The new book I’m working on currently is STAR CRUISE DREAM DANCER and I’ve finally circled around to tell the story of Micki, who was a supporting character in STAR CRUISE MYSTERY DANCER. Since MYSTERY DANCER has been on my mind so much recently, here’s the first meeting in that book between the FMC Tassia Megg and the MMC Liam Austin. Tassia just survived a daylong audition process to join the dance troupe on board the Nebula Zephyr and Liam is the ship Security Officer handling the paperwork.

(I’m hoping to have STAR CRUISE DREAM DANCER out in late April.)

The excerpt:

Liam made quick work of the new employee processing. The girls were tired but excited and several attempted to flirt with him as he checked their travel papers, guild memberships and the like. He stayed politely distant, in professional mode. Most had worked a cruise liner before so they knew what he needed and supplied the information without prompting.

When Tassia came to sit in the chair across the table from him, she sat straight backed, outwardly serene and composed.

“Congratulations,” he said. “Tough process the Comettes management put you through today. I was pulling for you.”

“I’m very grateful for the opportunity.” She brought out the folder with her papers, which she retrieved from a ratty backpack across the room in a pile where all the other girls had stacked their bags.

He raised his eyebrows a bit. “Actual paper? Haven’t seen this in a long time.”

“It’s all in order and has the proper holo seal.” She tapped one finger on the spot. She watched him, her amazing blue-and-copper colored eyes wide. He had the feeling deep inside she was terrified, and he wished he could reassure her.

Liam examined the documents once and then a second time. On the surface they appeared fine. The Sectors allowed for identification to be presented in all forms as long as the required holos were present. Some star systems were less technically advanced than others. Others had religious reasons for presenting ID one way versus another. But all his well-honed instincts from years in the military and working security details told him these were fake papers, this woman was in a lot of trouble, and he probably had no business allowing her onto the Nebula Zephyr.

Now is not the time to react to this woman. But he was, despite his misgivings. He’d admired her pluck all day, dancing in that worn, threadbare garment in the midst of the peacock finery of the other professional dancers, not to mention her obvious gifts as a dancer. To buy himself time to think, he asked, “No guild card?”

“Is one required?”

He heard the slightest hint of a tremor in the question. “I believe you can acquire a card on the ship.” He raised his voice. “Director Cartajj? Question?”

Walking as gracefully as any of her decades-younger dancers, she came to where he and Tassia sat. “Yes?”

“Does she need a guild card?”

“I can issue you one,” Riall said, glancing at Tassia. “It’s not a problem. Since we have a private moment, I wanted to let you know I expect to upgrade you from alternate shortly, once you’ve learned our routines. We run two full casts, with three swing girls and, while I don’t experience much turnover, there is the occasional vacancy.” Lowering her voice and bending over the table, she said, “I believe there might be at least one girl leaving us at the next planetfall, going to be married, so I’m thinking ahead.”

“Thank you for taking a chance on me at all,” Tassia said.

“Your solo was magnificent, even if not in our style of dancing. Clearly, you’ve been well trained. I’ll have to consider where we might be able to use you as a featured performer eventually, assuming you can pick up enough of what we require for showmanship. Have you ever done antigrav aerial work?”

Tassia shook her head and the beautiful curtain of shining black hair moved like liquid silk over her shoulders, catching Liam’s attention again. “I have not, sorry to say, but I’m willing to learn, of course.”

Driven by an impulse he didn’t stop to question, Liam asked, “Are you allowed to do a salary advance, Madame?”

The director didn’t miss a beat. “Yes, of course. I’ll make sure the ship’s account shows a week advance. Now if there’s nothing else, I should be conferring with my staff about rehearsal plans. Will we be leaving soon, Liam?”

“Almost done.” He grinned and made a few entries in his data pad.

“Thank you again,” Tassia said as the director walked away. She bit her lip. “I—I am rather tapped out for credits, and I’ll probably have to buy new workout clothes on the ship.”

“No problem, just routine.” He was lying, but he didn’t want to embarrass her. She looked flat broke and starved to him. He assumed the director had seen the same picture since she agreed so rapidly to the unusual wage advance. Employees ate as many free meals as they wanted on the Nebula Zephyr, food available at all hours due to the many shifts running in different departments, so this Megg girl certainly wouldn’t go hungry, but he suspected she might need other things long before the first paycheck credit would have been issued.

