Chapter 1

ONE

You are cordially invited to a special event.

Please activate the holo-device for further information.

Bea stared at the invitation, turning the black card over and over in her hands. It was made of thick, textured card and embossed with silver lettering—the sort of thing that was rare to see these days, as everything was done electronically.

She’d already watched the holo several times. It was surreal to find herself sitting in front of a fully realized, horned, elegantly attired Kordolian, complete with long white hair and golden eyes and a regal manner about him.

This Xalikian Kazharan, who Bea understood was some sort of imperial prince from the bad old Kordolian days—before their own military staged an almighty coup and changed the Universal Order big time—was surprisingly polished for a representative of an alien species that was supposed to be brutal and ruthless.

But after her recent dealings with Kordolians, she knew they weren’t what most humans thought.

They were more layered, more complex.

Like practically everything that existed in this Universe.

Bea sighed and leaned back against her soft, comfy couch. It was a family hand-me-down that she’d had reupholstered in emerald green velvet to fit in with the eclectic interior of her small apartment.

Her little sanctuary of normalcy, so far removed from the madness she’d witnessed a few days ago at her workplace—Garner Tower, headquarters of Garner Corporation, a big, powerful entity that was now... fucked.

And she was out of a job.

“ Hah.” A puff of exasperation escaped her lips.

What the hell had that been all about?

She could hardly believe it.

Led by a freaking high commander , the Kordolians had arrived in the lobby of Garner Tower without any announcement and demanded to see the CEO himself.

As the Head Receptionist, Bea was given no choice but to manage them until an outcome was achieved.

Said outcome ended up being the imminent destruction of the entire Garner Corporation on account of their boss’s arrogance and obstruction. She didn’t understand all the details, but even she had known from the start it was not a good idea to antagonize Kordolians.

Especially those directly connected to the top.

Didn’t Garner understand that he actually had no power here? That the Kordolians parked just outside Earth’s atmosphere owned enough firepower to turn Earth into dust if they wanted?

Even she knew that, and Bea didn’t tune in to the Networks all that often.

Maybe trillionaires didn’t follow the news at all.

She ran her finger over the textured card, feeling the smooth undulations, marveling that they had produced something with such subtle messaging.

Her good friend Clarissa had received one of these invitations, too. Poor thing, she’d been agonizing over it for the past few days on account of the fact that the Kordolian general who’d turned up to Garner Tower was actually interested in her.

That guy. Armored, ripped, tough, gruff, bald, and overall dangerous-looking.

He wanted to get involved with her friend, and he wasn’t messing around.

And Clarissa, Garner’s former Personal Assistant—always composed, polished, and impeccable, with never a hair out of place or less-than-perfect makeup—had actually seemed interested in the guy.

And he acted obscenely gentlemanly around her.

Bea closed her eyes and thought back to that wild day. She couldn’t shake off the memory of another Kordolian, a quiet, deceptively mild-mannered male called Mavrel.

In all their interactions, he’d been terribly polite, even though she’d witnessed others catching the pointy end of his remarks.

He could be dry and sarcastic at times, but never to her.

Whenever she’d caught sight of him, a tiny frisson of anticipation would dance through her, even though she tried so hard to convince herself it was just her imagination.

She had a sneaking inkling that the invitation that had landed on her kitchen table—suspiciously, when she was out, when the doors and windows were locked—had something to do with that smooth, sneaky, know-it-all Kordolian.

She hadn’t told Clarissa yet. She probably should, but her friend was already caught up in knots over something that should be so simple, and Bea didn’t want to get in the way of whatever was starting to grow between Clarissa and Jerik .

Former High Commander in the Kordolian Imperial Military.

Holy crap.

Ordinarily, there would be thousands of alarm bells ringing, but Clarissa had heard from a friend of a friend about a human woman who’d gotten into a relationship with one of the silver-skinned aliens.

Apparently, the aliens practically worshipped their partners.

So she had done nothing but encourage Clarissa, who was an impenetrable perfectionist with notoriously high standards and no idea of how to navigate romantic relationships—until now.

It would probably take someone like a Kordolian High Commander to crack through her defenses, so Bea let it be.

Now, it was time to focus on herself.

She was out of a job, but that wasn’t a problem. With her skills, in this existing market, she could find something easily.

What couldn’t be found so easily was a male partner who met her own exacting standards.

The Kordolian takeover of Earth was inevitable. She might as well be on the right side of it.

Besides, she was curious.

Who wouldn’t turn down an invitation like this?

It was time to focus on herself.

To enjoy herself a little.

She pressed a tiny button on the small black holo-device.

“To accept, simply indicate your preference.”

“ Okay, sure,” Bea said. “I accept.”

The small metal device glowed blue for a moment as if beaming its approval.

“We are honored by the confirmation of your presence.”

For an event organized by an advanced, all-powerful, militarily superior race, their RSVP process was surprisingly comfortable.

They must’ve had human input, surely.

Perhaps she should be a little suspicious—it could be some sort of trap, after all—but Bea wasn’t too worried.

On that day, when the Kordolians entered Garner Tower, they could have shut down the entire place in minutes. Could have just taken what they wanted.

Could have killed all the human mercs that had gone in to try and mess things up in Garner’s favor.

But they hadn’t.

Considering what they were capable of, they’d been impressively restrained.

Even Mavrel, who’d been held hostage at some point. He must never have really felt he was in danger because the entire time, he’d been as cool as a cucumber.

They hadn’t killed anyone that day.

They’d tried to do things the human way until Garner fucked it all up.

Bea almost felt a little bit sorry for them and for Mavrel, who had seemed so earnest in his interactions with her.

So she didn’t mind attending some fancy cultural event at their behest.

Her curiosity was piqued, and besides, she wanted to surprise her good friend Clarissa and offer her moral support in the event that things went either awry or well for her… with that scary Kordolian ex-commander.

She rarely got a chance to dress up these days, anyway. The invitation had specified formal attire.

What fun.

She couldn’t wait to slay.