Her power is his greatest threat... Captured by her brothers to use as leverage against the wolves, Jesse finally reaches her limit. Unwilling to be used as a pawn by her family or her mate, she gives in to the power that has been growing inside her and unleashes. But even though her newfound strength would empower the pack, it forces Cazz to confront his deepest fear. Will the shadows that wound his soul allow him to accept a mate whose power rivals his own? As Jesse finally embarks on the journey that will break her free of her family, she has no idea that her newfound freedom may end at the hands of her mate. Or may end the fated love they've been so desperately trying to save.

Jesse is a normal girl from a fucked-up family. The only thing she wants is freedom. Casimir, the dark and ruthless Wolf King, reigns in the underground dens of the wolf world with the power to compel anyone to do anything he commands. But he needs a new mate because the last two killed themselves. After watching Casimir steal the minds and wills of the other women kidnapped as potential mates, Jesse knows he is even more powerful than the urban legends she's heard. Fearing that she might lose herself forever, Jesse offers to submit to Casimir's dominance, make herself his slave, and bear his heir. But in return, he must vow never to use that compulsion on her. Fascinated by her boldness and the surge in his power when she offers herself, Casimir accepts her as his mate. But Casimir isn't the only wolf who wants Jesse. While Jesse cannot deny the sizzling chemistry between herself and Casimir, the King is emotionless and sometimes cruel. She's often drawn to the tender safety offered by a much less powerful wolf. A male Casimir would kill if he knew how deeply they connected. Will Casimir break Jesse just as he broke two mates before her? Will he discover her potentially deadly connection with another male? Or, will the smart and resourceful Jesse betray him and flee with the other wolf? Has the Wolf King finally met his match? *** "The position of Queen requires three things," I snapped impatiently. "First, the ability to bear heirs. Second, submission to me as King and Mate. And third, acceptance that I will not offer love." I stopped for a moment, "My Queen will receive anything material she wishes. But she will submit to me, and I will not bow. She will share my bed, my power, and my wealth... She will not share my heart." I waited, but none of them spoke. Good. I turned back to my servant to order them moved to the next challenge when a quiet but strong voice rose behind me. "Are you violent?" I turned back to the fire-haired woman with a flat smile. "Show me a wolf who isn't. And I am the King of the others. What do you think?" Her throat bobbed. The tear in the neckline of her cotton shirt offered a fleeting glimpse of plump cleavage. My cock twitched. "I meant with your Queen... um, Sire," she said uncertainly. "You said you have to dominate, that she has to submit. What is she submitting to?" I smirked. "I don't make a habit of leaving bruises," I said, letting a dark promise seep into my tone. "But they've been known to happen." It was quite thrilling when she paled. I once again turned away, gesturing to my man to start moving them when her voice rose one more time. "I'll volunteer," she said. When I whirled, she licked her lips then stepped forward. "I will be your mate... if you'll have me." Hiding my shock, I offered my most predatory grin to the poor, naive idiot. "My mate, like everyone else in this kingdom, is my slave. Now... are you certain?"

“A writer with . . . vision and scope . . . breathtaking, shimmering prose.”—Anne Rice The armies of Charlemagne are poised to conquer Italy. The human side of shapeshifter Maeniel owes allegiance to Charlemagne. But the wolf acknowledges no master. Still, it is as both wolf and man that he embarks on a hazardous mission for the emperor. Captured, Maeniel is condemned to death. Now, with the help of a Saxon warrior whose love poses dangers of its own, Maeniel’s soul mate, Regeane, will brave the icy crags and crevices of the Alps to rescue her husband, only to find that he is the bait in a trap set for her by a villainous man from her darkest past. But there is another enemy at work. Behind the tangle of ambitions and animosities driving kings and commoners alike, an ancient evil thirsts for a revenge of its own: a revenge that demands the blood of Maeniel and Regeane…and of all humanity. “Action and intrigue-filled . . . Borchardt’s strength . . . is her deeply researched setting, which brings alive the barbaric era after the fall of the Roman Empire.”—Publishers Weekly

