Showing results by narrator "Daryl Mayfield" in All Categories

After the attack at the Aero Cup Opening Ceremony, shock turns to suspicion, and even Xay finds himself in the crosshairs. With classes postponed and emotions exhausted, Xay and his friends retreat to the mountains where Shifu Wu was raised. There, they find peace in new ways to train, while Xay finally grows closer to Tyra. But the city never sleeps. Sinister plots unfold and collide, and once it’s all over, New Meridian may never be the same again.

When I join the circus, the last thing I expect is to fall in love... The craziest part? It’s with shifters. I ran away from my abusive home on my eighteenth birthday and never looked back. Working at the traveling carnival is my chance for escape, for joy and independence. Or so I thought. But there’s more to this circus than I expected. Monsters lurk in the shadows. Those with fangs and claws, and the men who profit from trafficking them.

Captain Nathan Kade just wants a quick job to keep his busted-up spaceship limping through the Solar System. Instead he gets Vessani S’Kaari, a mysterious and beautiful catgirl who tried—and failed—to steal a ship belonging to a band of space pirates. She’s chaos in a tight catsuit, but she also has a lead on what may be the greatest treasure trove of lost technology the Solar System has ever seen.

After rescuing Amy and dismantling the twisted experimentation lab, Xay and his team get honored as heroes. However, Cosmos Academy responds with brutal, individualized coaching—forcing them to confront their weaknesses and face the true scale of power within the Awakened World.

Magic powers? His own mech? A whole airship of gorgeous women desperate for his genes? Yes, please! Paralyzed by a drunk driver, let go from his job, and stuck in a sad, stagnant town in the middle of nowhere, Joseph Locke was having the worst day of his life. And then he died. But considering that he wakes up with a brand new body, in the cockpit of a badass steampunk robot, on an airship of nothing but hot babes, his next life may not be all that bad. Especially when he learns that he’s a void mage—the rarest and most powerful of all mages on the world of Haven.

When investigative reporter Malaya Velasco accidentally uncovers the corruption of one of the highest judges of the Obosian justice system, she is framed and condemned to a life sentence on the deadly prison planet Molvi. In her despair, she begs the Prime Mating Agency for an arranged marriage with one of the Wardens of the prison. Her match? A sinfully handsome Obosian Hell Lord with a sharp tongue, intriguing piercings, and icy-blue eyes cold enough to freeze hell over.

Valdis Wolfbane is renowned through the lands for his physical prowess and mighty conquests, but he's willing to give it all up to purchase a farm and settle down.

Exchanging a sword for a plow, he's set on turning the dilapidated farm into something he can live off for the rest of his peaceful life.

What he didn't bet on was finding love after all these years of fighting. Now that he has the time, he's about to discover that two is better than one... and three makes for a life well lived.

Arden gave everything he had to rise as a guild adventurer, pushing his warrior training and artificer talents to their limits. His dream: becoming the best in the empire. But for four soul-crushing years, his Rank 0 Epiphany remained locked at 99 percent.

After thousands of people suddenly vanish from Earth, former gymnast Jade Callian finds herself thrust into an endless dungeon filled with magic, monsters, and far too few instructions. When Jade receives a mortal wound soon after her arrival in this new world, she is forced to pick a new race that has the power to save her. There's just one problem: Her only choice is to turn into a succubus.

The clock is ticking for Earth, and in more ways than one. Dangerous monsters are pouring out of the Labyrinth, dimensional events scour resources from the land, and beneath it all, demonic plots begin to bear fruit. Facing all this as a succubus wasn’t Jade’s first choice, it didn’t even make the list, but that ship has sailed. If she wants to save the world, she’ll have to leverage every advantage: Shape changing, seductive charm, and all the bonuses that come from wearing embarrassingly revealing armor.

