He's an alien assassin who has never known a female's touch-until hers. Abella hasn't allowed four years of slavery to break her spirit, but after numerous failed escape attempts, the chances of making it home to her family seem bleak. That is until she shares a passionate, forbidden dance with a silent stranger. His piercing silvery eyes haunt her with a taste of hope. Intense, mysterious, and deadly, Tenthil may be the key to Abella's freedom. But as she finds herself increasingly drawn to him, she realizes the truth-Tenthil has no intention of taking her home. ----- Check author's website for detailed content warnings.
Arthos, the Infinite City, is a place of alien wonders and indescribable beauty-and, most importantly for Samantha, it's also halfway across the universe from her abusive ex-fiancé. She came to the city desperate for a fresh start, but she finds herself downtrodden on a world of aloof alien beings with little hope of finding her place-and a good chance of being kidnapped or killed before she can even settle in.At least until she is saved by an irresistible alien with piercing eyes and a seductive smile.Alkorin is the living embodiment of temptation, and he makes no effort to disguise his desire for her. But when his past threatens to drag her into a dangerous underworld, she discovers he isn't who he claims to be. After enduring so much suffering, can she bear to take a leap of faith with this mysterious alien? Can she trust him with not only her life, but her heart?
SHE'S ONE HUMAN IN AN INFINITE CITY-AND HE WILL NOT STOP UNTIL HE POSSESSES HER.It should have been an easy job-deliver the ID chip, get paid, and get out. But when Drakkal sees a beautiful human in his client's private zoo and instantly recognizes her as his mate, the situation gets complicated. The motto he's long lived by-don't be stupid-is cast aside as the beast in him demands he take this female and make her his no matter what he must do. And when she runs from him, the hunt is on.After being impregnated by her dirtbag ex-boyfriend, abducted, and sold to be a breeder in a rich alien's basement menagerie, Shay has to admit things aren't looking great. But she's determined to give her unborn child a decent life. Her first opportunity appears in the form of a gruff but insanely attractive azhera who forces Shay's owner to sell her to him. Refusing to trade one alien master for another, she escapes him at her first chance. Yet Shay can't forget the intense azhera and his heated stare-and soon realizes that he's not going to forget her, either.But Shay's former owner also remembers, and he's determined to retrieve his prized possession-and have his revenge on the azhera who took her.
He's violent, volatile, and loves a good fight. She's small and sweet-and everything he craves. But can he make her his without hurting her? Thargen wanders the sprawling Undercity streets with one goal-a drink. Well, maybe a few drinks and a good old-fashioned bar fight to let off some steam. But the moment he sees Yuri working behind the bar, he's overwhelmed by a new desire-her. Yuri is his opposite in so many ways-delicate, soft, beautiful-and he knows the primal, uncontrollable rage in his heart makes it too dangerous for him to have her. But he wants her. He needs her. And when an unexpected series of events sees them stranded on a hostile, unknown planet together, it becomes almost impossible for him to resist her. Lost on a mountainside teeming with ravenous skeks, Thargen must rely upon his survival skills and the ferocity burning at his core to protect Yuri until they can get back home. But who will protect her from him?
He met his destined mate too soon.Bold, kind, and adventurous, Kiara was everything Volcair needed in his stiff, formal life. Along with his pet inux, Cypher, the three were inseparable during Volcair's years on Earth. But the same winds of fate that brought them together as children tore them apart again. With half a universe separating them, years sped by, and Kiara seemed lost to him forever. Angry and bitter, he threw himself into military service for the Entris Dominion, seeking escape from the pain of loss.When chance brings them together again nearly two decades later, Volcair finds that his feelings for Kiara have only grown-he needs her. Have they been granted a second chance, or has time opened a rift between them that cannot be crossed?
The New York Times bestseller “The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero.” —Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice) “One gorgeous read.” —Stephen King Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
The secluded forest cabin was meant to give Sophie a place to hide, to heal, and to be safe. But from the moment she arrives, she's not alone. She glimpses dark shapes from the corner of her eye, feels phantom touches, and her dreams are filled with seductive shadows. What she first mistakes for delusions of her traumatized mind soon prove to be so much more...An ancient, mysterious, dangerous entity lurks in the woods -- and it wants Sophie. ----------**Trigger Warning: This book contains sexual explicit scenes and violence, including a history of domestic abuse.**
In this revelatory volume, Roberto Calasso, whom the Paris Review has called 'a literary institution', explores the ancient texts known as the Vedas. Little is known about the Vedic people who lived more than three thousand years ago in northern India: they left behind almost no objects, images, ruins. They created no empires. Even the hallucinogenic plant, the soma, which appears at the centre of some of their rituals, has not been identified with any certainty. Only a 'Parthenon of words' remains: verses and formulations suggesting a daring understanding of life. 'If the Vedic people had been asked why they did not build cities,' writes Calasso, 'they could have replied: we did not seek power, but rapture.' This is the ardor of the Vedic world, a burning intensity that is always present, both in the mind and in the cosmos. With his signature erudition and profound sense of the past, Calasso explores the enigmatic web of ritual and myth that define the Vedas. Often at odds with modern thought, he shows how these texts illuminate the nature of consciousness more than neuroscientists have been able to offer us up to now. Following the 'hundred paths' of the Satapatha Brahmana, an impressive exegesis of Vedic ritual, Ardor indicates that it may be possible to reach what is closest by passing through that which is most remote, as 'the whole of Vedic India was an attempt to think further'.
One of the most influential works of this century, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought. Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide; the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Albert Camus brilliantly posits a way out of despair, reaffirming the value of personal existence, and the possibility of life lived with dignity and authenticity.
Alice knows Wonderland is just a virtual world operated inside an asylum to which she's been wrongfully committed, but she can't find her way out--can't find her way back to the life she lived before she woke beneath titanic trees and towering flowers. With the terrifying Red King searching for her and chaos all around, her only hope of escape lies in Shadow, a tall, mysterious being with glowing eyes, sharp claws, and a haunting grin who may be the maddest of them all.But even if Wonderland isn't real, her growing feelings for Shadow--and his desire for her--are. Can Alice and Shadow escape Wonderland together, or will she succumb to the madness like everyone else?------**Warning: This book has darker themes and contains sexual content, sexual violence, violence, and drug use.**------Cosmic Fairy TalesEscaping Wonderland is part of the Cosmic Fairy Tales collection, a collaboration of authors retelling beloved tales with a science fiction romance twist. Each book is a standalone, containing its own Happily Ever After, and they can be read in any order. Be sure to explore the other titles in the collection:The Frog Prince by Tracy LaurenThe Hunchback by Regine AbelThe Lion and the Mouse by Emmy ChandlerThe Ugly Dukeling by Bex MclynnContaminated by Amanda MiloJackie and the Giant by Honey PhillipsRampion by Susan Trombley
