Showing results by narrator "Jonathan Lake" in All Categories

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wren Whitney lives a remarkable life. She is a child of Beverly Hills, growing up in boarding schools, on private jets, a life of extreme wealth and privilege. Wren lives for adventure. She is afraid of nothing. She says no to nothing. Her existence is a blur of escapades, outrageous stories, and the many men who love her. Wren has never been in love. She has said the words many times, but she has never meant them. I love you is the only lie she's ever told.

Eli Kalias has a promising future with the Grand Marquee Manticores as their primary goalie, and after two years with the AHL, he’s finally starting to feel confident and comfortable in his role. That is until his best friend kisses him at a New Year’s Eve party and throws him for a loop.

My whole life, I've been the outsider. The wolves of the Anterrio Pack took my brother and me into their pack after our parents died. To the pack, I remained the wild, untamed misfit despite my efforts to belong. My first heat loomed ahead of the Luna Ball, and once again, I found myself attracting unwelcome attention, not just from my pack but also from the visiting Blackridge Peak Pack. When my brother suspected their new alpha might hold answers about our past, he refused to put me at risk while he searched for the truth. Instead, he set me free from a pack that never truly accepted me.

The Deverauxs and Vassars have been fighting for hundreds of years, but somehow Andre and Juliette fell in love. More than that, they're mates. Destined to be together for eternity until betrayal tore them apart. When business sends Andre Deveraux to Savannah he comes face to face with Juliette for the first time in sixty-five years. Their crash course renews old memories and desires. With Juliette stranded and the hurricane of the century roaring to shore, Andre has no choice but to offer her a lift.

I should keep my head down and keep walking when my hot boss at work stares at me... But it's impossible to ignore that chiseled jaw and piercing gaze. Dr. Cameron Marshal will be the end of me and my residency career. I've gone from grieving my husband to breaking the rules at work. Dating this silver fox doctor is forbidden. But his hands on my curves make me forget about my past. And his fiery kisses make me feel alive.

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.

Kip Paxton may be the perfect man. He's a sexy, tattooed, foul-mouthed, drummer god for Broken Access, and if that wasn't enough he’s snagged the Guitar Goddess herself. But in life, where one door opens…another closes, and sometimes the other door bursts wide f--king open. Finding out he’s been lied to his entire life—and that all his noble deeds were done in vain—sends him spiraling out-of-control. The secrets suck the life right out of him. This time Henley and Kip’s entire crew will have to find a way to put him back together again before they lose him forever.

Sent back to the human world by my brother and the shaman, I found refuge among humans, reconnecting with an old friend who urged me to embrace the life I left behind. Yet, my shelter was short-lived when the alpha, Cannon, captured me once more. In his pack, I witnessed the stark differences between the pack I came from and the Blackridge Peak Pack. I longed to belong to a community as free as this—all the while resisting the magnetic pull towards the alpha.

I hate being a shifter. I was bitten by a rogue in the Louisiana bayou, and I'm desperate to find a way to break the curse of the cat that shivers under my skin...and to steal a talisman that's rumored to do exactly that. Problem is, it's secreted away in the penthouse apartment of Alpha Anthony Holder, and he doesn't take it well when he catches me breaking in.