Chapter 1

1

Jenna would never tire of being able to walk outside. No matter what the weather, she went out every day, even if only for a few minutes. The freedom to move under an open sky and breathe air that had never been recycled was a gift she would never take for granted.

Mornings were her favorite time to go out. Sometimes she'd wake up early enough to watch the sun rise. Seeing the sky lighten as color returned to the world reminded her of how she felt the first time she'd stepped foot on this planet. Until that moment, her existence had been all shades of gray. Now she knew there was more to life than her old self ever imagined. She reveled in every new experience, even the ones that scared her. Adjusting to a life under an open sky hadn't been easy. Not to mention that the dangerous wildlife and plants on this world gave her occasional nightmares.

Despite it all, Haven was everything she'd never dared to hope for, and so much more. Here, she could live instead of simply surviving. If she ever had to go back…

No . She tried to stop that line of thought before it could get any traction. If it happened, she'd find a way to cope. She always did. She might not have thrived in every situation the universe tossed at her, but she'd survived.

The little voice in the back of her head refused to be silenced. But what if survival isn't enough? What if I want more than that?

The thought tore through her like a comet plowing through an asteroid field—bright, beautiful, and leaving nothing but chaos in its wake. Her stride faltered, and the beautiful morning lost some of its color. But only for a moment.

She spoke her next words aloud, though softly enough that no one else could hear. "This is my home now. I'm never going back. I'm a full-fledged member of the colony."

The reminder helped. She and the other women selected to join Haven colony had completed the introductory training and assessment stage a week ago. Only a handful had washed out of the program along the way, with a single person opting to return to Earth. The others who hadn't made it were on their way to Defiance Station, out in the Drift. The station was still under construction, but Siva and the others had been offered jobs as support staff for the logistical infrastructure already in place.

They couldn't wait to get off the planet and back to a self-contained station. From her perspective, they were trading paradise for purgatory. Siva had laughed when she said so and pointed out that to some of the new arrivals, Haven was hell. The higher gravity, open skies, and even the weather had been too much for them to adapt to.

She'd miss them all. Well, most of them. Her lips pursed in a momentary grimace as she thought about the one person she would not miss. Reni. Unlike the others, Reni wouldn't be going back to Earth or out to the Drift. She was in a cell somewhere, locked away from everyone, including the mysterious cabal who had recruited her to spy for them.

Everyone was shocked when the news broke that another spy had been sent to Haven. The rest of the group had spent days and nights talking about it, trying to understand why she'd done it and how she'd been caught.

Jenna had speculated right along with them, her fury at the betrayal as real as everyone else's. The difference was she'd already figured out what Reni was up to. They'd been given the same offer by the same people back on Earth. But while Reni had chosen to accept it, Jenna had made a different choice. She'd risked her seat on the ship to Haven by reporting the offer a few hours after she'd received it.

Instead of losing her chance to escape, the Vardarians gave her an opportunity to protect her new home. She had to pretend to spy for this other group and report everything back to the Vardarians. She'd agreed, which made her the most unlikely double agent in existence.

The trouble with thinking too much was that you missed what was going on around you. While she'd been lost in thought, she'd managed to cover most of the distance to her destination. Winged forms soared overhead as the older children made their way to the education center. Laughter filled the air as they swooped and dove with reckless disregard for gravity or personal space.

The sidewalks were almost as busy as the air above as children too young to fly walked and chattered to each other, some of them looking up with obvious envy. None of them were human children, but the similarities struck her more so than the differences. Their laughter was high and light as they looked around with bright, curious expressions. A few looked dejected, their footsteps plodding and slow as they trudged along, some being coaxed by their parents or older siblings.

It was all so familiar, only this time she wasn't bringing her charges to school for the day. This time, she'd be joining them as one of their teachers.

Her being a teacher was almost as unbelievable as being a spy, yet here she was.

Several of the children, or younglings as the Vardarians called them, eyed her curiously as they entered the center's grounds. With less than fifty ordinary humans on the entire planet, she wasn't surprised by their interest. Oh, plenty of cyborgs were around. Several hundred, in fact. And every single one of them was physically perfect—not just in function but in appearance.

She often wondered if that had been deliberate or if the corporations that created the cybernetic soldiers had never intended for their creations to be as beautiful as they were deadly.

A silver-scaled Vardarian with blonde hair streaked with silver and a bright smile popped out of a doorway and hurried over to meet her. "You're right on time. Trying to make a good impression on your first day?" Director Saska Firt spoke in one of the more common dialects of Vardarian, but Jenna understood every word.

She shook her head and replied in the same language. "I think it would take more than that to impress you, Saska. I'm a morning person. Starting the day is easy for me. It's the long, sleepy stretch at the end of the evening that is always a challenge." She turned to smile at her new administrator. "Any last-minute advice for the newbie?"

