Programming nanites isn’t a hobby; it is in her blood. Time to break the mold and see what she can do. Lucky was holding the bomb that blew the staff of Adaptation Base to pieces. Instead of suffering from the blast, the acid in the device consumed her soft tissues. From the moment she came out of medical on a new base, she has been working to assist the cyborgs of the base with customizing the fit and flex of their new adaptations. When her friends come for her, she is relieved, but the station isn’t interested in parting with her quite that easily. The resulting hostilities drive some wedges in the two factions, but a Splice attack has everyone seeing sense in no time. Nervous around human men, her friends assign Lucky a bodyguard with large wings and rainbow eyes. He is polite, charming, a biologist, and very attentive. If he plays his cards right, he just might get Lucky.

Keeping her nephew safe is her focus, and she applies to an orc clan for protection. The price is set at one night. Jennel is looking to settle down, and Redbird City is the place for it. She and her nephew, Corit, are looking for a place they can be safe from hostile orc clans and a decades-old vision. She registers as an elemental with the local mayor’s office, and they connect her with the orc clan speaker. She can apply to him to gain protection for her nephew and, hopefully, entry into a clan. Once she’s registered, she returns to her new house to meet the movers, and a parade of orcs moves stuff from the van to the house when she meets her new neighbour. Day-ek just got off a shift and noticed the fae woman sitting on the deck and a set of three orcs moving furniture into the house. He comes over to introduce himself, and he takes in her curves and the very frank assessment she gives him and offers to give her a hand. Jennel introduces Day-ek to Corit, and when her mention of having to meet the speaker inspires a grin, she gets a funny feeling about her neighbour. When she meets the speaker and he gives her that cheeky grin while he demands a night with him for each of the three clans he speaks for, she knows that Corit is safe, and she’s got a date. And then... things get complicated.

A dim memory becomes her only chance to save her nephew, but she will need the most terrifying of help. Krampus. When Leda was a child, she was taken to a land of glitter and soft voices and told she was there to stay. In a rush of confusion, a creature appeared and demanded that she and others be handed over. In the blink of an eye, she is back in her bed, but she remembers the creature, she remembers being taken, she remembers everything. The day her nephew went insane, she had her suspicions, and when she ran a test, she knew. He had gone naughty right before the holidays, and she was the only person who knew why. She had a mission. She had a goal. She had to go talk to a monster known for abducting children.

Lexa’s life has been a fight, but now, an alpha from her past has offered her protection and safety with the help of two others. For her daughter’s safety, she will pay their price.

A stranger walks through the woods and offers to take her from her broken world. Hell yes. With conditions. With the asteroid looming, she makes a run for a family farm and the animals therein. After the crash with communications cut off, she lives a routine of subsistence and survival with no other soul to speak to. When a stranger walks up to her, silver skin and black hair, he introduces himself and offers her a way out. Life in the stars with him. She counters that her animals have to come as well. There is some negotiation, and he agrees to send her a tutor so that this is all done legally. Then, he flies away. To her surprise, her hallucination was as good as his word, and she is swept into a world of etiquette, manners, and languages. Her life in the stars has a specific pattern. She is a body servant, a bondservant, a companion, and a mistress, but she has to do it all with the same haircut. Tricky stuff.

A new job selling the most haunted property in town leads to a possession, then another, and finally, it is time to put the hammer down. Hannah has always stuck out in her family. The carrier of a recessive skin tone, she knows a little magic, knows a lot about construction, and is happy to have found a new career to focus on, just like everyone else in the family. On the day that she got the listing for the most haunted house in town with murders like clockwork every twenty-five years, she accidentally triggers the house’s most recent victim. Five years earlier, an XIA agent had been investigating the house, and he had fallen into a coma. On her first day, something lodged inside Hannah’s brain. With no other option, she calls a spectral consultant, and the woman and her tiny cat identify the person who is hitchhiking behind her eyes. A portion of the XIA agent’s spirit has gotten stuck in Hannah’s, and he is using her to power his return to consciousness. She has to get him out. Going back alone is stupid, but she doesn’t feel she has another choice. She doesn’t want to involve her family, and the XIA can’t help because no crime had been committed in the last five years. She gets the agent out of her head, gets the attention of the ancient entity that craves blood, and finds herself in a fight for her life with unexpected allies and one persistent dark elf who will not leave her side. According to her mother, she could do far worse.

