Indigo listened to the radio as she drove to Reno. The news reports indicated that most of the Mulgor had left Earth. She felt as if she were in some kind of bad horror movie that she couldn’t get out of. She couldn’t even fully understand why she was driving to the Draconian consulate in Reno. Why bother? It wouldn’t bring her family back.

People had begun to reemerge from their homes, and daily life was beginning to go back to normal in all the cities and towns she passed on the way. Indigo hated Nevada. In her opinion, it was an example of everything that was wrong with the world. People throwing their money away at nothing. Drinking. Drugs. Prostitution. It was all so wrong.

The part of her that had been a good student, a good daughter, a good friend and an upright citizen was slowly fading behind the panicked screams of her inner psyche.

People roamed the streets of Reno, moving between casinos and laughing in the daylight. Indigo had nothing to laugh about. She hated all these people. Rage seethed inside her, boiling in a black cauldron of hatred. She could never love. Never find faith. All there was now was death and despair.

She parked outside the consulate and sat there in the car for a long time. If she went in, she would be taken off the planet to live with some Draconian in space. She’d be expected to sleep with him and have his babies. What kind of mother could she possibly be now? She’d left her family in a pool of their own blood. Self-hatred gripped her throat and she sobbed.

What else was she supposed to do? Should she go back to Tahoe and bury their bodies now? Maybe she could tell this Draconian mate of hers about it and he could find someone to bury them for her. The sight of it. The blood. Her family dead on the floor. She’d panicked. All she could think to do was run from the Mulgor. She chastised herself for not being stronger, braver. Those people loved her more than anything else in the world, and she’d just left them there.

Tears swelled and dripped down her cheeks. She knew her face was red and swollen from crying. Her voice was hoarse from screaming for hours as she drove over the mountain and into Reno.

There was only one thing left to do; she had to go into the consulate and make herself known. Her mother hadn’t wanted her to mate with an alien, but Indigo felt it was the best punishment for what she’d done. A smaller voice, somewhere at the back of her mind, also said she’d never have to see death again if she lived among the Draconians.

She slowly staggered up the steps of the Greek revival building that had recently been built in downtown Reno for the sole purpose of registering women in the mating lottery. When she made it to the front door, she considered running in the opposite direction. What was left for her here on Earth? College? That was a joke. None of it seemed to matter anymore.

Indigo gripped the door handle and stepped inside. A single desk sat in the middle of the wide domed room and light poured down from above. A huge, attractive man sat at the desk and smiled at her pleasantly. She wiped her eyes and stepped forward.

“I’m Indigo Robertson. I was told you’ve found my match.”

“Are you all right?” the man said, flicking a holographic screen without taking his eyes off her.

“I’m fine. Why?”

“You appear distressed and are covered in blood.”

“The Mulgor killed my family. Just take me to my match.”

He frowned and looked away. “Yes. You’ve been matched with—Wow… You’ve been matched with General Vlosh Torr.”

“Wow?”

“He is the highest ranking officer in the Draconian military. His fleet only arrived a few days ago.”

“I guess that’s why I wasn’t matched before,” she said.

“That appears to be the case. I’ve just informed General Torr of your presence here in Reno. He is unable to meet you on the planet surface and requests you be sent to him on the command ship.”

The secretary seemed overly excited in Indigo’s opinion. This guy obviously had a man crush on this general. Indigo frowned. He couldn’t even find the time to come meet her. It was already proving to be a dysfunctional relationship.

“Maybe this was a mistake,” she said, backing away.

“Miss. You can’t leave. The general’s mating impulse will have started. You must go to him and allow him to claim you. All our lives depend on it.”

“Why the hell do all our lives depend on me boning some alien?”

“If he is not able to claim you, his inner dragon will slowly drive him insane. He is the man who will save this planet from the Mulgor. Everyone is depending on you, Indigo Robertson.”

She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll go. Not like I have anything else to live for.”

“Let me show you to the transport vessel that will take you to the command ship.”

She followed the secretary to a back room, where he flicked another holographic screen. Siding doors whooshed opened and she could see a few rows of seats inside. She strode through the sliding door and plopped on the chair. The secretary helped her get strapped in before stepping back to inspect the computers again.

“You are prepared for takeoff. Let me say, it was an honor to meet the mate of our general. Congratulations and farewell.”

He gave her a strange salute, holding his hand to his chest as he bowed forward slightly. She shrugged and looked away. She didn’t care that he thought it was an honor to meet her. It didn’t make any difference.

