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 . . .

As merchandise heading to an intergalactic auction, Ashe’s future looks grim. So when a too-sexy-for-his-own-good alien outlaw solicits her help to break them out of lockup, she jumps on the chance. Ashe only needs to survive long enough with the known criminal to get her end of the bargain: freedom. She trusts the clawed and fanged Tallean warrior to keep her safe, but who will keep her safe from him?

Once the belle of her village, life took a dark turn for Adelaide upon her parent's death. Plagued by lingering grief, there was not a soul who didn't turn their back on her. They called her angry and spiteful . . . Hell, they called her a monster. One fateful day Adelaide finds herself alone, lingering on the edge of the Perished Woods—a cursed and evil place. Without warning, an orc army attacks.

It's the dog's fault, really. If this untrained Great Dane I'm walking had any manners at all, I never would've ended up here: With my leash wrapped around the most gorgeous man I've ever seen. Lucky for me, the guy is a good sport about it. (Although his joke that “Dogs take after their owners” hits a little too close to home when Rufus starts humping his leg.) He leaves me with his business card and a smile that makes my knees weak.

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.

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.

Abducted off the space station where I teach the standard galactic language, I'm imprisoned with two other women in a cold, dirty cell on an alien ship. We're destined for something worse than death until a fierce, blue-haired alien male rescues us. We recover on his ship with his group of Heveian pirates. There, the attraction that formed when he first carried me in his arms grows into a force neither of us can deny. But something else has taken up residence on the ship. Something that will stop at nothing to destroy us all.

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.

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.

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.

I'm determined to turn Quirky Kingdom into the showpiece it used to be. Problem is—more than just the rides need fixing. It's way more than I can handle on my own. I tap my new neighbor to help—Rexin, a hunky orc handyman who's also a single dad extraordinaire. Since it's summer, he brings his twelve-year-old son to the job with him.

Getting abducted by aliens wasn’t exactly on Cara Call’s bucket list. So when she’s taken captive by a massive, overbearing alien warrior, she comes out with fists blazing. Too bad her new captor is as delicious as they come—piercings, scars, and a sinful grin promising wicked things to boot.

I'm a doctor and a researcher. My pack is small, in a quiet part of central Texas. It's a simple existence, and I like it that way. It's just me and my two besties, living our best single lives. That is until the mandate comes. Every unmated wolf in the entire world called to one place. I'm a psi, the weakest designation there is. I can barely shift, and there's no chance of me getting matched—only humiliated. It can't get worse—until it does. I've barely made it off the bus when I lock eyes with the hottest wolf I've ever seen, and he reeks of power.

For years, I have been living in secret, in a safe haven called Eridian for wolves and others alike inside The Deadlands. Hiding from the Highers' laws and the eyes of the Elites, the Highers' weapon, I make sure we survive the best we can while we live our simple lives. When we collected a female in need to bring her back to Eridian, it was supposed to go as planned, like any other time. And it did until a letter changed it all. As Alpha of Eridian, I have to keep our home a secret and my pack safe at any cost. Even if the cost is me.

When alien warrior Kozien Lorrz left behind life as the heir to his planet's throne to run a team that hunts down missing things, his father swore he'd make him regret the decision. According to the king, leaving his duties behind was a mistake, and taking his brothers was an act of treason. Now, with business dwindling, Kozien is forced to send a message into the universe that his team is offering a pro-bono case—a move that could draw in new clients or alert their father to their whereabouts.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

Annie has always had high hopes for her future. But the reality of her life just isn’t measuring up. She loves her fiancé, Greg–doesn’t she? She’s going to get her degree and open her own business–won’t she? Then, a strange old woman shows up outside her house, and she seems to know a lot about Annie. An awful lot. Annie could tell the old woman to get lost. Yet there’s something about her Annie just can’t shake. And what she learns could change her life forever–but is it the life she envisioned?

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.

Two astronomers have detected a strange, pulsing signal from deep space. Within hours, the US government goes into lockdown, restricting airspace and scrubbing scientific data. Was the signal an intercepted communication revealing alarming plans for an enemy’s military strike? Or has humanity at long last found proof of extraterrestrial life?

My dragon-shifter clan is in shambles after the Opal Clan attacked, killing our king and queen—my parents. Now, everyone is looking to me, expecting me to mate with a female dragon and take the throne. All I want is to hunt down the dragons who destroyed my family. To protect my siblings and get vengeance for my parents' deaths. Then I meet her. Finley, a temptingly curvaceous human who is completely against the rules. And completely what my dragon craves.

I cannot believe my bad luck when an embossed envelope arrives at my door just one week before my twenty-fifth birthday. Which just happens to be the cut-off date for being called up for the testing of the blood. I thought I was in the clear, turns out that I was wrong. I don’t know all the ins and outs of the whole dragon tribute selection process, only that it has something to do with a person’s DNA.

Practically Perfect. That’s the name of the magic shop my witch twin and I own in Chicago’s supernatural marketplace. In reality, things are not so perfect. Tessa's the face of our shop. She draws in the customers to buy our potions, brews, spells, and enchantments. I’m the sensible sister moving boxes in the back. It works, sort of, and we have a pretty good life...until Tessa disappears. My instincts tell me my sister didn’t leave by choice. But here’s the problem—this isn’t the first time she’s flitted off, forcing me to bail her out of trouble.

