pairing – m-nb

Word Count: Click here to reveal100000 (Click here to hide)

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Summary: No one guessed the zombies would reach our rural town so fast. We thought we had time. We believed we were safe. It was pure chance that I found Russ by the side of the road the day our world fell apart. The first boy I ever loved was hardly my first choice for riding out the apocalypse with. But he wasn't my last choice either. Thing is, the business of surviving the end times gets lonely. None of us can go back to before the zombies shattered our illusions of safety. And that goes double for Russ and me. Our relationship ended long before the virus changed everything. The bonds of the family we've built from the ashes of society mean more than taking a second chance at romance. True love doesn't mean much when heartbreak could be the distraction that gets us all killed out in the wilds. Still, with the gnawing fear of a fate worse than death as a constant companion, it's easy to seek comfort in old habits. Russ doesn't make it easy to keep my emotional distance, but we get by on furtive moments stolen together. Until our niece gets sick and we're her best shot at a cure. Only, it turns out our situation is even more dire than we knew, and in exchange for saving Lily, we're sent on a hopeless mission. I'm not sure which is worse, facing certain death, or watching the man I can't have risk everything by my side. CW: This book contains mention of pregnancy/infant loss, allusions to trafficking, violence, gore, body horror/zombies. The Willows is a part of the Final Days MM romance multiauthor series. Each apocalyptic book can be read as a standalone, but there are more thrilling zombie tales to enjoy, so why not grab them all?!

Word Count: Click here to reveal100000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealAce, Gay, Non Binary, Questioning (Click here to hide)

Summary: Nineteen-year-old Bruno has a secret he can never tell. The sort of secret that means he can never have anything more than sort of friends. Never get close to anyone. Never have a random hook-up or even a kiss—apart from that one time in a club when some beautiful guy wearing luminous wings and neon bangles up his arms, kissed him. His secret means getting fired from job after job washing dishes, until delivering mysterious packages around London is his only way of making any money. His secret means his life is, at its heart, a lie. Bruno thinks he can live that lie. Alone in his empty, furniture-less flat, he thinks he has to. Until the lonely boy next door throws up on him and they get stuck in a lift together. But that’s the problem when someone starts to care about you, your secrets get harder to hide. And as he and Alexei gets closer, Bruno realises that his only real choice is between hiding his heart and trusting it. Alexei is confused. About everything. Hiding out in a room in his cousin's flat, he tries to convince himself that’s where he needs to stay. Bad things happen outside. Things that might make his world grow even darker. Things he doesn’t think he can deal with. He doesn’t want to have feelings for Bruno. Feelings terrify him. But when he starts to understand Bruno has his own troubles, helping him becomes the only thing Alexei wants to do.

Word Count: Click here to reveal94000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Genderfluid, Genderqueer, Pansexual, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Raising a kid on my own wasn’t the plan. Then again, neither was falling for the first shifter I allowed to get close to me after my ex left me with a newborn. I’ve always been a solitary bear, and that suits me fine. Until a remodel at the zoo where I work showing off my shifted form to an admiring crowd turns everything upside down. Bramble moves into my habitat and after a rocky start, he worms his way into my heart. My daughter, Myra, is my entire world. Being her papa doesn’t leave much room for romance, but Bram is one persistent bird when something shiny catches his eye, and somehow—impossibly—to him, I sparkle. Papa Bear is an M/X mpreg romance with a grumpy genderqueer single parent bear shifter and a sunshiny raven shifter who wants to fix everyone’s problems for them.

Word Count: Click here to reveal33000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealAce, Aromantic, Bisexual, Demigender, Demisexual, Gay, Genderfluid, Genderqueer, Intersex, Lesbian, Non Binary, Questioning, Pansexual, Polyamorous, Straight, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Clarity (noun) Four definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) Coherent and intelligible 2) Transparent or pure 3) Attaining certainty about something 4) Easy to see or hear Clarity features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

Word Count: Click here to reveal75300 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealAce, Bisexual, Gay, Genderqueer, Lesbian, Non Binary, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: A knocking. A ringing. A steady drip-drip-drip. These are the sounds that haunt us. Drive us mad. Draw us in like the songs of sirens, hypnotic and deadly. And we must either give in, or resist with everything we have…and hope it’s enough. Listen: The Sound of Fear offers ten stories written exclusively by trans and nonbinary authors that explore the chilling, perplexing, terrifying nature of sound.

