Six years ago, I awoke in a cage with no knowledge of who I was or where I’d come from. Six years ago, I was spared the flesh markets and instead thrown in with a group of savages, where I learned it was fight or die. Now, eight Orders of Assassins are converging on the only home I’ve ever known. All in hopes of purchasing new blade slaves for their ranks. I’m for sale, yet all I want is a life far from death and ownership. Then I meet them, the Order of Scorpions. Their allure is a threat to the freedom I crave, but I won’t fall victim to their sting, no matter how tempting it might be.

I’ve walked the streets of Phoenix Valley for twenty two years knowing exactly who I am: an orphan, a human, a nobody. Summoned by The Hex to test my humanity, I was prepared to fail, destined to be the same mundane girl. I was wrong. Pandora’s Box called to me, sensing a magic I never knew existed. With my world turned upside down and full of possibilities, I must now call Paradise Heights home. To live amongst supernaturals, attend Saints Academy, and find my place.

After graduating high school and having been accepted into one of the most prestigious paranormal universities in North America, Black Veil University, everything is finally going as planned. Or so I thought before four insanely hot men crashed their way into my life—each with a unique connection to me whether they want it or not. We are tied together. Lives are turned upside down, hearts are torn and shattered, and those deep, dark secrets that I have held hostage start to slip. But when the dark shadows of my past come knocking, I may need every little bit of help I can get.

It was supposed to be a fun getaway with my best friend - until I ran out of gas in the Middle of Nowhere, Montana. There I was, freezing to death, when three men came to my rescue and thawed the icicles around my heart. There's one little problem: They aren't human. When my own haunted past comes calling, they stand by my side and protect me. But can I overcome my own demons and accept I have mates? Or will my own fears cripple me?

There were six of us. Caged, turned into monsters, and tormented with brutal tests of our horrific emerging abilities. We had only each other to count on...until our escape attempt ended with one dead, the others recaptured, and me dragged away into a different nightmare.

My name is Vinna, and I've been keeping a lot of secrets. You would too if you'd experienced some of the weird shit I have: red-eyed monsters chasing me, markings on my body appearing out of nowhere, a strange power that crackles colorfully over my skin from time to time, and don't get me started on the weapons I can conjure up almost out of nowhere.

Moving to a new town to start college, where I can try to be normal. Or at least pretend I am. I’m willing to fake it, because I’m tired of trying to get better. Tired of spilling my guts to doctors and therapists to understand why I’ve heard voices since I was a child.

All I wanted was to find answers to who I was. No one knew who had abandoned the gray-eyed baby with fiery red hair and a cry loud enough to make a man's nuts retract. I moved to Arbor Falls to find myself. Little did I know I'd be thrown into a world I didn't know existed. A world with wolves at each other's throats and enough pack politics and danger to make my head spin. Then there's the fact that I have more than one mate. Not all of them accept me because there's one gigantic problem: I'm not what they expected.

I was the girl no one looked at twice. Until they saw me. My whole life, no one has had my back. My parents are dead, my adoptive mother is a drug addict, and the mean girls on campus mock me for my scars. So when I end up desperate for money and out of options, I agree to sell the one thing I have left: my innocence. On the night I’m meant to give my body to a brutal Russian mobster, three men storm into the room like dark shadows and kill him before he can claim me. When they drag me from the blood-soaked bed, I’m certain they’re going to kill me too.

All I wanted was to keep my head above water. To survive long enough to hit my 18th birthday so I could escape the nightmare that my homelife had become. But all of that was turned upside down the moment they showed up. The best friend from my past. The surly brooder. The kindhearted nerd. The king of campus. The dark one.

My whole life has been characterized by fighting; fighting my family and fighting for my life. Trust me—the first one is completely voluntary, and a lot of fun. The second? Not so much. To say my family dynamic is weird is the understatement of the century. I held my first sword when I was only five years old, and I learned how to dispose of a body before I turned ten. I may have a penchant for pink and sparkles…but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to kick major ass as well.

One mistake cost me everything. My gorgeous triton tail was gone, and in its place were the worst things imaginable—tentacles. I’ve learned to live with being different, but now the clock is ticking down to being stuck with them forever. But when a chance presents itself to possibly go back to the way things once were, I can’t pass it up.

When my family died at the hands of a demon prince, I hung up my exorcist hat. I’d failed to protect them, and while I was willing to risk myself, the price had risen too high. Now I’m serving up hot, fresh pizzas to everyone who wants them. I was the only person left to inherit the family business, and I’m doing my best to keep it up and running in honor of my loved ones. These days, my biggest challenge is telling off a rampaging customer, and endless paperwork. That is, until he shows up again.

I was so close to getting everything I wanted - an internship with my uncle, an officer with the special-ops team. If it weren't for a stupid boy that had to go and make me angry, causing me to turn a certain part of his anatomy purple and sparkly, I wouldn't have accidentally revealed to my family what I really was. What I had been hiding.

Growing up, I had nothing but my good grades and them: the Vanguard brothers. They are the golden boys of our school, destined to be the alphas of our pack. They’re possessive, scaring away everyone else who might get close to me—until the night of their first shift. I’d been told over and over I could never be their mate, but the boy’s wolves had other ideas…. So, I’m whisked away, told to forget them—and I do, right up until they walk in through my door, telling me all the things I’d secretly dreamed of.