As merchandise heading to an intergalactic auction, Ashe’s future looks grim. So when a too-sexy-for-his-own-good alien outlaw solicits her help to break them out of lockup, she jumps on the chance. Ashe only needs to survive long enough with the known criminal to get her end of the bargain: freedom. She trusts the clawed and fanged Tallean warrior to keep her safe, but who will keep her safe from him?

After I was abandoned as a child, I was taken in by the Shadow Pack, a group of ruthless, lawless, shifters who have only one rule: never let anyone see your weakness. In exchange for them keeping me alive, I owe them. The leader of the Shadows is as handsome as he is ruthless. And he’s offered to wipe my debt in exchange for marriage. He’d offer protection, but it would cost me my freedom.

I’ve been told I’m beautiful to look at, but I’m a monster all the same. Barely contained. Terrifying now that the thirst is upon me. I’m a beast king, and that comes with its pros and cons. Big con: I have to take a bride. It’s built into my DNA. We all reach a point where the drive kicks in. I thought I still had time. I was wrong. I need to find her. The one. A vampiress whose blood will quench me. The hunt is on. If I don’t find her soon, I’ll be put down like a rabid dog, leaving my throne to my greatest enemy: my rival by blood. And that can’t happen.

The rules of the Hunt: The prey will have a ten minute head start to run and hide.

At the signal, the hunter will enter the woods. The Hunt has begun.

If the prey isn’t captured before midnight, she gets $10,000.

If she makes it until dawn, she gets $100,000.

But if the hunter catches her, she’s his for the night.

With my abusive past fading into the background, I find myself at a crossroads, torn between what I feel and what I believe. In a world where loyalty is everything, I must navigate the treacherous waters of love and survival, where one wrong move could be my last. I'd not thought I'd survive the night after I did the unthinkable to escape my soon-to-be husband. Then, three men came to my rescue, snatching me up from what could have been my last night on this earth and treating me like a princess.

Bestselling author Candace Ayers brings you SHORT "lunchtime quickie" reads—condensed romances intended to be read in under 2 hours! Dragon scales and bridal veils—billionaire shifters find their fiery mates! In the high-powered world of Los Angeles, my kind reigns supreme. From the shadows, that is. Power? Check. Wealth? Check. Heirs? Here’s where things get tricky.BfB is my shot at passing on my legacy. And my fortune. With an arranged marriage, I can check the last box on my list. Our union, of course, will be impersonal and unemotional. But when my eyes meet hers, something ...

Sky Broussard has spent the last nine years of her life fighting for custody and raising her nephews. Between trying to make ends meet as a waitress at the Bon Temps Café, and keeping an eye on two troublesome teens, she’s had zero time for indulgences like romance. No worries, she hasn’t been interested in the opposite sex for a long time. Not until she meets the snarling, growling, hotter-that-an-inferno hunk who caught her nephews trespassing on his swampland deep in the Louisiana bayou.

Sophia is a bored and lonely princess, more content to live out her days locked away in her chambers than facing the increasingly grotesque suitors her father forces on her. With her younger brother destined for the throne, there isn’t much value to her but in a marriage alliance. And so, she is destined to live out her days as the trophy wife of some fat merchant or lecherous lord, occasionally bearing children to bolster the ranks of the wealthy and powerful.

After my nightmarish past, starting fresh should be a dream come true. But when my father’s death leaves me on the run, I have no choice but to seek shelter with the only family I have left: an uncle I’ve never even met.

On the full moon after my 21st birthday, I was supposed to go through my first shift. Instead, I was left to huddle alone in the cold, a failure who couldn’t do the one thing expected of her. Now I have no mate, and I’m wondering if sticking with the pack is even worth it. Maybe it’s time I live among humans. That’s when a vampire shows up at my door and says he wants to claim me. While I might not know what I am, I’m pretty fricking certain that I’m not going to be mated to a bloodsucker. He might be a good friend, but that’s all he’ll ever be to me.

I almost hooked up with a werewolf… but before we got to third base, he dragged me off to jail. Apparently, he's the leader of the pack in town. The fact that I’m an illegal blood wolf—a vampire/werewolf hybrid—doesn’t help my case. And he didn't appreciate me accidentally biting him when we were kissing, either. Luckily, or unluckily, he seems to think I'm his true mate, which means he won't let anyone hurt me. But he also won't let me go. Between his possessiveness, my need to be near him, and the vampire clan hunting me, one thing's becoming clear:

With my clan threatened, I don’t have time for romance with a pesky Earth female. Until I meet Piper. She and her youngling son are part of our planet’s new settlement. Soon, I find myself helping her plan her home and talking about odd Earthling activities. What is a square dance, and must I do it? She’s soft and lush in all the right places, and I could pick her up and carry her around with one arm. And her son…I ache to show him how to tame a mighty winged trundier. Piper may say she doesn’t need love, but I'll do whatever it takes to win her heart.