Tassia lingered, surprising him. “Could I ask one more favor? Could I possibly travel to the ship with all of you now? I don’t have anything else to pack before I go and no one to say goodbye to. It’d be easier for me to take a shuttle now.”

Taken by surprise, he said, “There’s no rule against it. We do have room today. Sure, why not?” He rose, closing his datapad, and addressed the small group waiting for him. “All through. We can leave anytime you’re ready, ladies.”

“I’ll get my things,” Tassia said, “Please don’t leave without me.”

Is she the longlost princess or an imposter? Depositphotos

STAR CRUISE MYSTERY DANCER

First published in the Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3 anthology…

Tassia Megg is a woman on the run after the death of her elderly guardian. She needs to get off the planet in a hurry when chance directs her to an open dance audition for the luxury cruise liner Nebula Zephyr’s resident troupe. One thing Tassia can do is dance.

Security Officer Liam Austin is suspicious of the newest performer to join the Comettes. She shows all the signs of being a woman on the run and seems to fit the Sectors-wide broadcast description of a missing thief, accused of stealing priceless artifacts. As he gets to know Tassia during the cruise, he starts to wonder if she’s something more – a long vanished princess in hiding from deadly political enemies of her family perhaps?

And what’s the story with the three eyed feline companion other crew members swear Tassia brought aboard the ship? Does the animal even exist?

As the ship approaches its next port of call, all the issues come to a boil and Liam must decide if he’ll step in to help Tassia or betray her. F’rrh the alien cat is the key to the mystery and Tassia’s fate.

A science fiction romance take on the Anastasia tale…

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BREAKING THE ALIEN LOVE CURSE.  Amellia and Hagan have been co-workers with a more than casual interest in each other for a while but haven’t taken any action on the attraction. Hagan just got back from an assignment in the field.

The excerpt: 

As if conjured from thin air by her thoughts, the man walked into the office, tall and commanding as always, headed for her desk.

Amellia sat up straighter and wished she’d worn her new tunic but at least she’d tried a cute hairstyle today. “Welcome back,” she said as he got closer. “I hope the mission went well?”

His smile was more of a grimace. “About as expected but it’s a pure pleasure to come back here and see you, Ms. Taneek.”

“I did give you permission to call me Amellia,” she said demurely.

“I brought you something.” As she stared, heart beating faster, he fumbled with unsealing one of the many pockets on his cargo pants and brought out a small wooden box, which he set on the counter in front of her workstation.

Wondering what he might have picked out for her, hoping she wouldn’t have to refuse the item, Amellia made quick work of opening the container and pulled out a tiny stone statue of a pombatt, which was an adorable fluffy local wild animal. She set it on her palm and moved the carving this way and that, admiring the skill with which the artist used the natural veins in the stone to highlight the body of the creature and suggest the patterns in its fur. There were flakes of glittery quartz in the shiny purple and white stone which caught the lights and sparkled.

“I love it,” she said with genuine enthusiasm. “It’ll go perfectly with my collection.” Doing a half spin with her chair, she gestured at the modest wooden curio cabinet on the wall behind her, where a dozen other small animal figurines were arranged, along with other keepsakes and her various awards. Amellia liked personalizing her official workspace to make the area feel more like home in the rather stark Sectors office architecture. “Thank you!”

“I noticed you collected these and when I saw the pombatt, I knew it was for you,” he said with a grin.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said, although there was a warm flush of satisfaction and a bit of tingling at her core, knowing he’d been thinking of her.

Head tilted, he studied her briefly. “Oh yes, I think I did. I like your hair by the way.”

Amellia patted the flippant curl. “My cousin persuaded me to try a new stylist.”

He squared his shoulders and straightened his back. Socializing time was clearly over. The pleasant interlude was concluded as clearly as if he’d said so and yet again he hadn’t asked her out. “Was anything delivered for me while I was gone?”

THE BLURB:

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BREAKING THE ALIEN LOVE CURSE (THE SECTORS SF ROMANCE SERIES)

Amellia Taneek loved her job as the office manager for a group of Sectors agents from various organizations, all based out of her central location. She enjoyed the challenges of handling administrative details for them and the excitement of constantly meeting new offworlders. She was especially intrigued by Hagan Raljarr, seven feet of green, scaled, muscular SCIA agent, and more than a little curious about his tail. Hey, she was a healthy unmarried, unattached female and there was no rule against dating a co-worker.

