She’s toxic, he’s fascinated. Putting herself in his path is the easy part. Not taking advantage of their mutual attraction is going to be tough. Shan has arrived on Athon with one purpose, to take part in her friend’s wedding. When things get complicated, she ends up splitting her attention between the bride and the newly landed General Zaber. Zaber is the end of his line. His father was an idiot and all of his half-siblings have followed their father to the grave. Raised by his mother on Kadura, Zaber had a good upbringing that ended abruptly when he was conscripted to take his father’s place in the Athon military. A decade and a half later, he has his father’s rank and no intention on continuing the family line. He is done with bloodlines, but the government of Athon wants to keep his line alive, and they are willing to kidnap members of the populace to ensure it. Shan has already met Zaber, and when the guards interrupt her friend’s engagement party, she is more than irritated but goes with them anyway. When she learns that it was not his idea to kidnap a few dozen women, she steps up and volunteers to take him on as a lover. After all, she is a bridal attendant, isn’t she supposed to be a little reckless with her virtue?

Offered up by her government, Cyreen is given over to an ancient hero to placate him into cooperation. No pressure. When the Hero of Morcud was betrayed and put in stasis, he demanded that if they were to ever wake him, he needed the woman that they had denied him. Five hundred years later, his help is needed and Cyreen is one of three women with the DNA profile that he demanded. As he is still in his stasis tube, she got a good look at all parts exposed by the clear housing. When he sat up and returned her frank gaze, she is taken aback. The two delicate and lovely creatures that also matched his requirements were huddled together and weeping at the thought of the hybrid general touching them. Cyreen was intrigued. General Xan looks at his options and makes his decision. Cyreen is his, and there is no end date to the contract. Oh, the things she is willing to do to save her world. She had better make a very long list before he puts some trousers on.

Duped into a spa day, Billa finds out that she is the chosen offering to an ancient being from the stars. The massage wasn’t that good. Billa has made her way with menial tasks to get her from world to world. She has learned to defend herself against other crewmen and switches ships when she needs to. Her latest ship is unremarkable, but they have a two-day layover, and Billa wants to spend some of her transport money. She has made arrangements at the only hotel in town that would take reservations and had a spa. Spa days are what she lived for. Billa runs into an ancient rite and finds herself with a starring role in the festivities. When a drake emerges from a hole in space and tries to take her as his tribute, the offering makes a run for it, with temporary success.

At the end of her contract, she is about to be freed when an attack brings on her rising, and lives are at stake. Now, her life is no longer her own. Dylia was bonded as a private musician for the wealthy. She spent five years paying off her brother’s debts, and the day before she was to be free of the bond, her future plans went up in smoke. Using the bad judgment to get between a psycho and his prey, Dylia was the recipient of a blaster using kekxite energy. She was sent flying, and her dress was ruined, but the stalker wasn’t done yet. Dylia walked to stop the next blast, caught it, and sent it back through the gun. It shattered and disabled the attacker, but she had a bigger problem. The kekxite had brought on her rising. Farway was on duty when he got the call to get to a rising. Instead of the normal body count, he found a man who was wounded but still alive and a shuttle heading for a lake. The wild power signatures were pulsing inside the ship. This being was intensely strong. The hovering above the lake was odd, but he kept back. The rising was ready to blow. The delicate woman who stood on the open hatch and seemed to be waiting for something caught him by surprise. He watched as she timed things out, and when she felt it was time, she jumped. Cascades of power pulsed out of her, harmlessly into the air. She fell for five seconds and could have powered a city with her output. She struck the water; he retrieved her and then flew her to the training center where she would get medical help and training. As a rising, she belonged to the empire. She belonged to him.