A novel of exhilarating range, magical realism, and history—a dazzling retelling of Liberia’s formation Wayétu Moore’s powerful debut novel, She Would Be King, reimagines the dramatic story of Liberia’s early years through three unforgettable characters who share an uncommon bond. Gbessa, exiled from the West African village of Lai, is starved, bitten by a viper, and left for dead, but still she survives. June Dey, raised on a plantation in Virginia, hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. Norman Aragon, the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica, can fade from sight when the earth calls him. When the three meet in the settlement of Monrovia, their gifts help them salvage the tense relationship between the African American settlers and the indigenous tribes, as a new nation forms around them. Moore’s intermingling of history and magical realism finds voice not just in these three characters but also in the fleeting spirit of the wind, who embodies an ancient wisdom. “If she was not a woman,” the wind says of Gbessa, “she would be king.” In this vibrant story of the African diaspora, Moore, a talented storyteller and a daring writer, illuminates with radiant and exacting prose the tumultuous roots of a country inextricably bound to the United States. She Would Be King is a novel of profound depth set against a vast canvas and a transcendent debut from a major new author.

An omega wolf has a chance at the greatest prize ever—the love of an alpha king… Darius Voss, the powerful alpha king of the shifter nation of Andernburg, thought his palace was impenetrable. So imagine his surprise when he enters his bedchamber and finds a thief looting the family jewels. The little American looks nothing like a criminal. He's small, lithe, and delicately beautiful—and he's an omega wolf. Despite his better judgment, Darius is enamored with the cheeky omega and decides to show him mercy instead of a dungeon. But some nobles aren't as amused by the little thief's antics. Or by Darius's taste in companions. Johnny Hughes is stuck in Andernburg after his money and passport are stolen by thugs who put him in the hospital for what he is. And now, it's either steal or starve. He knows his relationship with the gorgeous alpha king is pure sport, but he'd be a fool to turn down accommodations like these…for as long as the king finds him amusing. And if he's falling in love with the king? No one ever needs to know. Especially not Darius. Or the nobles who believe that a common omega—and a thief—is cheating them out of the power they want for themselves. But when a reckless night of passion leaves Johnny with child, everything becomes far more real. Darius is bound by duty to the realm and beset by betrothals from noble wolf packs vying for a royal match for their daughters. But the kingdom will never yield that honor to an omega, much less allow one to bear the king's heir… Reader note: contains M/M Mpreg, wolf shifters, hot romance elements, protective alphas and cheeky omegas, and male male love

Winner of the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize Winner of the Dionisius A. Agius Book Prize The Wolf King explores how political power was conceptualized, constructed, and wielded in twelfth-century al-Andalus, focusing on the eventful reign of Muhammad ibn Sad ibn Ahmad ibn Mardanīsh (r. 1147–1172). Celebrated in Castilian and Latin sources as el rey lobo/rex lupus and denigrated by Almohad and later Arabic sources as irreligious and disloyal to fellow Muslims because he fought the Almohads and served as vassal to the Castilians, Ibn Mardanīsh ruled a kingdom that at its peak constituted nearly half of al-Andalus and served as an important buffer between the Almohads and the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. Through a close examination of contemporary sources across the region, Abigail Krasner Balbale shows that Ibn Mardanīsh's short-lived dynasty was actually an attempt to integrate al-Andalus more closely with the Islamic East—particularly the Abbasid caliphate. At stake in his battles against the Almohads was the very idea of the caliphate in this period, as well as who could define righteous religious authority. The Wolf King makes effective use of chronicles, chancery documents, poetry, architecture, coinage, and artifacts to uncover how Ibn Mardanīsh adapted language and cultural forms from around the Islamic world to assert and consolidate power—and then tracks how these strategies, and the memory of Ibn Mardanīsh more generally, influenced expressions of kingship in subsequent periods.