The door slid closed and the vessel began to rumble. Indigo gritted her teeth as the vessel thrust upward. She could see Earth flying away from her at an amazing speed out the window in front of her. The small craft hit the atmosphere and a blaze of fiery light enveloped everything.

Only a brief moment later, the vessel popped out into space. She gasped as she took in the darkness of space and the twinkle of stars in every direction. The craft spun and picked up speed, shooting out of Earth’s orbit. She only saw a glimpse of her planet before her vessel hurled toward Mars. A fleet of spaceships hung in orbit around the red planet.

It was all so mind boggling. She couldn’t take it all in at once. Only hours ago, she’d left the scene of her family’s murder. Now, she was propelling through space towards Mars. It was all too confusing, and Indigo began to feel herself crack. All the strength she’d tried to show Molly and her parents seemed to vanish.

She was just a girl. Just an ordinary girl, and there was a limit to how much she could take. Indigo was definitely reaching that limit.

The vessel drew closer and closer to the largest ship in the fleet. Her heart pounded ferociously inside her rib cage, smashing against her like a frightened, caged animal. Her vessel moved through an opening in the outer wall of the largest ship and slowly came to a landing inside the docking bay. Indigo was so nervous, and was panting so hard, she nearly hyperventilated by the time the doors swung open. She unbuckled the harness on her seat and rose to standing.

Scared as hell and second-guessing her decision to leave Earth, Indigo emerged from the small vessel. Inside the docking bay, there were many other small craft like the one she had just landed in. There were also ships that looked like fighter jets in the massive open room. She stepped down to the floor and was greeted by a tall, attractive man who smiled at her agreeably.

"I was sent to take you to General Torr."

"All right," Indigo said. There was no use waiting around here in the docking bay. Time to meet this man who had been chosen for her by Draconian computer algorithms.

Indigo followed the man down a brightly lit domed hallway, passing Draconian males along the way. Each one was more attractive than the last. They were all seven feet tall with broad shoulders and distinctly attractive Draconian male faces. Their bright, wide almond-shaped eyes stared down at Indigo as she passed, seeming to peer into her soul.

Indigo had never met a Draconian in person before today, but each one that she had seen so far was far sexier than any human male she had ever met. She couldn’t believe how unbelievably attractive they were. Even in her traumatized state, she could understand why ancient human women took them for gods.

The secretary brought her into an apartment that was furnished in a strange alien way. She didn’t understand any of the furnishings, but her escort indicated for her to sit on a white square seat. When she sat down, it felt like the softest, most yielding memory foam possible. It was incredibly comfortable and she let out an audible sigh of pleasure as the foam accommodated her body and weight.

“General Torr will join you in just a few moments.” He gave her the Draconian salute and walked out the door.

Indigo waited in the strange room, gazing out the big window that looked out onto space. She could see the other ships in the fleet and a view of Mars as they orbited around the giant red planet. She was still in a state of disbelief about the entire situation.

Five years ago, Draconians had come to Earth. A week ago, the Mulgor had invaded. None of that had prepared her for actually being in space. The sight of Mars outside the window was thrilling and impossible. She wasn’t an astronaut or a space explorer, she was just a girl studying exercise science at the University of Los Angeles.

When her name had been passed up years ago in the mating lottery, she certainly never expected that she would ever have the opportunity to see these kinds of things. But here she was, sitting on the strangely comfortable chair looking out a huge window at an impossible view.

The door behind her swished open and she turned in her chair to see a man who was several inches taller than even the average Draconian. He was wearing the skintight uniform that the rest of the Draconians wore. It clung to his muscled body, showing off every curve and dip of his developed musculature.

Indigo sucked a sharp breath through her teeth when she laid eyes on the man. She licked her lip as her eyes grew wide, taking in the sight. The skintight uniform didn’t leave anything to the imagination. The bulge between his legs was as imposing as the rest of his gigantic form. She couldn’t believe her eyes. This man was as startling as the sight of Mars.

She shot up from her seat and backed away several paces, not quite knowing why. He wasn’t threatening her. It was her body’s instinctive reaction to his presence, like an electric jolt shot through every nerve in her entire system. Her nipples pricked painfully and she felt her panties dampen as her pussy clenched between her legs.

“I am General Torr. You are my mate.”

Indigo stood staring. She had no idea how to respond to his statements. He seemed to be completely disconnected to appropriate human discourse. People didn’t just introduce themselves like that without offering anything in exchange.