Born against the odds, Elurra is hunted by her aunt and saved by seven miners who whisk her to safety until her prince can claim her. Elurra’s mother was infected by a vampire. Magic held the effects at bay, but when her daughter was born, her mother left the world. Raised by her doting father, Elurra was content with the arranged marriage to a young sandman. His species was known for their skilled and devastating armies, and hers was known for magic and agrarian skills. It was a match that had to wait until the timing was right. Elurra’s father is poisoned, and her stepmother immediately begins a systematic regimen of starving Elurra of the blood that her vampire nature requires. Days stretch into years, until one day, seven dark strangers announced that the sandmen are on the move, and they are coming for Elurra. Her aunt moves to kill her, the miners set out to save her, and her prince comes to her in her dreams. Elurra is tired of being tossed around, and she gets ready to make her own place in the worlds. Survival is no longer enough. She wants to win.

He didn’t want her. He didn’t request her. But now that she is carrying his legacy he is not letting her go. Dekora travelled the stars to get medical treatment for a friend. Once she arrived on Gryphal, she had to get to work in order to pay for everything her friend needed. New organs aren’t cheap. Dekora takes a contract that puts her in harms way, and after a burning tree collapses on her she needs to find another means to make money. The research doctor arrives and makes her an offer. Gryphal needs a new hero born from the genetics of their current champion. She is the first viable match that they have found. If she agrees to donate an egg, she will get the funds for her friend’s care. She agrees and wakes up in a different wing of the med center with a cheerful nurse announcing her pregnancy. Khed Amur is notified that his legacy is assured, and he keeps an eye on the news feeds and hospital monitors. When the second attempt on his carrier’s life makes the news, he sweeps in to take her somewhere safe... with him. Life with a team of superheroes takes getting used to, but as Dekora’s pregnancy advances at an alarming pace she finds out that the life inside her isn’t the only change she’s going through. Things are about to get complicated.

The Red Prince has escaped his home world and his arranged marriage. The Little Wolf has been dispatched to bring him home…intact enough for his bride. When the queen announced that her son was going to be wed in ten days, Solari felt nothing. When it was noticed that he had escaped, she felt nothing. When she was assigned to chase after him, she was irritated. With her beast locked in her body by a subduing tether, Solari has lived the last ten years half alive as a member of the Queen’s Wolves. Heading into space is the last place she wants to be, but she knows where Prince Hazwell is going, there is only one place to start a journey in the area. He is heading toward his grandmother’s house…or space station. Hazwell has never considered a married life where Solari wasn’t in the picture, but she was made into one of his mother’s guards, and they were not up for grabs. The announcement of his engagement had come as a shock, and his crimson guards spirited him away to his grandmother’s space station where he could get a long-range ship and figure out what he wanted to do next. The trouble was that his grandmother did nothing for free, and his performance in the arena is a requirement to his acquisition of the ship. When the Little Wolf also enters the arena, all bets are on.

Enticed by the elf king to a ball in his kingdom, Amelia gets magical assistance for her wardrobe and a chance at a new life, after midnight. Amelia has lived her life serving her family. At her stepmother’s urging, she has been running through the barrier that confines the elf king and stealing from the plants and trees that she can reach. Every time she passes the barrier, she starts a countdown and makes it out of the enchanted forest before the king thunders up on his horse. She listens for the hoof beats and makes every moment count. Being caught by the elf king was less terrifying than she had imagined. He gave her aid and made her smile before telling her that he was going to be hosting a party... and she was going to attend. The king had been searching for a woman to break the curse he was under, and this young woman with the sad eyes and her penchant for the flora of his forest seemed precisely what he needed. She was definitely what he wanted. With her agreement and a little seduction, she might assist him in escaping midnight.

A beauty injured in the line of duty trades her remaining life for her father’s as a living trophy for an ancient beast. Allura was shot in the line of duty, and the radiation is slowly eating her cells. Her life will not be long, so she is discharged and sent home to die. Her father was off on a trading mission, and he runs afoul of a terrifying creature who straps an explosive device to his head to ensure that the merchant will send the most beautiful thing that he sees back to the beast. Allura doesn’t mind leaving home. She doesn’t want to have her family watch her fall apart. She agrees to be something pretty for the monster to look at for as long as it lasts. The creature has a plan, an agenda, and he is willing to spend the rest of Allura’s life pursuing it. It is a good thing that he has the cure for her particular brand of radiation poisoning. As long as she abides by his rules, she gets the treatment, whether she knows she is being treated or not.

