Chapter 1

Lavender Linton, Earth

“We are herefor the female. Leave. This human is nothing to you.” The creepy cyborg stood in front of me, blocking any chance I had of getting up off the couch and making a run for the door. I was trapped, had been since he and his cyborg friends burst into the apartment.

I wasn’t sure who I was more terrified of, him, or the massive Atlan beast who’d smashed through the door, shouted ‘Mine’, and proceeded to kill the cyborg’s two friends with his bare hands.

There was blood everywhere. Everywhere.

Was I in shock? Or just the dumbest human alive? I should have tried to run when the big guy showed up and the three Hive were distracted. Instead, I’d crouched on the couch like a frightened little mouse, frozen with fear.

I assumed the alien cyborgs who’d broken into my apartment an hour ago were the infamous Hive everyone had been speculating about since the day the Interstellar Coalition of Planets showed up on Earth a few years ago offering protection from the big, bad Hive threat. Only catch? The Coalition wanted soldiers to fight their war, and brides for their male warriors, guys like this gigantic Atlan standing here in full armor, making my living room look microscopic.

“Mine.” The Atlan didn’t appear to have a large or eloquent vocabulary. Whatever. What I could see of his face inside his helmet was handsome enough, I’d give him that. But I had no desire to go anywhere with either one of the aliens. I had no idea what they wanted. Why they were here. This had to be a mistake. Maybe I fell asleep on the couch and this was a nightmare induced by watching too many bad sci-fi movies.

With a growl, the Atlan advanced on the cyborg standing in front of me. The cyborg blasted him with his space gun, burning through the armor in places. More blood. More ooze. The Atlan didn’t even slow down.

Jeeeezus. Like shooting a bear with a BB gun. The shots seemed to do nothing but piss him off. The cyborg retreated toward me, the backs of his legs hit the couch.

Shit! I scooted out of his way, which was no small task since the stupid cyborgs had bound my hands before they started interrogating me.

They had the wrong girl. I had no clue what the hell they wanted, what they were looking for, or why they were bothering with me. I was a nobody, a vet tech living with her sister in a tiny apartment. They were asking about images from a fight club. My sister was the photographer, not me. Not that I was going to tell these assholes a word about her. I’d rather die than tell the aliens something that would get my sister hurt or killed.

I must have made a noise when I moved because the cyborg turned to look at me.

Oh no.

He lifted his space gun and pointed the weapon between my eyes.

Shit. I was dead. Thought I’d be more upset. Seemed since there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it, my brain was oddly calm about the whole thing. Maybe I’d be reincarnated as a rich, famous movie star. Or an eagle. A dolphin? That would be cool.

Poor Lark. My sister was going to be so upset.

“No!” The Atlan lunged. I closed my eyes and prayed it wouldn’t hurt too much.

The cyborg fired.

The wall exploded behind me.

Did he miss? How? I blinked in shock to find the cyborg kneeling on our glass coffee table. That wasn’t smart. The table was cheap. Thin. And he was huge.

The glass shattered and the cyborg dropped to the ground on top of the shards.

The Atlan stepped forward and wrapped his hands around the cyborg’s neck. They stared at each other.

“Kill me.” Was the cyborg begging for death. Why? Why would he do such a thing? What the hell was happening? The Atlan stared at him for an eternity. He’d just ripped the other two cyborgs to pieces. Why was he hesitating now?

He looked sad as he wrapped his hands around the cyborgs head.

Guess the cyborg changed his mind again because he lifted his space gun and fired point blank into the Atlan’s thigh.

One twist of the Atlan’s giant hands and the cyborg’s neck broke in a series of audile cracking noises. The Atlan dropped him like a sack of potatoes and stared at me, his gaze lingering on the bindings around my wrists. I pulled my bare feet up beneath me on the brown sofa cushion and tried to think. Who were these aliens? Why were they here? What the actual fuck was going on? Start with the basics. Yes? “Who are you?”

The helmet on his armor retracted to reveal his face. Handsome? Sure. Didn’t mean I wanted anything to do with him.

“We go. Now. More Hive come.”

Moreof those things? Coming here? They’d get Larkspur when she got home. My sister would walk into a death trap. “What? No way. I can’t leave.”

“Where–images–fight?”

“Damn it! I don’t have them!” Frustration burst through me like my entire body was a fuse that had just been lit. I crackled and burned, wondered when the fire would reach the built-up pressure inside my chest and I’d explode. What was I supposed to do? Where were the images from the fight? That was the same question the Hive asked me over, and over, and over. What fight? What images? I had no idea.

Trembling muscles made me grit my teeth as tears crouched behind my eyes waiting to pounce. Dead bodies. Aliens. Blood. I was tied up wearing nothing by my sister’s blue nightie. I’d been munching on popcorn watching my favorite baking show when the Hive showed up.

“We go.”

