The tribes have been dying beneath the desert sun for as long as they can remember. With fewer and fewer males birthed, there is little hope of survival. Humanity is doomed.The yearly blooming is a season of fertility and new life—and the time when the males choose new brides. But Elliya has no desire to become another wife amongst many to a spoiled man. She longs for more. She longs for love.

Scoring a job at the exclusive and secretive Hotel Castle Verna is exactly what I need to pay off my debt and avoid a punishment I might not survive. The guests are a little eccentric, but they are great tippers. All I have to do is ignore the strange sights, smells, and sounds coming from the guest rooms, and I can remain gainfully employed. Simple, right? Except there's one guest at the hotel who's always watching me with his mismatched black and white eyes.

When space pirates attack the exploratory spaceship I work on and I'm forced to evacuate in an escape pod, I never expected to crash land on an alien planet. I have no idea where any of my fellow crew members are or if they even got away. I'm entirely alone. Or so I think. Instead, I'm rescued from a fierce predator by a towering purple alien with a tail and color-changing tattoos who ignites strange feelings inside me.

Long have we been alone; without brides, without females to warm us during the long nights, without sweet mates. But we see them from afar, the brides that could be ours. Kept away from us by walls and weapons. Females we long for greatly...obsessively. Human females. And the one with red hair? I want her. I saw her first. I will fight to the death for her. She is mine. So, we’ll come together and make an exchange with their men that will benefit us all. After that? To the winner goes the spoil. Let the hunt begin...but the red-headed female is mine.

At the end of a terrible war, a sorcerer casts a curse that destroys every female in the entire race of dragons. In retaliation, Kyreagan, the dragon prince, leads a raid on the sorcerer's kingdom, during which the male dragons snatch human women and carry them off to the dragons' domain. When Princess Serylla is captured by the Prince of Dragons and taken to his cave, she is furious, terrified, and determined to make his existence so miserable he'll either have to kill her or let her go.

In the blink of an eye, my whole world has collapsed around me. Headed towards my dream vacation, I was snatched right out of the air. My husband, the love of my life, was destroyed right in front of my eyes. He fought bravely trying to protect me from a horror neither one of us could have ever imagined. I find myself standing in the spotlight on a stage.

I accidentally launched an escape pod on my miserable honeymoon—with me on it—and crash-landed in the middle of an alien jungle on a forbidden "emerging civilization" planet, breaking about a hundred Cosmic Syndicate laws. Oh, and I robbed a hot lizard guy with sexy black eyes, the most colorful scales I've ever seen, and a powerful prehensile tail that curls up like a cinnamon roll. Even though I can't understand anything he's saying, my new reptilian friend turns out to be as sweet as honey and spicier than the seasoning he used on the meat I stole from his camp.

Marion enjoys her quiet life of solitude in the shadowy woods of the Black Veil, where even the local villagers don’t dare venture. She sells her healing potions at the village market by day and tends to her otherworldly garden by night, caring for her magical bees and furry familiar, Peek, at their cottage. Then, one moonlit night, she encounters a devilishly handsome male—with powerful wings, sharp fangs, and high fae-like beauty—shot through with a lethal poisoned arrow.

I went to space looking for adventure, my job to protect the other women of the expedition. When gray aliens wake me from cryo in the middle of a market, it turns out I'm what's on sale. This sure isn't the fun I dreamed of!

Maia Fremont just wanted a chance. When the opportunity to create floral arrangements for the royal wedding is offered to her, who is she to say no? But the crown is never honest, and soon enough, she finds herself thrust into an unwanted union with a fearsome troll. Ripped from her beloved garden and the only life she's ever known, she's offered as a bride to a creature she's only heard whispers of—rumors of brutality, darkness, and insatiable hunger.

The rundown human worldship is a bleak place, but it's my home, and it's where all the people I care about live. My mother, my sister, my students, and my sweet fiancé, Nathan. I never imagined I'd be forced to leave...forced to become the mate of a barbaric Darrvason admiral.

R'jaal has waited many turns of the seasons for his khui to resonate, only to be disappointed time and time again. But when he is taken captive by strange beings hiding in the very tunnels of the fruit caves, he wakes up to find himself in a strange underground cage. Also in the cage? A very pretty unfamiliar human female. She says her name is Rosalind. She makes his khui sing. It's finally his time. There's a big problem, though—Rosalind has no khui of her own. And if she doesn't get one soon, she could die.

When my sister is chosen for the Monster Mate Hunt—an annual event where two women must sacrifice themselves to the orcs for the good of us all—I volunteer in her place. The orcs hunt me as I bolt through the forest. I'm captured by the gruff, growly Commander Jaus, who expects me to cook and clean, plus sleep in his quarters with him at night, despite insisting he doesn't want a mate. Then something changes, and his dark, brooding gaze turns my way . . .

One of the many engineers that keep Beta, the city under the sea, running, Mira only wants to make her family proud and to prove herself worthy. She knows the mysterious city better than anyone and it's her dream to help it flourish. Then, on a solo job in an abandoned section of the city, she encounters a monster of legend: an undine, a dangerous merman from an ancient civilization, long forgotten.

The blue alien warrior pacing in his cage terrifies me. His long dark hair is wild and messy, and his scarred body looks made for murder. I deliver food to him every day, and I'm sure by the way he stares at me that he'd rather eat me. Yet there's something about him that captivates me, and I can't stop watching him. When he lets the snarling, fearsome mask slip, I start to see there's a cool calculation to his actions. I would be risking everything to help him escape, but do I dare let this monster free from his cage?

