For those not born into the wealthy class, there are few options for work. A position as a slave boy means security and safety from a life of poverty and the danger of the streets.Dystopian - set in a world similar to ours but with a few tweaks. Usually a bit darker or a more frightening version of what our society could become.Photo Description: An agile young slave is bent backward over the knees of his doting master; his bindings are loose and their arrangement is “in the cards”.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love Has No Boundaries" 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.

    What lies Outside it?Raine O'Kelly has a gift. The very power of nature is his to command. When his gift lands him in trouble with the government, Raine find himself thrown into The Prison; one of the most feared punishments for those citizens who won't conform to The City's ideals.Abused, scared, and slowly dying of deprivation from the one thing his body truly needs, an accident lands him in the infirmary, which leads him to be given to The Prison’s most feared inmate… The Beast.When The Beast defends him from the guards, Raine finds himself inexplicably drawn to the misunderstood man. A man with unique abilities of his own, the Beast’s animalistic desires form a connection between them that cannot be denied. When he learns The Beast comes from Outside the City, is Raine willing to take the chance on escape with the mysterious man?Escape won't be easy, and there are dangers waiting for them on The Outside, ready to strike at the fragile relationship between the two men. When The Beast’s past comes to light, will Raine be able to put aside his own fears in order to fight for the life the two of them could have together? Or will he fold under the pressure?Will he get his happily ever after?Or will he become just another victim of the Nature of the Beast?

    Caris Dealyn wants nothing more than to get this assignment done so he can continue searching for his missing Avanti friends. But first, he needs to solve the mystery surrounding the last ambassador’s disappearance, while navigating the Demon court with all its whisperings of plots and betrayals. It's not such a bad job, if he could keep his attention on work and not on the prince who seems to distract him just by being near.Prince Dasalin Kan’erkit is busy running the kingdom in his father's absence, but not so busy he doesn’t notice the new Ambassador. Caris gets under his skin like no one else before, which is quite a feat considering Dasa’s demonically tough scales.The attraction between them is undeniable, and when events throw them together, sparks fly. They can't get enough of each other. But there are forces at work that wish to keep them apart. In a fight for their survival, the two must figure out which demonic faction is behind the plot and protect not only themselves, but the people they have both vowed to serve.

     ALIEN Tristol lives in exile. But he’s built a life for himself aboard a human space station. He’s even begun to understand the complex nuances of human courting rituals. Detective Hastion is finally flirting back! MURDER Except that Tristol’s beloved space station is unexpectedly contacted by the galoi – a xenophobic species with five genders, purple skin, and serious attitude. They need the help of a human detective because there’s a murderer aboard their spaceship. Murder is so rare, the galoi don’t even have a word for it. Tristol knows this because he is galoi. ROMANCE Which means that he and Detective Hastion are on the case… together. Delicate Sensibilities? Contains men who love other men in graphic detail, regardless of gender, biology, or skin color... and lots of emotively sexy tentacle hair. New York Times best selling author Gail Carriger (writing as G.L. Carriger) brings you a light-hearted romantic cozy mystery featuring an adorable lavender alien and his human crush.

    It’s a good thing that Celyn is engaged to Sjurd’s brother, not him, because Sjurd loathes the brat, and it’s quite mutual. When an elopement and the threat of invasion force the two princes together, however, they have no choice but to marry and fake true love to keep their countries safe. Can warrior Sjurd and diplomat Celyn find any common ground?

    Meanwhile, strangers from off-world have been kidnapping and torturing the Aklesh, a peaceful telepathic tribe.With the help of Kai, a warrior in the tribe, Gar must overcome the challenges of this new world and the obstacles of his own ego in order to escape and help the Aklesh free themselves from the mysterious "Others." All the while trying to find his own way back home, and whether or not he even wants to go back.

    The gutter, the penthouse—they've both been home at one point or another. Right now he's on top, he's a winner, and sharks from all over the world are lining up to take him down.Life is...good.Then, Ace wins Spade in a high stakes poker game. The enigmatic man calls him 'master' and refuses to be set free. He slips past carefully constructed walls, becoming more perfect, more erotic, with every second. Ace knows he's in over his head. Cards can give and cards can take.And one good hand is about to change his life forever.Publisher's Note: "One Good Hand" is a revised, reedited version of a previous release by the same name.

    Evil minions. And one hell of a conflict of interest.Being related to a supervillain isn’t a big deal to Pat West. So what if his mom occasionally tries to take over the world? All Pat wants is to finish university and become an urban designer. That he moonlights as an evil minion sometimes – that’s just a family tradition.Then Pat accidentally sleeps with superhero Silver Paladin, otherwise known as reclusive billionaire Nick Andersen. It’s a simple misunderstanding. Pat never means to impersonate a prostitute, honest. But soon Pat is in way over his head, and threatening to fall for the worst possible guy.When Pat’s mother returns to bring the world to its knees, Silver Paladin races to stop her… and all of Pat’s secrets threaten to blow up in his face. How can Pat reconcile being a minion with wanting a hero? Will Nick’s feelings for Pat overcome what keeps them apart? Or will they both lose everything?“Love for the Cold-Blooded” is a light-hearted jaunt through a world of superheroes and villains, android dolphins, mind control rays, eldritch artifacts stolen from the tombs of ancient gods, and young men loving not wisely, but well.

