Chapter One

Tish sat across from her boss in the cramped office. The cluttered space felt even smaller because of the size of the female seated behind the desk. The Torski was on the smaller side for her species, but Grotta was still two meters tall and was so wide across the shoulders she had to walk through most doors sideways. Even seated, she towered over Tish.

Most beings would use that to their advantage, but Grotta never did. Tish didn’t have the luxury of making friends at the moment, but Grotta was as close as she could get without dragging the female into the mess that was her life.

The scent of rocket fuel and degreaser smelled like home to Tish. Her fathers had a small shop on a refueling station. Nothing as big or profitable as what Grotta had, but it had been enough to provide a good life…until everything went nova.

Grotta smiled and leaned forward across the desk. “You do good work, Tix. Really good. I’ve got more work than I can handle right now, but our informal agreement means I can’t give you anymore hours. Are you sure I can’t put you on the books? I offer a good benefits package.”

“I would if I could.” She wished she could say yes, but under-the-table work was her only choice. Some work was better than none, and she was still trying to find someone else willing to pay her off the books. She had to stay off anything official. She trusted Grotta more than most, but the female didn’t even know her real name.

The female made a soft humming noise that might have held a note of disappointment. Then she held out a datapad.

Tish reached out and tapped her smaller and much more banged-up device to it. It beeped as the credit transfer went through.

“Thanks,” she said. Then she sighed and gave Grotta a crooked smile. She owed this female an explanation, even if it was incomplete.

“I’m not someone you want on your payroll. Not officially. It could get complicated for both of us.”

Grotta leaned back on her chair until it squeaked in protest. Then she smiled and nodded. “I thought as much. My offer still stands. You’re one of the best mechanics on the station. Probably the best in the sector. If it’s a lack of corporate certification, I can help you get what you need. If it’s something else…”

Grotta’s smile never wavered as she spoke. “Maybe I can help with whatever it is. This station might be new, but the stories of those who come here haven’t changed. The Drift is where beings come when they need to escape their past and start over. Me included. Someone made me an offer just like I’m doing for you. One day, I hope you can do the same for someone else.”

Grotta’s expression darkened with what Tish thought was grief. “Only difference is, I intend to be around to see it happen.”

“Thanks for the offer. Truly. Thank you. It means a lot to me.” Tish changed the direction of the conversation and hoped Grotta didn’t circle back. “The one who helped you isn’t around anymore?”

“Zale [AB1] [SH2] got himself killed because he couldn’t stop trying to help others, even when it was dangerous to do so.” Grotta drummed her fingers on the metal desktop. “I get the feeling that helping you might be dangerous, too. I used to think Zale was an idiot for doing what he did. Now? I’m starting to understand why he did it.”

Tish raised both hands and shook her head. “No. I won’t let anyone get hurt because of me. My situation is complicated, and I don’t want anyone else caught up in it.” She heard the sharpness in her tone and took a breath. Projecting her worries wouldn’t help.

She lowered her hands and mustered a smile. “You have my heartfelt gratitude for making the offer. It’s nice to know there’s someone in my corner if things get rough. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry you lost your friend.”

Grotta rose from her chair, her big body taking up a good portion of the available space. “I’m here if you need help, Tix.” She cocked her head and grinned. “Or whatever your real name is. Now, I hate to cut this meaningful moment short, but I need to get out there and check on things. Not everyone in my employ has your talents or your work ethic.”

She snorted. “I’ll bet my lunch that Darby is taking a nap behind the discarded fuel cells again.”

Tish got to her feet, relieved the conversation was over, and no feelings had been hurt. “If he’s not there, check repair bay six. I’m pretty sure I heard snoring in there the other day.”

She raised the datapad. “I need to go, too. Rent is due today. I can’t risk being late. They’re at capacity, and the manager keeps threatening to reclaim any pods that aren’t paid up on time.”

Grotta nodded and gave her a thoughtful look. “Did you buy one of those deterrent locks I told you about?”