But so far he’d shown confusing signs of reciprocating her interest.
Hagan was an honorable warrior and before he could pursue his definite interest in Amellia, who might even be his fated mate, he had to clear up one little detail – the engagement contract he’d been entered into as a child with a female from his own planet. They barely knew each other and she was highly ambitious. Surely in this modern day and age she’d be happy for him to sever the contract and set her free, right? Leaving him in the perfect position to begin courting the lovely human.

But the jilted fiancée sends a mysterious box across the galaxy to him and when he unwisely opens it, a powerful love curse is activated, striking both him and Amellia. They’ll die at dawn if the curse isn’t broken. With help from Amellia’s aunt, who is said to have magic powers, the pair set out on a desperate quest for three special ingredients needed to break the spell. Over the course of a very long night, will Hagan and Amellia find their way to a relationship, break the curse in time and survive? Is such a thing even possible?

This 23K word novella first appeared in the Supra Vellum Anthology, which is no longer available. No new material has been added.

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TIMTUR is book 2.5 in the Badari Warriors award winning series and I was so happy this past week when one reader told me on Facebook this was her favorite. I always feel like Timtur and his mate Lily get overlooked but it’s partly my own fault because I had to backtrack to tell their story.

This is also one of the few books I’ve ever written where I literally reduced myself to tears while writing a scene. (Lily sits with a dying Badari Warrior – not Timtur and not a love interest – through a long night.) The scene pulled deeply on an event in my own past and really hit my emotions.

The excerpt – Lily and Timtur had a picnic planned, out in the woods of Sanctuary Valley:

“Dreaming again?” His voice, deep and full of good humor, came from behind and to the left.

Startled by the intrusion into her thoughts, she flinched involuntarily and turned to watch him walk toward her from the forest path. All the Badari were incredibly handsome men, built on a massive scale by the alien scientists who’d manipulated humanoid and animal DNA to create the race, but Timtur had an eye-catching athletic grace to his every movement, and a kind heart, which made him an effective healer. His rich mane of brown hair and his dark amber eyes that literally glowed when his emotions ran high were also appealing to Lily, of course.

Knowing she was probably blushing, not about to admit she had in fact been day dreaming of him, Lily smiled at Timtur, standing in front of her with a big grin. “I do get lost in thought sometimes.” How often those wistful musings were of him remained her secret.

“I’m sorry to be late.” He sat next to her and gathered her in for a hug and a gentle kiss on the cheek. “We’re working on a special project deep in the forest away from the human dwellings, and it took me longer than I expected to carry out my task today.”

“You’re here now, and the food is still edible, so everything is good. And we have the rest of the afternoon and the evening.” She brought the basket closer to cover her disappointment over the relatively chaste kiss, not at all what she craved from him, and opened the lid. “I hope you’ll like what I selected.”

Carefully, he put his massive hand over hers and pushed the container’s cover closed. “I was hoping we could talk, although the food is welcome. We can enjoy your selections later.”

Rolling her hand under his so she could clasp his fingers, Lily took a deep breath. “I do think it’s time we really talked, about us.” Now or never. Ignoring the butterflies in her stomach, she asked, “Where do you see this going between us? Do we have a chance?”

“I never met anyone like you before,” he said. “You’re special to me—”

“But?” Wary, she tensed as if anticipating disappointment ahead.

“I’m very attracted to you. I can’t deny that. Thoughts of you distract me from my duties all too often, and I count the hours until we can spend time together again.” His brow was furrowed and his mouth turned down.

She nodded to encourage him, although the tension thrumming inside her like a taut wire remained. Timtur wasn’t talking like a man ready to take a relationship to the next level. “You know how much I care about you, so I don’t understand why we can’t be…more than friends.”

He shook his head, his mane of burnished brown hair shifting in the sunlight. Lily had a hard time resisting the urge to run her fingers through the strands and try to pull him close for a kiss. “It’s not simple for me, Lily. I have duties, responsibilities—”

“More than Aydarr?” Her older sister was mated to the pack’s leader, Aydarr. “He seems to juggle the demands on his time with being Jill’s mate perfectly fine.” Giving in to temptation, Lily cupped Timtur’s cheek. He leaned into the caress but when she moved forward a bit as if to kiss him, he straightened and ignored the overture. Biting her lip, she said, “I think the time’s come when we could explore what we do have, what we feel about each other, in more depth.”

“Become physically intimate?”

