CHAPTER 1

Jackpot

T rixie couldn’t sit still. Her excitement was through the roof. Or should she say, through the top layer of the spaceship she was on?

She felt like one of those bouncing balls she had been so fond of as a child; if set loose, she would bounce off one silvery metal wall after another incessantly. She wasn’t a prisoner in this tiny cabin, but the only surface she could jump on was the bed by the left wall. And at just 4 feet and 8 inches tall, getting up there was impossible. Also, the blue jelly-like substance on the bed might not be as bouncy as a mattress.

Pacing would have to do. It had driven her personal pilot crazy, but now that she was in her cabin, Trixie could pace like a caged tiger as much as she wanted. Let the surly Gaenthian have the cockpit all to himself; she’d had enough of the endless blackness through the porthole. The view of outer space from her cabin’s tiny illuminator was terrifying enough. So much nothingness out there, and she was but a speck of dust amid it all.

“Milady,” the pilot spoke through the ship’s comms system, his English great thanks to alien tech, “we are ten Terran minutes away from the station.”

“Eeep!” Trixie stopped pacing and went to the illuminator. Apparently, she couldn’t see either the space station or Jupiter from this side of the ship. Well, she might as well use the reflective surface to check herself out.

Her short pink curls were in order. The glitter eyeshadow made her pale skin sparkle and accentuated her blue eyes. The silver climber earrings gave her a stylish look. The low neckline of her long fuchsia jumpsuit was in the right place, so there would be no flashing her fated mate by accident. Although wearing pants would already make enough of an impression, given how prudish Gaenthian fashion was. Let her husband-to-be know from the get-go that she wasn’t one to play by the rules, when his society was all about rules as well as honor and propriety.

Jeez . This was happening! For an avid sci-fi romance reader who had been single for two years, getting hitched to an alien was like a dream come true. Never mind the fact that Trixie had never seen or talked to the guy. The extraterrestrial AI known as the ASI, which had played matchmaker for them, made no mistakes when saying two individuals were an ideal match in body and soul. Vrixiel of the Pointed Horn Clan was her fated mate – niel , as Gaenthians called that special someone. Adapting to life on a space station wouldn’t be easy, but it was worth it for a male that would love her and dote on her till death did them part.

And Gaenthians were known to be husband material. Out of all alien species in the Intergalactic Alliance, they alone had volunteered to leave troops in the Solar System to protect humans from their own stupidity. A.k.a. the impossible-to-close Black Portal that scientists had accidentally created next to Mars and that evil extraterrestrials occasionally came through. All that the Gaenthians wanted in exchange for keeping Earth safe was that every unmarried woman got entered into the ASI’s database and went to her Gaenthian fated mate once the AI found a match.

Trixie couldn’t speak for other women, but to her that clause in the Earth-Gaenthia Treaty was like an obligation to participate in the lottery for the rest of her life. Without having to pay a single cent for the daily chance to win the jackpot. While the majority of the human population had freaked out at the news three years ago that not only were aliens real but there was an entire Intergalactic Alliance of them out there, Trixie had been ecstatic. She had been so ready for the aliens to reveal themselves ever since her first sci-fi romance novel at the age of 19, and in the seven years since then she had amassed quite the sticker collection to prove it. Ready to be abducted and Beam me up, daddy had been stuck on the back of her e-reader for years.

Still, Trixie hadn’t truly believed she would be picked for a Gaenthian’s bride. She had been hopeful, but what were the chances of an “ideal match in body” when she was a little person and all Gaenthian males she’d seen in the media were inhumanly tall hunks? She was into the size difference trope, but this was real life where the only big things fitting into seemingly-too-tight spaces were cats.

“Milady,” sounded over the comms, “we are five minutes away from the station. Would you be so kind as to strap in?”

“Roger that, Captain Salphius.”

Unbelievable or not, this was happening. In five minutes, Trixie would be meeting her fated mate! She was getting married, and aboard an alien space station next to Jupiter at that!

Only that reality decided to intrude on her fairy tale in the form of a tall seat levitating by the bed. Trixie had no way of sitting there, let alone strapping in. She would have to return to the cockpit and ask the pilot to lift her up into the co-pilot seat for the landing. “Ugh. Terrifying porthole view, here I come.” Hopefully, the space station would be hiding most of the blackness out there.

Once out of the cabin, she turned left, made five steps down the corridor of silvery metal, and was already at the door to the cockpit. The large black circle slid to the side before she could knock .

“Milady.” The pilot was at her side in a single flap of his impressive feathery wings. “May I assist you in strapping in?”