Tish laughed softly. That had been good advice. “I did. Thank you for that suggestion. Someone tried to jimmy the lock a few nights ago and got a nasty shock.”

“Serves them right.” Grotta gestured to the row of lockers by the door. “Now, stash your stuff and get out of here before I put you back to work.”

They shared a grin as Grotta opened the door and stepped through it so Tish had room to access her locker. She placed her tools and even her tool belt inside before shutting it firmly. She pressed her thumb to the pad and waited for the light to flash green to indicate it was locked.

“I’ll check in tomorrow to see if there’s work for me,” she said as the two of them parted ways.

“Stay safe,” Grotta called after her.

It wasn’t so much a warning as a reminder. Defiance Station was new, but it still had the same problems as every other platform and station out in the Drift. After a moment, she revised that thought. The station was plagued by the same issues that every place where sentient beings gathered dealt with. Especially when that location also offered intoxicants and entertainment in a vast variety of forms.

She tried to stay clear of those parts of the station. Not that she was tempted to indulge in most things on offer. Her biggest struggle was resisting the tantalizing scents that came from the food carts. The few times she’d wandered into those areas, she always left with a rumbling stomach and cravings for treats she couldn’t afford. Paying for a safe place to sleep took up most of her pay, and what little scrip was left over went to buying the other necessities of life, like nutri-gruel and the pay-by-the-minute hot shower she took after every shift.

Being paid in scrip was a novelty for Tish. She’d been locked into a contractual indenture for almost fifteen years. The contract stated she had to be provided with the means to feed and house herself. In exchange, she worked six days a week. The corporations had nice, legal names for the arrangement, but thankfully, none of them held her contract. She’d made the deal with the owner of a small business, and they’d both agreed to call it what it was—servitude.

It hadn’t been terrible. Zendi had not exactly been kind, but she’d provided corporate vouchers that covered the basics. She’d given Tish a small room at the back of the workshop and let her turn it into a cramped but comfortable home. Their relationship had been decent enough that Tish had cried at the woman’s funeral.

Of course, if she’d known who the business had been sold to, she’d have saved those tears for herself.

The second she started thinking about the past, Tish deliberately thought about something else. Why expend time and energy on something she couldn’t change?

Instead, she thought about what she’d do with the rest of her day. She rented space in a pod hotel only one level up from the docking rings. That meant she was close to work and didn’t have to enter the busier areas. As a bonus, the hotel’s customers were either crews on shore leave or techs like her who wanted to stay close to their source of income. The pods were new, clean, and relatively quiet. They were also cheaper than what was available on the entertainment levels.

First, she’d get out of her work clothes and toss them into the laundry. Her rent included one cleaning cycle a week, and today was the day. Once that was done, she would spend five glorious minutes enjoying a hot, soapy shower. It was one of the few things she had that felt normal. Like her life hadn’t gone off course and left her lost in the void. She was nearly thirty-four years old. How was this her life?

Nope. Don’t go there. Tish scolded herself and went back to thoughts of hot water and fragrant steam.

She let herself get lost in the mental imagery. Probably more than she should have. If she’d been paying more attention, she would have put more distance between her and the group of human males clustered outside the entrance to their ship.

She angled away from them, but it was too late.

“Hey there, pretty girl,” one of them called out in a sing-song cadence that told her he was intoxicated.

Tish lowered her head, hunched her shoulders, and increased her speed. This passageway connected to the main station in less than a hundred meters. Another minute and she’d be at the mag-lifts, safe in the crowd that always seemed to loiter around the vertical transports.

“Hey!” the same guy called again, but this time she caught the edge in his tone. “I’m talkin’ to you.”

“Sorry, I’ve got an appointment I need to keep,” she mumbled as she passed by. Sometimes that was enough to stop things from getting stupid.

Today, it wasn’t.

“Bitch thinks she too good for ya, Karta,” another of the group shouted. He finished with an ugly laugh that made the hairs on her neck rise.

