When she comes home to find that her sister has traded their COW (Comestible Organic Wafer machine) to an alien trader in return for a worthless bean, she is both worried and hurt. She thought she could trust the intriguing male hidden behind the forbidding armor.When a giant beanstalk grows overnight, Jackie is desperate enough to climb to the top and demand the return of her COW. Instead, she finds a whole new world - and a very large surprise. Beneath the armor is a massive alien who seems to be as much plant as man.Cormac is enchanted by the little human female who trades with him each quarter and makes his sap rise. He devises a plan to bring her into his domain, even though he knows he may not be able to keep her. But now that she’s here, how can he let her go?A big green alien, a feisty heroine, an evil storekeeper, and some helpful plants - this sweet and steamy fairy tale is not the story you remember! (Intended for mature audiences only!)----------------------Cosmic Fairy Tales is a collaboration in which several authors are retelling beloved tales with a science fiction romance twist. Each book is a standalone, containing its own Happily Ever After, and they can be read in any order. Be sure to explore the other titles in the collection:The Hunchback by Regine AbelThe Frog Prince by Tracy LaurenContaminated by Amanda MiloThe Ugly Dukeling by Bex McLynnJackie and the Giant by Honey PhillipsEscaping Wonderland by Tiffany RobertsRampion by Susan TrombleyThe Lion and the Mouse by Emmy Chandler

    When her adventures playing pirate result in embarrassment for her family, she’s sent away to a scrapyard in the middle of Nowhere on a barren moon that has been barely terra-formed to support life. As far as Zel can see, the only other person on the moon is a grumpy old caretaker named Gothel, who doesn’t bother to show any respect for her royal status.Old man Gothel has plenty of rules, and he’s made one huge part of the scrapyard forbidden, which means Zel can’t resist exploring it. In that forbidden area, she discovers a tower, drawn there by a sexy, masculine voice singing unusual music.But when she finally finds her way inside the tower, she discovers something she never expected.There’s a lot more than just a heart on the line when it comes to the secrets that surround Rampion and his captor, Gothel.Rapunzel must learn the truth before it’s too late and she loses everything she holds dear.Author’s Note: 18+ Contains strong sexual language and graphic violence, and an artificial intelligence learning about the intricacies of love—and the fact that it follows no logic.Cosmic Fairy Tales is a collaboration in which several authors are retelling beloved tales with a science fiction romance twist. Each book is a standalone, containing its own Happily Ever After, and they can be read in any order. Be sure to explore the other titles in the collection:The Hunchback by Regine AbelThe Frog Prince by Tracy LaurenContaminated by Amanda MiloThe Ugly Dukeling by Bex McLynnJackie and the Giant by Honey PhillipsEscaping Wonderland by Tiffany RobertsRampion by Susan TrombleyThe Lion and the Mouse by Emmy Chandler

    He’s also her only chance of escape.Alice knows Wonderland is just a virtual world operated inside an asylum to which she’s been wrongfully committed, but she can’t find her way out—can’t find her way back to the life she lived before she woke beneath titanic trees and towering flowers. With the terrifying Red King searching for her and chaos all around, her only hope of escape lies in Shadow, a tall, mysterious being with glowing eyes, sharp claws, and a haunting grin who may be the maddest of them all. But even if Wonderland isn’t real, her growing feelings for Shadow—and his desire for her—are. Can Alice and Shadow escape Wonderland together, or will she succumb to the madness like everyone else? ------Loosely inspired by Alice in Wonderland.**Warning: This book contains dark themes.**

    Never wear red or any other bright color. Make as little sound as possible if one had to be outside the protection of the sanctuary settlements. And never, ever, go out in the wild places alone. The Ragoru, an alien species set down to live among them, dwell within the forests and everyone knows that they crave all things red. Arie’s life has always been one of playing by the rules. She doesn’t draw attention to herself. She doesn’t leave her home without her hood that conceals her bright red hair. It is a secret from everyone, and her hood protects her secret so that she may continue to live safely within the village until one day that secret comes to light. Absconding into the woods soon becomes her only safety, and she will risk her very life into the care of the very dreaded beings that all people fear, the Ragoru, in hope of making it to her grandmother’s house in the citadel at the other side of the great forest. When circumstances reveal them to not be the monsters of human imagination, but that they stir the ravenous beast within her, Arie finds that she is willing to risk far more to find a way to be with them forever. Even if that means severing ties with her grandmother, rejecting the human comforts of the citadel, and facing the horror of the Order of the Huntsmen. A new spin on the Little Red Riding Hood Story, bringing a well known fairy tell to a dystopian future with a wolfish alien species.

