Central Command did prefer officers who were happily mated. Stable and settled.
I simply had to wait until the Bride Pageant ended, and then I could depart Station 21 for Earth.
It seemed too long a time to spend pacing my quarters, so I joined Cav to watch the brides, arriving just in time to hear Vos instructing the grooms on the rules of the Bride Games.
Might as well keep myself entertained until it’s time to leave.
If not for Cav’s determination to win his own bride, I would have invited him to join the operation. But he was far too besotted with her to risk taking time away from the Games.
I slipped into the seat next to him and turned on my screen to examine Amelia Rivers once again, even though I had already memorized the brief biography in the program.
“Natalie,” Cav breathed as he flipped to her image on the screen.
“You’re completely set on her, aren’t you?” I asked. For the first time, I truly understood that overwhelming desire to focus on one female.
Cav leaned over to look at my comscreen. “Amelia Rivers?” he asked, sounding surprised. “The runaway bride? Can you even choose her?”
I grinned. “She’s still in the program. And she’s the one I want.”
“You’re going to have a quark’s eye of a time of it with that one.” Cav shook his head. “How do you know for sure that you’re compatible?”
“I have my ways. I pulled her DNA last night, and we are a perfect match. I’ve put in a request with Command Central to allow me to hunt her as part of this year’s Bride Games.” I couldn’t help but grin.
Cav’s eyes grew wide. “That’s quite an effort to put into simply getting a mate.”
I wanted to laugh aloud—there was no effort too great to gain this woman—but I simply rubbed my hands together. “I do enjoy a challenge.”
“Maybe I’m not right for Special Ops, after all.” Cav’s voice turned dejected.
My roar of laughter interrupted Vos Klavoii’s instructions, and the Administrator glared up at the two of us. I waved an apology, but still leaned in to whisper to Cav, “You’ve chosen the only other Earther female who announced that she doesn’t want to be here. You cannot tell me that you don’t like a challenge, too, brother.”
“When do you leave for Earth?”
“When the pageant ends, Vos will interview me. As soon as that’s done, I can take a shuttle down to the planet.” I couldn’t wait to get going. I leaned back to contemplate how wonderful it would be to have a mate of my own.
Once I tamed her, of course.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Vos wrapped up his instructions and the brides began to gather at the entrance to the arena. “At last,” I muttered. This was taking forever.
“There are almost four hundred potential mates this year,” Cav said. “You can’t leave yet.”
“No, but the sooner they get started, the sooner it will be over, and I can go capture my own mate.”
Cav smiled as the Bride Pageant began, each bride stepping onto the stage, repeating her name, and listing the skills that made her a viable bride candidate. Then she turned slowly to allow the DNA scanners to take a scent sample and send it out over the room.
“What if,” Cav asked me, “you get to Earth and discover your chosen bride smells all wrong?”
I shrugged. “Then I’ll bring her back to take her rightful place in the Games.” I glanced over at Amelia Rivers’ image, still up on my comscreen. “But it won’t,” I added quietly. “I am as certain that she is mine as if I had scented her already.”
Yes, the nose might lead the cock. But I was in charge of them both—and we were all going to Earth.
To make Amelia Rivers mine.
No matter what it took.
Chapter One
Amelia Rivers
I knew it was coming.
I’m not sure how, but as soon as the screen on my computer went blank and then spun back up with Vos Klavoii’s face smiling brightly at me, I was absolutely certain my name was going to be drawn in the Bride Lottery—the hellish agreement that Earth’s leaders had made to sell us to the aliens who protected our planet.
I’d grown up with the propaganda. It was our civic duty. Men registered for the draft, women registered for the Bride Lottery.
Fuck that.
No way in hell was I going to be handed over to some giant man to be brutalized into bearing his children.
So I walked away from everything, instead.
I stood up, pulled on my boots, grabbed my purse and a jacket, and left the Las Vegas hotel room I’d booked for the conference I’d been attending. There was a drugstore nearby on the Strip, so that’s where I headed.
All around me, screens showed the alien game show host drawing name after name. As I moved along the sidewalk, dodging the tourists who thronged the city even late at night, I kept my head down, praying I could get what I needed before my name came up.
Inside the store, fluorescent lights buzzed above me as I tossed the things I needed into a basket. A box-cutter. Nail scissors. Alcohol. Needle and thread. Bandages. Hair dye. And at the last minute, a pile of granola bars and a giant bottle of water.
I half-expected the cashier to comment on my choices, but the tall woman behind the counter barely even glanced at the items as she scanned them.
I was practically running by the time I got back to my hotel room, and my hands were shaking as I dumped everything out onto the counter in the bathroom.
What I was about to do was as illegal as it gets. And I was sure there would be physical and mental repercussions, as well. But at that moment, I didn’t care.
I’m a doctor. I can do this, even to myself.
Taking a deep breath, I counted to ten as