    Grab a blanket and curl up with your new favorite big cats.SCORCH Drew Maddox has to find his fated mate.Drew Maddox has been given orders by the king of the jaguar tribe. It’s time to start building the Maddox empire. There is only one name on his list, a woman betrothed to him at birth. It's time to find her. Francesca March has no idea about her heritage or where she came from. Adopted by humans, she has lived a lonely existence as the only she-panther she knows. Long ago she gave up on happy endings, heroes, and trust. She’s never let anyone get close enough to learn her secret. That is until she meets a stranger on the side of the road. Drew knows time is running out. He has to convince Francesca to marry him in less than five days. But with his own secrets haunting him he struggles with how much to tell her without losing her. Can Francesca face the reality of what it truly means to be a she-panther, or will Drew keep her in the dark to fulfill his duty? Sparks fly. The sheets burn down. And every time they touch a flame ignites. Will fate keep them together, or tear them apart? SACRIFICE The chase is on.Josh Bauer expects his mate to be excited to see him, but when he shows up in her small town, she slams the door in his face.Tessa Cunningham has been an independent she-panther, running her own business and taking care of her mother. The last thing she wants is to let go of the control she has over her life.The more Josh chases her, the more she resists his sexy charm.Josh has an obligation to fulfill, but he learns that being a mate is worth sacrificing everything—even if that means losing Tessa.SEIZE Sometimes you have to take what you want.Donovan may come from a royal line of jaguar shifters, but he’s serving another king now. His mission is to uncover the plot for a shifter war. He never imagined guarding his tribe’s territory would put him in the path of she-panther, Caroline Addison. Caroline knows she only has a few weeks until her fated mate surfaces, so she takes a last minute vacation to escape. Only, she never knew she would find the one man she’d always been looking for.When Donovan and Caroline decide nothing can keep them apart, not even a shifter war, they realize there is a cost. And the price may be too high to pay. SHIFT Loyalties are tested, a war is upon them, and love knows no bounds.Case Maddox has finally found his mate.But the shifter war keeps brewing.Can he save his Tribe, and the woman he loves?Cadence is trying to find her place as a human in a world of shifters and as the mate of the jaguar king, but she's struggling. One night her world comes crashing down around her and she has to decide if she can even go on.Captured and held hostage. The only way for Cadence to survive may be to pledge herself to Case's ultimate rival.But Cadence has a secret that may be the key to her survival.

    Humanity is involved in a limited war with the alien Klethos, where gladitorial combat decides the fate of worlds, but that doesn’t affect the common Marine or sailor. His career has been training hard but never seeing actual combat. All of that changes when a new enemy invades the galaxy, one that threatens both humanity and Klethos. Mankind hasn’t fought an all-out war in centuries, but they’re about to. McKeever is assigned to a special task force with the mission to find out what makes this new enemy tick, and, if possible, stop them in their tracks before humanity is eliminated like so much insignificant vermin.

    Sweet, quiet, and with the ability to sense the emotions of others, he's destined to join the seers at the Priory and be cloistered. At least he is until his brother, the Crown Prince Towan, disappears. Desperate to recover his heir, the King sends Tynde to the planet of Kion to chase a rumor that Towan has been kidnapped and taken there. Kion is everything that Alaquis isn't: crowded, urban, with denizens far more ruthless than anything Tynde has experienced before. Lucky for him, he's taken under the wing of Koss, an important businessman who is drawn to Tynde from the moment he meets the young man. Koss believes he's found a real treasure in sensitive Tynde, but will his needs and desires ruin everything that Tynde is?

    But twenty years have passed, and the massive brute claiming the smith’s forge knocks Marc unconscious with a hammer blow.Since the nearby garrison disbanded, Wolfram has defended his former master’s home and smithy against the marauding bandits thriving in the vacuum left by the legions’ retreat. When he fails to kill the latest intruder, Wolf drags the ragged man into his house, honor-bound to nurse him back to health.As Marc heals at Wolf’s hands, the two men discover a slow-burn attraction drawing them together. The unexpected revelation that they once were boyhood rivals stokes the fire between them to a weapon-melting inferno.A novella (approx. 21,000 words) featuring a M/M collision that makes the sack of Rome look like a tea party.INTO THE FIRE SeriesAgainst the backdrop of the Roman Empire’s collapse comes this story of two boyhood rivals reunited as very different men. Twenty years on, Marcus is a soldier with no army and few skills beyond killing. Wolfram is a blacksmith forced to defend his home with a hammer and his wits. Thrust together by cataclysm, Marc and Wolf will strike a partnership from the raw material of their shared past, shaping its angles and edges with a desire they won’t deny, to forge a future strong enough to withstand an unpredictable new world.

    His men fight not only for their country and Prince, but they fight for each other. Launioc’s King sends the army into war against Villious and their Queen. As his men die, Rathian’s heart breaks and he longs to find the one person to help him survive the war and the loss of his men.Stakel is a Queen’s Consort and is abandoned by his fellow Consorts during a battle with the Vanguard. Taken prisoner, he finds himself learning about the enemy he’d been taught to hate. Stakel has been forced to do things he hated and fight for a ruler he owes no loyalty. In Rathian, Stakel finds not only a ruler, but a lover to whom he can give all of himself.Contains: M/M sexual practices and voyeurism.

    Valente. Now she weaves a lyrically erotic spell of a place where the grotesque and the beautiful reside and the passport to our most secret fantasies begins with a stranger’s kiss.… Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse—a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a New York locksmith; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They’ve each lost something important—a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life—and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine.

    Using electronics and desperation, Anderson creates a family to keep him company, but family isn't always a blessing.When Anderson finally arrives, C.J. Poulson greets him with curiosity and awe, because anyone who can survive a holocaust and reinvent holo-science is going to be a legend and right up C.J.'s alley. But the more C.J. investigates how Anderson endured the last ten years, the deeper he is drawn into a truly dangerous fantasy, one that offers the key to Anderson's salvation—and his destruction.In spite of his best intentions, C.J. can’t resist the terribly seductive Anderson. Their attraction threatens to destroy them, because the heart of a man who can survive the destruction of his people and retain his sense of self holds a solid core of alpha male that will not be denied.