    To treat the disease's effects, we've turned to cultivating a rare flower. That's my occupation: raising and studying this flower. That's precisely what I'm doing the daycycle that an alien drops into our research plot, approaches our plant... And cuts my flower's head off, stealing the bloom.She stole our only hope. I can't let her get away.**Note: This 37K, standalone story is intended for readers 18+ due to romantic elements. There is no cheating. There is a Happily Ever After, because this is a sci-fi retelling of Beauty and the Beast--you have to have an HEA. (There is, however, no singing cutlery.) ***Important Note II: No unicorns were harmed in the making of this story.----------------------Cosmic Fairy Tales is a collaboration in which several authors are retelling beloved tales with a science fiction romance twist. Each book is a standalone, containing its own Happily Ever After, and they can be read in any order. Be sure to explore the other titles in the collection:The Hunchback by Regine AbelThe Frog Prince by Tracy LaurenContaminated by Amanda MiloThe Ugly Dukeling by Bex McLynnJackie and the Giant by Honey PhillipsEscaping Wonderland by Tiffany RobertsRampion by Susan TrombleyThe Lion and the Mouse by Emmy Chandler

    He's adorable. He's alien as hell.Zylar of Kith Balak is a four-time loser in the annual Choosing. If he fails to find a nest guardian this time, he'll lose his chance to have a mate for all time. Desperation drives him to try a matching service but due to a freak solar flare and a severely malfunctioning ship AI, things go way off course. This 'human being' is not the Tiralan match he was looking for.She's frazzled. She's fierce. She's from St. Louis.Beryl Bowman's mother always said she'd never get married. She should have added a rider about the husband being human. Who would have ever thought that working at the Sunshine Angel daycare center would offer such interstellar prestige? She doesn't know what the hell's going on, but a new life awaits on Barath Colony, where she can have any alien bachelor she wants.They agree to join the Choosing together, but love is about to get seriously strange.

    Her first glimpse of the handsome alien hybrid had her dismissing his crass moniker, until his abrasive attitude proved the gossip to be true. He was an arse, but an arse that she both needed and wanted. Thankfully, Cisnetta was one tough bird who never turned-tail and ran.Major Atrates Geswin, second-in-line to the Andrake dukedom, found himself locked in a skirmish with an astounding woman. Cisnetta Fowler handled his insults as if he passed her fluffy ducklings. But rather than softening him, she inflamed his Otar-alien side, spurring him to seize, to demand, to want… All that stood between his victorious claiming of her was a vicious, pet swan with a neck-wringing fetish.As far as Atrates was concerned, Cisnetta was his for the taking.----------------------Cosmic Fairy Tales is a collaboration in which several authors are retelling beloved tales with a science fiction romance twist. Each book is a standalone, containing its own Happily Ever After, and they can be read in any order. Be sure to explore the other titles in the collection:The Hunchback by Regine AbelThe Frog Prince by Tracy LaurenContaminated by Amanda MiloThe Ugly Dukeling by Bex McLynnJackie and the Giant by Honey PhillipsEscaping Wonderland by Tiffany RobertsRampion by Susan TrombleyThe Lion and the Mouse by Emmy Chandler

