"On the outside looking in, Brix has done a fantastic job of managing his emotions following the fallout with the Elders. He’s jumped right into life in Madow and worked tirelessly to make himself irreplaceable among the community he now called home, and he’s done so with a smile on his face and a carefree attitude. It was when he collapsed onto his bed at the end of the day that his thoughts eventually consumed him. He was haunted by the life he’d left behind and the truths that were revealed the day he left his old pack for good. The crux of the matter is that everything he knew about himself was a lie, and as he battles to create a new self-image—one he could be proud of—the tight grip he has on his sanity begins slipping. No one but his wolf could have predicted that the one woman who he’s warned to avoid would be instrumental in retaining his hold.
The last few months have seen Alicia softening where everyone who knew her would have sworn she’d never budge. Once called the rudest wolf in Madow, she has made a concerted effort at keeping her past from coloring her interactions with her new alpha or the wolves she’d brought with her. It should be simple enough, but it’s harder work than she could have anticipated. A chance encounter with the man who both activates her skepticism and makes her wolf pay attention, and she is soon flooded with memories—some familiar, some…enlightening. Overwhelmed, she is shocked when the only one who can help her is the person she trusts the least. Even more jarring is the way her wolf responds to him.
Two people who feel like outsiders no matter how hard they try to fit in find that their history intersects in a way that neither can deny, and they’ll need each other to clear away the pain from their separate pasts. While working side-by-side, they discover something unavoidable building between them and suddenly there is another—more pressing—reason to make it to the other side of their journey. Can they weather the thunderstorm of their history to make it to the rainbow they deserve?"
"Janine was raised to be a passive and obedient wolf shifter and to always put the will of The Elders before her own—a will that she never questioned until the one day she was instructed to become the mate of a man she didn’t love, and who didn’t love her. Fed up with rules and obligations, she left everything she knew behind and headed out west. She arrived in West Texas with the expectation of getting a fresh start as a new woman with no one to answer to but herself. What she didn’t expect was to discover secrets big enough to tilt her world and people she would be willing to kill for because of them.
Langston always knew he would be the next True Alpha of his pack, but when his father died, Langston’s premature promotion had him unsure about his path. With the weight of the pack on his shoulders and a thriving urban ranching community in West Texas to oversee, the last thing on Langston’s mind is finding a mate. Of course, trouble always finds you when you’re not looking for it, and in blows a woman who shakes up his pack and knocks him off his feet. Her zeal amazes him and soon the pull between them is undeniable. Will succumbing to the desires of his wolf prove to be the right move or turn out to be fruitless?"
"As the twin of the future alpha, Lenora was born to be the omega of her pack. It was her birthright and duty to keep the emotional balance in the Hurst pack, and it was a duty she embraced with open arms. However, ensuring everyone else's happiness began to drain her spirit and make her long for a mate to call her own; someone who could help her decompress the way she did for others. After her brother finally accepted his position as alpha and chose his mate, she wasted no time in her quest to follow suit. Since the wolf she preferred was determined to remain unattached, the hunt was on for someone who would give her everything she had been yearning for and quell the aching loneliness of her wolf.
Adrian has been second-in-command to his best friend since the two of them were in diapers; long before either of them were known as beta or alpha of alphas. He has also been in love with his best friend's twin sister for just as long. Although he won't disrespect his alpha by pursuing the pack omega, watching his Nora search for a mate is slowly driving him insane. Bound by teachings of those considered more wiser than he, his fight to remain unaffected becomes increasingly difficult. Suddenly, the reasons sitting between them seem less like duty and more like torture, and before long Adrian has to decide what's more important: loyalty or love."
""Triumphantly Black, queer and contemporary… The dialogue snaps and shimmers." -New York Times Book Review on D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding
Music producer on the rise Cyn Tha Starr knows what she likes, from her sickening beats in the studio to the flirty femmes she fools around with. Her ever-rotating roster has never been a problem until her latest fling clashes with Jucee, her best friend and the most popular dancer at strip club Sanity.
It makes Cyn see Jucee in a different light. One with far fewer boundaries and a lot more kissing.
Juleesa Jones makes great money dancing the early shift and spends most evenings with her son, her Sanity family or at Cyn's house. Relationships are not high on the priority list-until she's forced to admit that maybe friendship isn't the only thing she wants from her bestie.
