Lieutenant Oro Nix glided down the hallway of the command ship of the Draconian Mating Armada. He’d come to Earth with an elite fighting force, handpicked by the President of Draconia to deal with the Earth crisis. This was one of the Draconian’s mating planets.

Because Draconian DNA favored males, it was crucial to their survival that they mate with other species once every thousand years. Earth humans were on a five-thousand-year rotation. The last time the Draconians had visited Earth, humans had been an undeveloped species who worshiped the Draconians as gods. This time, Earth humans were much different.

To prevent humans from blowing themselves up with their own weapons, and to salvage the poorly planned mission, Draconians had offered humans technology in exchange for the Earthlings’ cooperation. There wasn’t much else they could do with their attention divided by the war with the Mulgor back at home.

The technology the Draconians had given humanity had corrupted them and worsened an already bad social structure at a vulnerable time in their development. That was why Oro’s commando squad was called in. Oro’s crew were the most skilled warriors in the Draconian military.

While his general’s mate bought the human corporations out of business, the rest of the crew continued to fight violent threats. The Draconians were no longer taking a passive stance on the human situation. They’d come to give them a better way to live. They had to take responsibility now.

Today, Oro’s general had asked him to come down to his briefing room for a special operation of urgent importance. Oro loved his job. It gave him great glory to work for the good of Draconia and their race. Even helping these Earthlings gave him satisfaction.

He slid into the room with General Shin. The general smiled at him from across the room, showing his sharp teeth. Oro stepped forward and stood before his general and friend.

“You wanted to see me, sir?” Oro said, preparing himself for his mission. The human problem had not been without its dangers. Even as a powerful dragon shifter, the humans could still pose a threat to his life.

“I have a new mission for you. There is a man who is at the center of the techno-drug market in North America. He needs to be taken out with stealth. If he sees you coming, he could use the addicts against you. The drugs allow him to control the addicts’ minds with a special computer code. My intel says he is the only one who knows the code. The original programmer is dead. You can’t give him a chance to use it or it could mean death and war for millions.”

“Thank you for trusting me with this mission, General Shin.”

“You are the best man for the job. With your stealth assassin abilities, I couldn’t have chosen a better man.”

General Shin gave Oro the details of his mission and transferred the information to Oro’s private database. Oro checked the information on his communication device on the wrist of his uniform.

Oro excused himself from the general and hurried to the transport bay. Just as he stepped into his vessel, his wrist device pinged with a message. Oro flicked his wrist, but there were no details. Strange. He wondered if it was part of his mission. He climbed into a transport vessel from the docking bay and jettisoned off into space.

He sliced through the atmosphere, barreling toward Earth. When he reached his destination city, the ship eased onto the landing pad behind the consulate. After disembarking, he strode through the sliding doors into the main consulate room.

The doors whooshed behind him and he checked his wrist device again, checking the information he’d downloaded from General Shin. When he looked up, the secretary of the consulate stood before him. Beside the secretary stood a beautiful human woman.

He nodded once at the secretary and the gorgeous, curvy woman with glowing dark skin and long curly hair. Their eyes met as he passed, and something about her stopped him in his tracks.

The woman licked her full, pink lips and Oro felt weak in the knees. His inner dragon bolted. As a fighter, Oro and his dragon were a well-oiled machine. To have his dragon scream inside his mind was highly unusual.

“Lieutenant Nix, I hailed you through your wrist device.”

“Yes. What is it Secretary Noro?”

“This woman is your mate. She entered the lottery and her DNA matches yours.”

“What? I never entered into the system. How is this possible?”

“As far as I know, all the commandos were entered by General Shin and Commander Or. Everyone is to be mated, sir.”

Oro’s penetrating gaze fixed on the woman. She looked nervous, but her confidence was palpable. He liked her looks. And her smell. His inner dragon hissed and growled, gnashing at his brain.