No pity. Trust no one. Keep it moving. My name is Sheena May, and those are my rules. With secrets worth killing for, I'll do whatever it takes to avoid being caged again. That's why I can't stop running, even if it means I never find out why I have these powers. When fate drags me back into the magical world kicking and screaming, I'm torn between a demon I can't resist and a shifter who tells me we belong together. They promise me things I've never dared to want, but my secrets remain my own.

Having always done what is expected of her, Mila dresses the part, only dates college boys with exemplary backgrounds, and doesn’t ask questions. Not about her papa’s absences or his refusal to let her set foot in her birthplace - Russia. Suffocated by the rules and unanswered questions, Mila does what she’s always wanted to. She boards a plane to Moscow. She never expected to fall for a man on the way. One with unexplained wealth, tattoos on his hands, and secrets in his eyes. But it doesn’t take long for his caress to become a rough grasp muffling her screams.

Arden shouldn’t be this strong. His Path Energy reads low, but his power keeps rising, and so does the danger. His defiance of tradition and unbreakable will are beginning to shake the very foundations of the Realm Verse System. Now, with his companions, the rogue Thumper and the wizard Merlin, Arden plans the unthinkable: challenge the ruling noble Pathwalkers and break into the Grand Generational Passing.

J.B. Clarke enrolled in college to earn his degree and find a steady job. What he got instead was an adventure in a secret underworld where vampires rule over all. Emma Rose, a friendly gamer who turns out to be a succubus, recruits him into Broken Fang, an overly ambitious team of monster girls. These lovely ladies know they’ll need help if they’re to stand a chance against the vampires, and they’re looking for a few good men. Well, one man, actually. And that’s him.

I came to the House of Night broken, barely breathing, barely me. Now I’m waiting in the crypts for the events that will change everything. First, The Baron Hunt. And, second, my arranged marriage to the King. I spent my youth being groomed under the watchful eye of my uncle, preparing for the day I united our families. My uncle wants to be tied to Royalty. The Baron King? He wants more than a bride. He wants secrets.

The Awakened aren’t just humanity’s last defense against the monsters—they’re celebrities, flush with power, status, and wealth. Xay had always dreamed of becoming the strongest—fighting epic battles and living a fast-paced life of adventure. But when the Awakened System assigned him a skill from the Artificer Sphere, his dreams seemed out of reach. Until his unknown Bloodline manifested—granting him the ability to bond with other Awakened and transfigure their essence into weapons.

As a third daughter on the farming colony of Meterion, Susan’s future prospects aren’t too promising. A pretty face, top-notch skills, and hard work mean nothing if your dowry doesn’t include fertile lands. With her 25th birthday approaching, and no suitors, her only way out is to settle for an arranged marriage through the PMA - the Prime Mating Agency. She just never expected to be paired with a grumpy, massive lizardman, and above all not to grow so fond of his scales and quirky ways.

Rihanna is condemned to a 20-year sentence on the most savage prison planet in the sector for a crime she didn’t commit. On the day of her transfer, she’s offered a deal to commute her sentence: an arranged marriage with a grumpy orc-minotaur, who has muscles for days, devilish red eyes, and an insufferably smart mouth. Despite his species’ reputation for being violent brutes, Rihanna soon finds herself drawn to the gentle giant that lurks beneath his terrifying appearance.

Could she give him her soul? Determined to free her brother from the clutches of an evil necromancer, Kali enters into an improbable agreement with Pharos, an Angel of Death. Behind his cold and intimidating appearance, she discovers a kind, selfless, and protective male who fascinates her. She would blindly follow Pharos into the deepest pits of Hell. But the cost for his aid is Kali’s soul, and that seems too steep a price. For half a millennium, Pharos wasted away, enslaved by the necromancer who appropriated his powers to pursue reckless ambitions.

These stories and more are featured in the third short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, continuing the saga of survival in a world transformed by the arrival of the System. Humanity has adapted to a new reality filled with Classes, magic and monsters, but the struggle for life, love and purpose never ends. This anthology brings together gripping tales from returning authors and two new short stories by Tao Wong.