    Eighteen years later, she’s back, kidnapped from her bed and abandoned in the location of her childhood trauma—the expansive Fetoji habitat.Terrified and alone, Syrie runs right into a trap and finds herself at the mercy of the creature who set it—a huge leonine hunter who both scares and captivates her in equal measure…Deep in the woods, Lohr discovers a rare bounty in his hunting net—a tiny, helpless human woman. She begs him to set her free. To keep her safe while she’s stuck in his habitat. And she promises to return the favor, as soon as she can.Lohr scoffs at her offer. How could this mousy little human with blunt teeth and no claws possibly be any help to him? He frees her because he needs his net back. Which is when he notices that she’s soft and pretty. And that she smells good. And that she feels amazing tossed over his shoulder, when he carries her to his home. For her protection, of course…The lion and the mouse develop an instant, sizzling chemistry—but can their passion survive once he realizes that her family is the reason he’s spent his entire life as a zoo exhibit? ----------------------Cosmic Fairy Tales is a collaboration in which several authors are retelling beloved tales with a science fiction romance twist. Each book is a standalone, containing its own Happily Ever After, and they can be read in any order. Be sure to explore the other titles in the collection:The Hunchback by Regine AbelThe Frog Prince by Tracy LaurenContaminated by Amanda MiloThe Ugly Dukeling by Bex McLynnJackie and the Giant by Honey PhillipsEscaping Wonderland by Tiffany RobertsRampion by Susan TrombleyThe Lion and the Mouse by Emmy Chandler

    Sazo's an artificial intelligence. He's saved her from captivity and torture, but he's also put her in the middle of a conflict, leaving Rose with her loyalties divided.Captain Dav Jallan doesn't know why he and his crew have stumbled across an almost legendary Class 5 battleship, but he's not going to complain. The only problem is, all its crew are dead, all except for one strange, new alien being.She calls herself Rose. She seems small and harmless, but less and less about her story is adding up, and Dav has a bad feeling his crew, and maybe even the four planets, are in jeopardy. The Class 5's owners, the Tecran, look set to start a war to get it back and Dav suspects Rose isn't the only alien being who survived what happened on the Class 5. And whatever else is out there is playing its own games.In this race for the truth, he's going to have to go against his leaders and trust the dark horse.Winner of a SFR Galaxy Award 2016 and the Prism Award 2016 for Best Futuristic.

    An epic journey. If the Seventine are released, will anyone survive?Abigail Swish might not love her life, living in gang-ridden New York in 2035 and training to fight and survive with Compound 23. But she is grateful for a few things, especially her no-filter-between-brain-and-mouth best friend Lucy and her escape each night into a dream world far different from her own. In fact, sometimes she lives for the fleeting moments she spends at night with the man who fuels every romantic fantasy she’s ever had. But each morning reality returns. She could just cry. But she won’t of course; tears don’t change a damn thing.Then without any warning, a month before her eighteenth birthday, everything does change. A guardian finds her. He explains, in a strangely familiar accent, that she was stashed on Earth for safekeeping and has been lost to her family ever since. And it is time to return home. To the First World; a land of unimagined beauty. Abigail and Lucy find themselves escaping New York, ending up on another planet and traversing through an unforgiving wilderness. Yeah, because that sort of thing just happens every day. Luckily an unexpected saviour arrives; the man from her dream-world. Brace is six-and-a-half feet of gorgeous perfectness, wrapped in an arrogance like no other. Unable to trust his assistance, and unsure which of her instincts to follow - kiss him or punch him in the mouth - Abigail eventually accepts his help to find her family. And what a family. Enter Josian, her father; larger than life and apparently not even human. He is Walker, a planet-less race revered as gods, causing mischief and mayhem through-out this star-system. Unfortunately, there is no time for a cosy reunion, since no one explained that by returning to First World her half-Walker genetics would act as a catalyst setting forth a chain of events which could spell disaster for not only her existence but that of all worlds.First World is book one in the Walker Saga, a seven-book paranormal fantasy series.Spurn - A Walker Saga Book Two release date set for September 2013.

    With the new Alliance between the Triad and the United Coalition, Captain Tasha “Sass” Sebastian finds herself serving under her former nemesis, biocybe Admiral Branden Kel-Paten–and doing her best to hide a deadly past. But when an injured mercenary winds up in their ship’s sick bay–and in the hands of her best friend, Dr. Eden Fynn–Sass’s efforts may be wasted.Wanted rebel Jace Serafino has information that could expose all of Sass’s secrets, tear the fragile Alliance apart–and end Sass’s career if Kel-Paten discovers them. But the biocybe has something to hide as well, something once thought impossible for his kind to possess: feelings . . . for Sass. Soon it’s clear that their prisoner could bring down everything they once believed was worth dying for–and everything they now have to live for.

