This is a full-length, science-fiction, alien abduction romance that was previously released as part of a two-book collection introducing the first books in two series. Each book is now being released separately. This revised edition of The Scorpion's Mate has some small changes from the original. Claire has never really fit in with everyone around her, but she's carved out a life for herself using her own unique style and artistic ability to support herself on the Internet. The last thing she expects is to be abducted by aliens and dropped into a research facility, where a genetically-engineered alien soldier chooses her as his life-mate. Thrax's pheromones are compelling, and his status as a fellow unwilling test subject makes them allies, but Claire isn't certain she can trust someone who is convinced she belongs to him, when all she wants to do is find a way to return home to Earth-a place that her devoted alien can never follow, because there's no way the scorpion-like alien would ever be able to pass for human. Still, she'll accept help where she can find it, so she doesn't hesitate to escape with Thrax from the facility, though their time running from their pursuers in the warrens beneath the research facility will forever change Claire, and could make it impossible for her to return to Earth. But will there be anywhere else in the galaxy they can go where their love will be accepted?Author's Note: 18+ only, this book contains scenes of graphic intimacy and violence that are not intended for younger readers. Also, please note that the hero in this book is not human-looking and possesses an appearance and attributes that may not be comfortable for some readers to read about.

Newberry Honour Award Winner & National Book Award Winner. Matt is six years old when he discovers that he is different from other children and other people. To most, Matt isn't considered a boy at all, but a beast, dirty and disgusting. But to El Patron, lord of a country called Opium, Matt is the guarantee of eternal life. El Patron loves Matt as he loves himself - for Matt is himself. They share the exact same DNA. As Matt struggles to understand his existence and what that existence truly means, he is threatened by a host of sinister and manipulating characters, from El Patron's power-hungry family to the brain-deadened eejits and mindless slaves that toil Opium's poppy fields. Surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards, escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But even escape is no guarantee of freedom . . . because Matt is marked by his difference in ways that he doesn't even suspect. Praise for The House of Scorpions: 'It's a pleasure to read science fiction that's full of warm, strong characters... that doesn't rely on violence as the solution to complex problems of right and wrong. It's a pleasure to read.' Ursula K. LeGuin 'Fabulous' Diana Wynne Jones Also by Nancy Farmer: The Sea of Trolls Land of the Silver Apples The Islands of the Blessed The Lord of Opium

A desperate escape from a prison cell inside an alien research facility leaves Joanie in the clutches of an alien with a handsome face, a great body, and tentacles that could have come out of a horror movie. Her life back on Earth is a mess, but nowhere near as complicated as her new situation becomes when the alien test subject named Nemon decides that she's his mate.Nemon knows that Joanie is the mate he's hoping for as soon as Thrax hands her to him, but he can also see that she's frightened and traumatized. He must win a battle against his own body-which has a mind of its own-to maintain control, so he can win her trust and avoid frightening her further. His newfound friends warn him that Joanie will need time to accept him, and Nemon is willing to wait, but they all may have underestimated Joanie.They have escaped their fate as Iriduan test subjects, but Nemon and Joanie can't escape the legacy left behind by their captors. A legacy that brings them together-a legacy that also threatens to tear them apart.Author's Note: 18+ This book contains explicit steamy scenes between a human heroine and an alien with tentacles.

"The book celebrates the intrinsic worth of all plants and animals in order to motivate people in a unified effort to preserve the Earth's rich array of life forms."--Cover.

Beavers stay loyal for life. Scorpions attract their partners with a romantic dance. Male humpback whales sing together for days at a time to bring females from many miles away. This illustrated compendium is based on questions asked by children in sexuality education classes. It is frank, humorous, and with something to amaze on every page, including seduction methods, physiology and mating, the most devoted fathers in the animal kingdom, and the sweetest animal babies on Earth.

When Cass is abducted by aliens, her first experience with extraterrestrials quickly turns from surreal into a nightmare that only grows more terrifying when an alien with a snake-like lower body and a surprisingly handsome face comes to her rescue. But Cass isn't sure she's actually safe with him, because he looks at her with hunger in his eyes.Nahash has always been a loyal, honorable Iriduan soldier, but after scientists performed drastic alterations to his biology using genetic engineering, they told him he was free from the affliction that caused Iriduan males to imprint on a single female, bonding him to her for life. He isn't prepared when he bonds instantly to a human female he rescues during a raid on a pirate colony. Now, he's stuck with her, because if he isn't exposed to his mate's scent on a regular basis, he will die. The fact that his body craves her as much as it needs her fills him with resentment, but when he realizes that the Iriduan Empire will do anything to keep her under their control because of what she means to him, he doesn't hesitate to protect his mate-even if it means betraying his people.He makes a desperate escape with his mate from the Iriduan Empire, but the galaxy proves to be a dangerous place and there are worse things than the Iriduans waiting in the darkness of space. With no one to rely on except for each other, Nahash and Cass might not live long enough to find a home where they can settle down and explore the love that grows between them-love that takes them beyond their physical bond.Author's Note: 18+ Contains steamy scenes between a human heroine and a very alien hero.

The natural world is filled with diverse—not to mention quirky and odd—animal behaviors. Consider the male praying mantis that continues to mate after being beheaded; the spiders, insects, and birds that offer gifts of food in return for sex; the male hip-pocket frog that carries his own tadpoles; the baby spiders that dine on their mother; the beetle that craves excrement; or the starfish that sheds an arm or two to escape a predator's grasp. Headless Males Make Great Lovers and Other Unusual Natural Histories celebrates the extraordinary world of animals with essays on curious creatures and their amazing behaviors. In five thematic chapters, Marty Crump—a tropical field biologist well known for her work with the reproductive behavior of amphibians—examines the bizarre conduct of animals as they mate, parent, feed, defend themselves, and communicate. Crump's enthusiasm for the unusual behaviors she describes-from sex change and free love in sponges to aphrodisiac concoctions in bats-is visible on every page, thanks to her skilled storytelling, which makes even sea slugs, dung beetles, ticks, and tapeworms fascinating and appealing. Steeped in biology, Headless Males Make Great Lovers points out that diverse and unrelated animals often share seemingly bizarre behaviors—evidence, Crump argues, that these natural histories, though outwardly weird, are successful ways of living. Illustrated throughout, and filled with vignettes of personal and scientific interest, Headless Males Make Great Lovers will enchant the general reader with its tales of blood-squirting horned lizards and intestine-ejecting sea cucumbers—all in the service of a greater appreciation of the diversity of the natural histories of animals.