Word Count: Click here to reveal52108 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Non Binary, Questioning, Pansexual, Straight, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Do you crave science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories with a dash of the erotic and romantic, featuring transmasculine leads? Welcome to TRANSLITERATION. The top surgeon whose price is free—with an asterisk. Loving a machine that cannot love you back. A world where suicide has become the accepted norm. Medical science in an age where curatives are only for the rich. The ultimate gift that cannot save a failing marriage. Trying to keep a normal routine during societal collapse. A strange water creature that preys upon pity to transform its victim into its ideal mate. A dystopian state in which sexual reproduction is a crime. An unusual marriage proposal presented to a young lord. A nonbinary Regent who realizes the dragon is the least of their nation's problems. In this collection of fifteen speculative short stories, Reis Asher seeks to explore past, present, future, and alternate worlds through the lens of transmasculinity. Sometimes bright and optimistic, other times rooted in a deep cynicism about society, TRANSLITERATION examines our hopes, our fears, and our flaws.

Word Count: Click here to reveal28000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Genderfluid, Genderqueer, Non Binary, Questioning, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Felix was Dominant in life, always needing to be in charge as the boss of the Kiselov crime family in San Francisco... except in sex and kink where a bottom in denial of both sexuality and gender identity. Maksim was a gay Daddy, and also guard to the leader of the Kiselov crime family. When Felix was outed publicly, then went missing, it's up to Maksim to find out who did it and how to save the Boss he likes a little too much to be professional. Can the closeted Russian Mafia Boss and his gay bodyguard survive and find love? * A Mafia Romance with BDSM, s3x-workers, humiliation, shaming, forced consensual feminization, gender fluidity of main and side character, kidnapping, shooting, docking, frotting, and general kinky fun.

Word Count: Click here to reveal80000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealNon Binary, Pansexual (Click here to hide)

Summary: Mason gives people too many chances, Hunter gives too few, but are they willing to take a chance on each other? Mason’s always tried to believe the best in people, and for the most part, their sunshine attitude pays off. They love their friends, their family, and they’re determined to win over their broody, gorgeous coworker Hunter—especially when their car in the shop turns into carpooling to work together. Hunter’s only seen the worst in people, and he doesn’t trust easily—not after growing up with a mom who ditched and an addict dad. However, perky, sweet, hot-as-hell Mason seems to win him over with every goofy comment or adorable smile, and before he can stop himself, he’s falling hard. The more time Mase and Hunter spend together, the more their attraction flares until they’re both holding the hope for something real. However, when Hunter’s past collides with his present, the secret he's been keeping threatens to destroy everything—the home he established, the friends who’ve become his new family, and any chance of a future with Mason. Roll the dice on romance at Tabletop Tavern…

Word Count: Click here to reveal64548 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Non Binary, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: What if cyborgs suffered body dysphoria? In his mid-forties, former cop turned career bureaucrat Nolan Rogers is diagnosed with terminal cancer. His best friend Elly Takahara convinces him to undergo the process of body conversion, where his brain is transplanted into a robotic body. The operation is successful, but Nolan quickly finds himself adrift in a body that doesn't eat or physically react to emotion. For the first time in years, he's suffering from a new kind of body dysphoria, a sensation he hoped to have left behind when he transitioned to male decades ago. During this crisis, he meets Tallis, a proud nonbinary body convert who sued his parents for the right to give up his flesh and blood body. Tallis is fire to Nolan's water, and whereas Nolan just wants to fit in, Tallis is determined to stand out in a world where being a cyborg marks one for discrimination and worse. Despite hitting it off poorly, an undeniable attraction blossoms between the pair, and they become entwined in a complicated relationship. Nolan can't understand Tallis, but he wants to. Trapped in his own narrow confines of what he believes the world to be, Tallis challenges everything he thought he knew. Can Nolan learn to love who he is now, or will he find himself drawn into the ranks of the Regretters, an organization of cyborgs campaigning to outlaw body conversion altogether?

Word Count: Click here to reveal144300 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealAce, Bisexual, Gay, Non Binary, Polyamorous (Click here to hide)

Summary: Book 1-5 in the TALES OF THE FOREST series The Forester Kelnaht, a cloud elf, is a truth seeker caught between love and faith, when a murder reveals an illicit affair between two tree elves he desires more than he can admit. Kelnaht’s former lover Ianys once betrayed him, and the shunned forester Taruif is not allowed to talk to anyone but the guide, their spiritual pathfinder. Lost and Found A stripling goes missing from the tribe, and heavy rainfall hides all traces of his whereabouts. With days creeping by without a lead, it’s hard to keep the tribe’s spirits up, more so when Kelnaht’s own future depends on the elders. Taruif has been shunned for almost twenty turns, but now that a possible forester’s apprentice is coming of age, the elders consider reducing his sentence. Taruif could be set free. Full Circle When several children fall ill with more than a summer bug, truth seeker Kelnaht is assigned to investigate. What he finds is deadly and threatens the life of every underage child in the tribe, including Ianys’ daughter Atèn. Then a wounded traveller is found in the forest, left to die after a vicious attack. Oren's Right Forester Veld loses a piece of himself to mute baker Oren when they first meet, but Oren is vowed to Haram. When Haram is killed, Veld has no intention of dishonouring his memory, but his death may not have been an accident. Only a forester can learn what the trees have seen. However, Oren's independence is threatened, and if Veld does not offer what Oren needs, Oren may never be his to claim. Twenty-Five Turns Fear of moving farther away from his family had cost Eer the love of his life. When Kat returns after twenty-five turns…with a son, any hope Eer has of rekindling their love seems doomed to fail because a murderer’s taste for revenge forces Kat to choose between endangering their family or running… and leaving Eer behind, again. ___________________________ TALES OF THE FOREST is an ongoing series of standalone stories linked by a forest world. Content warnings are available in the books' front matter and on the author's website.