“Not just that, although I think we’d be good together.” When he didn’t respond, she added, “I—I need more. I need to know this is going somewhere and we have a future of some kind, beyond friendship. Frankly, I have a hard time thinking of you as just a friend, and it hurts to be afraid this is one sided on my part.”

Growing angry at his reticence or self-control or both, embarrassed at having spoken so frankly and revealing her vulnerability to him, she made as if to rise. “Maybe this picnic today wasn’t such a good idea.”

Timtur caught her and pulled her onto his lap. “In all our years of captivity under the Khagrish, we never had the chance to become friends with women, much less to consider relationships,” he said. “Because there were no women. This—you and me—is all new, and I’m trying to walk carefully, not to rush either of us. Not to make a mistake and ruin our friendship.”

Stung, she struggled against his embrace, and immediately he released her. Lily rose. “If you think a more serious understanding between you and me could be a mistake, then I don’t know what I’m even doing here.” She put her hands on her hips and glared at him, anger radiating through her nerves. “I thought I meant more to you.”

VS: And it goes downhill from there…

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TIMTUR: THE TEACHER’S ALIEN HEALER (BADARI WARRIORS): IN THE STARS ROMANCE

NOTE: Would be Book 2.5 if Amazon let me list a book with a decimal number at the time!

Far from her home in the human Sectors after the mass kidnapping, teacher Lily Garrison is making a niche for herself in the valley by running a school for the Badari young. Although she yearns for Timtur, the pack’s healer, another Badari male has his eye on her and won’t take no for an answer.

Timtur feels the weight and responsibility of being the pack’s only healer, constantly on call as the soldiers fight ferocious battles against the alien scientists and their troops. With scarcely a moment to himself, he’s drawn to the gentle Lily but worries he won’t be able to juggle his duties, his loyalty to the pack and a relationship with a human woman.

When Lily’s stalker takes direct action to kidnap her and steal her from the safety of the valley, she’s forced to reach deep inside to find the strength to battle for her life. Timtur realizes too late how foolish he’s been to resist the bond with his fated mate and leads the rescue effort.

Before this situation can be resolved both will have to put their lives on the line and decide what really matters in a dangerous world ruled by the enemy.

Although this is the fifth book released in the Badari Warriors scifi romance series, the story of Timtur and Lily is a standalone and actually comes immediately after book two’s events.

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For this week’s First Meeting snippet I’m revisiting the first time Jill and Aydarr met in the first book of the Badari Warriors series (entitled catchily: AYDARR). These two and this book are the foundation of the entire series and I’m so grateful to my readers for the success the Badari have found in the scifi romance community!

The excerpt – Jill has awakened on a strange planet, in her nightgown, in the rain. Trying to find shelter she’s fallen into a pit, inhabited by a hungry alien monster:

Jill shouted defiance in a combination of rage and fear, and threw the rock hard, striking one glowing eye in the center, shattering the facets. She dodged as the predator made a high pitched sound like an exploding generator and lunged toward where she’d been. As she scrambled in the slick muddy water at the bottom of the trap, she searched for another rock, finding only small ones. She gathered a handful of them as better than nothing and spun around as the half-blind animal tried to locate her.

With a hoarse yell, a man jumped into the pit from above and landed between her and the predator. He didn’t seem to have a weapon but, as the lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the scene in stark white light, Jill gaped. Were those talons? He glanced over his shoulder at her briefly as if to see how she was doing then made a dash at the animal, slashing its neck before dancing away.

Jill moved along the pit wall as the man and the beast fought. Mud dripped from the sloping side of the hole. Resting her palm on the damp dirt, she felt vibrations. There’s another one tunneling towards us. No matter how brave and strong this guy was, he couldn’t defeat two of the animals. Frantically, she searched for more rocks, trying to pry a likely candidate out of the wall with her fingernails. I have to help.

“Incoming! There’s another one about to pop out of the wall,” she yelled. Hefting the rock she’d dug from the muck, she took a few steps forward, waited for the right moment and threw the stone at the first beast’s remaining eye, striking a glancing blow on the brow ridge above the glowing orb. The warrior took advantage of the animal’s distraction to open more gaping wounds along its upper body with the lethal claws he bore.

VS: There’s a bit more of the fight in the pit and then she’s taken to safety. Here’s what happens next:

The one who’d jumped in to help her first came to her side, picking her up without a word and took off to the south at a dead run, the others following them.

“Nice shot with that rock, by the way,” her captor said.

“Who are you? And where are we going?” she yelled into his ear as she was jostled in his arms.