    When an ally reveals that she was seized and is being held prisoner on Earth, Taelon descends upon the blue planet, intent on freeing her and exacting vengeance. However, all does not go as planned. Before he can find her, Taelon is captured and becomes the subject of torturous experiments. For what feels like an eternity, all he knows is pain and fury… until a mind tentatively touches his own and a woman’s voice forever changes his world.After suffering tragic losses, Lisa is finally beginning to carve out a future for herself when chance sends her to the Anomalous Cognition Research Institute. What at first appears to be a benign organization seeking participants for a psychic study instead turns out to be a government facility harboring a much darker intent. Lisa discovers this too late and soon becomes the unwilling subject of a terrifying experiment. Just as fear and desperation threaten to consume her, a deep, compelling voice penetrates the looming insanity and lends her hope.Having seen only the worst of humanity, Taelon is shocked when Lisa risks everything to free him. Together the two make their escape, and Taelon finds himself fascinated by the small human woman who—despite all she’s suffered—can still laugh and tease and lure smiles from him. Friendship swiftly grows between them as they work together to evade soldiers intent on capturing them and find themselves hunted by mystifying preternatural beings. Through it all, Lisa steadfastly remains by his side, stealing more of his heart each day while she helps him unravel the mystery of his sister’s fate. Can they find his sister before the hunters find them? If they survive their quest, will Taelon have to bid Lisa farewell… or can he coax her into leaving her planet and joining him for the adventure of a lifetime?

    In the midst of all this, something large, white, hairy and completely Abominable drops in uninvited. The beast had decided to settle their dispute itself.Noting something of worth in the feisty, hot-tempered woman, the creature steals off with her, heading deep into the woods with his prize.Wilhelmina soon finds herself in the middle of a primitive looking camp of snowy white creatures, on some kind of alternate plane, realizing quickly that she's just unwillingly participated in some kind of bridal hunt.Is Wilhelmina fated to be an Abominable snow beastie's bride? Or can she find her way back home before it's too late?

    These words from Lily Rose Sullivan the night of her death haunts her seventeen-year-old sister, Finn, who has moved with her widowed father to his hometown of Fair Hollow, New York. After befriending a boy named Christie Hart and his best friend, Sylvie Whitethorn, Finn is invited to a lakeside party where she encounters the alluring Jack Fata, a member of the town's mysterious Fata family. Despite Jack's air of danger and his clever words, Finn learns they have things in common.One day, while unpacking, Finn finds her sister's journal, scrawled with descriptions of creatures that bear a sinister resemblance to Jack's family. Finn dismisses these stories as fiction, but Jack's family has a secret—the Fatas are the children of nothing and night, nomadic beings who have been preying on humanity for centuries—and Jack fears that his friendship with Finn has drawn the attention of the most dangerous members of his family—Reiko Fata and vicious Caliban, otherwise known as the white snake and the crooked dog.Plagued with nightmares about her sister, Finn attempts to discover what happened to Lily Rose and begins to suspect that the Fatas are somehow tied to Lily Rose's untimely death. Drawn to Jack, determined to solve the mystery of her sister's suicide, Finn must navigate a dangerous world where nothing is as it seems.

    “I must ask you to sacrifice the promise of love for the sake of our kingdom.”She could only stare back, frozen.When a strange beast terrorizes the kingdom of Lochlanach, fear stirs revolt. In an act of desperation, a proclamation is sent to all of Eurona—kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of King Lochson’s hand in marriage.Princess Aerity knows her duty to the kingdom but cannot bear the idea of marrying a stranger... until a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention. There’s no denying the unspoken lure between them... or his mysterious resentment.Paxton is not the marrying type. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He’s determined to keep his focus on the task at hand—ridding the kingdom of the beast—but the princess continues to surprise him, and the perilous secrets he’s buried begin to surface.Inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ tale “The Singing Bone,” New York Times bestselling author Wendy Higgins delivers a dark fantasy filled with rugged hunters, romantic tension, and a princess willing to risk all to save her kingdom.