge her past, and her belief in herself. Normally, a person would fail. However, Tabitha has an ace in the hole. A female vampire with hundreds of years of life and wisdom and she is willing to protect Tabitha and tell her the truth. Whether Tabitha wants it, or not.And whether the Vampire wants to hurt others is not in question. It is what her Queen would expect. And Gabrielle will make it happen, like it or not. "We kind of thought you have covered that with shoes…"Bethany Anne has a challenge for her team, it’s just they don’t know what it is, exactly.At first, the thought of a seedvault doesn't excite the team much. But the Queen has demanded a less stressful, more enjoyable opportunity to accomplish a needed goal for her people. Then, they add inefficiency into the project on purpose.

    Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family. Forever. Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden—a planet that Babel has kept hidden—where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe. But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

    As Tate sees it, his father has unreasonably high expectations for Tate to be the best—at everything. Tate finally learns what he’s being prepared for when he steals one of his dad’s odd tech inventions and mercenaries ambush the school, killing his father in the process and sending Tate on the run from aliens who look just like humans. All Tate knows--like how to make weapons out of oranges and lighter fluid--may not be enough to save him as he’s plunged into a secret inter-species conflict that’s been going on for centuries. Aided only by his girlfriend and his estranged mother, with powerful enemies closing in on all sides, Tate races to puzzle out the secret behind his father’s invention and why so many are willing to kill for it. A riveting, fast-paced adventure, Scan is a clever alien thriller with muscle and heart.

    He is joined by flight engineer, Captain Nick Reed, and mission specialist, Dr. Christine Baker. Together they embark on a dangerous journey aboard the spaceship Cetus Prime - dangerous because they know what awaits them around Mars. UMO’s, or unidentified magnetic objects.UMO’s are believed to be an electromagnetic life form feeding on ions caught between Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere. The elusive creatures appear as nothing more than small bright lights, but they are capable of supersonic speeds and non-ballistic motion. Space exploration authorities have, at various times, provided benign explanations for these bright lights; melting frost shed by spacecraft caught in sunlight, solar wind particles or flaming meteors bouncing off the Earth’s atmosphere, to name a few. Anything but an alien life form.Disavowed for decades, the UMO’s had been viewed as harmless, amoeba-like blobs that existed only around Earth, as none had ever been observed by deep space probes to other planets in the solar system. But that perception changed with the final photographs snapped by one of the doomed Mars probes. The pictures showed a swarm of UMO’s descending upon the probe in the moments before communication was lost. Instrument readings from the same probe showed huge spikes in electromagnetic radiation in its last transmission.No one knows for sure what happened to the Mars probes, but authorities speculate the UMO’s destroyed them. Now, Avery, Nick and Christine must travel sixty-five million miles to Mars and gather evidence to confirm what destroyed the probes without attracting a swarm of the lethal creatures. For if a swarm of the UMO’s appears, Cetus Prime is ill-prepared for fight and too slow to escape.UMO, a novella, is the first installment of The Rorschach Explorer Missions, a new sci-fi thriller series from mystery-thriller author K. Patrick Donoghue. UMO is also the prequel to the full-length novel, Skywave, which is targeted for release in late November 2018. The Prologue from Skywave is included as a free bonus chapter in UMO.

    All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay, and it’s up to Cee to cross the ocean and find her.In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara lives in an eco-city built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But nevertheless, she decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

     In the 35th Century, mankind has colonized vast reaches of space, yet war remains constant as galactic governments and interstellar corporations fight for control of resource-rich planets and lucrative interstellar trade routes. And if centuries of war has taught man one thing, it's that planets are valuable and lives are cheap. In a desperate attempt to escape his current life, Mark Rizer drops out of his prestigious university and enlists in the elite Marines of the United Systems Alliance defense forces. It's a decision that will take him across the galaxy, first to endure a sadistic boot camp designed to transform him into a ruthless killing machine, and then to join the ranks of the hardened Marines of Murder Company. Deployed to Verdant, a remote jungle moon at the edge of Alliance space, Mark finds himself fighting a ghostly enemy in an unending conflict where victories are measured in body counts and death is the only ticket home. The daily grind of combat patrols transforms good men into cold-blooded killers and weak ones into bitter memories. At the bleeding edge of space, Mark learns the true cost of war as he fights for his life, his platoon mates, and his humanity. In the 35th Century, war has evolved. Man hasn't.Warning: This book contains graphic violence, profanity, and sexual content. It is intended for a mature audience. Reader discretion is advised.