The Atlan seemed to lose half his energy, his body slowed, movements stilted. Blood and goo oozed out of him from all the injuries. The space guns made nasty burns. He had to be in extreme pain.

I was shaking my head when he stepped forward and put a button looking thing about the size of a large coin in my hand. He wrapped my fingers around it and pulled me to my feet. Before I could protest, he wrapped his arms around me in a giant bear hug.

Well, shit. What was I going to do? Try to fight him off? Like that was going to happen when my nose barely reached his sternum and his arms were like steel bands around me. Stay here with three dead, alien bodies? Another no. I could call the cops. In fact, I would have to call the police and report this. Maybe he would take me to the leader of the Atlans and I could find out what was going on. I’d have to call my sister, give her a heads up before she walked into this mess. But that would be easy. All I needed was my cell phone. Where was my phone?

I twisted, searching through the shattered glass, dead bodies and gore for my phone. Damn it. I always did this, lost it. Set it down and forgot where it was.

I opened my mouth to tell the big alien man I needed to find it when three more cyborgs walked through gaping front door.

Oh, god. We were dead.

Ice cold pain lanced through every cell in my body and everything went black.

* * *

The Colony, Medical Station, Five Hours Later

“Miss Linton, you must remain calm.”Their doctor, a huge Prillon warrior called Surnen, looked at me with pity in his eyes. Pity. Oh, look at the poor little human female. Isn’t she sad and cute and in need of protection? The fact that he looked like a walking, talking golden god did not soften my mood. He was gold from head to toe. Even his eyes were a disturbing and very unhuman shade of yellow, pale, like lemonade. I wanted to take that gray mating collar he wore around his neck and strangle him with it. What woman was crazy enough to put up with the condescending, placating, don’t-worry-your-pretty-little-head-about-it way he was talking to me? “If you’d like, I can administer a sleeping agent and you can rest while Warlord Kai completes the healing process.”

No. No to all of it. No to this planet. No to the Atlan, a warlord they’d told me was named Kai, thinking I was his mate. No to staying here. No. Just no.

These aliens had a serious listening problem. Especially the one they called Governor Maxim. Just as big as the doctor, his skin was a dark copper color. His hair was so dark it looked black and his eyes were a darker brown than mine. He was the guy in charge of this place, wherever this place was. Somewhere in outer-fucking-space. And my sister was back on Earth, alone. Someone had to warn her. I had to warn her! “No. You have to take me back.”

“We will discuss the situation with Warlord Kai once he wakens from the ReGen pod.” Governor Maxim’s consoling tone did nothing to improve my mood. In fact, these guys were all pissing me off. And Warlord Kai? He’d apparently put some kind of magical transporter thing in my hand and zapped me directly to another planet.

Poof. We appear on a transport pad on a completely different planet, Kai says ‘mine’ to the guy standing there with his mouth gaping open and passes out cold.

Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful. He saved my life. But now he was putting my sister’s life in danger and none of these aliens were listening to me. They informed me I was Kai’s mate and had to be wherever he was or he’d literally go insane with the Atlan male’s curse, Mating Fever. Every human on Earth who’d read about the Atlans, or watched the international hit show, Bachelor Beast, knew the story. Atlan males, especially the warlords, could only go so long without a mate. After that, they were consumed with pain and the rage of their unmated beast until they lost control and killed anyone and everyone who got in their way. Family. Friends. Didn’t matter once they lost their shit. I didn’t want that to happen to the warlord who’d saved me from the Hive, but I was not his mate. I didn’t want to be, either.

“When will that be?” The door to the room where Kai lay unconscious in one of their high-tech healing pods, their ReGen pod, was open. On the other side of that wall was a massive Atlan warlord who thought I was his mate. Who wanted to claim me. Have sex with me. Put those mating cuffs on me and force me to abandon my sister and live with him here, on another planet. Nope. Not happening.

“I do not know when Warlord Kai will regain consciousness. His injuries were severe.” Doctor Surnen held up what looked like in injector and wiggled it in the air, golden brows raised. Must be the sedative he had been talking about. I shook my head and he put it back on a tray on one of the medical room’s counters.

“Miss Linton, I promise, you are safe here.” Governor Maxim had said this to me no less than a dozen times in the last few hours. “I will ask my mate, Rachel, to show you around and get you some clothing and food. She is from Earth as well. Are you hungry?” So, he was mated to a human woman, too? Explained the copper-colored collar around his neck. His friend’s collar matched. Either they were brothers from the same family, or the third Prillon warrior—another golden skinned male, although he was a darker tone, more gold jewelry than lemonade—glaring at me was the governor’s second, the male he chose to share his female with, in case one of them was killed in battle. So morbid, really.

One of these guys was more than enough for me. Bravo to this woman, Rachel, I had yet to meet, if she was mated to both these guys. Good for her.