Hazel was never the favourite daughter. One parent hated her, she revolted the other, and then she messed up at work when someone cursed her. It just wasn’t a good day. Hazel has tried just to follow the family path and do what was asked of her. Her work in the financial industry has her pegged as an analyst and a notary for the company contracts. She has one secret she holds for herself, which is a small matter that gives her a reason to keep going. A summons, a curse, and a blue-skinned elf tangle themselves into the worst day ever. She runs to a friend to get help with the curse, and her friend has to go to higher magic, the elf clan leader. He just happens to be the omega who gave birth to Hazel, and it doesn’t help untangle the disaster of her day. An elf, a marriage contract, and surrogacy combine with Hazel to protect her and restart her life, but it is a little too much, and her new husband calls for an assist. Every girl needs her best friend when she has a new guy, family troubles, and a baby on the way. Good thing Sevval just showed up.

Ylara just wanted to enjoy the wedding. Her heat should have been under control. Attracting one alpha would have been bad enough, but having her choice out of three makes her head spin. Ylara had a lovely time at Vallu’s wedding. She caught the bouquet, danced the night away, and only then noticed that her dance partners followed her every move. She panics and tries to make a break for it, but they block her path. She does what any sensible woman would do; she hides in a broom closet and calls for help from every friend or family member she can think of. When her troops arrive, they offer support and a plan. Sabine urges her to choose her alpha to help deal with her heat. They all know what a torture it is to leave it unanswered, so leave her to make up her mind. Picking the guy with the giant scorpion tail might not have been the most sensible thing, but it feels right. When he holds her close and promises to take care of her, she believes him. Whether she trusts him is another matter entirely.

Padana has negotiator training and an imperial bloodline. It makes her valuable to one man in particular... if he can find her. Growing up in the shadow of one of Terra’s champions was a comfortable place to be. Padana was the third child of the Empress Amanda Tyrell of the Haldis Imperium, and she was a very requested bride. Being a class zero like her mother, Padana has nothing to offer the next generation. Any child she bears will breed true to the father. This attracts a certain type of suitor who has every interest in her position as princess and none as her descendant of a champion. Padana finds this annoying. Yomin is the heir to an empire, a guardian, and a descendant of a class zero himself. It is a requirement for his line that the aspects of Hredu breed true. Getting a portrait from the artist Rhoda had given him a woman to find, and locating her in the Haldis Imperium had meant some high-level negotiation. Fortunately, he had just met an excellent negotiator.

She’s raised a child to near adulthood and found him a mentor to help him out. She has one thing left on her to-do list, and that is to find the moron who knocked her up and kick that scaly idiot in the jaws. Luna has gone through the last seventeen years keeping herself and her son alive and cared for. She has needed dragon fire and used all means to get it. Her history is now something that she would have been mortified to hear about from another source, but she has survived, and that is what matters. With Erik learning how to be a dragon alpha from another dragon alpha, she is free to help friends and finally start enjoying her life a little while she looks for the dragon who has locked her body so it can’t support itself. It has made for a challenging few years. To compound complexity, Erik’s father looked a little different from the standard driver’s license photo. It was a man-sized dragon who loved her that night and left her on her own... and she has to find him to get control of her life again.

Olly got an invitation from her sister's groom. She made sure that she was there on the day and watched every ceremony as it happened. Polly was glorious.The only thing that marred the day was that her heat was starting, and the one man who could sense it was there. If she goes through a heat with him, there might be no result, but it would mean she might go a year with her body quiet and calm.The mating is a disaster, but when it is over, she leaves her surprised mate and tries to resume her normal life.Normal was never going to darken her door again.

Human at birth, troll by design. Destiny had a sense of humour and made her something else. Habel is beyond excited. She has reached her changing day. Turning twenty-one brings new life, new responsibilities, and a new body. She will finally be a full-fledged member of her community—a troll. Since the great cataclysm, every person was born in human form and transformed into their adult form the day they turned twenty-one. Habel is no different. She was born to a set of troll parents, raised in troll society, and watched her siblings transform from unchanged to trolls. Tonight it is her turn, but while she transforms, things do not go precisely to plan.

Seeing her own future takes on a new intensity when she is ordered to become a hero. Lore began life on a restrictive world where her options for a future were rapidly running out. With the help of family, she escaped and started a new life with her son. Six years later, the world and organization that gave her sanctuary want something from her. They want her gift to work for them. Seeing the details of her entire future and history has always been something to adapt to. Using it for the greater good is something she does on the sly, and crafting suits for heroes is something she does for family. Her life is full, but it is about to become everything she ever imagined. She has seen it all happening, after all.