Saska's pale green eyes gleamed with amusement as she lowered her voice to a playful whisper. "Don't be fooled by their adorable faces. All younglings are the same, no matter what species. If they sense weakness, they will exploit it. Stay strong."

Jenna nodded. "I'll do my best."

Saska patted her on the shoulder. "I know you will. You might be new to teaching, but you have years of experience under your wings. Oops." She winced. "Sorry. Wrong idiom. What do your people say? Under your feet?"

"Belt. We say under our belt." Jenna wrinkled her nose as she considered the expression. "I don't know why. To my mind, wings sounds much better."

The Vardarian female chuckled. "I would agree, but that would make me seem biased. Since you are the language expert, I will simply defer to your opinion."

Jenna still wasn't used to hearing herself described that way. On Earth, most people tried to minimize her abilities. They referenced her "knack for languages," or summarized her years of study as an interesting talent. On Earth everyone spoke Galactic Common no matter what hive city they lived in, which limited her usefulness, or so she was told.

She knew they were lying to her. Life in a hive city was predicated on power. The more you had, the more you lied and manipulated to keep it while gaining more. She'd never had any power at all, but she'd spent her entire adult life working for people who did. It left her with a collection of hard-earned lessons and a deep dislike for liars of any kind.

Including herself. Because that's what she was—a liar. Oh sure, it was for the best of reasons. She was doing her part to protect the colony and everyone in it, but that didn't change the facts.

Liar. Liar. Pants on fire. The children's ditty ran through her mind. Another strange saying from humanity's distant past. She didn't even know where she'd picked it up. Probably from one of the children she'd looked after. It wasn't likely she'd learned it during her own childhood. She tried not to dwell on those memories too much. Life in a corporate-sponsored care center provided her with food, shelter, and an education, but little else worth remembering.

Jenna realized her mind had wandered and refocused her attention on what Saska was saying. "… know you've toured the complex several times, but if you get turned around, you can always get directions from the central system."

"I'll remember that." Jenna doubted she'd get lost in the neatly laid out space. Vardarian architecture tended toward wide open spaces and flowing lines that felt both organic and logical.

"Good luck today. Your classroom is that way. I should get back to work…"

Whatever else Saska was about to say was drowned out by several delighted shrieks and cheers from above. Several late arrivals scattered to make way for an adult Vardarian male who approached the grounds from a dive so steep and fast she couldn't imagine how he'd stop in time to avoid getting hurt.

Jenna gasped, but Saska uttered a sound somewhere between a grunt and a sigh. "Typical. Torren will be late for his own funeral. Which will no doubt be brought about because he crashed into something while flying too fast."

"That's a teacher ?" she asked. Her eyes were still locked on the male. At the last second, he extended his wings, catching the air and letting him turn his fall into an elegant swoop that ended with him soaring a short distance before setting down in an open space.

Saska huffed. "That is Torren Vex. He teaches science to the younger classes and chemistry to the senior students. Come on. I'll introduce you. That way you'll know who to blame when your classroom fills up with strange smelling smoke at some point. Believe me. It will happen."

Jenna watched with interest as he folded back his wings, making them vanish beneath the back of his loose-fitting tunic. The morning sunlight glinted off golden scales as he turned from the still cheering students to meet Saska's disapproving gaze.

Instead of looking apologetic, the male grinned and raised both wings in what she'd learned was the Vardarian version of a shrug.

Damn, he was hot. Exactly the kind of man she'd avoided back on Earth. It didn't matter that his long hair was tied back in a neat ponytail with only a few strands falling loose to frame a face that might have been sculpted by a master artisan. His clothes were relatively mundane by Vardarian standards, a simple black sleeveless top with only a bit of simple blue stitching along the rounded collar set over a pair of black pants.

It mattered not a whit that he looked neat, tidy, and professional. She knew what he was.

Trouble.

And stars above and below, he was staring at her like she was the last piece of bacon at a breakfast buffet.

" Mahaya ." He uttered the word with utter conviction and a hint of wonder, his voice so low it was more rumble than speech.

Jenna froze. What? No. This was her first day at her new job. She wasn't… this couldn't… fraxx .

Of course it could happen. It was happening. She'd been warned often enough. She just never imagined it would happen to her .

Saska looked from Torren to Jenna and back again, both brows raised almost to her hairline in shock. Then she swore softly and uttered a sigh. "Right then. I need to rearrange the schedules and find two beings to substitute for the two of you. I expect both of you to resume your duties next week once you get this…" She moved her hands through the air between them. "Sorted out. Good luck and congratulations."

Saska walked away, leaving Jenna standing with a tall, handsome as hell stranger… Who was apparently her fraxxing mate.