Loretta found the little room that she had rented out in New Jersey. It was a dingy little hotel, but she knew that she would need time after her interview to recuperate before the long trip back to Alabama. She also wanted to wait it out in New York until she knew for sure if she was getting the job. She set her bag down on the scratchy bedspread and heaved a deep sigh.

Today had been the strangest day of her entire life. She’d had an interview with a high-powered financial brokerage firm in New York City. It was a dream come true for her. Then she’d been taken hostage, been saved by a dragon, who shifted back into a man – a man who was so breathtakingly beautiful he made her believe there was magic in the world. That very same man then turned out to be her mate. Whatever that meant.

Loretta’s head buzzed with confusion and half realized desire. She’d given Mylash her address and wanted more than anything for him to contact her as soon as possible. She had to remember why she had agreed to have her DNA tested in the first place. Her grandmother was responsible for her little brother and sister. The older woman’s pension was barely enough to scrape by. Now the house was being foreclosed, and they would all be homeless by the end of the month unless Loretta figured something out fast.

The money Mylash offered her would definitely save the house and there would be plenty left over afterwards. But to mate with an alien? Even though Mylash was the sexiest man Loretta had ever met, he was still a dragon shifting alien.

She had never entered the lottery. Mostly because she couldn’t spend her time wishing for something that she had no control over. But also because the idea of becoming the bride of another species gave her the heebie-jeebies.

She definitely didn’t want to go out into space and live on one of the Draconian spaceships. The idea of that was downright terrifying. She also had a life here on Earth and people that she cared about. Her grandma would be incensed if she knew that Loretta been mated with one of the aliens.

Unlike Loretta, who didn’t care one way or the other about the Draconians and their mating game, her grandmother thought it was disgusting. Being an old-fashioned woman, she had plenty of her own prejudices. Distrust of the Draconians was one of them.

The last thing Loretta ever wanted to do was disappoint her grandmother. The woman had raised her from the time she was twelve years old when both of her parents died in a car accident. Loretta had gone off to college before the Draconians had arrived. But in the five years since they had landed on earth, her grandmother’s ability to take care of Loretta’s younger brother and sister had disintegrated.

Her grandma was a wonderful caregiver and still healthy for a woman her age, but her pension had been cut and the social welfare systems that had provided them with food and cash had been cut out completely in the last year. The only money that they had until recently were from Loretta’s overly expensive student loans. Now that she was done with school, she was over one hundred thousand dollars in debt and had no income for herself or her family.

The fact was, Loretta had considered joining the lottery. But finishing school and getting a job seemed the safer bet at the end of the day. She pulled her cellphone out of her purse and considered calling her grandmother but decided against it. She sent her a quick text instead and set the cellphone down on the bed. She wouldn’t be able to have a conversation with her grandma without revealing what had happened today. It wouldn’t be long before the woman knew that it was Loretta’s building that had been bombed. Loretta wanted to let her grandmother know that she was safe. If she talked to her grandmother, she was afraid she would blurt out that she met Mylash and that he wanted her to be his mate.

Loretta picked up the remote and flicked on the television, looking for some distraction from her racing thoughts. Unfortunately, the television was not going to offer her any relaxation. What she saw before her sent a shiver of panic into the pit of her stomach.

Video of exploding buildings in London and Rio filled the TV screen. Newscasters explained that the terrorists had bombed two more cities that day. All she could do was sit in stunned silence as clip after clip of the video played on the screen. Her heart raced and her mind was blank. The terrorists had taken it to a whole new level.

Newscasters argued about bombers’ intent and the wisdom of relying on the Draconians for protection. Finally, Loretta couldn’t take it anymore and clicked off the television. She sank onto the bed with a grunt, her head slapping against the pillow.

As soon as her back was on the bed, there was a knock at her door. Startled, she sprang to her feet and went to the door, looking out the peep hole. On the other side, she could see the outline of a well-defined chest. It was Mylash.

She flung open the door, her instinct compelling her to fall into his arms. She held herself back, confused. Why would she feel as if this man could give her comfort when she had just met him? They were from two different worlds. How could they ever understand each other, let alone depend on each other for support?

“I have come to speak with you, my little mate,” he said in a husky voice. She stepped aside and allowed him to enter her room. He took a seat in a chair that seemed too small for the scale of his body, and she closed the door.

“Yes?” she asked, still dumbfounded by the events of her day.

“Please sit,” he said, gesturing to the chair beside him. She went to sit down and waited for him to explain what he wanted. Her mind was dazed, and she wasn’t sure she could handle anything that came out of his mouth right now. It was all too confusing and too strange. “Since you are my mate, and there’s no other mate for me in the entire universe, I have come to ask you to be mine.”

“Well, I just met you,” she said, her voice hoarse and shaking.

“Understandable. You did not join the mating lottery so you are under no obligation to mate with me.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Under what conditions would you agree to be my mate?” he asked.

Loretta shook her head, trying to shake out of the daze. It didn’t help. “Under what conditions?” she repeated.

“How can I convince you to mate with me?”

“What do you mean by mate with you?”

Mylash made a rumbling sound in the back of his throat and paused for a moment. “Your equivalent in human society is called marriage. So in effect, I am asking you to marry me.”

“I don’t even know you.”

“Yes. I understand why that would be a roadblock for you.”

“I don’t want to live on a spaceship.”

“I see our accommodations are well below what is acceptable for my mate. This is my proposition. I provide a luxury apartment in New York City. You will stay with me there, we will have relations. After a week together, if you do not feel attached to me, you can have double the bride price, and you will be free to leave.”

“But you already offered me five hundred thousand dollars,” she said, trying to make sense of what was going on.

“That was not a ruse. If you choose not to stay with me for the week, I will still give you the five hundred thousand dollars. However, if I am not given the chance to mate with my bride, I will slowly go insane. If you do find that you become attached to me, you will have a mate of your own. I’m told that this proposition is generally attractive to females of your species.”

“Generally, it is. So you’re saying I can have one million dollars, stay in a luxury apartment for a week, and not have any obligation to you after, if I have sex with you a few times?”

“That is my proposition,” he said. “Is this acceptable to you?”

“I don’t know. Are you paying me to sleep with you?” She didn’t like the idea of prostituting herself to an alien. Her mind was so muddled that she didn’t know if she was being melodramatic or not.

“I’m paying you to test whether or not you want to be my bride. I am confident that after we make love, you will want to stay with me. The money is nothing to me or the armada. But I know that it is quite important to humans. I’m offering you your most valuable resource in exchange for what is my most valuable resource, my bride.”

“Well, I guess I could do that.” She thought about the prospect of making love to the seven foot tall, brawny alien with the bulge between his legs that made her skin prick with goosebumps every time her eyes grazed over it.

“Fantastic. I already have an apartment secured for you, my little mate.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. I haven’t agreed to be your mate yet.”