Word Count: Click here to reveal151000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Non Binary (Click here to hide)

Summary: Queer British Lovecraftian historical romantic suspense set in 1920s London. Lew Tyler is dragged from 2016 to 1920 by an accident with border magic whilst he’s searching for his missing friend. He’s struggling to get to grips with life a century before he was born.  Detective Alec Carter is trying to solve gruesome murders in his patch of London, weighed down with exhaustion and a jaded attitude to most of his fellow humans after four years of war. In the middle of a murder investigation that involves wild magic, mysterious creatures and illegal sexual desire, will Alec and Lew work out who is safe to trust? Sergeant Will Grant, Alec’s right-hand man, is drawn to the mysterious Fenn. Is Fenn a man or a woman? Does Will care? And Fenn…Fenn has a secret. They live beyond the border between 1920s London and the magical Outlands and they need to get home. Are they prepared to achieve that by double crossing Alec, Will and Lew? Two couples hold the fabric of reality in their hands. Will it make them or break them? Buy London Calling now if you like murder, time-travel, grumpy detectives, the blues, magic, gay romance, m/enby romance, tea and not-quite-elves. It features Lost in Time, Shadows on the Border & The Hunted and the Hind (which are also available in audio and on sale at Authors Direct!)  "Wow, what a read… time-travel, fantasy, murder, MM-romance… everything I like, rolled in to one!"

Word Count: Click here to reveal31600 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealAce, Gay, Non Binary (Click here to hide)

Summary: Can love last when one won’t leave, and the other can’t stay? Fear of moving farther away from his family had cost Eer the love of his life, but now, after twenty-five turns, Kat has returned…with a son, and Eer’s feelings resurface as if it had been only yesterday since they’d first kissed. But any hope Eer has of rekindling their love seems doomed to fail when a murderer’s taste for revenge forces Kat to choose between endangering their family or running… and leaving Eer behind, again. ___________________________ wordcount: 31,600 words TALES OF THE FOREST is an ongoing series of standalone stories linked by a forest world. Content warnings are available in the book's front matter and on the author's website.

Word Count: Click here to reveal50000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealAce, Non Binary (Click here to hide)

Summary: Can a man with secrets learn to accept himself and find love on a StarStation overrun with pirates? Commander Jax Trest is a man with mysteries, even ones he doesn’t realize. Forced to recover after a harrowing event on board his spaceship, Trest meets Asyran commander, Zoagashta, a person who opens his mind to possibilities and acceptance. As Trest discovers that affection and love don’t have requirements, he begins to relax and sink into the emotions Zoagashta evokes. But all is not peaceful when the Siwu arrive and attempt to kidnap Trest for his ability to bond with ship’s hearts. Through harrowing corridor chases and death-defying leaps into the unknown, will Trest learn to accept all that he is so he can reunite with the person who always understood who he was? Sanctity features asexual awakenings, discovery of one’s true self, sweet courtships, and grumpy/sunshine first loves, along with heart-pounding moments of courageous heroes and villainous pirates.

Word Count: Click here to reveal75000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Genderfluid, Non Binary (Click here to hide)

Summary: Retired soldier Damiskos and his lover Varazda have been living together in Boukos for a month, and their future is beginning to look bright. Then Damiskos receives a letter summoning him home to Pheme—where his parents are deeply in debt, his brother is being hunted by loan sharks, and an unwanted arranged marriage looms. And that’s before Damiskos is charged with murder. Fortunately, he’s not alone. Old friends are back in Pheme. And Varazda—eunuch, sword-dancer, and spy—has solved mysteries before. But saving his lover from execution and from marriage will take time, and with only days until Dami’s trial, time is running out. Strong Wine is the third book in the Sword Dance trilogy, the conclusion of Dami and Varazda’s story from Sword Danceand Saffron Alley. This time with fake fortune tellers, real courtroom drama, and … fertilizer?

