Catherine Miller

Gullible. Foolish. Weak. She had always done as she was told. She dug in the sands until her fingers bled so that her people could have something to barter. She packed up her sparse belongings without complaint when it was time to flee the Wastes, leaving behind the only home she'd ever known, and the site of the bittersweet memories she carried of her lost family. It was easier that way, to obey and not to question, knowing her own judgement to be faulty. But when her people learn that the exchange for living on alien land and securing their safety is the price of one of their unclaimed women, the limits of her compliance are tested, as she is given in marriage to a man she does not want from a species and clan she does not know. Only to discover that he feels precisely the same about their ill-begotten trade. --- She was a Marzon now. And she had no idea what that meant, other than giving up her clothes, her home, her people, all for a man who like to scowl and grunt and sigh. "By what name shall she be called?" Sladec asked, and she eyed him with confusion. She opened her mouth to answer, to finally inform them both that she most certainly had a name and it was important, no matter what Machrus had said, but the voice that gave answer was not her own. But came from her husband instead. "Renna. Now wife of Machrus of Krahl." --- (Please note that this is the second in the Deridia Series. While reading them in order is suggested, each novel can stand alone.)

Dishonourable. Unwanted.Outsider.Such are the slurs cast upon Rykkon, however undeserved. As the only village healer, his people cannot cast him out entirely, but there is little comfort in such a life when he has long known that no mate from his clan would willingly join with him. It is a lonely fate, but one Rykkon has learned to accept. That is, until one tense exchange between his people and the humans brings him an offer he simply cannot ignore.The humans are not their slaves. Nor their property. Nor of any great concern. But neither are they free. It is by the provisions of the Arterians they scrape out a sorry existence in the Wastes, and by their goodwill alone that they continue to survive. Scavenging for hasart beetles under the two suns is the only life the desperate colonists have known since their ancestors first landed on the desolate planet. It was all they knew. It was all they hoped for.Until one day, a young female dares to ask for more.---"Wait." The entire group stilled, staring at him as he continued to regard the female. She glanced up sharply, her brow furrowed and her gaze cautious. As right it should be. "I will take you for a mate."

For years, Christine Daa has lived a lonely and sheltered life, clinging to memories of happier days when her father lived, and her role at the opera house meant more than simply muddling through. The one token she has left of him she keeps securely on her finger, until a moment of carelessness leads her not to the cherished wedding ring, but to a terrifying murder beneath the stage. The killer is masked, his true identity unknown, and Christine is the only one to have witnessed his activities and lived to contact the authorities. Her testimony is crucial in the lawmen's efforts to track down this elusive killer known only as the Phantom, and when her life is threatened, witness protection remains as the only course that could preserve her for the prosecution. A life of danger and excitement never appealed to Christine, who feels more lost than ever when she's made to forsake her home and what few friendships she's ever formed to start a new life, far from all that was once familiar. But when a certain marshal appears at her door, she has no choice but to accept his help, his protection, and his provision, all while trying to make sense of the strange feelings he seems to instill within her. But danger is ever present, and she must unravel the mysteries not only of the murder she so unfortunately witnessed, but of the troubled past of the man she has come to consider her safe haven. The man she knows only as Erik, U.S. Marshal.

Extortion. Abduction. Murder. Themes not unknown within the pages of Gaston Leroux's original telling of The Phantom of the Opera. But what if the Ghost's eccentric haunting took place within the confines of the modern justice system? Christine Daa is a waitress struggling to make ends meet when a call to jury duty comes as a most inconvenient summons. Though reluctant to participate as income is sparse and shifts at the restaurant hard to come by, she is intrigued by the defendant; a badly deformed man accused of blackmail and homicide. Interaction between defendant and juror is prohibited, but when Christine shares the smallest of smiles with the accused she begins a series of events that place her in the center of conspiracy and danger. As evidence is presented and witnesses brought forth, Christine is distracted by unsettling events outside of the courthouse, as well as a growing suspicion that there is more to the case than first meets the eye. Though the world seems to begrudge his very existence, she begins to feel pity for the accused who is only a man, after all. A man named Erik.