“My name is Aydarr, and we have to get undercover before the full night falls. You won’t be harmed, not by us anyway, I give you my word.” He redoubled his pace, moving impossibly fast over the uneven terrain and through the stands of trees.

Basic? How can these men be speaking Basic?  She remembered the second warrior had addressed her in Basic when they were in the pit, but she’d been so scared and full of adrenaline she hadn’t registered the fact. Where in the fuck am I?

The way the men were running, something big and dangerous must be in the vicinity, perhaps even stalking their party, so she clung to her rescuer and resolved to get a few answers at the first opportunity. On her best day she couldn’t sprint as fast as they were going, even if her foot wasn’t cut, so she didn’t make any attempt to get away.

AYDARR (A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL): Sectors New Allies Series Book 1 

The blurb: 

Jill Garrison, a maintenance tech at the Sectors Amarcae 7 colony, goes to sleep one night as usual only to wake up in her nightgown stranded in the middle of a forest on an unknown world. There’s no time to think as she’s stalked by carnivorous predators and rescued by genetically engineered warriors calling themselves the Badari. Turns out they and she, along with her whole colony, are now prisoners of the Khagrish, a ruthless race of alien scientists. Working for enemies of the Sectors, the Khagrish have created the Badari to be super soldiers.

Aydarr, the Badari alpha, isn’t sure he can trust Jill but his attraction to her is undeniable. He impulsively claims her as his mate to prevent her death at the hands of the Khagrish.

Can he continue to protect her from the experiments already underway? Will his claiming her put his pack in jeopardy from their alien masters?

As Jill searches for a way to rescue her fellow humans and get them all to safety, she finds herself falling for Aydarr, despite the secrets he’s keeping. She has a few of her own.

The situation becomes dire when Aydarr and his pack are sent offplanet on a mission, leaving Jill unprotected, prey for the senior scientist. Can she escape the experiments he has in mind for her? Will she be able to thwart the Khagrish plans and liberate humans and Badari alike? How will she and Aydarr reunite?

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I’ve decided to change up these weekly snippets and go through my backlist, sharing the first meeting between the two main characters in each book. It’s always fun for me to revisit the books and I hope it will be for you too! Or if you’ve never happened to read a certain book, maybe I can entice you into giving it a try.

Maybe one of the most dramatic first meetings in the Badari Warriors Series occurs in JADRIAN, so here goes:

The excerpt:

Taura crouched in the corner of her small cell, fists clenched, ready to attack the next person who came into her space, be it Khagrish scientist, lab tech or security guard. Today was her breaking point – she felt the emotion viscerally. She couldn’t endure another procedure or test. No more physical or psychological pain at the hands of the uncaring aliens. She glanced at the black bracelet affixed to her wrist and snarled in rage, like the penned animal she’d become under their torture. Maybe this time she could force them to kill her, and her awful existence would finally end.

Where were her captors? Why wasn’t anyone coming to drag her off to the next horrific ordeal? Now that she was ready to fight them to the death? To relieve her tension and unkink her muscles as she waited, Taura rose and paced the none too generous length of the cell. Movement helped her manage the tension but her mood remained on the knife edge of panic.

Gradually, she became aware of strange noises outside her cell, loud booms and the sound of pulse rifles firing in staccato bursts. As grey smoke drifted down from the vent above her head, she moved cautiously along the wall to the edge of the force barrier confining her. There was nothing to be seen in the corridor, other than eddies of smoke. An alarm blared but cut off suddenly.

Was the facility under attack? Had the Sectors finally come to the rescue of their kidnapped citizen? Not likely. Maybe her enemies had their own enemies, though, which might work to her advantage.

Coughing, she covered her face with her arm and croaked out a plea for help. “Here, I’m here!”

Death by fire was a terrifying idea. Her heart raced and her breath came in short gasps, as she couldn’t pull enough air into her chest.

Her head swam from panic and the lack of oxygen.  How ironic, to die with help possibly now at hand. My timing always sucked.

Shapes moved in the corridor, obscured by the smoke which had grown thicker. Her vision swam, blacking in and out.

Taura found herself face down on the cold cell floor.  I must have passed out for a few minutes.

Rising to her knees shakily, one hand on the wall for support, she opened her mouth to yell at whoever was passing by. Surely even the Khagrish wouldn’t be so cruel as to leave her here, trapped in a burning building?

“Please,” she said, inaudible even to herself as she collapsed to the floor.

