James Rearden knew what he was: A career officer dedicated to advancing in the Royal Australian Navy to the ranks of Command. He has already enjoyed his time in charge of a patrol ship, and believes himself well situated to take his place among the captains of the country's larger warships. But a political foe changes his destiny and diverts him to a duty for which he is ill-suited, hoping he will fail. James isn't one to accept failure. And as it turns out, the new assignment is both intellectually challenging and with an unexpectedly pleasant feature.

Every year, the empire administers the rite of passage into adulthood. That rite serves to identify those blessed by Aether to become magi. The new magi are shipped to the academy to learn the arts of magic. The academy is a dangerous place; the tournaments held twice each year can cripple or kill the students, and the clans of the empire will go to great lengths to recruit the students they want. Gregory had one dream: to become a magi like the legends of old. Though he was ridiculed by the residents of the village and his unsupportive father, he never wavered from his dream.

The surface world is a strange place for a young man who grew up in hell. Darren was just a boy when he and his mother were betrayed by paladins and chased beneath the Earth. There, with only his paladin's sigil and his quests to guide him, Darren grew from boy to man. Born in fire and blood, hell itself sculpted the perfect paladin.

Zahn’s life has been anything but ordinary. While hunting archaic relics infused with magic from continent to continent, his latest search brings him to Hollywood, and then face-to-face with a movie star he has idolized for years. Until now, he has only cared about the quest. But as lust and love break into his life, Zahn is caught up in a violent competition to retrieve one of the most powerful magical creations of all time from its ancient resting place.

It was supposed to be a medical marvel. Instead, it triggered the apocalypse. Half of humanity mutated into mindless zombies. Half the survivors mutated into the inhumans: various new species of people with new appearances and abilities. Some grew scales, some grew fur, some could fly, some could survive only underwater. Decades passed, and from the ashes of the old world, a new patchwork civilization rose. Humans and inhumans lived in tentative peace, and the zombies turned out to be not much of a threat once a few generations of survivors had come and gone.

Growing up, she was the girl down the street. Even then, I knew she was different. She was tough, rough, and had the strength to stop a speeding car with her bare hands. We were as thick as thieves, sharing every adventure. Then one day she revealed a secret. She wasn't from Earth. She was from a distant place called the Arcadia Multiverse. Her people lived under the rule of a god-like entity known as the System. That System had its gaze fixed on Earth. And it was only a matter of time before it came for us.

Marvin toiled through endless work to achieve his dream of flipping properties. A strange man stalked him at his morning diner job, becoming a regular. When he unexpectedly follows him home from night shift, Marvin knows something isn't right. The next day he is offered a magical device. The emblem confirms the paranormal are real, people can partially shift into animals, and that Marvin isn't normal: he's something to be feared. As his life enters a whirlwind adventure, Marvin has to adapt as he becomes more than an ordinary man

It would be an understatement to call Trevon Beaumont an accomplished monster slayer. He's traversed the European countryside upholding the legacy of his clan one completed mission at a time for the whole of his adult life. Now he's on his most perilous quest yet: slay the cruel but beautiful Countess Dracula. Just as the two of them seem ready to conclude their final battle, however, an unexpected act of betrayal sends them hurtling together through time—bloodbonding them, thus entwining their fates.

John Doc Henry had been on the shortest, crappiest end of the stick since the first day of his life; no parents, bad foster parents, and abysmal luck at every turn. The day his life changed started out exactly like he had come to expect. His car died on a rarely traveled road, and he broke his toe shortly after dodging the one other car on the road. When it stopped and backed up to him, the license plate read “LADYLUK”, adding insult to injury.

Life sucks. Gabe Harris has been clued into this fact for a long time now. In his mid-twenties, life has been nothing but low paying jobs, petty power-tripping bosses, and the worst roommates mankind has to offer. Bills, debt, and misery have haunted him for his entire adult life and, to make matters worse, it feels like his dream of being a writer is dead on arrival. One fateful night, he decides to take control of his life and make his dream a reality.

