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

Christmas in Chicago is a beautiful time of the year - but not for Merry, who has been kidnapped and locked in a dark room with only a friendly, sexy voice for company. He's been kidnapped, too, but the difference is, he knows why. The story continues as the first bloods decide to celebrate Christmas for the first time in centuries for the first blood children. From Africa, to Iceland, to France, the children of the moon and the children of the sun come together to show appreciation for family and friends newly found and yet to be.

He'd never really be all right again, but it was what he deserved after the war. He was broken; he knew it. Life messed you up, and all that was left to do was the best you can to survive. Yeah, he was messed up, but so was she, worse than he could ever imagine. Any chance that two people so shattered could help each other to heal and learn to love? Especially when one is human - and one is not.

Life is what happens when you're making other plans. Boy did it! Lauren graduated top of her class, ready for her career in genetic research. But when she was presented with the opportunity to study the most amazing thing she'd ever seen, a virus that completely rewrites human DNA, altering someone to become a Vampire, she couldn't refuse. When she realized that the research society were actually the villains, that the Vampires were not evil, or undead, she helps them destroy the lab where she worked.

Taryn di la Rovissi and Rutger Shaw: Two hard-luck mercenaries looking to make a clean break from the flagging war in occupied Llael... With the forces of Khador massing for another surge south into Cygnar and the Thornwood Forest, Taryn and Rutger are forced to take a dangerous escape route before borders close for good. Amid the last refugees fleeing the advance, the duo is caught up in an assignment that will prove to be either their salvation or their undoing.

Loveday Brooke is the first female detective created by a woman writer. Catherine Louisa Pirkis published stories about this smart, spirited sleuth in the 1880s, and they were collected into this anthology in 1894. In these tales, Loveday takes on cases involving wayward nuns, missing debutantes, a mysterious princess, and a ghost who resembles Napoleon, among other strange phenomena.

Wait, That’s Random is a conversation-driven podcast built around curiosity, tangents, and the unexpected directions a good discussion can take. Episodes often start with a simple thought or odd observation and then follow wherever it leads. One idea sparks another, side stories take over, and conversations drift into places no one planned. Some episodes explore strange moments from history, others wander into completely different territory. If you enjoy relaxed, curiosity-driven conversations that make you stop and think, “wait… that’s random,” you’ll feel right at home.

Retired Marine and Coast Guard officer, Carter Blake, is excited to spend the summer with his estranged daughter, Emma, before she goes off to college. He's annoyed by the news that his ex-wife allowed her to bring a friend along and that they’ll be driving from Nashville to his home in rural Southeastern Virginia, but Carter vows to make the best of the situation when they arrive.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Trapped in her marriage to Rex, a violent and controlling man, Ava has one bright spot in her life: her online tutoring sessions with Ali. He is thousands of miles away but wants very much to return to the United Kingdom. As Ava and Ali grow more intimate, Ava begins pouring her heart out about her miserable situation. Soon Ali is back in the country, and the pair become lovers. But when Ali makes a startling offer, Ava has a difficult decision to make.

Mudita, Wheel Publicaton No. 170, contains several short essays, one by the editor, Ven. Nyanaponika, and three by lay practitioners on one of the lesser known and too-little practiced sublime states of mind. Mudita, usually translated "sympathetic joy", was designated one of the brahma-viharas by the Buddha, one of the sublime, noble states of mind. How is it to be practiced, and what are the implications of mudita on the spiritual path? These essays address those questions.