As a toughened combat veteran, Jadrian of the Badari wasn’t subject to anxiety, but he had to admit moving through a Khagrish lab, and even worse a Khagrish prison block, brought up bad memories. He’d spent time as a younger man undergoing their tortures, kept in isolation from his pack, and the experience had left its scars on him.

The smoke bothered his eyes and lungs less than it might other beings, but it didn’t make for a pleasant environment. He and his teammates swept hastily through the place. The records indicated no human prisoners were kept here, and the force barrier doors had gone down, so it was a quick step into each cell space, checking the corners for any occupant then moving on. Purely an effort to be thorough.

Two Khagrish guards charged into the corridor from the far end, and Jadrian and his teammates scattered, taking cover where they could, returning fire. A cut off scream from the direction of the enemy indicated Jadrian or his compatriots had hit their targets. He grinned fiercely. The Khagrish bred the Badari to possess uncannily powerful vision, even in obscured environments, and now the aliens’ cleverness was coming full circle to bite them.

“Cover me.” Darik, the team leader, sprinted ahead, laying down suppressing fire just in case. “All clear, both dead,” he yelled a moment later. “We’re done here, time to regroup with the others and blow the place.”

“One more cell to check.” Jadrian turned to the right.

“Hurry it up, there’s no one here, just as the records indicated.” Darik’s clipped tone indicated his impatience to rejoin the rest of the strike force and complete the assault on the installation.

I can’t take the chance of leaving anyone behind. Even his leader’s annoyance couldn’t keep Jadrian from making sure there were no prisoners.

Taura curled into the smallest ball she could make of herself, hands over her ears as the sound of the pulse rifles in the corridor outside whined and reverberated. Suddenly, a man stepped into the cell, emerging from the swirling smoke like a hero in an adventure trideo. “I’m sure I heard something,” he said over his shoulder to companions she couldn’t see.

Eyes stinging, tears coursing down her cheeks, she reached out, tugging at his pants leg. “Help me, please.”

Shifting his weapon to leave his hands free, the soldier crouched in front of her. His eyes glowed golden as he said, “We’ll get you out, lady.” He picked her up in a single motion, rising to his full height, and hastened from the cell.

She clung to him as tightly as she could while he carried her through the smoky corridors and outside into clear air and bright sunshine. Eyes watering, she blinked, not having been outdoors since the day she arrived at this cursed place.

“Where did you find her?” another soldier asked her rescuer as he continued to move rapidly away from the building. The entire structure was alight and she shivered at the sight. But for her mysterious hero, she’d have been a casualty and no one would ever have known.

“In the burning cell block, only one there. She’s in pretty bad shape.” His voice was deep, his arms around her comforting.

She leaned her head against his broad chest, clutching his arm, until a spasm of coughing shook her. “I can’t breathe.” Panic stricken as her vision darkened, and the coughing continued without expanding her lungs, she pushed against him. Truthfully, she didn’t think she could stand but her fight or flight reflexes were overruling her conscious thoughts. Taura didn’t recognize her own voice, pleading with the soldier. “Don’t let me die.”

“I’ll get you to the medic, hang on. Take small breaths and hold them, in and then out.” He quickened his pace.

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JADRIAN (A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL): Sectors New Allies Series Book 3

The blurb: Taura Dancer has been pushed to her limits by alien torturers known as the Khagrish and is ready to die when suddenly the lab where she’s held as a prisoner is taken down by an armed force of soldiers.

The man who rescues her from a burning cell block is Jadrian of the Badari, a genetically engineered alien warrior with as many reasons to hate the Khagrish as Taura has. This set of shared past experiences and the circumstances of her rescue create an unusual bond between them.

Safe in the hidden base where Jadrian and his pack take her, Taura struggles to regain her lost memories and overcome constant flashbacks during which she lashes out at all who come near. Only Jadrian can recall her from the abyss of her visions and hallucinations.

As the war against the Khagrish continues, it becomes increasingly critical to find out who she really is and how she can help in the fight. Until she can control her terrors and trust her own impulses, Taura’s too afraid to pursue the promise of happiness a life with Jadrian as her mate might offer.

When he’s captured by the dreaded enemy, will she step forward to help save him, or will she remain a prisoner of her past?

This is the third book in a new scifi romance series and each novel has a satisfying Happy for Now ending for the hero and heroine, not a cliffhanger. Some overarching issues do remain unresolved in each book since this is an ongoing series but romance always wins the day in my novels!

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