Almost.A deadly hunter.Hraban has dedicated his life to taking down creatures like Drakjan, protecting those who cannot protect themselves.An uneasy truce.When fate forces them together, the nix and the hunter discover a dangerous attraction… and a threat that can destroy everything Drakjan has come to love.~~~~~~This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. "Still Waters" contains sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. ~~~~~~This story prompt and photo inspired "Still Waters":Dear Author,I only have two words for you: ginger merman! Everything else is up to you.Photo Description: A redheaded, muscular young man with a short beard stands in a lake, a scraggly stand of seaweed-draped deadwood behind him and mountains in the distance. He looks directly at the viewer, wearing a neutral expression. The water comes up to just above his waist, and he is lifting a sturdy white net from the water with both hands.

    " I'm a cop with the Alandale City police force. I love my job, protecting the public and getting rid of scum was what made my day. Everything was going just fine until my lunch was interrupted by some rich, arrogant jerk in an Aston Martin who thought he could just speed past my squad car and get away with it. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I wrote Mr. Ledéo his speeding ticket, but after what happened to me, I wish I had just let him go. Maybe then, my world wouldn't have been turned upside down and inside out. Warning: This serial contains strong adult content not meant for sensitive eyes. The novelettes in this serial will be filled with dark, twisted, raunchy and steamy scenes between powerful, sexy men that will either offend you or get ya revved up. This series will not be pulling any punches, and it won’t apologize for hurting your feelings, either. You’ll find no fluff and ruffles here. These demons play hard and they fight dirty. There are approximately 25100 words in this novelette.

    The billionaire griffin is in the midst of a deepening mystery and expects to find some of the answers he seeks. Instead, he finds a captivating human who proves to be sweeter than any he's ever met.

    Generations of Russells have lived and died with only their familiars at their side. The presence of a friendly familiar is enough to keep even the loneliest witch sane, and yet Piotr deliberately hasn’t chosen one. He forces himself to keep busy instead, but the emptiness of his house haunts him even more the spirit of Great-Great-Aunt Elysia in the parlor. With Samhain and Halloween approaching, he’ll have much to do, and knowing that, his concerned coven seizes the chance to intervene and sends help to his door in the form of Bartleby Dorchester. The rarest of rare jewels, Bartleby is a human familiar: a witch with no magic of his own, and a desire to find a strong witch to help and serve. In particular, he desires to help and serve Piotr, and everything in Piotr wants to let him. Bartleby was meant to be his familiar; Piotr knows it as surely as he knows when it will rain or when the apples in his garden will ripen. But what Piotr wants from Bartleby, all he’s ever wanted, is for Bartleby to love him, something he thinks is impossible. Russells live and die unloved, and he won’t allow Bartleby to feel obligated to spend his life with him as his familiar if he could be happy in love with someone else. But Samhain is a time for change, when walls come down and borders grow thin, and Bartleby isn’t going to waste what might be his last chance to convince Piotr that they were meant to be. He might have no magic, but love is a power all its own.

    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

    My dad gave me and my siblings wooden stakes and flash grenades. To protect us from vampires. From the moment he adopted us, he warned us about the dangers that lurk in the dark. Obviously, I thought he was crazy. Vampires aren't real, and I was already enduring enough panic attacks without buying into Dad's insane ideas. But then I met Talon. Talon has fascinating scars and a mouth I want to kiss and a body I want to feel--and fangs. Vampire fangs. Suddenly, the weapons Dad gave me start looking real useful.Only I don't want to fight Talon. I want to feel his teeth on my neck. I can't explain it. He makes my knees goes weak. I know it's wrong, but it feels right.It feels like destiny. When Talon bites me, I forget everything, even that he is a monster. Even that I shouldn't be falling for him. Even that his coven wants me dead.

    Sometimes these forms come with an extra gift: strength-sharers can give mental commands while heart-singers can shape others’ emotions.Rohahen has been hiding his crush on Tier for fifteen years. For the balance of the tribe, the Chief must marry a heart-singer, not a strength-sharer like himself.Only Rohahen is starting to wonder if there might be other ways of being a heart-singer. When Tier starts to return his affection, perhaps he can find the bravery to show the world who he really is.Because the ways of the gods are mysterious. And maybe they didn’t get it wrong after all.The Hummingbird’s Gift is a companion story to Hummingbird and Kraken. It will not make sense as a stand-alone. It has an adorable bison shifter, a possessive bobcat, a heart-singer coming into his own, plenty of heat, and a HEA.

    He thinks things are only getting better when his erotic dreams indicate he’s about to meet his mate. His Beta and best friend invites him on a double date, and Corey agrees, hoping this woman will be his one. To his shock and disbelief, he’s attracted to her brother instead—the big, muscular, overbearing man with a southern drawl. Corey refuses to believe that this cowboy is the one meant to be his mate, but the way his body reacts to one touch is making it hard for him to deny. Devin is aggressive, combative, and he won’t listen to any of Corey’s commands. They butt heads constantly, that is when Corey’s not trying to resist Devin’s hard body. But when Devin gets into trouble with a rival pack, Corey will move heaven and earth to get him back and claim him for his own.

    A few days of solitude, hiking along picturesque Bear Mountain is just what he thinks he needs to move on. But as soon as he arrives, he’s shocked by the sensual reaction he has to the two owners. The two male owners. Carson has never been attracted to a man, and he fights the sensation tooth and nail. Royce and Jared know their mate as soon as he walks in the door of the main lodge. They’re ready to claim what’s theirs, but know they need to be careful. The man sees himself as straight, but that’s the least of their problems. They’ll need to show him their true nature, their inner bear, and hope it doesn’t send the man packing. The shifters have just three days before the human is scheduled to go home. In a short span, they’ve got to show Carson how bound they all are and hope they can seduce the man into surrendering.

