“The Shadowring is gone,” Maki gasped, staring at the flight monitor in shock. A healing patch covered half his chest. Someone must have tended to his wounds.

The massive, curving screen inside the navigation pod revealed a great swathe of blue-and-green planet, half-shrouded in darkness.

A land on the cusp of dawn.

Khira was strangely reminiscent of Earth. A pang of nostalgia shot through Calexa as she remembered the beautiful planet that was the birthplace of the human race. She’d never lived there, only visited—after all, half of Earth was closed off to human habitation because of all the environmental rehabilitation going on—but the sight of its blue and green and white surface had stirred strange emotions in her.

The same emotions rose in her now as she caught sight of Khira for the very first time.

Home.

Since she’d been taken away from her parents, she’d never had one. Not a terrestrial one, anyway. The Medusa was the only home she knew, but its narrow corridors and spartan interior were no substitute for a real ground-home.

As they descended, they flew toward the light. A vast, glittering ocean stretched out before them, peppered with verdant green islands. They lost altitude quickly, and soon they were gliding over the ocean, maintaining a constant speed.

“Survived the re-entry burn without losing power,” Raphael said calmly, although th slight tension in his voice betrayed his unease. He sat in the pilot’s chair, his green eyes concealed behind a bulky VR helm. Neural response gloves covered his hands, and his fingers twitched constantly as he flew the ship.

“You mean losing power was an actual possibility?” Calexa’s heart did a little flutter.

“Monroe said not to tell you until after the fact. Didn’t want anyone giving him unnecessary stress. Said it might cause him to make a mistake. He always gets like this when he’s sleep deprived. Just don’t talk to him until we’ve landed.”

“Monroe.” Calexa sighed. The half-breed was a socially challenged weirdo, but he got the job done, and that was all that mattered.

“There.” With wide eyes, Maki pointed toward a seemingly endless mass of land. A glittering network of serpentine rivers crisscrossed the coastline, splitting into wide floodplains. A massive expanse of verdant green forest stretched beyond the plains. In the distance, a mountain range rose abruptly out of the dense jungle, bisecting the vast continent. Impossibly, its imposing grey peaks were capped with a dusting of snow. Nothing grew on the range. The mountains were hewn from stark grey rock which was etched with jagged peaks and ravines.

The range went on forever. Staring at the epic geography, Calexa suddenly felt very small and insignificant.

“The Spine of the World,” Maki said softly. “The Esskar range. Beyond the mountains is our hunting ground, the Ardu-Sai.”

The morning sun touched the rivers, burnishing them with a golden glow. It reflected off the mountain snow, turning the peaks blindingly white.

What a world of contrasts. Calexa had never seen anything more beautiful in her life.

Aside from Ares, of course.

Khira was so far removed from the grimy, congested streets of D5. It was a paradise; wild, untamed, and mysterious.

Maki pointed to the crude map he’d drawn on the wall, where the glowing blue lines of Raphael’s engineering marker stood out against the plain grey metal. Somehow, Raphael had been able to feed Maki’s depiction into the computer and pinpoint the exact same topography on Khira. The Medusa might be crippled, but she was still able to scan and map new co-ordinates.

They crossed over the Esskar Range as they continued to descend, flying above deep green vegetation. In some places it was so thick it almost appeared black. The forest gave way to vast wetlands peppered with thickets of reeds and flat islands. Although there were patches of green reeds here and there, the vast majority were a deep shade of brown, almost as if they were… dead.

Maki’s face had turned grim, his expression cold and hard and wild, just like the Esskar ranges themselves. “See that island? The one shaped like a curved sword? You can land there. There is a supply station there. We can rest and replenish, and if necessary, we can make the rest of the journey by boat.”

Calexa translated for Raphael. The half-Primean banked the Medusa and started to circle. “The strip’s just wide enough to do a short landing. It’s going to be tight, maybe a little bumpy. I don’t have much stopping distance. You’d better warn the others.”

Calexa opened her comm channel with a few clicks of her teeth. “Hey, Zahra, Mai, brace and strap. It’s going to be a throwdown. The girls okay?”

“Yep and yep. We’ll let them know. Glad to hear your boss voice again, Cal. We missed you while you were, uh, sleeping.” Mai greeted her with a not-so-subtle probe. The girl was a gossip. “I didn’t realize you had company.”

“No privacy,” Calexa muttered, but because it was coming from Mai, she didn’t mind. There were no secrets between them.