Rune Saint John, the last child of the fallen Sun Court, is hired to search for Lady Judgment's missing son, Addam, on New Atlantis, the island city where the Atlanteans moved after ordinary humans destroyed their original home. With his companion and bodyguard, Brand, he questions Addam's relatives and business contacts through the highest ranks of the nobles of New Atlantis. But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court.

Deep within the forests of the Pacific Northwest, two vampire coalitions battle for supremacy—Guardian enforcers who safeguard humanity and Darkblood rogues who kill like their ancient ancestors.

NYPD detective Paul Donner and his wife Elise were killed in a hold-up gone wrong. Fifty years later, Donner is back: revived courtesy of the Shift. Supposedly the unintended side-effect of a botched biological terrorist attack and carried by a ubiquitous retrovirus, the Shift jump-starts dead DNA and throws the life cycle into reverse, so reborns like Donner must cope with the fact that they are not only slowly youthing toward a new childhood, but have become New York's most hated minority.

Modern gods and goddesses, remote, revered - and like the pantheon of heroes and heroines of ancient myth - possessing great power tempered with flaws. Now, find within this anthology great tales by gifted and award-winning authors who move superheroes from the four-color panels of comic books to the fantastic pages of fiction, stories that will remind anyone who ever wanted to wear a cape or don a cowl of the extraordinary powers of the imagination!

Cassandra Palmer can see the future and communicate with spirits - talents that make her attractive to the dead and the undead alike. The ghosts of the dead aren't usually dangerous; they just like to talk...a lot. The undead are another matter. Like any sensible girl, Cassie tries to avoid vampires, but when the bloodsucking mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with vengeance on his mind, she's forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection.

'Twas the night before Christmas…and dozens of rich, influential hostages are trapped inside a sprawling lakefront mansion in New Orleans. The perp? Detective Reed Ware, model cop turned outlaw. After receiving a panicked call from Hollis "Holly" Bayard, a teenage street tough with a penchant for amateur sleuthing who stumbles upon the scene of a drug-deal-turned-murder, Ware finds his and his friend's lives in dire danger. The crime Holly witnessed could be the biggest police cover-up this side of New Orleans - and no one's talking.

Time-travel tour guide Reegan McNamara's job-taking eager tourists to whenever they want to go-is usually a breeze. A trip back to 2020 to watch a world-changing speech seems no different, until a woman runs away from his tour group before the jump home. Now her tycoon husband is demanding her safe return-or Reegan will lose more than just his job.

Eli knows corruption runs deep within the compound. It's a reality he's forced to confront every year on Bid Day. But when your job is to go out into the radiation-soaked Fringe so that others can live in peace, you don't ask too many questions. For Harper, the bid system works just fine. She's the best developer in her year, and she's confident she'll find a place among the wealthy, respected Systems workers. But when an upset in the bidding changes the course of Harper's future, she'll be forced to rely on an unlikely ally.

It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone. Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they're worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

In the burned-out, futuristic city of Empire Island, three young people navigate a crumbling metropolis constantly under threat from a pair of dragons that circle the skies. When violence strikes, reality star Duncan Humphrey Ripple V, the spoiled scion of the metropolis' last dynasty; Baroness Swan Lenore Dahlberg, his tempestuous, death-obsessed betrothed; and Abby, a feral beauty he discovered tossed out with the trash; are forced to flee everything they've ever known.

For generations, girls known as Spinsters have been called by Arras' Manipulation Services to work the looms and control what people eat, where they live, how many children they have, and even when they die. Gifted with the unusual ability to weave time with matter, 16-year-old Adelice Lewys is exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. But Adelice isn’t interested.

There’s an underground magical vault, protected by sorcery, security cameras, guards, and whatnot. Think of the most impenetrable place in the world. Now triple it. It belongs to a dragon, and I was hired to break into it and steal his hoard. I might be an alchemist extraordinaire and the best burglar on the East Coast, but this is not a solo job. I’ll need a team for this one. Accompanied by a powerful sorcerer, a fortune teller, a scam artist, and a hacker, I embark on the heist of the century. If we succeed, we’ll be legends. If not - crispy dragon snacks.

Tim Rackley, a deputy U.S. marshal, watches helplessly as his daughter's killer walks free on a legal technicality. He is suddenly forced to explore his own deadly options, a quest that leads him into the welcoming fold of "The Commission".

All ATF Agent Jack Donovan wants out of life is to do his job and work on his strained relationship with his daughter Jessie after a nasty divorce. But in a ruthless act of revenge by a charismatic madman, Jessie is kidnapped and buried alive, with barely enough oxygen to sustain her. Now the only man who can save her, the only man who knows where to find her, has just been shot dead - and the clock is ticking... So what's a father to do?

Ever Strange is the first book in a new paranormal romantic suspense series from best-selling romance author Alisa Woods. The first three books in the series follow the three Strange sisters, each powerful witches in an influential magickal family embroiled in a mysterious plot to change everything about the magickal world.