Trixie couldn’t help but smile. “Why yes, you may.” Gaenthians and their old-fashioned way of talking… It was adorable.

While Salphius made sure she was seated properly for the landing, Trixie found herself studying him. His yellow skin tone and two horns pointing straight up from his black hair meant he was a member of the Bihorn Clan. Just like the two Gaenthians who had come to pick her up from work with the news of her mating. The pilot had dark-green eyes matching the color of his uniform, which was so form-fitting it might as well be painted on his body, leaving only his hands and feet bare. If it weren’t for his clawed toes, pointed ears, horns, and feathery wings, he could pass for a bodybuilding contestant spray-tanned in yellow.

“Thank you, Captain.”

He just nodded as he double-checked her X-crossed safety straps. He was scowling, giving her the same grumpy vibe as when he had welcomed her aboard.

Trixie had her fingers crossed for her mate not being the grump to her sunshine. She loved a grouchy hero in romance, but in real life she found such people emotionally draining. Judging by the polite but surly behavior of the pilot during the several hours they had spent together in the cockpit, he found her bubbly personality draining, too .

What would her fated mate be like? All she knew was that Vrixiel was a decorated soldier of the Pointed Horn Clan in his late thirties. Which told her only that he was some ten years older than her, green-skinned and with horns pointing up. Neither the pilot nor the two Gaenthians tasked with escorting her from work to the spaceport knew Vrixiel; they weren’t talkative anyway.

Well, Trixie would find out in mere minutes. She would be out of this seat and off the spaceship the second they landed. It wasn’t nice to keep the groom waiting, right? She grinned inwardly.

As Salphius took over from the AI pilot, Trixie risked a look through the elongated rectangular porthole in front of her. Wow . She had seen photos of Gaethians’ military station next to Jupiter, one out of several in the Solar System, but to have it right before her eyes… “Wicked!”

“Wicked, milady?” The pilot sounded shocked. “This station is the exact opposite of evil. Here is where the Commander of Gaenthia’s army in the Solar System resides, directing our troops to where any space danger to Terra originates. There may not be as many soldiers here as there are on the station next to Venus, but there are enough of us to keep any evil at bay.”

“I meant no offense, Captain. I was trying to say that the station is pretty cool.”

It truly was. Cue three rings of silvery metal and shining lights one over the other, the top one being the biggest and the bottom one, the smallest. There was a pole running through the centers of those rings, probably connecting them to each other. Like bagels around a stick, basically, just ginormous in size. Add the huge orange planet in the background, and the view became mind-blowing.

“The station is not cool, milady. The temperature is optimal for all humans residing there, I can assure you. Our AI systems ensure no one is cold in space.”

Trixie didn’t bother explaining her slang to him this time around. “Nice,” was all she said, then she silently watched their entry into the side of the top bagel.

Down a huge corridor they flew, blinking lights guiding them forward and into a landing bay straight out of a science fiction movie. Aircraft of various forms and sizes filled the cavernous space, and there was still space left for several Millennium Falcons. Workers, some of them from Gaenthia and others from planets Trixie didn’t even know the name of, were milling about with levitating platforms following them around to load or unload stuff. They didn’t bat an eye – or three – when Salphius flew the ship over their heads.

He had to be following the pulsing lights along the bright metal floor, but Trixie decided not to ask so as not to distract the pilot. Her being unusually quiet also had to do with her nerves starting to act up. She was so far from everything and everyone she knew. Now she understood better those heroines who felt overwhelmed after ending up on an alien planet despite being in the company of the local stud muffins. This situation was intimidating as fuck. The only thing that could make it better was–

“There!” Standing at attention next to a landing area pulsing with yellow light was a single green-skinned Gaenthian. “It’s him!”

“Milady, please remain seated–Milady!”

It was too late. She was already out of the safety straps and off her seat. With the ship having moved into position for landing, she could no longer see her fated mate through the porthole, so why stay? Patience was a virtue she did not possess.

Surprisingly, Salphius did not try to keep her inside the cockpit. After a resigned sigh, he opened the door for her with a voice command.

“Thanks, Salph!” Trixie rushed down the corridor past her cabin and the pilot’s to reach the cargo hold where the exit hatch was located. She positioned herself in front of the round door and tried to catch her breath while waiting for the landing. Her heart was beating like crazy. Her pulse was drumming in her ears. Her palms were sweaty as she smoothed her satin jumpsuit down.

Then the hatch began to slowly slide aside.

“Fucking hell, this is truly happening!” Trixie bounced in place twice, giddy with excitement and nerves. “Dear husband,” she muttered to herself, “hope you’re ready for your awesome wife.”