Showing results by author "C.A.L." in All Categories

Honor hin'Bellvue is a young lady from a minor noble house - with a newly-discovered submissive streak that aches to be satisfied. Natasha Volkova is an army veteran, a commoner, a foreigner - and a sexual dominant, whose commanding persona can reduce Honor to a quivering puddle of need. Thrown together by a twist of fate, these two very different women surprised and delighted each other with their unexpected liaison - but they never thought it would be more than a fling.

The only daughter of a country baron, Honor hin'Bellvue has long felt the weight of duty to her noble house - a duty her mother abandoned when she left her child and husband for a foreign lover. Now an adult, and entering the social Season for the first time, Honor is keen to help restore House Bellvue's reputation. Natasha Volkova is an immigrant to Metamor City, struggling to adjust to civilian life after serving in a brutal world war. When she isn't working as a house guard, she soothes her battle scars with hard drinking and beautiful women.

Honor hin'Bellvue, a young lady from a minor noble house, has found her life changing in ways she never could have expected. Her companion and bodyguard, Natasha Volkova, is a powerful sexual dominant who has awakened Honor's need for submission and service. Their new friend Alix, a noble scion and asexual romantic, may offer the perfect chance for them to continue their "arrangement" under a cover of social respectability. And by joining a new women's rights movement among Metamor's nobility, Honor is staking a claim for control over her own destiny.

Bram Morrison, an aspiring astronaut, has always believed that death is where it all ends. Until he gets a phone call from a dead friend. He tries to dismiss it as somebody’s bad joke, but the chilling mystery proves far too compelling. When Torula Jackson, a botanist, tells him her laboratory might be haunted, she offers him a chance to investigate - and he dares to look behind death’s door. That choice puts a risk on his lifelong dream. NASA wants him to deepen the science of our world - not the afterworld.

I should have known something was wrong when my weird aunt arrived in town just as I started getting killer headaches. But how was I supposed to know that it was a sign of repressed magic? Or that an ancient witch had escaped her tomb and sent demons after me? Demons who cursed my mother. I wanted to stay with her, even if she wouldn’t wake, but I was sent to Ember Academy for Young Witches, instead. Somewhere the demons hopefully can’t get me.

A fortuitous encounter at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; a father-and-son outing that echoes a childhood trauma; a harrowing haunting finally laid to rest; two young brothers at their innocent play; the recovery of a lost family keepsake; Grandma sharing a fairy tale with her granddaughter. These captured moments, ordinary though they may seem, reveal the blessings of love and hope in the course of everyday life.

Scotland 1862. A murder, a terrifying creature, and a battle for his affections were not what Midnight Gunn expected when he journeyed to Scotland for the summer. Bodies are mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue, Midnight’s growing household is in turmoil, and someone or something lurks in the shadows, watching.

Love shouldn’t come in threes, so why is this happening to me? They say love is spilled from the veins and onto the skin of lovers. Bleed, bleed, bleed until they set you free. My blood will shed until one wins. They’re destined to destroy one another, and I’m caught in the middle. Will there be anyone left?

The Shadow Children's greatest enemies have been unmasked, and the stakes are far higher than Grace had ever feared. With her friends imprisoned and the Circle determined to annihilate the human race, Grace and The Shadow Children must prepare for war. There is only one way to break the Circle, but are Grace and Sam strong enough to make the sacrifice?

Mystery. Love. Lies. It's been a year since Grace's world was ripped asunder. The Shadow Children are fighting a losing battle to rescue the halfborn from the Silent Homes, but when a routine mission takes a sinister turn, Grace and her friends are faced with an impossible decision - battle on alone and risk losing everything, or place their trust in the people who have hunted them for centuries. With allies by her side and enemies at her heels, Grace must negotiate her way through the secrets and lies that pave the roads of the Shadow City. The dark is closing in....