“No. I’m not hungry.” I was starving. Tired. How long had I been here? The Hive showed up right before I went to bed. I should have been asleep for hours now and my body felt the lack. “ I mean, yes, but it doesn’t matter. I need to go home.” The blue nightgown I wore wasn’t exactly warm, but the medical team had given me a nice green blanket to wrap up in, so I managed. Still, trying to talk sense into a room full of aliens—all acting like cavemen around the poor, defenseless female—wearing nothing but a thigh length nightie, no bra and spaghetti straps? Didn’t inspire confidence. I felt half naked and at a disadvantage. “Those things are in our apartment and my sister doesn’t know. She’ll be in danger.”

The governor spoke to me like I was a five-year-old and needed to learn basic math. “They were after you. Once you were brought to us, they would have no reason to remain in your living quarters.”

Okay. So, they were trying to protect me. I got that. They were trying to do the right thing for their friend, Kai. I got that, too. But my gut told me I was right and they were wrong. My sister was in danger. “How do you know? What if they’re still there? I need to go home. Now. Right fucking now. I demand you take me back to Earth.”

The governor’s buddy with the matching collar scowled at me. His name started with an R. Ryan? Rice? Something like that. “First, you must tell us where the images are being stored? Commander Helion has fighters ready to retrieve them, we just need the location.”

Not this again. “I don’t know. They’re not mine. I told you. I don’t know where they are. Take. Me. Home.” Their lack of listening skills was about to be a serious problem. Wasn’t there some kind of interstellar law against kidnapping women? There had to be. Did they have lawyers in outer space? “Unless this is actually a kidnapping? Isn’t that against a law or something? Do you aliens even have laws? Or do you just kidnap any woman you want, any time you want?”

“There is no need for you to return to Earth and risk your life. Warlord Kai will take care of you now.” Rice-man, Ryston? Yeah, that was it. Ryston bowed slightly, like I was a queen and he was reporting the weather. A simple fact. Not rearranging my entire life.

“No, he won’t. I don’t know him. I don’t know any of you guys. I don’t know what images you’re talking about. I’ve told you this a hundred times. My sister will be home soon. She works nights at the emergency vet clinic. You have to take me back.”

“The Hive were in your home. They will kill you if you return.” Maxim’s tone had not changed.

“Are you all Neanderthals? Do you understand English? It’s not me I’m worried about! I need to go home.”

Ryston tried to calm me. “I have alerted our assets on Earth. They will make sure your apartment is safe for your sister’s return.”

Great. So, Lark was going to walk into a blood smeared, dead-body apartment with a bunch of aliens waiting for her? “I need to talk to her. She’s going to freak.”

“My lady, apologies. We cannot separate you from your mate. It would be dangerous for everyone involved.” Governor Maxim, the leader of this place, was not budging. Not one bit. Fine.

“Then wake him up.”

Doctor Surnen shook his head. “His injuries were extensive. He was in a lot of pain. We must allow the ReGen pod to do its healing work.”

“I can’t wait. My sister could walk into that mess with those Hive things. She works nights, but she’ll be going home any time now. What time is it on Earth? She gets off at seven. They’ll kill her, too, right? Are those dead bodies still in my apartment?”

“We do not know, my lady,” Doctor Surnen responded.

“Take me back now.” I was so tired of arguing with these guys. So, so tired. I hadn’t slept in at least a day and a half, by my calculations. Not sure, since I was on a different planet. The transport experience had been a bit painful, but I survived. The doctor and his staff had helped me clean up, given me something to drink, and waved the glowing wand all over me. That helped, for a while. Then the poking and prodding started. Scanning. Injections. They stabbed me behind the ear to embed a universal translator thing in my head—totally amazing, it worked instantly—but I’d been sitting here for hours. Arguing. Trying to get them to take me home. I really needed to go home, find Lark and warn her.

“You are Kai’s mate. We can do no such thing. I assure you, the beasts on Earth will ensure her safety.” The governor spoke slowly, like I was the one with the listening problem.

“No, I’m not his mate. I’m not his anything. I’m telling you, there’s been a mistake. I don’t even know him. I’ve never seen him before in my life. Why won’t you guys listen to me?” Could I fight my way out of here? No freaking way. Maybe, if I was fast enough, I could run. They were all massive, bulky males. Maybe I could dart between their legs and make it to the hallway. But then what? I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know how to work their transporter things. I was stuck. Trapped.

“Is she injured?” The deep voice came from the open doorway and I looked up to find Warlord Kai standing there, buck naked.

Holy shit. Everything was big. Muscles. Shoulders. Thighs. And his cock was…hard. Ready. Really, really ready to go. Oh my god, did that actually fit inside any normal human woman? It must. I knew, logically, that human females had become mates to these Atlan guys, but daaaamn.

He stood up straighter, practically shoving his junk toward me like he was proud of it, happy to show off. I felt my cheeks heat. How embarrassing. I was staring.