“Shut up, Ollie,” he called over his shoulder.

Then he leered down at her. “Is dat true? You think you’re too good for me?” he demanded.

Tish kept walking, but her hands curled into fists as her mind raced through various scenarios. She had to get away from this idiot, but she needed to do it in a way that didn’t attract Corp-sec’s attention. Her identity documents were decent forgeries, but they wouldn’t hold up to real scrutiny.

A second ticked by and then another. Had he given up? The thought had barely formed before someone grabbed her shoulder with enough force to make her stumble.

She regained her balance quickly and then turned to face the man who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Leave me the fraxx alone.”

“No need ta be rude. I just wanna talk,” the male named Karta slurred.

Tish glowered up at the tall, gangly male.

“I’m not interested,” she said flatly.

“I am.” He cupped a hand over his groin and leered at her.

Behind him, several of his friends moved to join the confrontation. She was out of time and out of options.

As she struck him in the face with the heel of her palm, one question lingered in the front of her mind. Why does this keep happening to me?

She felt the crunch as she made contact. His nose was broken.

She didn’t wait to see his reaction. Tish turned and bolted. She needed to reach the relative safety of the main station.

She didn’t get more than two steps before she slammed into a flesh-and-blood mountain who hadn’t been there a moment ago.

He wrapped one arm around her, probably to steady her before she bounced off him. She shoved at his chest, trying to put some space between them, but he didn’t move. Not one fraxxing centimeter. She tipped her head back and got her first look at him.

He was human, male, and huge. He scowled down at her, his dark hair falling over his eyes. His expression was made more terrifying by the scar that ran from his temple to somewhere beneath the dark scruff of his unshaven jaw.

This man radiated menace like a plasma drive emitted heat.

She needed to run, hide, or scream for help.

Before she could decide which of her panic-fueled impulses to act on, the idiot she’d struck in the face found his voice.

“Fraxx off, asshole. Find another one. This bitch owes me.”

For the briefest of moments, the big male’s scowl softened slightly. Then he winked at her. She didn’t understand why, but that small movement gave her a spark of hope that things would somehow be all right. She gave him a ghost of a smile and hoped he understood.

Then he raised his head and glared at the guy who had accosted her.

“She doesn’t owe you anything,” he said. His voice was deep and rough, like an engine slightly out of tune.

“She fraxxing hit me!” the other man’s voice was muffled, and she realized it was probably because he had his hand over his broken nose.

She started to turn around and see for herself, but the big man locked the arm still holding her, keeping her in place.

“I know she did. And if you don’t leave, I’ll hit you again,” he said in that low, growling voice.

“Fraxx you.”

A new voice entered the conversation. “Didn’t your mother teach you any manners? The lady said she wasn’t interested. Now stop swearing at strangers and find something productive to do.”

Tish jerked her head to her right to get a look at the new arrival. He had sandy blond hair, roguish good looks, and a dangerous smile. This one was almost as big as his friend. No. Not a friend. Batch-brother. Well, that explained their massive size. She’d somehow been rescued by two of the most dangerous beings in the galaxy. Which was nice and all, but it left her with one question. What would they want in return?

---

Ready for more? Her Cyborg Bounty Hunters releases July 24.

It was supposed to be a business trip… How did it turn into a fight for survival?

If she doesn’t want her business to wind up as broken as her newly voided marriage contract, Madison needs a miracle. Too bad for her, the universe is all out. Her ship’s was shot down, her plans have exploded, and her best chance at staying alive is a brooding beast of an alien with horns, fangs, and a possessive streak as wide as the Milky Way.

She’s been hurt too often to trust easily, but there’s no way to survive without his help. He’s the most dangerous male she’s ever met… a threat to their enemies and her heart.

**Buckle up. This sci-fi romance contains an alien with fur, fangs, horns, and a very possessive attitude when it comes to the woman he’s claimed for his own.

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The only thing that ever came easy for her was trouble.

