Hunting for women is a tradition, but Teeny just wants a vacation. Is she prepared to defy the beasts? Retrieval Specialist Christiena Montague—Teeny—is finally on vacation. Invited to the resort run by a former client, she prepares for a month of warm solitude and quiet socializing. When she arrives, she finds out that her visit is—coincidentally—at the same time as the annual mate hunt. Zhomos is the owner of the resort and the brother of Thaka, a woman she retrieved years earlier. He has the uncanny ability to set her nerves on edge while sending her pulse racing. When he transforms from man to beast, will she accept his advances or defy the idea of the hunt?

A social Companion ends up married, widowed and hunted in the space of days. Hiding with a strange shapeshifter is just the perfect end to the week. Alice has walked through halls of power at the sides of some of the most powerful men and women in the Nyal Imperium. Her position as a Companion puts her in places she never imagined, including a world that is being evacuated so it can give itself a facelift. Her client wills her a house, fortune and title on his home world, which means that the moment he passes away, she is in deep. Going to the Oefric for judgement, Alice finds her accounts frozen pending further investigation, and she has to run for her life as her husband’s family puts a hit out on her. Kadenz wanted to retire, but when the judge sends Alice to him as housekeeper, he is fascinated by her grace, her poise and her ability to stab him in the ass with a fork.

Wim can bend others into tools for her purposes and only an Avatar and a Yaluthu can bring her back into a semblance of sanity. Wimsah was in a coma before the rising of Resicor, and her mind was wide open when the planet’s consciousness burst out. Her already wild talent grew to absurd proportions and a coma was the only safe place for her. Benliar, Avatar of Roden, was asked if he would take on responsibility for Wimsah and her open mind. With her power, only the mind of a world could contain it, and he volunteered. Spot has known that Wimsah needed him since she first landed on his world. He has watched her mental landscape, and she is in definite need of fuzz therapy. He is just the fuzz to oblige.

Born to be an assassin, raised to be a hero, Kiala seeks middle ground as an auditor. A fallen hero has other plans. Life started awkwardly and became a game of survival for Kiala. Hunted by the Assassins Guild for her parents’ illicit union, their little family ran from planet to planet until Ki put her foot down. She performed the entry exam for the Assassins Guild and sold her services to them for five years. When her years as a bodyguard were up, she tried to work as an auditor, an investigator, and attempted to find her place in world without danger around every corner. The Citadel made her an offer, and she agreed to time as a sidekick to a recruiter. When the contract is up, she is given another choice, another chance and another fresh start. Seeing a familiar face is the first shock of many as she works as a Citadel liaison in Nyal space.

Her career takes a sudden swing as a new assignment puts her in the path of an old partner who has never forgotten her. Tazzy is a peacekeeper for the Nyal Imperium. Her job consists of going where they tell her and keeping the peace. Stationed on a world as liaison between local government and the imperium, she is shocked to find herself caught between two men, one she has only just met and the other she had given up for dead. Silver is shocked to see his ex-partner on the news vids, escorting a male Companion out of a dance club. If any man is going to be running their hands over that peacekeeper, it will be him. He sets things into motion that will put her in his path, but he has to beat his own brother to her and that is no mean feat.

An acquaintance born in a nightmare turns into an engagement that is far from convenient. Yna has lost her friends, family, and world. She wears the marks of torture on her skin and blames the man who couldn’t save her in time. When the Guardsman who couldn’t save her comes to beg for a favour, she is hesitant, outraged, and refuses. When he tells her that woman’s life is at stake, she agrees. Marked to blend in with his people, Yna is going to pretend to love a man she resents in order to save his sister from public execution if her secret is discovered. It is a good thing that she used to be in show business.

science fiction

Turning her body into chemical weapons was not an option she was given in school. Abitika grew up with a talent for changing the way people think. When she used that talent on behalf of her sister, it gained her five years of confinement. The Citadel has been checking Jrinka colony for years, and Abitika was one of the most promising sightings. They pry her out of her confinement and send her to Morganti in the nick of time. Recovering from her incarceration, Bits is shocked to find out that her talent for pheromonal manipulation also extends to her mind. Turnari is the only one willing to take the risk of training the new specialist and teaching her what her mind was capable of. They have a true meeting of the minds but the both want more.

Born to mimic any talent she sees, Lieta is asked for help in taking down those of her own kind. A new career in Breaking Gods. Abandoned at the doors of an abbey, Lieta began life with knowledge of how to use any talent she was in contact with. As she grew, so did her collection of accessible power. When the Citadel came to the abbey to ask for her assistance, she was astonished to learn she was not only not the only one of her kind, but she was one of the only sane ones. Her species enjoys being worshipped and that is rarely a good result for their people. Lieta has to stop them, nullify them and make sure that they won’t hurt others. Running into one of her previous arrests and finding out that she is expected to let him be her shadow is a shock. Muraz once fancied himself a god, but after being shown that he was not alone, he has decided that working with the only being more powerful than himself might be educational.

A scribe to an emperor who moonlights as a Guardian has Ariadne confused and anything but neutral. Ariadne loves calligraphy, the pen and ink meeting paper and the strange rituals that go with it. It gives her a focus and a reason to move forward, day by day. The rituals move her along, and it is her skill with the pen that gets her into the Volunteer Program. Training as a scribe brings her to the empire of Hredu as the means to slow the flow of requests to the emperor. She has no idea that she was summoned there for more than her penmanship. Usorn has led his people for years, but he needs an heir and a woman who is genetically neutral is his only option. If she can double as a scribe, it is a win-win situation.

A Terran Times Tale Taken from battle and certain death, a woman who craves a fight wakes up trapped on an alien world with dark elves all around. Kaia has lived to fight, to protect those who could not protect themselves. After a disastrous battle that left her nearly dead, she wakes to find herself on Ikanni with dark elves all around. Kaia is given an energy being to boost her acceptance into local society and the elf lord who says they are linked at a basic level will not let her out of his sight. Thaxis has been dreaming of the woman with chalky skin and blue and green hair. The moment he feels that she is in deadly danger, he risks his life to rescue her from certain destruction. How can a man reap the rewards of rescuing a damsel in distress when she is too wounded to see him? Self-control is all Thaxis knows, but why is it that it goes out the window when he deals with the moon-bright Terran?