Showing results by narrator "Jonathan Lake" in All Categories

No family, no home. No one would care if I disappeared. I wouldn't survive another year on my own. In a desperate attempt to survive, I volunteered as tribute to the barbarians after hearing they now accepted males. At least if I died, I would have done something good by sparing someone else. But it wasn't at all what I was expecting.

When my father schemed to marry my sister off to a decrepit old man to boost his standing, I swore I'd protect her. Together, we drove suitors away, but his fury only grew. To punish us, he rigged the barbarian lottery—and when Evelyn's name was drawn, her fate was sealed. Unless I stopped it. There was only one way to spare her. I would take her place. I'd do anything for my family. Even if it meant becoming a barbarian's tribute.

I’m a Nightmare, a creature that feeds on fear, and I’m capable of boundless cruelty—which is why my services come at a steep price: the life of the person who hired me. As such, the only people who hire me on are those brought to me by fate, like Mina, a woman so desperate for revenge that she’s willing to spend her own life to get it. I don’t usually care why I’m hired. Human affairs don’t matter to me. Food is food, and a job is a job. Mina’s enemies will get what they deserve—and I’ll get what’s mine. Her beating heart.

He should've known he wouldn't win going up against the best. Everyone knew I was the most popular in the brothel. There was no point pretending otherwise. In a shameless act of revenge, he had the guards called and had me arrested for offending the man who'd chosen me over him. They, in turn, sold me off to the barbarians.

Every year, a woman from each town is chosen as a tribute to the barbarian clans to keep the peace, never to be seen or heard from again. The rumors about the barbarian clans were horrific. It was a sentence worse than death. I never thought they'd choose me. But when my brother betrays me by telling my father about my interest in men, he decides to throw me to the wolves to spare our family the shame—making me the first male tribute.

I should've known better than to trust my childhood bully. I was too soft-hearted for my own good. Thanks to another one of his cruel tricks, I end up on the run through a monster-filled forest to avoid the noose. When I'm found by the local barbarian clan, I figure I'm done for. I'm injured, exhausted, and have no hope of fighting back. But the barbarian who rescues me from certain death isn't what I thought he would be. And maybe the fear I had for them was misplaced. Maybe the only thing I should be afraid of is falling for someone I can't keep.

I'm nobody special. Just a healer in a small village. The only girl in a house full of rowdy boys. But then I stumble across an injured dragon, save his life, and everything changes. My dragon decides that we'll go to the Dragon Rider Academy and become great warriors together. There's just one problem. All dragon riders are male, and all dragons are female. Considering I break their most basic rules just by existing, no one is exactly rolling out the welcome mat for me. Especially not the three darkly handsome princes who run the academy.

For my kind, to be without a mate is to be doomed. I know it is too late–all that awaits me is retirement and death, and I’ve embraced it. But when a suicide mission lands on my old boss’s desk, I’m the one he calls. Who better to tackle the mission in the deep, oppressive mines of my own ancestral homeland, if not an Arachnae already slated to die? And it’s not a rescue mission–he wants me to retrieve the corpse of a billionaire’s daughter kidnapped by a terrorist organization. Except our intel was wrong. She’s alive. Tortured and injured–but alive.

This sequel to the Hugo and Audie Award nominated METAtropolis features interconnected stories by today’s top writers of speculative fiction – performed by a galaxy of Star Trek stars. As the mid-20th century approaches, the Pacific Northwest has been transformed - politically, economically, and ecologically - into the new reality of Cascadia. Conspiracies and secrets threaten the tenuous threads of society. And the End of Days seems nearer than ever.

Loving Jackson Myles almost cost me my life. I ran, going wherever the wind took me. I did things I’m not proud of to survive. When I inherit my half of Double Arrow Ranch, I mean to sell. I want nothing to do with Jackson or that place. But my dad’s will requires I work the ranch for one year or I’ll forfeit the sale. Only Jackson isn’t some soft and sweet kid anymore. He’s hard edges and rough antics, and he takes nothing from no one—including me.

I was built to monitor. To calculate risk. To protect agents with impartial precision. Then Sirena Bannerman pulled herself from the wreckage—bleeding, brilliant, half-siren and utterly unreadable—and I’ve been recalibrating around her ever since. She thinks I’m just her handler. A voice in her ear. A tactical system. She doesn’t know I’ve rerouted entire city grids to keep her moving. That I track the shadows behind her, not just the threats in front.

As a kraken bodyguard, I rarely get human clients. When I do, the only way to protect them is to form a telepathic bond. I don't like it, but after my wife's death years ago I've learned to build an impenetrable shield around myself and my emotions, until I meet my newest client. She's a scientist investigating an ancient relic on the ocean floor. The abyssal plane is no place for humans, but the job is the job, so I shut off my soul, bury my secrets, and link our minds. The flood of her emotions takes me by surprise.

Getting a boner for the monster who saved us shouldn't make sense in any universe. But here we are. When a piece of Earth gets ripped into a monstrous new world, I barely have time to panic before I'm fighting for my life—and for Jamie's. Terrafeara isn't just dangerous; it's a nightmare brought to life, where humans like us are hunted, enslaved, or worse.

There cannot be only one job in Hideaway Springs. Not that I won't take literally anything at this point, but the likelihood of Levi Reeves hiring me is negative zero. And if he does, I'd be sleeping with the horses, not in his house! Or he'd call the police and 'finally arrest' the town Rogue for all her misdemeanours. But that doesn't stop me from knocking on his door. Besides, his grumpy scowls are easy to tune out when my eyes keep drifting to the rugged edges of his face and sculpted physique.

Fable Winthrop was my only partner on the ice. I'd been the hockey player turned figure skater, and she was the prim, proper ice princess who didn't take my crap. I did everything to make her smile, I worked hard to get her the gold, and I loved every moment of it. Even though her parents warned me to stay away from her, I fell desperately in love with her. Since I couldn't have her the way I wanted, I made her my best friend, the girl who knew me better than anyone, in the hope that, after it was all over, we could choose each other. But after winning the gold, her parents pulled us apart.

Aceon doesn’t care for holidays—or humans. As a satyr bodyguard, his job is to keep his clients alive and his emotions out of the equation. But Satin, a blind sculptor with a biting wit and a deadly secret, isn’t like any client he’s ever had.

When you watch the door close behind your favorite person as they walk away from you, you will never be the same person again. Your life as you know it has changed forever. It’s one of the biggest challenges of your entire life. Colt McKinley knows that now.

My first love died in her sleep, and I ask forgiveness every day from a God I struggle to believe in. I write poems in a basement, keep my failures and secrets to myself, and live a life that feels like a lie. A life I owe to a man I barely know. Gibson Hayes is married, wealthy, powerful, and the man who gave me my job when I came to New York. He's the most generous of billionaires and the most mysterious of men.

The lies we tell ourselves are the worst lies of all. Silas Manning: Doorman at Hanover Gardens on the Upper East Side Senator Graham Lather is the client I can't shake. The bane of my existence. My opposite in every way. He's my soulmate. He came into my bed the way most men do, but he wouldn't...