 After a lifetime of busting her ass and bending the law just to scrape by, Hezza is running on fumes. Her ship is even older than she is, and both are feeling their age. Is she ready to retire? Hell no. Hanging up her flight suit is the last thing she wants, even if it’s the smart thing to do.

Before she can make that choice, though, trouble finds her again… and this time it comes with a double order of hard muscles, sinful smiles, and alpha attitude.

They had nothing. No past. No future. No names. Then she appeared… and everything changed.

Subjects Six and Seven are failed experiments. Created in secret using banned technology and stolen DNA, they were crafted as weapons for a not-so-distant war. Too stubborn to be controlled and too valuable to terminate, they exist only to serve… and to dream of freedom.

Fate brought three battered hearts together, but it will take more than luck to survive the coming storm. Hezza is their key to happiness, and the cyborgs are her first rays of hope in a life spent in the shadows. Together, they’re going to change the galaxy… or die trying.

**As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases**

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Chapter One

After nearly ten years at the same job, Joy had moments when she thought she’d seen it all. The universe invariably took that as a challenge and threw something even stranger her way, but this time the universe had outdone itself.

The entire cruise had been one what-the-hells moment after another. Several of the guests had gotten into a brawl while vying for the attentions of one particularly wealthy male looking for a match. The attention-grabbing and undignified display had resulted in the male raska-shi choosing to contract with all three women, though they didn’t discover that fact until after the mating contracts were signed.

That was why she encouraged their guests to carefully consider any offer before signing. She even gave a seminar on mating contracts and volunteered to act as an advisor, but rarely did anyone take her up on the offer. These women all wanted to escape their current lives and had convinced themselves that anything else was an improvement.

These days, most of them were simply trading one set of hardships for another. It hadn’t always been this way. When Joy had first joined Captain Perez and the crew of the Bountiful Harvest, their galactic matchmaking cruises had been exactly that—a chance for unattached males of various species to meet and mingle with human women. Sparks flew, romances blossomed, and while not every match was perfect, each cruise produced multiple success stories. As the ship’s event coordinator and matchmaker, Joy took pride in every match she helped to make.

As the years passed, though, things changed. Instead of life-mates, the males attending the events wanted breeders or concubines. Mating contracts that protected all the parties had morphed into cold-hearted business arrangements. Some bordered on conditions that resembled slavery more than anything remotely romantic.

“Captain, I think our event coordinator is broken,” First Officer Mika Hooper’s comment pulled Joy out of her dark thoughts and back to the present.

“What? Why?” She raised her head and looked over to the first officer’s workstation. It wasn’t necessary since Joy saw her environment through sensors and not with her eyes, but people reacted better if she made an effort to face their direction when conversing.

“I’ve never seen you make that face before.” Mika had scrunched her face up like she’d bitten into something sour. “In fact, I think this is the first time I’ve seen you without a smile. You usually have one plastered onto your face no matter what’s happening. I actually thought your face was frozen that way, you know, after the accident.”

Joy didn’t react to Mika’s goading. The woman took a perverse sort of pleasure in needling people, and Joy had learned to stay quiet and let the captain deal with it.

“Hooper.” Captain Jodi Perez’s tone was as cold as the void outside. “I’m not going to tell you again. You want to be a jerk, do it inside your own head. The rest of us don’t need to hear it.”

“What?” Hooper shrugged in a half-hearted attempt to look innocent. “She’s a smiler. That’s all I was saying.”

Joy returned to work. Space on the Harvest was limited, so she didn’t have an office. Instead, she used one of auxiliary workstations on the bridge, even though she wasn’t designated bridge crew. The close proximity also made it easy to keep the captain up to date with event scheduling and any problems that cropped up among their guests.

It was her job to keep the guests entertained and happy for the whole cruise, whether they were docked or in transit. At the beginning of each trip that was easy enough. All the passengers were hopeful and full of enthusiasm. They were in the final leg of the journey now, though, which meant the handful of guests still on board were dealing with rejection and self-doubt.