But hooking up with your ride-or-die is risky. Jucee isn't just Cyn's best friend-Jucee is her muse. When Cyn lays down her tracks, it's Jucee she imagines in the club throwing it back to every note. If they aren't careful, this could crash and burn…but isn't real love worth it?"
"Instant I Do could be Kris Zavala’s big break. She’s right on the cusp of really making it as an influencer, so a stint on reality TV is the perfect chance to elevate her brand. And $100,000 wouldn’t hurt either. D’Vaughn Miller is just trying to break out of her shell. She’s sort of neglected to come out to her mom for years, so a big splashy fake wedding is just the excuse she needs. All they have to do is convince their friends and family they’re getting married in six weeks. If anyone guesses they’re not for real, they’re out. Selling their chemistry on camera is surprisingly easy, and it’s still there when no one else is watching, which is an unexpected bonus. Winning this competition is going to be a piece of wedding cake. But each week of the competition brings new challenges, and soon the prize money’s not the only thing at stake."
"There wasn't too much in my life that I could complain about; I had a career that I loved, a group of friends that I would do anything for—who had my back in return—and my family wanted for nothing. Most importantly, I was content with pretending that I didn't want something that I couldn't have anyway. The desire was always there, but there were rules in place that were never to be broken.
But then those rules were shattered when two of my friends hooked up, and my world instantly tilted on its axis.
Once Shad and Aisha became a couple, the urges that I'd suppressed for years not only resurfaced but demanded that I take action. With my number one excuse no longer viable, the only thing standing between me and the woman I love is the fact that she doesn't take me seriously. I've never backed down from a challenge in my life, and I'd be a fool to start when what I want is so close that I can taste her. Instead of trying to explain to Monie that we were perfect for one another, I was going to convince her of it by showing her that I'd always been the man she needed."
"'I can't even see straight until I've had my face in between your legs.'
After a night of heavy drinking with her coworkers, Seraph succumbs to an erotic dream in where she receives pleasure beyond her wildest imagination. It's a brand of filthy that she enjoys but something about it is simultaneously wrong, though she can't put her finger on why. What she does know is that she can't deny how good it feels and isn't sure she wants it to stop.
When she awakens mid-climax, she comes face to face with a nightmare that she can't escape. At every turn he's there, and he won't take no for an answer. As she is relentlessly pursued, her defenses crumble until she has no fight left in her--just as he intended."
"What if we could buy a vow to right our wrongs?
For Nedra Phillips, the strain of portraying a strong Black woman to outsiders is finally taking its toll on her. Her marriage to her college sweetheart has begun to fizzle out, with conversations dwindling down to nothing and intimacy becoming sporadic at best. Unwilling to endure the stigma of being a 30-something divorcee, she does everything in her power to hold onto her marriage, but Chris isn't just on a different page, he's in a whole other book entirely. Despite their disconnect, her vows meant something to her and marriage is supposed to be forever. When all seems lost, she makes a last-ditch effort in hopes of generating results, but what exactly does a Hail Mary look like between friends and lovers?
Jermaine Hawkins is nearing the end of a prominent career playing professional basketball and is ready to put his retirement plan into action. That plan includes many things but most important on the list is putting an end to his status as a hermit and starting a family. A chance encounter with a firecracker of a woman makes him think he's found his capital F. But whether that F is for 'future' or 'frustrating' is to be determined. Can Jermaine convince Nedra that everything happens for a reason while also getting her to give him a chance at something real?"
"It wasn’t too long ago that I would have told you I was too smart to fall for the friends-with-benefits okie doke. I would have said it was a setup that was doomed to fail each and every time. I had friends who had been there, done that, and got the keyed car and broken windows to prove it. I didn’t need to experience it for myself to know that I was good on that. That’s what I would have said before if anyone wanted to know my opinion. In a way, I still thought like that, except…
I’d known Aisha since I was thirteen years old and if you would have asked me, I would have said I knew her pretty well. That couldn’t have been further from the truth, and when she revealed some things to me—things I had somehow missed over all these years—I found myself uttering words I never thought I’d say. It was just an agreement. You could almost call it a selfless act on my part. I was just being a good friend.
The thing was, I forgot who drew the lines in the sand and before long I found myself caught up in the more-than-friendly benefits with my very good friend.
Author’s Note: This is short, steamy read featuring explicit language and situations. If either of those offend you, this might not be the story for you."