His mating impulse. It would drive him mad if he didn’t claim this woman as his mate. In the haze of his own mind’s rebellion, Oro was momentarily immobilized. For a warrior of his caliber and skill, this weakness was unacceptable.

He gathered himself up and focused on the matter at hand.

“What is your name?” he asked the woman.

“Tabitha Wilson. But you can call me Tabby. Everyone does. When do we go to the ship?”

“I don’t have time for that now. I’m on a mission.”

“But I won the lottery. Our DNA matches. I’m supposed to get a luxury apartment. And Gucci.” She frowned prettily and crossed her arms under her substantial breasts, squeezing them together.

Oro stared down at the curve of her breasts. The low-cut top under her leather jacket showed off her ample cleavage. His body responded to the sight of her flesh, and he stiffened.

With his body betraying him, Oro gritted his teeth and rubbed his temples. He was known for his ability to make fluid decisions in the field. He would have to do that now if he wanted to succeed in his mission.

“Come with me,” he said, taking her by the hand.

“Aren’t we going to the ship?”

“No.”

“But I won.”

He pulled her outside to the parking lot of the consulate and opened the door of a hover sports car. It was black inside and out and could speed through the city in total silence.

Tabby gasped when she saw it and did a little dance with her hands pressed over her lips. Watching her move with all that excited energy made his cock press against his uniform. He growled. This kind of distraction would not help with the mission.

There was nothing to be done about it now. He would take the woman with him and claim her while he completed his mission. Like most Draconians, he had little experience with woman. These tactical variables were less than ideal.

He opened the door of the car for her. “Get in,” he said in a low, flat voice.

She slid into the black interior and Oro closed the door. He got in the driver’s side and checked his wrist device. Oro was after a man named Juan Norte who ran the techno-drug cartel. The illicit drugs were enslaving over a million people in North America alone. The worst part was that they had been hybridized from leaked Draconian technology. Now people like Juan Norte were using human weakness as a means of control. It had to stop. Oro was determined to fulfill his mission and bring this planet one step closer to peace.

He pulled out onto the highway and sped over the pavement. Juan Norte had a compound about an hour south of Phoenix. Oro’s assignment was to spy on him from a resort nearby. With his high powered Draconian technology, he could watch Juan’s movements and find the best time to strike.

“Where are we going?” Tabby asked. He looked over at her. She wore tight fitting jeans that hugged her hips and thighs. Her hands were grasped in her lap, resting against her luscious curves. Oro’s mouth watered. He wanted to bite into her flesh and taste her. He growled. That would have to wait, for now.

“Desert Palms Resort. South of here.”

“Holy crap. No way. I’ve heard of that place. It’s five-star all the way”

“Five-star?”

“It’s a really nice place. Is this like our honeymoon or something?”

“Honeymoon?”

“You know, when two people get married and then they go on a fancy vacation.”

“Sure. It’s our honeymoon.”

Oro knew the words married and vacation in English. But he didn’t know what either had to do with honey or the moon. He decided to go along with it. Whatever the woman needed to stay happy and content while he completed his mission was fine with him. Oro had never expected to be matched with a woman. He’d come to Earth on a mission and had been laser focused on accomplishing it. He’d had no idea he was even entered into the lottery.

Here he was on an important mission for his general, with a curvy, cute human woman by his side. He had no idea what to do with her. Well, he did have ideas about what to do with her, but those weren’t helping right now. His dragon showed him images inside his mind of taking the woman roughly from behind on the hood of the car. He saw himself sink his sharp teeth into her soft neck to claim her as his thick cock pushed inside her womb.

He squeezed his eyes closed for a brief second and looked back at the road. They would be in the Desert Palms soon. The resort was close to Juan Norte’s compound. All the more reason for them to be careful. General Shin had made it clear that this man needed to be taken out with stealth. Alerting the criminals to his presence could jeopardize the mission. Not to mention the lives of all those poor souls addicted to Juan’s drugs.