She understood exactly what they were going through. There’d been a time she’d had so many hopes and dreams for her own life… but that was long ago. Before the accident that took her sight and left her scarred and broken.

That’s why she poured her heart and soul into finding matches for the women who signed up for these matchmaking cruises. She wanted them to find the love and happiness she’d never have.

“Bashir. Do you have a few minutes?” Captain Perez asked.

“Of course, Captain. Out here or in your ready room?”

Jodi cocked her head to the side and then laughed. “You’re hoping for a coffee made from my personal stash. Aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am,” Joy admitted without a trace of guilt. Everyone on board knew the captain’s coffee was the best. No one had any idea where she got it from or what magical process made it so damned good.

“You caught me in a generous mood. Hooper, you have the bridge.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Hooper acknowledged.

Joy followed the captain off the bridge and into her office. It was barely bigger than a closet, but it provided the most valuable commodity on the ship—a chance to converse in private.

The moment the door closed, Jodi pointed back toward the bridge. “I wanted you to hear it first. That was Hooper’s final mistake. I intend to fire her the moment this trip is over.”

Joy nodded and exhaled in relief. “Thank you. She’s been… challenging to work with.”

Jodi snorted. “You mean she’s a bitch and a bully.”

“I did, but in my line of work, it pays to be diplomatic at all times.” If she filtered everything she said, it became easier to avoid slipping up and saying something harsh to a paying guest.

“I’d last about thirty seconds if I had to do your job.” Jodi sat down behind her small desk and gestured for Joy to do the same. “Speaking of which, anything I need to know? How are the remaining guests coping?”

“The usual issues. I’m concerned that some of them are desperate enough to be vulnerable to the predators who will be waiting to pounce at our next stop.”

“Have you told Maddison about that issue, yet?” Jodi asked while tapping a request for two coffees into the dispenser behind her.

Maddison Summers was the new owner of the Harvest. She’d come on board at their last stop and would travel with them for a time to get to know the ship and her crew. No one knew much about her other than the fact she’d gotten ownership of the ship and the matchmaking cruise business as part of her divorce settlement with the previous owner.

“Not yet. I have a meeting scheduled with her this afternoon, and I’ll explain the problem then. That way she can see it for herself when we reach our next destination.”

Jodi grimaced. “I can’t stand watching it happen and knowing we can do nothing to stop it.”

“Me either. Hopefully Maddison will hate it just as much, and we can convince her to make some changes.”

The conversation paused while the captain turned to retrieve two steaming mugs of coffee from the dispenser. She pushed one across the desk to Joy… and then all hell broke loose.

The deck beneath her bucked and shuddered hard enough her cup of coffee spilled and rolled off the table.

Jodi jumped to her feet with her cup still in her hand. “Shit! Back to your station.”

They rushed back onto the bridge.

“Report! And someone mute those alarms already.” The captain’s voice was almost drowned out by a deep, metallic groan followed by several creaks that sounded like they came from the hull.

 Joy had never heard anything like it, but she knew it wasn’t a good sound. She hurried back to her station and strapped in. She’d gone over emergency procedures with the passengers so many times they should know what to do, but experience had taught her that at least some of them would panic. You can’t do anything about that right now, she reminded herself. The captain had ordered her to her station, so that’s where she’d stay.

“Hyperdrive engine two is offline, Captain. We’ve fallen back into normal space,” Hooper reported.

“Dammit! Get me engineering. They promised me their repairs would hold until we made port,” Jodi barked and then turned toward the ship’s helmsman. Where are we right now? Whose territory are we in?”

Because she wasn’t bridge crew, Joy had nothing to do but listen. What she heard next made the hairs on the back of her neck rise as a chill chased down her spine.

“We’re in… shit. I don’t understand how this happened, ma’am.” The helm officer stared at her monitor in obvious confusion. “According to the nav system, we’re in verexi space.”