A narcissistic professional photographer lived a dangerous double life as a serial killer. He'd focus his rage on prostitutes, mostly. It wasn't uncommon for him to bring them home then try to explain why they were there to his wife. Sexual urges met, either via rape or after paying for kinky sex, the killer would strangle his victims and dump their bodies in places he knew the police would eventually find them. The evil murderer needed the world to know that he was smarter than the police and women meant nothing to him but a necessary sexual inconvenience.

It is December 1657. John Grey, at his cramped desk in Lincoln's Inn, is attempting to resume his legal career. A mysterious message from a "Mr SK" tempts him out into the snowy streets of London and to what he believes will be a harmless diversion from his studies. Mr SK's letter proves to have been intended for somebody else entirely, and Grey finds himself unwittingly in the middle of a plot to assassinate the Lord Protector - a plot about which he now knows more than it is safe to know.

Rutger and Taryn are scraping by in the infamous Port of Deceit, a place where two skilled mercenaries should have no trouble finding work. But an ominous shadow has fallen across the city of Five Fingers, and an ancient evil has come to gorge itself on the agony and suffering that have long been the city’s stock and trade. Rutger and Taryn are dragged into a tangled plot of danger and intrigue as they face a terrifying Cryxian invasion and a vengeful specter from their past.

Classic Christmas Stories features seven timeless classics, including Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, A Christmas Dream and How it Came True by Louisa May Alcott, A Christmas Inspiration by Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum, The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen, and The Three Kings by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

When Knight Alaric von Mertz loses his family to a ravenous zombie horde, he swears revenge on the necromancer responsible. But a quest for vengeance is no easy matter in a world overrun by the walking dead. Joined by a rogue, a witch hunter, a novice wizard, and a dwarf demolition master, Alaric's journey leads him from fire moats to the zombie-ridden catacombs of the witch hunters to uncover a spell book of insurmountable power. As zombies claw and bite, Alaric fears he will never avenge his family. For in this age of the undead, betrayal and magic lurk around every corner.

Some abuse is dangerously obvious, while other types of abuse creep into our family DNA in covert ways. Keeping family secrets, intimidation, the “silent treatment” and “cyberbullying” are just a few examples of many forms of abuse with troubling outcomes. Often victims ask, “Why did this happen to me?" Or “What can I do?”. While abusers will excuse their behavior asking, “Why do you make me do this"? Victims and abusers can rewrite their stories, improve their relationships, and break the cycle for their future generations.

Grab your partner and join the spirits on the dance floor. Scare Street’s latest collection of supernatural horror is a grand ball of fear and nightmares. This sinister collection is bursting with 14 tales of terror - more than enough to keep you dancing with demons all night long.

The Unfinished Leader is a modern handbook for recognizing, facing, and inspiring others to expose the real issues that underlie paradoxes in modern organizations. Leaders must first recognize situations they will never be able to "solve" and understand how to confront the barriers - in their own heads and their organizations - that push them toward seeking ultimate solutions that don't exist. Leading through complexity requires giving up the illusion of control, consistency, and closure, while embracing the reality of being permanently "unfinished".

When Libby receives an invitation to train with an elite group of figure skaters, deep in the Bavarian Forest, it seems almost too good to be true. Masterminded by the reclusive Lukas Wolff, a man notorious for his controversial methods, the skaters will be competing to learn the most dangerous move in history. The last one standing is promised fame and fortune, but at what cost? When one of the skaters dies in mysterious circumstances, the trainees start to question Lukas's motives. And with a blizzard raging and communications down, they are completely cut off from the outside world.

Samantha's entire life plan crashes in a single moment. Now she's drunk in a hotel, her left hand a whole lot lighter, her heart a whole lot heavier. All she wants is to feel nothing--and what better way to numb the pain than a drink? Kolt's career has been skyrocketing on stage and his life has been spiraling in memories. Everyone is trying to keep him moving forward, moving on, but nothing chases away the memories of broken love.