I've always felt like an outsider. Until my 18th birthday, I didn't know how true that was. First, I started seeing strange things. Then, the tips of my ears began to shift. Now, even touching something made of iron makes me sick. Am I losing my mind? When four mysterious fae males corner me in the street, they bring terrifying news: I'm not human. I'm a changeling, a fae swapped at birth.

Edward Marquand knew he was playing with fire, but he just didn't care. The heart wants what the heart wants, and for Eddie, that was Sally, his father's light-skinned slave. Sally and Edward enjoyed a passionate, lustful love affair, but each knew how dangerous their dalliance was... especially his identical twin brother, John.

Kidnapped from my college campus, just as I tasted freedom, I’m sold to the Angel of Death—Angelo Santi, the vampire mafia King. I’m now a captive in a world I never knew existed, caught in a tangled web of ancient feuds and dangerous desires. He claims that I have the power to save his people by reigniting a dying magical stone. He’s delusional. I have no powers, but if I try to escape, he’ll start by killing my best friend and move to everyone I’ve ever loved.

I'm an omega, but I'm wrong. Tainted. A glitch in the natural order. My dreams drag me to a shadow kingdom of cruel beauty where sinful alpha monsters reign supreme—crowned heads of various courts, their very presence igniting my inner omega that's laid dormant impatiently. Their crowns gleam with unholy light, their scents ignite a hunger in me I don't understand. I should submit. I should want to obey. Instead, I feel power stirring dangerously in my veins.

This book is a collection of eight separate stand-alone short stories. These stories will take you on a journey of suspense, adventure, mystery and horror. There is something for everyone, whether you like gritty detective stories, mythological adventures or enticing horror, all that and more in this Menagerie.

A dog named Slipper almost ruined my life. The uncatchable stray snuck on the patio where I was waitressing and knocked me straight into Lee Powell's lap. My fist slammed into his junk. Then I accidentally flipped his breakfast platter onto his pants. I thought it couldn't get any worse, but when I bring my brother to baseball practice, I discover his new coach is none other than Lee, owner and founder of Powell Dog Sanctuary, and he's not happy to see me.

I see dead people. While it might sound cool, I can assure you, it's not. The dead are even bigger assholes than the living. I learned at a young age to be invisible. Even breathing wrong could set my father off. The beatings became progressively worse as I got older, and I feared I wouldn't survive to see my eighteenth birthday. So I plotted my escape, and no one was more surprised that it worked than me!

I know better than to get involved with celebrities. Especially a Rock God like Sebastian Kane. A man who knows how to make the ladies scream, as evidenced by the leak of his recent sex tape. Which leads to my problem . . . I'm the girl in the video with him. Grief will make you do crazy things. After all, I'm the smart girl, the good girl, not the rebel. But now I'm face to face with the one man I was never supposed to see again. A man with a gorgeous dark smile and even darker secrets.

Aura was always destined to become the Starnight Prince’s bride following her twenty-first birthday. Now that the day has arrived, she looks forward to wedded bliss—and their first night together as husband and wife. That is, until the savage dragon king from another court steals Aura away before the ceremony.

The Duke of the Damned is dead. When my coven is blamed for his murder, I'm desperate to clear their name before my sisters are arrested and I lose the only family I've ever known. But I only have one week to find the culprit, and the new heir to the duchy is none other than Detective Liam Rorick, my enigmatic ex-partner and archenemy. It doesn't matter if Rorick is a competent investigator. He's the most cantankerous vampire I've ever had the displeasure of knowing. There's a reason I swore I'd never work with him again.

Will wants to meet the perfect man, but it's easier said than done in such a small town. His crush of over a year has no idea he even exists, and ignoring his best friend's advice has only made the problem worse. Rather than limiting himself only to who's available locally, Will turns to the digital world. Cas is ready to move on after his last relationship ended in death. Right away, he meets the perfect candidate through a new anonymous chatting app, with only one problem—he quickly learns his new friend's identity in the real world.

Ava Moretti is a mafia princess with a fiery personality and an aversion to doing what she's told. Nick Caponelli is next in line to lead the Caponelli mafia—he’s used to getting exactly what he wants. When they meet by chance one night, neither has any idea they are from rival crime families. After a night of passion, they are supposed to part ways and never see each other again. But fate has bigger plans, and soon Ava must make a decision that will change her life forever. What comes first: love or family?

I don't fall for women. Women fall for me. I'm Lake Decker, best running back in the league. Former. After a debilitating injury forced me to step back from my budding career, the last thing I thought I'd be doing was drooling at the feet of my stale-looking therapist. But her saucy attitude, strict professionalism, and the occasional shiner have my curiosities piqued.

I never thought I'd find myself craving the small-town life, but I've grown to hate LA and all that comes with it. When I get canceled after a celebrity interview goes terribly wrong, I put my life in the City of Angels on hold and hide out in Parkerville, Maine. My sister has made the small town her home, and my assistant lives there, too. So it seems like the most logical place to go. Until my assistant suggests I move in with her dad. Her very hot, rugged dad.

My name is Grace Degas Black. Years ago, I made a splash during a charity fashion show where an agent discovered me. My work led to the glitzy world of haute couture, perfume ads, and more. I was living my best life, traveling the world, and the only thing that would have made it better was if my twin had come along for the ride. My other half. My best friend. Then one day, she disappeared.