“I have trained, battled, and fought my whole life. But winning my mate’s love is the greatest challenge I have ever faced...” MELANIE After getting dumped on an alien planet and left for dead by Earth’s leaders, I’m learning to adapt and rebuild my life. It’s what I’m good at. Keeping my head down. Surviving. But it turns out it’s kind of hard to keep your head down when the brooding, scarred alien warlord of the new tribe follows you with his glinting golden eyes wherever you go. It gets even harder when you find out you’re supposed to be his mate. Gahn Taliok makes a lot of promises, and I feel drawn to his hungry eyes and scarred body more than I want to admit. But experience has taught me be wary of things that seem too good to be true. I’ve been hurt one too many times. I couldn’t even trust my own people, my own family, on my home planet. How am I supposed to trust an alien warlord from across the universe with my heart? TALIOK With so few women in my tribe, I never imagined a life with a mate. But fate, it seems, had other plans for me. The Lavrika has joined me with a strange and wondrous creature called Melanie. After losing my parents so young, the thought of a mate and a family is a sharp joy I never thought I’d feel. But Melanie does not feel the sacred mate bond for me as I do for her. Even more than that, she looks at me with distrust in her lovely dark eyes. She keeps space between us, and this space hurts more than any scar I’ve ever earned. It is no great matter. I am a diligent and patient Gahn. I will do everything in my power to win her love to me. But as Melanie avoids me at every turn, my doubt begins to grow. This human woman may turn out to be my undoing. I would wait for her forever. But what if no amount of waiting is enough?