Being a shifter keeps me from becoming a part of society, but it seems that society is beginning to infringe on my territory. They, the humans, are all so full of themselves and think they are entitled to my land. But there is one man, who stands up to the others, who stands on his own… he draws my attention. Why?Photo Description: The picture is a close-up of a gorgeous Native American man. His long, black hair moves with the wind and flows against his right shoulder. His dark eyes are looking straight at you, and you can almost feel them on your skin. His arms are crossed on his hairless chest, and there’s a barbed wire tattoo wrapped around his upper right arm. His plump, pink lips are highlighted by the dark stubble on his cheeks.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. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    An offer of a remote hospital post seems perfect, and he accepts a lift to his new posting from kind strangers. But an idyllic trip turns to horror when they’re attacked, his friends brutally murdered, and his own life is saved by a mysterious, mute stranger. Now his fate is in this stranger’s hands as they travel across a snowy wilderness. With his destination unknown, and his companion unwilling to share the smallest detail or comfort, Kelten wonders if he’ll ever be able to resume a normal life.Dharn is a hunter, deaf from birth, who’s been raised in a community where deafness is no disability. His life follows an orderly rhythm from season to season, trapping with the help of his loyal dog, but when he rescues a feckless, rather arrogant young man from marauders, his peaceful existence is turned upside down. The responsibility isn’t exactly welcome, but there’s something about Kelten that attracts him. If Dharn can just keep him out of the clutches of the law and the marauders’ friends, these two people from very different backgrounds might have a chance of being together.Content advisory: Contains a scene of strong sexual violence which may be triggering for some readers.

    Frank is very wrong.A mind-bending suspense novel about a small town with a supernatural secret.Things have changed in Rook Mountain, Tennessee, since Frank went away. His brother Jake has been missing for seven years, a fact no one bothered to share with Frank. His fun-loving buddy Will is now a somber man known for his violent enforcement of the town’s bizarre new laws. Frank’s sister-in-law Christine has a freezer chest containing a collection of illegal objects and a severed head.As Frank will soon learn, the only thing worse than being in Rook Mountain is being outside of it.Outside town is where the Unfeathered sing their terrible song and wait for night to fall.

    Because of Sol System being at a strategic juncture of warp gates, if one could conquer the system, they would gain a great advantage over the other powers in this arm of the galaxy. Unfortunately for the Rithenalese, humankind was not so powerless as one might expect. Previous invasions had left their mark, even if the general public didn't know about them. The explosion of a Krax Imperial warship over Siberia in 1908 gave humankind mutant abilities, while the capture of a Ross'Ell science vessel in 1947 greatly advanced our technology. While governments fell to the surprise attack, a resistance was formed. One member of the Resistance was feared above all others by the Rithenalese. An assassin who conjured mists that no living thing emerged from, they began calling him the Mistwalker. To the humans, they knew him as a thief and assassin called Iceblade. This is his story. ----------------------------------------------------- The setting is a world of superheroes and sci-fi, and our main character who may not be the most powerful out there, but is willing to do whatever it takes to win. No matter the cost. He is not a hero. He is not an anti-hero. He is not a vigilante. He is a villain, and knows what he is. He is amoral but ethical. Rated R: Definite language, violence, gore, sex, and all the horrible things that can happen in the world. If you have triggers, consider this your warning.

    The only grades are pass or die. Surviving means proving her continued existence isn't a mistake--a task her new mentor, Bastian, takes personally. Her abilities place her in the GNW Enforcer division, which partners her with Domino 12, who is eerily human for an alien-parasite and psionic hybrid. When her assassination duties are revealed, Sai understands the real reason for her training. On a mission to dispatch a dangerous Exiled scientist, she uncovers truths she never thought possible. Sai is unsure who to trust as her next mission might be her last, and a double agent seems to be manipulating both sides.

    Ward, a tier-one operator turned mercenary, has just flung himself off the cargo deck of a doomed C-130. Now he’s out of the Drop Zone and evading the undead as a terrible new breed of hunter enters the Wyrd. But these new, faster predators might not be the only thing to fear in an apocalypse beset by zombies, nukes and killer A.I.’s. One of the last warriors of a collapsed government is planning on putting up some big numbers in this final, ultimate game of Survivor, until he finds a mysterious new companion... a stranger dressed in black.