That shouldn’t be possible. The verexi weren’t classified as a hostile race, but they were fiercely territorial, xenophobic, and a generally unpleasant species. They also considered humans to be lesser beings and refused to have anything to do with them. If they learned the Harvest was in their territory, they’d be more likely to attack than to offer assistance. She just had to hope they got out of here before that happened.

Judging by the captain’s stormy expression, her conversation with engineering wasn’t going well, though so many technical terms were flying around Joy couldn’t understand the details. Not that she needed to. Her job was to manage the guests, not the ship.

“Captain, we’ve got incoming fire,” Hooper almost shouted, her voice cracking slightly.

“Son of a bitch. Brace!” Jodi ordered. “Who fired? From where?”

More alarms sounded. The captain looked grim as she activated the ship-wide comms and called all off-duty personnel to the bridge.

The bridge door slid open a few seconds later, allowing Maddison Summers with her personal assistant—and sometimes bodyguard—Loris, to join them.

“What’s happening?” Maddison asked. Her complexion was ashen and she had the look of someone fighting back panic.

Jodi didn’t answer. Instead, she pointed to an empty chair. “Sit down, strap in, and shut up. I’ll explain if we live through the next few minutes.”

To her credit, Maddison didn’t protest. She just did as she was told.

The deck bucked again, and this time the lights flickered and died. The emergency lighting kicked in almost immediately, bathing the bridge in a reddish glow that did nothing to improve their situation.

Joy activated a feature of her coronet she rarely used while on the bridge and zoomed in to see what was showing on the captain’s display. Damage reports filled the screen. It only took a brief look to know the Harvest was in trouble. Now she understood why none of the off-duty staff had made it to the bridge. Multiple hull breeches had exposed parts of the ship to vacuum, making it almost impossible to reach their area. Maddison and Loris had only made it because the captain had given them her cabin, which was right next to the bridge.

Were her friends and coworkers alright? What about the passengers? No doubt they’d be losing their minds by now. “How many escape pods deployed?” Jodi asked.

“Six deployed. But those bastards have shot down three of them.” Hooper slammed her hands down on her console. We’re sitting ducks out here! We’re going to die.”

“Keep it together, Hooper. We’re not dead yet.”

“Ma’am, we have another problem,” the pilot called out over the din. “We’re falling into the gravity well of a planet, and we only have partial power to our normal engines.”

“Fuck!” Jodi swore, her composure cracking for a second. Then the captain schooled her features and got back to work.

“Joy, get me everything you can about that planet. Atmosphere, survivability. Can we breathe the air if we go down?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Joy called up the data and sent the pertinent information to the captain’s monitor. Everything she saw looked promising. The planet was uninhabited but had everything they’d need to survive until rescue.

The hull groaned, and the deck twisted and rippled as they dropped deeper into the planet’s gravity well.

The captain bowed her head in defeat as she opened the ship-wide comms again. “This is the captain. I’m ordering everyone to abandon ship. I repeat. Abandon ship.”

She turned toward Maddison and Loris. “That includes the two of you.”

“I should stay,” Maddison argued.

“No, ma’am. You need to board the command shuttle. Once we’re inside the atmosphere, the autopilot can handle the descent and landing on its own.”

“Where do we go?” Loris asked.

“That hatch over there,” Jodi pointed and then spun to face Joy. “Bashir, you go with them and see to their safety. I’m counting on you.”

Joy nodded and unclipped her harness.

“What the hell, Captain? You’re sending the blind party planner? What the hell can she do to protect the VIPs?” Hooper rose from her chair, her face flushed and eyes wild. “I’ll do it.”

“Hooper! You will sit your ass down right now. Your place is here, ensuring we do everything possible to bring this ship down intact.”

Joy moved quietly, trying to join Maddison and Loris and escort them to the access hatch without Hooper noticing.

It didn’t work.

The first officer uttered a deranged howl and hurled herself at Joy. One second she was on her feet, and the next she was flying through the air, and the floor was rising up to meet her. Then everything went black.

***

Ready for more? Marked For Risk releases April 11, 2023