Lennox Perry is every crime lord’s worst nightmare. A member of the famed and prestigious Galactic Rangers, Lennox is charged with keeping the peace in a galaxy that is increasingly torn with tension. He's never failed to put the bad guys away, but his reckless, devil-may-care ways have earned him the wrath of his commanding officers. And yet, a grave threat to galaxy has the brass so scared, they willingly unleash him to find the answers. It’s up to Lennox and Anna—his distractingly beautiful partner—to uncover a hidden threat behind a series of domestic bombings that continue to escalate.

Have you ever felt like there was something inside of you pushing your actions? A dormant beast, so to speak. I know it sounds crazy. But, that’s the best way I could describe how I’ve felt for a long time. I thought it was normal, some animal part of the human brain that lingered from evolution. But, this is the story of how I learned I wasn’t exactly human, and there was a world underneath our own where all the things that go bump in the night live. And, that my beast was very real indeed.

Resurrected to dominate or die again, Andric was much like anyone else, further along in his life than he wanted to be—much further along and waiting to finally become the main character of his own story. Fate had a funny joke for him, though. He died. Unexpectedly, he was given the strangest of plot developments—he resurrected in what seemed to be a GACHA game, being given another chance on another world, one where he could redefine himself, starting with an unknown class, of all things. Andric can only roll with it, since there isn’t another choice. It’s time to start again.

Vesta Colony has a problem, aliens are snatching men until they disappear for good. Humanity's defensive forces are stretched too thin to help a distant outpost, and so, the desperate founders, as well as their investors, are given the bad option of recruiting the worst while bribing the rest. When Alex's wife was murdered, he turned full vigilante. After years of having a sterling record, he found himself willingly incarcerated to exact his vengeance. His incarceration eats at his soul until an offer too good to refuse from Vesta Colony changes his fate.

An experimental ASI with a terminal case of curiosity reached out and tampered with the universe in a way that it should not have, and unleashed a torrent of energy we would call magic into our galaxy. Humans, and every other intelligent lifeform for that matter, were ill-prepared, physically and mentally, for such an eventuality. In an effort to save itself, the ASI hastily created something it called the Framework to shape and codify this magical energy, and usher in a new world. A world of classes, levels, and extraordinary power. But also a world of monsters.

Zahn’s life has been anything but ordinary. While hunting archaic relics infused with magic from continent to continent, his latest search brings him to Hollywood, and then face-to-face with a movie star he has idolized for years. Until now, he has only cared about the quest. But as lust and love break into his life, Zahn is caught up in a violent competition to retrieve one of the most powerful magical creations of all time from its ancient resting place.

Andrew hunts monsters as a member of the Non-Human Investigative Corps, and he's very good at his job. Unfortunately, the skills he honed to keep the peace aren't much use in the cutthroat world of city politics, and a recent civil ruling is forcing the integration of the once exclusively human NHIC!

Maira Kanhai has had enough: Since the Green Poison epidemic hit DC, her cybersecurity degree is worthless, she can’t rejoin the US Navy, and her early efforts to secure Maryland led to a costly mistake: the death of her brother. Every day new factions emerge, trying to burn her city to the ground - until the Division emerges, inspiring hope. When a grenade kills one of their agents, Maira suddenly has a chance to make a real difference as a raw new Division recruit...if she can pass the tests and overcome the enemies plotting to permanently eliminate the Division once and for all.

Former Marine sniper and current NSA agent Jack Stone has a new face to go with his new identity. But he still has the same tortured memories - which include the woman he let get away years ago. Now his new assignment in Miami will put him so close to the woman he's never been able to forget, he could reach out and touch her - if only she weren't under suspicion.

On the fringes of human space, a murder will light a fuse and send two rebels on a planetary scale collision course. This audiobook box set contains the first three books of the Opus X sci-fi series from Michael Anderle: Obsidian Detective, Shattered Truth, and Investigating Deceit. Jia lives on Earth, where peace is a given. Erik is on society’s frontier, where authority depends on how much firepower you wield. She is from the powerful, the elite. He is with the military. Both want the truth—but is revealing it good for humanity?