Running into a male entering rut gives her the opportunity to save her friends from punishment at the hands of the emperor. It isn’t really a hardship. Tydella is the imperial princess. The only imperial princess. Her father had one daughter by her mother and refused to have any other children. He is a man of his word. Tydella travels with ambassadorial duties and spends her birthday on a space station with her guard crew. She learns something that endangers her travelling family and decides to get into trouble to distract her parents from what her guards have been up to. She heads out of the station on her own for a few days of unrestricted solitude and runs into one of her father’s people while clearing customs. He’s tall, he’s handsome, he’s stripey, and is going into rut. She can smell it. Their eyes meet, but she turns and takes off, waiting for a large ship to stick to in order to run through a gate without registering her location. She just happens to pick his ship. Ador is fascinated by the sprightly woman with flashing eyes and magnificent attributes. He is disappointed that she slipped away from him at the station and beyond fascinated when he catches her magnetized to his ship. He offers her a choice and is stunned when she agrees to help him work off his rut. She gets a vacation, he gets a partner, what could possibly complicate things?

She works at a space station catering to everyone else’s virtual fantasies. When a man gets stuck in the scenario she must wake the sleeping prince. Styra works at the Blue Station and has been programming since she was able to reach a keyboard. When she became and adult she went from writing the simple scenarios and backgrounds to guiding tangled clients through the environments they had selected. Lately, she has been going in to pry out the difficult cases and making sure that everyone plays by the rules. Her boss calls her in on her day off and sends her in after an imperial captain. Somehow, he has gotten stuck in one of their fairy tale environments. She headed in to find the missing client and the computer had locked him in the role of the sleeping beauty. The criteria was clear. A kiss was necessary to wake him and the protocols were set. Once he was awake she was ready to get him out of the scenario but the computer was still locked. Yr-el wasn’t counting on his distaste for the virtual princess, but his drake had wanted to play in the scenario. When he wakes in the arms of a woman with moonlight for skin he begins to understand why he was steered to this station at this time. All he had to do was get her to release the drake the same way she had released him and he could begin a courtship.

Abiha must ask the spirit of the first forest to allow her sister’s wedding, and she never expected his conditional answer. Abiha has been banned from her home in the village of the first forest. Once she left, she must wait for an invitation to return. Finally, her mother needs her to return to gain the permission of the elders for her sister’s wedding to a local young man. Abiha is on the next transport home. She changes into the traditional garb that is all that is ever worn in the village, leaves all her tech behind, and after a security check, she enters the walled forest and inhales the scent of home. Her mother is as cold as she remembers, and her sister is as charming and loving. Once she drops her things at her family’s house, she goes to the temple to greet the spirit of the first forest, formally asks the elders in the village for permission, and hears the forest spirit agreeing to the union on one condition. She has to agree to him. Kiloh has watched the village for generations, watching and waiting for the genes to create someone compatible with his energies. When Abiha returns, his wait is over.

Trained in an abbey, she is finally out, married to a vampire, and looking for a fight within a day. Whatever will she do on day two? To protect herself and those around her, Ebra has spent the last twelve years at an abbey, training to be a good wife and mother…and assassin, commander, warrior, spy, and interior decorator. It was a full education that helped her manage the syndrome that made her so deadly. Assigned to the man her parents decided to give her to, she trusts her family not to do anything stupid. The offer to cure her is a surprise as there is only one cure. Death. The treatment that is offered is a cloned body without her flawed DNA and transfer of most of her consciousness before they destroy the original body. She would like a second opinion. A convenient attack on the space vessel she is on gives her the chance to escape her fate with minimal bloodshed. Getting caught by the man she proposed to is a bit of a surprise, but she is nothing if not adaptable. Changing from one suitor to the next is easy enough, but is the vampire going to be happy with the lady in his embrace, or will he have second thoughts?