Word Count: Click here to reveal30000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Non Binary, Pansexual (Click here to hide)

Summary:

Word Count: Click here to reveal120000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Non Binary (Click here to hide)

Summary: Once upon a time, there was a stunningly gorgeous mage named Nikki. They were trapped by evil, horrible Jaeggi mages for ten long years until they were rescued by the brave dragon named Gunter. The grumpy red knight swept in, carrying them off to a fair castle, where they lived happily ever after. That’s how the story’s supposed to go, anyway. Nikki would really like to have that fairytale ending, please and thank you. It’s too bad Gunter is oblivious and the Jaeggi are interfering. Nikki may just have to cook up some explosions to help both situations along, because they’re determined to get their happily ever after. Is there a magic how-to guide on things that go boom? Tags: non-binary MC, Grumpy and Sunshine, it’s basically the air we breathe, Gunter needs a hug, Nikki likes to give them, crippling crush at first sight, Nikki has trust issues, for good reason, Nikki’s determined, Gunter is oblivious, mis-used poetry, Alric and Gunter are once again banned from drinking together, ever, schmoop, wall sex, the tongue thing is awesome, all hail Gunter’s tongue, violence, because bad guys, Nikki feels that explosions are an appropriate response to everything, Cameron and Nikki are explosion buddies, Nikki has mixed feelings on high heels, fairytales do come true

Word Count: Click here to reveal36000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealAce, Aromantic, Bisexual, Demigender, Demisexual, Gay, Genderfluid, Genderqueer, Intersex, Lesbian, Non Binary, Questioning, Pansexual, Polyamorous, Straight, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: INK (NOUN) Five definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell: 1) A colored fluid used for writing 2) The action of signing a deal 3) A black liquid ejected by squid 4) Publicity in the written media 5) A slang word for tattoos Ink features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

Word Count: Click here to reveal80000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Genderfluid, Genderqueer, Non Binary, Pansexual, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Our relationship is fake, but my feelings are growing more real by the day. Max sweeps me off my feet at our bus stop. He becomes my friend. Then, just when I think he might be into me, he throws me a curve ball by asking me to be his fake date to a wedding. He claims his buddies won’t leave him alone about finding a plus one. The catch is, the ceremony is months away, so we’ll have to be pretend datemates for a while. I suspect there’s more going on than Max’s inability to handle confronting his meddlesome friends. Especially once I meet them all and see how much they care about Max. I keep going around in circles trying to figure out how he truly feels about me, all the while trying not to fall for him. Plus One Bonus is the fourth book in the Table Topped series. It is an M/X (genderfluid) romance between Max, the newest member of his gaming group who misses home, has a secret penchant for manties, and can’t handle confrontation and Si/Simon/Simone, a snarky genderfluid tea seller. CW: History of neglectful parents and parental abandonment, a side character’s infertility struggles are mentioned.

Word Count: Click here to reveal56057 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Non Binary (Click here to hide)

Summary: Edgar Tobias works as a freelance computer programmer in the city of Anver. Desperate to escape his deceased fathers’ fame as a hit singer-songwriter duo, he left the city of Kasyova and the arts behind. He doesn’t know he’s about to be targeted in a vicious murder game where the prize is a million dollars in cryptocurrency to the first person who can capture his murder on video. Reis Asher lost everything in the Anverite civil war ten years ago, including their mother. Their father created the agreement known as Unification, which joined Anver and Kasyova to create the Twin City-States of Anver-Kasyova, ending the civil war and ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity. When they discover the Killing Game, they know that it represents a threat to everything they hold dear and set out to stop it. But powerful forces are at work that refuse to be undermined by one stubborn soul and their sense of justice. Someone wants Edgar dead, and they’ll stop at nothing to see him six feet under… even if that means Reis and other innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire.

Word Count: Click here to reveal45000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Genderqueer, Non Binary (Click here to hide)

Summary: Grey I was just a divorced, small town, hardware store owner, and the man most people considered a gentleman. A slip up in my strict routine would send the town gossips into a frenzy. Yet I'd grown up in that town and everyone knew everyone. No secrets were safe, but I carried one that would send my world into chaos if I let it. I was falling for a town transplant and one of my best friends, Sugar. He was everything I wasn't. Spontaneous, fun, and knew exactly who he was. What would he see in a boring man like me? Sugar (Shug) I was that fat, nonbinary person who hadn't known the inside of a closet in my life. With a mom like mine, she taught me to never live with regrets, but I had a massive one. I fell in love with my straight, gentlemanly best friend. Grey was everything I wasn't. Thankfully, he was clueless, but our shared friend group wasn't. How long could our friends stay silent in a town as small as ours?