An alien genome leads Myra to a world her ancestors called their own and a people who demand that she give them all she has to give. Humouring her grandparents leads Myra to discovering that a member of her family belonged to an alien race, and that race wants her back now. The people who killed her ancestors demand the last viable member of the Day clan, and she has no idea why. She finds out that her bloodline is the key to bringing back a portion of the population that have died out. The women. Her alien people survive by abducting their brides from a variety of species, but if she can claim her birthright, she can bring the trigger back and fertility will return. Arbor-Dren–assassin, warrior and snappy dresser—is the consort that she chooses, and he is more than capable of dealing with her learning curve, and all of her other curves as well.

Tales of the Citadel 9 Her element is fire, her mind is missing memories and a dream master is her keeper. Hahvi’s dance will reshape a world. Hahvi has spent eight years in the dome with other physical talents. Her body is wrapped in a restrictor suit, but she keeps her mind free to dream of possibilities. She is given to the Citadel, and when she meets the dream master, her world and her options shift dramatically. Rackon dreamed of a woman wreathed in flame, dancing across lava. This was the woman his people needed to help them save their city and the last of their civilization. Research pointed to Resicor, and after severe negotiations, she is handed over to them so that they can take on the trouble of her maintenance. Released from the restriction, she is free to use her talent for the first time in her life, unfortunately, she has to pick her outlet carefully or she could kill them all.

A teacher of etiquette and contract law with a fetish for Terran coffee meets a superhero who wants to get into her briefs. Hydrangea has been teaching contract law and other species etiquette in the Nyal Imperium for months. There is nothing to her life but marking, teaching and going for tea with friends. When one of her friends tells her that she knows of a Nyal food that matches coffee on the molecular level, Hydra has to try it out. The diner where the forty-seven-ingredient soup is prepared is a favourite haunt of the Guardians of Deyfell 4, four super-beings who risk their lives on a daily basis. Hydra doesn’t care, she just wants her coffee doppelganger. Starburn notices the strange alien who defies his teammate’s efforts to clear the diner. She has an easy smile and a relaxed attitude that he has not experienced since he became a Guardian. To his surprise she doesn’t know who they are and the ability to introduce himself without the weight of his actions as Guardian is so refreshing, he looks forward to speaking to her again. When the next opportunity proves that she is still as guileless as he thought at first glance, he makes up his mind to keep her and treasure the gentle heart that she shows to one and all. It’s a simple matter to have a teammate bring her to the base, and once she is there, there is no way home.

A Terran Times Tale Keeping calm was Meri’s life, making others feel it was her job. Loving a Negotiator was her destiny. Meribeth has been the assistant to a few Alliance personnel, but Negotiator Kao is her latest boss. At his insistence, she had gills installed to enable her to accompany him on wet assignments, but his ulterior motive was not clear until he is out of the armour and his own body is finally exposed. Vehn Kao has spent years encased in armour as a Negotiator, but the moment he comes out and sees Meribeth with his own eyes he knows that she is everything that he has ever wanted in a woman. She is intelligent, witty, attractive and has a tremendous passion just below the surface that he wants to bring out in an explosive release. Meri wants to be good at her job and Vehn want to take her calm and shake her up.

Tales of the Citadel 11 Syrella was born to nobility and cursed by her talent. The last thing she expected was to be called to power. Syrella was a talent in a noble family where talents were not normally accepted. Her parents decided that learning how to control her skills would be better for her than being shunned at home, so they sent her to the Citadel school at Thoola. Sy learned everything she could, including the surprising side benefit to her talent and shifted from student to instructor as the years passed. Sy receives a call that changes her life. She is the last inheritor of an ancient throne, and she must leave the Citadel immediately. Dorium is the bodyguard that the Citadel assigns to her and he just happens to be the man that Sy has had a crush on all her life. Death threats, greedy nobility and facing a deadly grandmother are all precursors to the one thing she is looking forward to, the Vexar Day of the Dead.

Linked to a mage she hates, Freddy is willing to trade all the power of the demon zone to get her freedom. Freddy was born to take the mantle of hellhound, but she wasn’t fond of the idea. Wearing the responsibility to atone for the work of a homicidal ancestor, Freddy is the eleventh generation tied to the victim’s family, and being bonded to a mage halfway around the world is tiring. At a moment’s notice, Freddy can be yanked from an event or her own bed and pulled across the world to act as the mage’s familiar. Her friends want to help, but there is only one way to get her out of the indentured servitude that her family has landed her in. She needs to find a stronger mage to take her on as a familiar. The hard part is finding a stable mage to link to. The weird part is watching her friends auditioning them.

Wren takes care of those around her, but will a bunch of Guardians be more than she can keep in fighting shape? Wren has been a caretaker for all her adult life. The offer to take up a new life in the stars comes as part of her career comes to a sad end. They ask her to change her DNA, she does. They ask her to engage in combat training, she does. They ask her to channel the new talent that roars through her bloodstream, she focuses. If they had asked her if she was willing to mate with a stranger, she would have considered it. Drovin has been waiting for the day when his mate would arrive on his world. He knows what she looks like and who she is, but her personality is a mystery. Binding them together before she arrived was his idea, but it might have been an incorrect impulse when she can find all of his weaknesses in an instant.

Abduction, genetic modification, and a nap that crossed decades is just the start for one of the first Volunteers to enter the Citadel, thirty years late. Addy was a lost Terran. Her ship was captured on the way to the Alliance training centre, and she and the other occupants were held for experimentation. Months of agony with her fellow humans dying under the test-to-destruction methods of the researchers ended the day that Addy was taken to the edge of her limits. A rescue operation came to save her and the other survivors, and she was sedated for the trip back to the Alliance. Addy lay in stasis while the world she had set on its path to destruction shattered and the rescue shuttle fought for its own survival. Thirty years later, Addy is woken to find that the world has changed, she is alone at a base, and she has the power in her cells to break the world under her feet. No pressure. Ha.

Can any structure of man take the heat of two dragons in the throes of passion? Graylin Treel is on a deadline. With only a few hours to go, she needs to put herself in the path of the dragon that she has chosen as a mate. The problem is, he thinks she is a pathetic human. When the glamour drops and their senses are aroused, can any structure of man take the heat of two dragons in the throes of passion?