This African slave trade history is a detailed account of Africa's slave history that started in the fifteenth century. It was started by the southern European Portuguese monarchs, the family of royal lineages. Portugal's golden age of discovery in sea exploration led Portugal to Africa by sea by the 1430s. Then later, in 1492, Christopher Columbus accidentally landed on the Native Indian American continent. Columbus's trip was sponsored by Spanish royal families. That was the period when the Roman Catholic nations, Portugal and Spain, were the dominant European nations. Spain liberated her whole territory from Islamic occupation in late 1400s. The Catholic Church was also very involved in signing treaties with their Roman Catholic spheres of influence nations. By then, Portugal already monopolized the African trade in African goods and human slave trade in the Portuguese-dominated African territories. Portugal first started shipping the African slaves to Europe. With Spain's possession of the Americas, this changed the African slave trade greatly. The American territory promoted the biggest international African slave trade and economic gains for European prosperity to this day. By the sixteenth century, Catholic religious theocracy became challenged by other northern European powers. The reformation movement in northern Europe led to the breaking away by northern European realms from the dominant Catholic religion and established their Protestant Christian religions. These new emerging northern European realms also challenged Portugal's domination and grip of Africa's territories and Africa's slave trade and goods. Based on the treaties signed between Portugal and Spain by Catholic popes, Portugal was supplying the slaves, and Spain was procuring and shipping the African slaves from Portugal's control and forced African slave labor to develop Spain's Americas through extended overseas colonies, and Portugal's Brazil new colony. Meanwhile, Spain's takeover was contracting with European mercenaries the conquistadors to capture the American land from the Native Indians, the original occupiers of the Americas. The paradigm or blueprint of this African slave trade pattern already established by the Portuguese was later replicated by other European realms in Africa and the Americas, and they continued the lucrative African slave trade for more than two hundred years. The establishing of extended overseas territories or colonies by Europeans to build their economies both at home in Europe and the Americas using forced African labor, goods, and repatriation of European colonists to establish the new overseas extended to the Americas. This book is information rich with the African slave trade history dynamics, the European realms, names of monarchs that participated, European slave wars, rivalries, slave laws, European merchants, African noblemen and merchants, slave ships, religions, European and African rituals, Main African territories, overseas sea routes used, African chiefs, merchants, European slave ships, ship captains' accounts, numbers of slaves shipped per trip, goods exchanged, major African tribes, stories of names of slave warriors, slave contracts, European slave treaties, African slave harbors, slave rebellions on land, on ships, the making of American colonies, America's Independence and Latin American countries, the making of the first British Crown, Freed slaves returned to the colony of Province of Freedom, Sierra Leone, etc.

Devil’s Sins Volume One in Apocalypse Denied A Draoithe Saga Miniseries Redemption and resilience in the face of adversity Amrita Sainte is a disfigured blind woman, grappling with the scars of her past and a painful present. Her only solace is her musical talent, a mysterious magical gift she struggles to understand, and her appointed assistant. Rescued by the immortals of Draoithe, Amrita searches for healing and acceptance of her new limitations. As her world tilts towards an impending apocalypse, an enslaved devil becomes the unlikely savior everyone is counting on. Daniel Leiriu used to be a high-ranking devil knight, but a thousand years trapped in the Leaindeail suffering from severe mental illness reduces him to a heinous criminal, guilty of multiple despicable malfeasances. Finally brought to justice by the allies of the immortals at Draoithe, he is sentenced to serve the needs of the realm to gain penance for his past. Being free from the voices in his mind as a slave collared to the Amazon Prince, Danny feels more like the man he used to be, and the woman he must serve and her unique talents become an interest he can't ignore and a fantasy he shouldn't entertain. Devil’s Sins is a thrilling journey of self-discovery, sacrifice, and hope in the face of suffering.Leaving readers on the edge of their seats, cheering for a most unlikely pair, the heroes navigate the dangerous path to love, acceptance, and salvation. With richly-drawn characters and a vividly crafted world, this story is a must-read for fans of fantasy and magic, and anyone who loves a good underdog story. Read and discover if a criminal devil and a blind woman can deny an apocalypse together. It’s more than a story; it’s an experience. Welcome to the dream… Urban Fantasy with Steamy Slow-Burn Paranormal Romance and Fated Mates 18+ HEA! NC! ***Warning: Adult Themes, Fantasy Violence, and/or Explicit Sexual Situations. Intended for a Mature Audience.

After many years of research, award-winning historian Hugh Thomas portrays, in a balanced account, the complete history of the slave trade. Beginning with the first Portuguese slaving expeditions, Hugh Thomas describes and analyzes the rise of one of the largest and most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures in all of history. Between 1492 and 1870, approximately eleven million black slaves were carried from Africa to the Americas to work on plantations, in mines, or as servants in houses. The Slave Trade is alive with villains and heroes and illuminated by eyewitness accounts. Hugh Thomas's achievement is not only to present a compelling history of the time, but to answer controversial questions as who the traders were, the extent of the profits, and why so many African rulers and peoples willingly collaborated.

Kellen, now King of the Werewolves, Wakes up to find himself on a boat, going to goddess knows where. Sold to a money hungry Alpha and his deranged Luna, for their pack’s entertainment. His title means nothing. Can Kellen survive the Gladiator Games when the odds are stacked against him? Save the people and claim, the mate the moon goddess promised him?