    Aren's never had reason to believe the stories, but when he takes a job as a bookkeeper on the BarChi, a dusty cattle ranch on the remote Oestend prairie, he soon learns that the wraiths are real. Aren suddenly finds himself living in a supposedly haunted house and depending on wards and generators to protect him from unseen things in the night. As if that's not enough, he has to deal with a crotchety old blind woman, face "cows" that look like nothing he's ever seen before, and try to ignore the fact that he's apparently the most eligible bachelor around.Aren also finds himself the one and only confidante of Deacon, the BarChi's burly foreman. Deacon runs the BarChi with an iron fist and is obviously relieved to finally have somebody he can talk to. As their relationship grows, Aren learns there's more to Deacon and the BarChi than he'd anticipated. Deacon seems determined to deny both his Oestend heritage and any claim he may have to the BarChi ranch, but if Aren is to survive the perils of Oestend, he'll have to convince Deacon to stop running from the past and finally claim everything that's his. Reader Advisory: This book is set in an alternate reality and contains scenes of violence, mild D/s and bondage, and a M/M/M ménage scene.

    The devil in this scenario would be a sexy horned demon named Apollyon and the delivery guy would be me, Levi Curtis. Just an average guy who got in way over his head trying to keep his twin sister from selling her soul.See, in order to do unleash Hell’s demonic wrath upon the earth, Apollyon needs a mortal vessel to contain the seed of his demonic army. It wasn’t supposed to be a literal pregnancy, but my overactive imagination has always caused problems.Big problems, in this case. A whole Legion of ‘em. I may low-key hate Apollyon, but we’re gonna have to learn to tolerate each other in order to keep our little bundle of infernal joy safe and hopefully not destroy both our worlds in the process.But hey, on the plus side, you know what they say about guys with big horns. Lightbearer is an 82k fantasy mpreg romance with dark humor, explicit sex and hot-as-hell demons. 18+ only.

    So he works as a sumage, cleaning up other mages’ messes. The job sucks and he’s in no mood to cope with redneck biker werewolves. Unfortunately, there’s something irresistible about the sexy muscled Beta visiting his office for processing.Bryan is gay but he’s not out. There’s a good chance Max might be reason enough to leave the closet, if he can only get the man to go on a date.Everyone knows werewolves hate mages, but Bryan is determined to prove everyone wrong, even the mage in question.NYT bestseller Gail Carriger, writing as G. L. Carriger, presents an offbeat gay romance in which a sexy werewolf with a white knight complex meets a bad boy mage with an attitude problem. Sparks (and other things) fly.The San Andreas Shifter books stand alone and do not have to be read in any particular order.Delicate Sensibilities?This story contains M/M sexitimes and horrible puns. If you get offended easily, then you probably will. The San Andreas Shifter stories include blue language, dirty deeds, and outright admiration for the San Francisco Bay Area. Not for the faint of heart/mouth/tongue…

    It polices relations between the earthly realm and those beyond this world, enforcing immigration laws, the transfers of magical artifacts, and crimes against humanity.The agents who work for the NATO Irregular Affairs Division can’t tell anyone what they do, or how hard they work to keep us safe. It brings a colorful collection of men together:Agent Henry Falk, the undead bum. Agent Keith Curry, former carnivore chef turned vegetarian; Agent Rake, Babylonian demon with a penchant for easy living; and Agent Silas August, uncompromising jerk.Four cities, four mysteries, four times the romance. Is your security clearance high enough to read on?

    He and a few other survivors carve out a life for themselves high atop the mountain. They think they are safe, but when a group of cruel thugs stumble across their hidden paradise, they decide to claim it... and the beautiful, defenseless Nairu for themselves. Facing a fate worse than death, the young man escapes into the woods and there he encounters a monster far more terrifying than any man or zombie. It is hungry for more than his flesh. The monster claims him so brutally that his delicate human body is unable to endure and Nairu succumbs to horrific injuries. However, in this new world, death is just a doorway. Nairu will rise again, and with a powerful beast at his side willing to do anything to a satisfy his new mate’s bloodlust. This story has disturbing themes and graphic violence. It is in the horror category because it is horrifying. Please read responsibly! ~30,000 words

     What is that supposed to mean? Those are the words Lucas Daniels hears before stumbling through the brass doors of the elegant Club Dyavol, a club that seems to appear out of nowhere. The club is his last hope of getting a job to escape his predatory stepfather’s home. Who would dare enter a vampire’s sanctuary uninvited? Count Konstantin “the Wolf” Volk may be weakened by a curse, but he is still a primal predator. And when he sees a young man venture into his club, bypassing all of his magical and physical protections, more than just his curiosity is aroused. Is there more to this meeting than simple chance? NOTE: THIS NOVELLA SERIES HAS CLIFFHANGERS! EVERY BOOK WILL END ON ONE. THAT'S MY NATURAL WRITING STYLE. IF YOU DO NOT LIKE CLIFFHANGERS, WAIT UNTIL THE WHOLE SERIES IS PUBLISHED TO READ. THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT! X. Aratare writes gay paranormal romance with witches, vampires, magic, and mystery. Though some books may venture into dark territory, they will all have happy endings.