“Not on this ship,” Zahra added. “We’re just a big old family, aren’t we?”

“With some unexpected guests onboard.”

“We’re not all going to end up in the swamp, are we?”

Calexa glanced at Maki. The Vradhu’s black eyes shone with some intense emotion that she couldn’t quite identify. With his deep black markings and severe warrior’s braid accentuating his intense expression, he was no longer the affable savage.

Maki had transformed into a stern warrior-chief.

“What’s wrong?” Calexa asked softly.

The Vradhu’s only response was stony silence. She nodded at the landing seats. “Secure yourself. We’re going down.”

Maki nodded grimly and took his place in one of the chairs. Calexa turned and watched the flight monitor for a split-second longer, stunned by the majesty of Ares’s homeland.

Khira had to be the least inhabited planet she’d ever seen.

The Medusa shuddered. The outside noise—rushing air—grew louder and louder, penetrating the insulated walls of the hull.

“Get into your seat, Ca—“ Raphael’s voice tapered off as…

A tail curled around her waist. Sharp-yet-gentle teeth nipped at her neck. A familiar scent surrounded her, stoking the coals of her arousal.

He’s awake. Relief surged through her. Ares was here with her.

“How did you find me?”

“Followed your scent,” he murmured in her ear, his warm breath feathering her cheek.

The ship shook again. Calexa lost her balance but didn’t fall, because Ares held her firmly in the grasp of his powerful tail.

“Cal,” Raphael warned. His hands became a blur as they weaved through the air, maneuvering the ship.

“Yeah, yeah. Safety. I know.” She dragged Ares toward the landing seats, where Maki watched them with slightly raised eyebrows. He didn’t say anything, though. It occurred to her that Ares was wearing nothing but a bedsheet; he’d draped it around his hips as if he were some sort of decadent ancient Earthian god.

Calexa stifled a sigh. “You need to put the restraints down.” She punched the activation button and two hard restraints came down over Maki’s shoulders before he had the chance to react.

He exchanged rapid-fire words in Vradhu with Ares, and both males shrugged, rolling their eyes. Calexa had to admire the attitude of these fierce alien warriors. Considering all that had happened, they were showing remarkable composure.

Was this what life in the Ardu-Sai had taught them? To accept life and all its unexpected twists without batting an eyelid?

She rather liked this typical Vradhu stoicism.

“Hurry up, stud,” she growled, pressing her hand against Ares’s chest and guiding him into the seat beside Maki. “Or you’ll end up splattered against Raphael’s nav-console.”

Ares grinned at her forcefulness and complied, dropping into his landing-seat while Calexa self-consciously glanced at Raphael.

As usual, the half-Primean showed no emotion, ignoring them completely.

She thanked the stars Zahra and Mai were down below, because this situation was becoming decidedly scandalous.

As Calexa fell into her seat and dropped the restraints for herself and Ares, something long and sinuous and fucking airborne shot across the flight monitor.

Ares and Maki growled.

“What the hell is that?”

“Kratok,” Ares said, as if that explained everything. “The noise of the ship must have woken it from hibernation. Do not worry. Once we have landed, I will hunt it and kill it.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“They are vicious beasts. If we ignore it, we are putting ourselves in danger.” A vicious grin spread across his face, as if the thought of hunting the kratok actually made him happy.

“This new body of yours is untested, khefe.” Maki grabbed onto his restraints as the Medusa lurched. “Let me be the one to draw in the kratok.”

Raphael made a sharp turn and locked onto their final destination.

Here we go.

They were about to land on an island in the middle of a vast wetland, on an uncharted planet, in an unknown part of the Universe.

Khira.

Holy hell. What had they done?

“I will be the one to go first,” Ares insisted, running his bare hand over Calexa’s thigh. He slipped his devious purple fingers beneath the hem of her cabin-robe and stroked her skin. “I must show my mate what it means to be khefe.”

Mate. Such a bold declaration. He dropped the word without a second thought, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Maki seemed to accept their relationship without question, not even batting an eyelid.

Pride glittered in Ares’s eyes. With his striking violet and black features and long wild hair, he was impossibly alluring.

Did she object? Not at all. He knew it. She knew it.

“And if you get hurt?” Maki seemed more concerned with his fellow clansman’s safety than Ares and Calexa’s relationship, or the fact that the Medusa was violently rocking from side to side as they swooped across the water, with Raphael muttering something under his breath about unexpected headwinds.

Ares just laughed.