Her plans to leave the desolate mining colony on Rivean change when she’s targeted by alien slavers. After a Tarron Hunter intervenes and prevents her abduction, Ricka believes she is safe. She soon discovers the handsome law enforcer with intoxicating catlike eyes has a different view of what a rescue should entail. Ideas that include trapping her aboard his spaceship and taking her to his home planet. Tarron Hunter Synge Varlik has sworn to protect the inhabitants in his quadrant, including the human female whose mere presence taunts the animalistic side of his nature. He will protect her with his life and do whatever is necessary to keep the woman alive and out of the hands of slavers, even if he has to claim her as his mate to do it.

    This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

    Winter is coming... As survivors around the world struggle to get their feet under them in a world overrun by the walking dead, a new problem rears its head. As unstoppable as any horde of zombies, the seasons march on, heedless of the fragility of the human race. The first winter is approaching. Up in the mountains of northeastern Oregon, Steve's band settles in but discover something so horrible that it may destroy them before the weather has a chance. Kevin faces ghosts from his past while struggling to maintain unity among his people. In other parts of this dead world, a team of scientists struggle to devise a cure... A new pharaoh rises in Egypt... Chad learns he will do anything to keep his daughter safe... Juan struggles with the demons of his past that tell him he is unfit to lead...or love... A military unit tries to restore order at any cost... Dead: Winter The first winter has come, and with it, new problems. No longer are the zombies the biggest threat to survival. With the global infrastructure gone, people are forced to do whatever it takes to survive...even the unthinkable. Steve faces his toughest decision yet as he tries to lead his people through one nightmare after another. Kevin risks everything to save one girl and finds himself in the middle of a military fight for power. Juan fights his way home, but soon finds himself leaving the island...at the worst time possible. Two women set out for London...but one has a secret that she is keeping under wraps. One man seeks to be a god as a new exodus occurs in Egypt. A soldier abandons his post, but can he escape his duty? The darkest days have come now that winter has most of the world in its clutches. Dead: Siege & Survival Several months have passed since the dead began to walk. The first winter has taken its toll in more ways than one as humanity continues to struggle to survive. Not every threat to humanity comes form the undead as so many have discovered man's ability to sink into depravity with the absence of law and order. Time and again survivors have fought, run. and regrouped. Yet, there seems to be no respite, and as winter draws on...things become more and more difficult to endure. A new threat seems to materialize even before the last can be dealt with. And if the physical toll was not enough, the hours of isolation and the time left with one's thoughts can become just as destructive. How much more can you take? Dead: Confrontation

    New arcanists. The rise of the Second Ascension.Volke Savan has proven himself time and time again, but now the others of the Frith Guild want their opportunity. Illia wants to recover a lost runestone, Master Zelfree hopes to learn the magics of the Mother of Shapeshifters, and Adelgis surprises himself with the new depths of his dreamweaving abilities.But while the Frith Guild prepares for the coming war, the Second Ascension has grand plans for the world. When two more god-creatures are born, dastardly arcanists try their hands at braving the godly lairs. With the Dread Pirate Calisto as a ferry, men like Theasin Venrover will have to outsmart puzzles and traps that put the world serpent’s to shame.Witness stories from the viewpoints of friend and foe alike, all while the world races to find and bond with the remaining god-creatures.

    She knows she’ll eventually end her days atop the cliff, turned to stone and gazing out at the horizon like all the villagers that went before her, drawn by the otherworldly call of the sea. Her whole family will be there too, even her brother Bee and her sister Islay. But the island and the sea do what they want, and when they claim a price from her family, Mara’s world changes forever.As years pass and Mara grows into herself and her scars, a chance meeting with the magnetic Pearl brings magic to life once more in ways that Mara never thought possible, in a story that she never would have dreamed for herself before.The enchanting spiritual prequel to The Gracekeepers, Kirsty Logan’s The Gloaming is a present-day fable that brims over with dazzling imagination and captivating language.

    A dangerous task. A burning secret.Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.

    But as adults they both wind up in near-future San Francisco, where Laurence is an engineering genius and Patricia works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world’s ever growing ailments. But something is determined to bring them back together—to either save the world, or end it.

    Laying low in the bayou, this once-magnificent fire breather has been reduced to lighting Marlboros with nose sparks, swilling Absolut in a Flashdance T-shirt, and binging Netflix in a fishing shack. For centuries, he struck fear in hearts far and wide as Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie—now he goes by Vern. However...he has survived, unlike the rest. He is the last of his kind, the last dragon. Still, no amount of vodka can drown the loneliness in his molten core. Vern’s glory days are long gone. Or are they?A canny Cajun swamp rat, young Everett “Squib” Moreau does what he can to survive, trying not to break the heart of his saintly single mother. He’s finally decided to work for a shady smuggler—but on his first night, he witnesses his boss murdered by a crooked constable.Regence Hooke is not just a dirty cop, he’s a despicable human being—who happens to want Squib’s momma in the worst way. When Hooke goes after his hidden witness with a grenade launcher, Squib finds himself airlifted from certain death by…a dragon?The swamp can make strange bedfellows, and rather than be fried alive so the dragon can keep his secret, Squib strikes a deal with the scaly apex predator. He can act as his go-between (aka familiar)—fetch his vodka, keep him company, etc.—in exchange for protection from Hooke. Soon the three of them are careening headlong toward a combustible confrontation. There’s about to be a fiery reckoning, in which either dragons finally go extinct—or Vern’s glory days are back.A triumphant return to the genre-bending fantasy that Eoin Colfer is so well known for, Highfire is an effortlessly clever and relentlessly funny tour-de-force of comedy and action.

    

    She's taken on an unexpected detour back to her life shortly before she died. But she's seeing the world from a different point of view. This is the first time she has ever experienced a detour being the best part of a journey. 'A wonderful, warm read that's guaranteed to tug at the heartstrings,' author Colette Caddle. Checkout Girl was published as part of the short story compilation, Moments, in aid of the tsunami. It was also part of a short story collection published in Germany. Aimee Alexander is the pen name of bestselling Irish author Denise Deegan Checkout Girl includes a short excerpt from Pause to Rewind, a contemporary novel by Aimee Alexander.