ORDINARY PEOPLE. EXTRAORDINARY HEROES... This all-new fantasy anthology features thirteen original stories about ordinary or inexperienced people learning to become extraordinary heroes. From the shape shifter Esen-alit-Quar who is forced unexpectedly into her first solo mission to the young man sworn to defeat a pack of lycanthropes, these heroes in training are thrown into exciting adventures that demand nothing short of all that is in them.

Though persistently overshadowed by the Great War in historical memory, the two Balkan conflicts of 1912–1913 were among the most consequential of the early twentieth century. By pitting the states of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro against a diminished Ottoman Empire—and subsequently against one another—they anticipated many of the horrors of twentieth-century warfare even as they produced the tense regional politics that helped spark World War I. Bringing together an international group of scholars, this volume applies the social and cultural insights of the “new military history” to revisit this critical episode with a central focus on the experiences of both combatants and civilians during wartime.

The world of Slavic immortals has never been darker As they try to uncover the creature behind a brutal mass murder of White werewolves, Rose and her pack are drawn into the beginning of a war that is not designed for mortals. Not even those of the supernatural variety. Because the nature of the killings obstructs the normal passage of souls, the lord of the underworld reaches out. With his aid, Rose learns of the pack's true lineage, but accepting the truth seems just as hard as resisting the sultry, arrogant god. If they want to prevent more deaths, the pack must ascend to The Dark Ones. Only their rise to power would not be without consequences. Will the pack risk incurring the immortal community's wrath - or let a murderer walk free?

Rose knows she's running on borrowed time. Tendrils of dark magic are twisting their way into Ljubljana's underbelly, her father's brethren out for her blood. The Dark Ones are not only powerless to prevent Rose's title of Death incarnate from spreading through the community, but their struggle to maintain peace among the supes is spiraling down at a neck-breaking pace. Since anybody who stands with the pack is guilty by association, the only choice the werewolves have left is to let their lethal nature surface. Turning into what they had sworn not to become is, after all, a small price to pay to keep those they love from being executed.

The ascension to The Dark Ones had brought Rose and her pack power. But it had also brought peril. With the higher immoral circles assessing their every move, they have to keep their heads low and their presence within the wider community beneficial. So when someone starts targeting the twentyfourhourlies, the werewolves come to their aid. But what had first been an assignment to remain in their leaders' good graces, becomes a mission the pack know they will follow through to the end. Even if it means doing the one thing they had sworn to avoid. Showing their true strength.

The pack knows Ljubljana's sun-kissed streets will taste the touch of death. Whether they will walk upon them victorious or mar them with their own blood is a guess nobody dares to make. Caged in the promise of war and with enemy forces pressing in from all sides, they struggle to keep ahead of the Upirs' twisted game. But when the opposition changes the rules, the pack must face a harsh truth. The only way they can hope to fight chaos is with chaos of their own. But will their actions be any kinder to the world from what the Upirs hope to unleash? Or will they bury humanity in the rubble of battle all the same?.