“Indigo Robertson,” she said, her voice still hoarse. The sound of it reminded her how it had gotten that way and she felt faint. Her knees buckled under her, and she began to fall. Her fuzzy mind registered that she was about to feel a lot of pain, but somehow she never felt it.

Big, strong arms wrapped around her and caught her before she hit the floor. She was lifted and carried to an elongated box made of the same material the bench had been made of. General Torr set her on the bed and inspected her for injuries.

“Why do you have blood on your clothing? Are you injured?”

Indigo felt like she was about to lose consciousness. Having him ask about the blood brought everything back with screaming clarity inside her mind. She began to weep, big gushing sobs that were accompanied by massive tears dripping all over the bed where she lay.

“Why are you leaking?” General Torr asked, as if trying to find why she had malfunctioned. He poked and prodded at her body, lifting up her shirt and inspecting underneath.

“The Mulgor killed my parents and my best friend. I found them dead in our cabin right before I found out about you.” Her words came out in gasps. General Torr looked at her with a blank expression, then he frowned.

“A cabin is a domicile humans build in the wilderness, correct?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said, sniffling.

“Why were the Mulgor in the wilderness?”

“I don’t know,” she wailed. “The radio said to get out of populated areas. To hide and stay indoors. I was the one who went out. I was the one who broke into the grocery store and stole food. I’m the one who should’ve been killed by the Mulgor.”

“I suspect you were their target,” General Torr said, shaking his head.

“I was their target?” Indigo said. “Why?”

“Because you are my mate, and they were trying to send me a message.”

Indigo sat up on the bed and swung her feet over the side, her head still spinning. The Mulgor really had been after her all along. And why? Because she was the mate of this general guy. They were trying to punish him by killing her. But they had ended up punishing her instead.

“I left their bodies to rot,” she whispered.

“You are distressed. I know little of human females, but this much I can surmise. You must wash yourself and rest. We will speak again later. It is imperative that we begin the mating process. I cannot afford to be distracted by the screams of my inner dragon.”

“What about my family?”

“It is the human custom to bury the dead, correct?”

“I didn’t bury them. I just left.”

“And you feel guilt for this?” General Torr asked her as if it were ridiculous for her to feel guilty.

“Of course.”

“If you had not left the premises, the Mulgor could have returned and found you. It was most wise to leave immediately. I am grateful that you did. Without you, I would have gone mad. Now that you are here, my dragon yearns for you.”

His words almost sounded romantic. Almost. He had said he didn’t know anything about human females, and that was pretty evident. But he seemed like a decent enough person, and he was trying to comfort her in his own clumsy way.

“Do not waste your time on guilt, my little human mate. Wash yourself, rest, and we will soon begin the mating process.”

“How am I supposed to wash? I have no idea what any of this stuff is. Your furnishings are completely foreign to me.”

“Unlike the mating armada, our apartments were not retrofitted for human tastes. This is a military vessel. I will briefly explain to you what everything is.”

General Torr walked around the apartment explaining what each of the furnishings and gadgets was used for. She was lying on a couch. There were several other chairs made out of the same material. He pressed his foot into a spot on the floor and a circular table emerged with a circular bench around it.

Everything seemed to be on the larger Draconian scale, but as he explained how to use it all, she understood it to have pretty similar utility as the things one would find in a human home.

He pressed the button at the center of the circular table and a hologram popped up. He flicked the hologram and explained that the table would manufacture any food that was in the system. It was still all Draconian food, but he assured her that he would have human food entered into the system.

A moment later, he opened another sliding door that led into a bedroom. A massive square of foam was the only thing inside the room. That served as the bed. Through another door off the living room was the bathroom. There was a raised hollow seat that served as a toilet. But the most impressive thing was the bath that looked like it would allow a Draconian to stand up inside it and still be covered with water up to his chest.

General Torr pressed a few buttons and water began to rush at an amazing speed into the tub. It was full within a few moments. Stairs circled around the outside, allowing for safe entrance into the tub. Inside were several stacked benches of various heights that she could stand on without drowning. It was really like a very narrow, very deep swimming pool.

“You may bathe in here,” he explained. “I leave you now.”

“Wait, what am I supposed to wear when I’m done?” she asked.

“There is a spare Draconian uniform in this closet. You may dry yourself under the heat fan.”

“So, I guess I don’t get a closet full of designer clothes,” she said flatly.

“No,” was all he said.

“What am I supposed to call you? Genernal Torr?”

“Indeed, no. Call me Vlosh.”