Nina is an information broker with a mission - she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to save the hopeless in a crumbling America. Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of the Silver Devils. His squad of supersoldiers went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents, and now he's fighting to survive. They're on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could burn down the world, destroying each other in the process....

All Noelle Cunningham has ever wanted is a life beyond - beyond the walls of Eden, where only the righteous are allowed to remain, and beyond her stiflingly restrictive existence as a councilman's daughter. But only ruins lie outside the City, remnants of a society destroyed by solar storms decades earlier. The sectors surrounding Eden house the corrupt, the criminal-men like Jasper McCray, bootlegger and cage fighter.

Matthew Riker keeps to himself, doesn't cause trouble, and never talks about his past. But after a chance encounter with a woman and a small child on the run, Riker will have to make a choice: use his hard-won skills to protect two innocent victims, or stay in the safety of his quiet life. What follows is an adrenaline-soaked thrill ride that will take Riker on a cross-country chase, through the seedy underbelly of a New York criminal empire, and into the darkest places of the human heart.

A nuclear blast has transformed the world into a barren wasteland. Survival depends on your ability to kick ass and take names. Radiation transforms select humans into mutated creatures who are banished from society - Enders. The males are libido-less wild animals incapable of satisfying the females, who are hot, forward and badass. Cutter has kept to himself for 10 years, avoiding the conflict with a sharp tongue, stiff drink and his two best friends, his six-shooters, Alpha and Beta. But the perils of the wastelands won't leave him the hell alone.

When a simple mission to deliver the beautiful and brilliant Vanessa Crosby to a safe house goes horribly wrong, ICE agent Diego Santero's life gets complicated. Relentlessly hunted and not knowing whom to trust, Diego takes Vanessa on the run, deep into the heart of the deadly Panamanian rain forest. Vanessa reminds herself that she's just another asset to the ruggedly handsome black ops agent... until their intense situation leads to a release of passion neither expected. But even if they make it out alive, how can they ever have a future together?

In the volatile tinderbox of the Horn of Africa, Morgan Adler has made the paleoanthropological find of a lifetime. The discovery brings her to the attention of a warlord eager to claim both Morgan and the fossils, forcing her to make a desperate dash to the nearby US military base to beg for protection.

David Cruz is good at two things: war and training dogs. The ex-soldier's toughest case is Atlas, a Belgian Malinois whose handler died in combat. Nobody at Hope's Crossing kennel can break through the animal's grief. That is, until dog whisperer Evelyn Jones walks into the facility...and into Atlas' heart. David hates to admit that the curvy blonde's mesmerizing effect isn't limited to canines. But when Lyn's work with Atlas puts her in danger, David will do anything to protect her.

Trouble just walked into Nicholas Rixey's tattoo parlor. Becca Merritt is warm, sexy, wholesome, pure temptation to a very jaded Nick. He's left his military life behind to become co-owner of Hard Ink Tattoo, but Becca is his ex-commander's daughter. Loyalty won't let him turn her away. Lust has plenty to do with it too. With her brother presumed kidnapped, Becca needs Nick. She just wasn't expecting to want him so much.

"Why me? Why now?" That’s what Beaulac, Louisiana, detective Kara Gillian was asking herself when an angelic creature named Rhyzkahl unexpectedly appeared during a routine summoning. Kara was hoping to use her occult skills to catch a serial killer, but never had she conjured anything like this unearthly beautiful and unspeakably powerful being whose very touch set off exquisite new dimensions of pleasure.

The end begins with a viral outbreak unlike anything mankind has ever encountered before. The infected are subject to delirium, fever, a dramatic increase in violent behavior, and a one-hundred percent mortality rate. Death. But it doesn't end there. The victims return from death to walk the earth. When a massive military operation fails to contain the plague of the living dead it escalates into a global pandemic.