1
Lucy, Transport Station 345, Prillon Prime
“What happens on Prillon Prime—”
The sizzle and hair-raising hum of transport cut off Rachel’s words. One second we were on The Colony, looking down from the raised platform at CJ and Rezzer, each holding one of their twins; the next I’m looking at some seriously burly Prillons manning the controls on Prillon Prime.
“—stays on Prillon Prime,” Rachel finished as if we hadn’t just traveled like people on Star Trek or the wizards in Harry Potter, minus the flushing toilet.
“Mate, what are you suggesting?” Maxim said, taking Rachel’s hand and leading her down the steps. His second, Ryston, followed closely behind. Rachel, meanwhile, held their sleepy son in her arms. He was half Prillon and big for his age. Rachel’s biceps were working overtime, but she shook her head when Ryston reached for the boy.
Cute.
Rachel leaned around Ryston and glanced at me. Gave me a wink to go along with her grin.
“I saw that,” Kiel stated plainly. He stilled his own mate with a hand upon her shoulder.
Lindsey looked up at her Everian hottie. “What?”
“What?” he repeated. “Whenever you all get together, I get scared.”
Lindsey laughed. “You, scared?”
I bit my cheek because the three big aliens were staring my way. I was the unmated one of this group, pretty much the fifth—make that sixth—wheel for the entire party.
The Everian Hunter leaned down and kissed the top of his mate’s head.
Meanwhile Rachel pressed her lips to Max’s dark hair. The little boy slept in his mother’s arms. Pushing two, he was too little to stay behind like the older boy, Lindsey’s and Kiel’s son, Wyatt, so Max was joining a few other little ones at the party. It worked out well because Wyatt was best buddies with Tanner and Emma, who were more eager to stay on The Colony with their new Atlan uncles Braun, Kai and the rest of them, acting like walking jungle gyms anytime the little ones were around.
“You and Wyatt are the only ones who can destroy me,” Kiel murmured.
Lindsey’s face took on that sappy, lovey-dovey look.
“Oh, Kiel,” she whispered, then sniffed and lifted her chin. “We’ve come for a surprise birthday party.” Her words were the reminder for all of us as to why we were here. “What kind of trouble could we possibly get into?”
Kiel’s eyes went wide, and he slowly shook his head as if the possibilities were endless.
“This is why the Prime and every male in attendance agreed it had to happen within the walls of the palace.”
“Palace,” Rachel humphed. “More like a fortress.”
“Exactly,” the three males said at the exact same time.
The hum of the transport pad had us stepping off it so the second transport from The Colony could arrive.
“This is the reason we didn’t let you ladies transport without us,” Maxim said as we stood in the large room and waited.
The space was twice as big as the transport room on The Colony, and I had to assume it was kept busy. I’d never been to Prillon Prime before. Heck, I’d never been anywhere else in space but where Olivia and Wulf were stationed. My BFF and her hulking Atlan mate were the reason why I wasn’t on Earth, not because I’d been matched. I was, in fact, one of very few humans out in Coalition space who were single and not fighting the Hive. At least that’s what I’d been told. As in, the only single lady. Fighters didn’t count.
Now I was going to the Prime’s palace for a surprise birthday party for his mate, Jessica, another human. This was epically big.
Epic.
Even more so than a girls’ weekend in Vegas. This was Prillon Prime, baby!
I’d never met Prime Nial, or the birthday girl for that matter, but I’d chatted with them, along with Jessica’s second mate, Ander, on a phone call. Or screen-to-screen call. Phones were beyond old-fashioned, like a horse and buggy, for these guys.
I had to catch up on space terminology. Without a mate to help me adjust to my new life, I was getting behind.
Not that I didn’t have mate offers on The Colony. The Atlan Warlord Braun was an absolute sweetheart, a great big freaking teddy bear… and I didn’t want him. Not like that. Same with Captain Marz and his Prillon second. Same with the other Atlans. The Viken fighters. The large selection of available mates on The Colony was, frankly, overwhelming.
Worse, not one of them felt right, as if I wanted one to be mine. Braun was, if nothing else, my friend. I trusted him and I liked him, but I didn’t want to take off all my clothes and rub my naked body over his.
Not even a little. Which was just sad because he was hot. Like sex-on-a-stick hot. But my indifference was also the reason my guardian, Warlord Wulf, gave every male on The Colony the hands-off vibe when it came to me.
The truth was, I was on The Colony to be with Olivia, Tanner and Emma. They were my family. Not by blood but by choice. Either way, I didn’t want another one. Not yet. I wasn’t ready. If I hooked up with any of the honorable warriors on The Colony, they would want forever. Like, forever-forever, and mating and babies and the whole thing. And that was a large commitment. Gigantic.
These next few days, I just wanted to have some fun. Maybe have some hot sex with a virile alien or two, take the edge off, and get back to my de facto niece and nephew and my best friend. I was happy there. Mostly. Bored sometimes but content. I didn’t want anything to ruin my new life.
I’d had no one on Earth. No family. Few friends. A low-paying job where I was invisible most of the time. Only Olivia and her kids mattered to me. Without them, I would be alone and, worse, lonely as hell. To Tanner and Emma, I was Aunt Woocy, and nothing mattered more to me than making sure those babies were happy and healthy.
I wasn’t enough of a selfish bitch to use any of the warriors on the colony just for sex. Those guys had been through so much. Battle. Capture. Torture. Integration. Rejection from their home worlds. I was not going to play with them like that. To have some fun, I would have to go off world—like here on Prillon Prime—and make sure whoever I had some fun with knew that’s all it was. Fun. Temporary.
Luckily the women from The Colony were all super nice and cool enough to want me to join them. I had a feeling Lindsey would have had T-shirts made that said Earth Girls Unite if she could. Since she’d been a PR rep on Earth and was still going at it, working on trying to bring new Earth volunteers to the Brides program and planning a huge surprise party for her BFF, the Lady Jessica Deston, the freaking queen of the entire Interstellar Coalition of Planets. Safe to say, Lindsey had probably been a little distracted.
“We ladies are perfectly capable of transporting by ourselves,” Rachel said, patting Maxim’s arm. Then she smiled. “But I like it when you get all protective and growly.”
Both he and Ryston growled to match her words. I bit my lip, trying not to laugh. Every male I’d encountered in space was bossier than the next. Protective. Dominant. All alpha-male hotness. Wulf was that way with Olivia and the kids, but he was also that way with me. He was like the brother I’d never had. If a girl from Ohio could have a seven-foot-plus Atlan beast as a brother. An overprotective, growly, beat-the-pulp-out-of-anyone-interested-in-getting-in-my-pants big brother.