1
Willow Baylor, Prillon Prime, The Capital
“Congratulations,Willow. It’s a ninety-nine percent match.” My dearest friend, Makayla, squeezed me one more time as I waited for my turn to transport. “I am so happy for you.”
“Thank you. I can’t believe it. I’m---numb.” What my friend didn’t realize was I meant that quite literally. I should be excited. Smiling. Excitement should be bubbling through me like champagne fizz in my veins. I felt nothing, like I’d been erased.
You’re still hiding. Stop pretending you need a big, bad alien to protect you.
Shut up.
I didn’t want to talk to the stubborn wench who lived inside my head—a.k.a., theoldme. The me from a former life. She’d been in chargebeforeI’d been kidnapped by aliens and lived through a literal hell. I didn’t want to be her again. She got into trouble.Shemade stupid choices.
The new me was doing just fine. Better than fine, I had a matched mate!
The warden who administered my bride testing had already given me a run down on final instructions for transport. I was ready to go. I’d said goodbye to my friends, all of them women from the sanctuary who, like me, had been rescued from that Hive prison.
I was being allowed to take a few personal items with me to my new home—and my new mates. I knew it was a break in Brides’ Program protocol. Perhaps Prime Nial and the others assumed we’d been through enough trauma already. They had done everything in their power to make us feel at home her on Prillon Prime, to help us heal. Danika Arcas, a human woman mated to a couple of warriors, was always available. She was in charge of the place and took care of anything and everything we needed. What she couldn’t get for us, Queen Jessica—another human out here in space—would handle. The exceptions made for us regarding transport protocols weren’t huge, but hugely important. As was our unfettered access to the S-Gen machines.
Leaving our sanctuary was hard enough already. It was a relief to know I wasn’t going empty-handed, and I wasn’t arrivingnaked.
As if. So humiliating.
A small suitcase filled with personal items had been carefully placed on the transport pad. In just a few minutes I would be on my way to my powerful, protective, and possessive new Prillon mate.And his second.Yes, please. I had never been with two lovers before, but the idea of having two experienced warriors completely obsessed with caring for me, protecting me and ensuring physical pleasure? Wonderful. I couldn’t wait to find out who my mate had chosen as his second—and mine.
“I wish your mate was here, on Prillon Prime, but he will have to retire eventually. Right?” Makayla’s voice cracked like she was fighting off tears—and losing. She squeezed me so tightly I was afraid she would crack a rib. I hugged back just as hard. She, too, had been to hell and back. Maybe I should be crying with her, but I didn’t feel sad.
About time.
I ignored the self-talk. I was relieved to be leaving this place, ready to move on. I was tired of waking up alone every night, tangled in my sheets. I wanted a warrior—or two—next to me, around me, holding me, touching me. I needed fire in my veins, where for so long now there had been nothing but ice.
I kissed Makayla on the cheek. “Maybe we’ll be neighbors one day, here in the capital.” Better if my mates retired to Prillon Prime in a few years, rather than being killed in the war. I didn’t want to be a widow.
Makayla released me and we stared into one another’s eyes, sharing secrets without saying a word, as only best friends can. Finally, Makayla shrugged. “You know I don’t trust that computer. I don’t see how it can know who you will fall in love with.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be happy.” I smiled because even as I spoke the words, I realized they were true. I’d met so many honorable—and sexy—Prillon males on this planet, I couldn’t wait to have a couple warriors of my own.
“Always the optimist. What if you didn’t get a match? Or had to go to Rogue 5?” Makayla asked.
“Wouldn’t happen.” Those scary jerks with fangs had kidnapped us from Earth, shoved us on a dingy, cold ship, and off-loaded us into our new prison without a hint of conscience. If I had my way, their stupid planet—and that moon they lived on—would already be blown to bits.
Now you’re talking…
I told you to shut up.
I squeezed Makayla’s hand to reassure her. “The matching protocols would not put me with one of those wanna-be, vampire criminals. I would want to hit him with a baseball batwhilehe was sleeping, not sleepwithhim.”
“They aren’t vampires. Those fangs put stuffintotheir mates’ bodies. They don’t suck blood out.” Makayla sounded…intrigued by the idea. Was she insane?
“Don’t care. Fangs are too gross for me, and I like people who obey the law.” I’d had enough chaos to last a lifetime. What I craved was order and routine, knowing exactly what was going on around me and what tomorrow would bring. Steady. Predictable.
Boring. You hate boring.
I ignored her.
Certainty was wonderful. Iknewmy new mates would be eager to sweep me off my feet and into their arms. They would definitelynotbe boring. My mates would be hot. Sexy. I wanted them to take one look at me and barely be able to keep their hands to themselves, so I’d dressed up today, pulled out all the stops.
I had on a gorgeous dress made from a Prillon fabric that was unlike anything we had on Earth. Like velvet and silk had a textile baby. The gown was a dark, stormy blue. Fitted bodice, long, elegant skirt. My eyes were the exact shade of blue to match. Really made my eyes pop. So did the sapphire and silver necklace and earrings I wore. On Earth, this dress and jewelry combo would probably cost tens of thousands of dollars. Out here? It was just atoms and molecules made of random energy. The little electrons—or whatever—floated around in space until they were locked into shape by the aliens’ Spontaneous Matter Generators, or S-Gen machines. Those machines created anything I could think to ask for, from diamonds to lasagna, out of thin air. At least that’s what it looked like to me.