     In the near future, humanity builds a colony on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter. They tunnel into the ice to explore the dark oceans beneath the moon's surface, searching for signs of extraterrestrial life. What they find will change them forever, setting humanity on a path to the stars. But the old conflicts and hatreds of Earth are not so easily escaped. Will human colonists on distant planets and moons create a paradise or a horrifying dystopia?

    A den of vice and illicit deeds where the law is failing and justice is fleeting. Glutted merchant-kings turn the wheels of industry, feeding the engine of war on distant worlds while the lowly dream only of survival. As the gilded prosper, hidden behind their fortress walls, the masses must find a place within the underbelly. But regardless of station, whether criminal or law-keeper, one fact remains true – this city is dirty, and no one escapes it without a little sin.For in Varangantua, there are no good men.CONTENTSAberrant by Chris WraightExit Wound by Darius HinksThe View from Olympus by Gareth HanrahanImpurities by Graham McNeillNo Use for Good Men by Guy HaleyCold Cases by Marc CollinsAgainst the Grain by Nick Kyme

    One of the copies of Cater-Zimmermann, Paolo Venetti, arrives at Orpheus; a water-world inhabited by floating mats that perform as a Turing machine.

    Runaway effects of climate change have triggered the collapse of nation/states and wiped out over a third of the global population. One of the survivors, a former soldier nicknamed Mercy, suffers from PTSD and is haunted by guilt and lingering memories of his family. His pain is eased when he meets a dancer named Ruby, a performer who breathes new life into his carefully constructed existence. But when his long-lost brother Leo arrives with news that Mercy's children have been spotted, the two brothers travel into the wilderness to look for them, only to find that the line between truth and lies is trespassed, challenging Mercy's own moral code about the things that matter amid the wreckage of war and tragedy.Set against a sparse yet fantastical landscape, The Mercy Journals explores the parameters of personal morality and forgiveness at this watershed moment in humanity's history and evolution.Claudia Casper's previous novels include The Reconstruction (St. Martin's Press).

    Aside from passing contact with railship captains, the only person he sees is the enemy: the man who guards the other side of the border. A bad fall places John’s life in the other soldier’s hands. He’s wary of his rescuer, First Lieutenant Thomas Fellowes, but over time he finds himself drawn to his new companion. Both soldiers carry the war in their souls, but they might find peace in each other.

    Digitized consciousnesses known as Shades prowl the streets in bodies that aren’t their own, carrying out clandestine operations ordered by the artificial intelligence created to shepherd humankind through the aftermath. Civilization clings to a tenuous thread.Cassidy is one of the most experienced Shades in the Initiative. An elite operative with an impeccable record, he’s dedicated his life to combating the rampant organized crime that threatens the new world order.But when a beautiful stranger shows Cassidy that his entire existence is a lie, everything he’s ever known begins unraveling around him. It isn’t long before his fight for justice becomes a fight for something much bigger…...and the stakes are higher than he ever imagined.Follow Cassidy through the rain-soaked streets of 24th century Manhattan as he fights like John Wick against a corrupt system of repression and control where the lines between ally and enemy are always blurred and trust is a dangerous gambit.

    It's time for retirement, freedom from the tedious drudgery of his job as a data clerk. Time to explore parts of the city he's never seen before, and hopefully meet some people other than his Deacon or his health monitor. And at the end of the month? Time to die.Will runs the counter at the historic coffee shop, and when he talks, he sounds just like an old-time data feed. He's nothing like anyone Ernest has ever met—which isn't saying much—but still, something about him simply doesn't parse.

    But when the nefarious spy organization S.I.L.K. and their leader (Earth-65's Cindy Moon) notice the interdimensional interlopers, all of Jessica Drew's plans go wrong.

    The full story behind the origin of X-23; who she is, where she came from, and the exact nature of her relationship to Wolverine. You think you know, but you have no idea. Pick up this first issue today!