Maven tried to help a friend, ended up being diverted by a warlock and familiar. Don’t worry, they only want her for her body. Maven is a good friend, so when she gets a text for a ride home, she goes to the private party and slips into the manor, looking for her acquaintance. What she finds shocks her into trying to leave, but a warlock and his familiar detain her in the kitchen while the guests are cleared out with memories wiped. The huge cat turns into a charming man, and the warlock is covered in angry shadows. When they look her over, they find something that she didn’t know she had, sex magic. Olmin and Argo are charming, flirtatious, and determined. They have found a source of magical power to light a beacon that they have been working on for hundreds of years, and now, they have a chance with Maven’s cooperation. After being used for their project, she tries to return to a normal life, but a large cat continues to curl up with her in bed, and she was never one to ignore a pair of fluffy ears and silky fur. Her life has just gotten tremendously complicated.

Krys is pulled across dimensions by a mage who wants to feed her to a sleeping monster. She should have gone out with friends instead. One minute, Krys is in the shower; the next minute, she is swept across time and space to act as an offering to an ancient protector locked in stone. The rules are simple. She fails any of the challenges, and she can go home, but she is a determined over-achiever. A mage is assigned to keep her maintained, and he is also her coach and reference guide when it comes to dealing with the challenges and the complications of being a human on an alien world. Nen is a good instructor, and he has an eye toward her wellbeing. The moment that the protector wakes, he requires power. Krys had no idea that Kel was going to have to get it from her. Power turns to pleasure and exponentially clarifies and produces more energy than ever before. She has three days to help save a world, and then, she will be sent home. How can life at home compare with the embrace of two men who make her their entire focus? Well, mainly men... a lot of something else.

One night, ten years ago, they satisfied her hunger, and she ran as fast as she could. Now, they are back in her life, and they want more. Nessa has stayed away from home for ten years, but a plea from estranged family brings her home. Nessa is half faerie, half human, and drains sexual energy from the people around her. Ten years ago, she had a night with two lovers and has not felt the hunger for power since. It all returns in a rush when she helps her cousin save her boss. Nessa knew it was an awkward intervention, but when she recognized two of the VPs she was there to protect, she feels like it has been a setup. She saves the day and settles the men down for a restoring nap when one of them snaps up and plants a tracking spell on her. Oh, yeah. He was the mage to the other one’s dark elf. Hector and Tynan have been waiting for their third. They have kept their eyes out for the last ten years, and when she falls into their laps, they are not letting her go. Stovos, king of the dark court, has watched his son’s attempts to locate the woman and was beginning to doubt his son’s sanity. When the courtship of his son and son-in-law exposes the woman that Stovos has been seeking, he is rocked on his own whirlwind seduction with a harpy of his own. She had been under his nose the entire time. Words: 73,450

Orion and the scorpion is a story everyone knows, but Stinger has no interest in killing the man who helps her manage a wave of lust. He might be just what she’s looking for. Stinger is back in town for a family wedding and then another. Being in a family that is predominantly female has its challenges, and one of those is the wedding and baby shower season. After being kidnapped the night before Nessa’s wedding, Stinger finds herself facing a familiar face and a body she wants to know better. Arthur is a charming man who is carrying out the dark elf wedding tradition, separating the bride from her ladies and the ladies from the bride. They get along well during their first interaction, which comes in handy when she needs to ask him for help the next day. Stinger and her mother control and disperse the lust and magic generated at mage weddings, keeping it from making a hotspot of lust and fertility in random areas. Stinger needs an anchor point, and she chooses Arthur Orion. He agrees to help, and fate locks them together. When she looks at him, she sees a future, but when she looks at her mother, she sees that men don’t stay, so she has a decision to make—trust everything she has learned about the male of the species while working with women’s shelters, or trust her gut. If only she had known that he was a real ogre, she might have had a second thought or a first one. Words: 40,110