The car skidded and the left two wheels lifted off the pavement as I took the corner going hella-fast. My NASCAR skills didn’t matter since the black SUV behind us didn’t even slow down.

“I need to take more driving lessons,” I grumbled, gripping the wheel tighter.

I’d gone to college, law school, and taken basic self-defense, but none of that included stunt driving. Looking back, Mother should have insisted on it the day I turned sixteen.

“God, Trin, you’re going to kill us before we get there.” My middle sister, Faith—older than her twin by a whopping eight minutes—laughed from the back as she scolded me, her white knuckled death grip on the two front seats the only thing keeping her in the car.

“Just pull over and let me shoot the assholes. Then we can go to Alera.” And that annoyed voice was my baby sister, Destiny, sitting in the passenger seat petting her gun like it was her favorite kitten. I was past the worry of her shooting me accidentally; she was too skilled. She looked like the more easy-going one of my twin sisters, but she’d spent every day of her life since she was four learning how to fight, hunt, stalk and kill things. The purple hair and huge, innocent looking baby-blue eyes were a total fake-out on any man who thought he had her figured out.

Not that she’d let very many try. We’d all dated. We weren’t innocent, sequestered virgins. But we were princesses. Not that anyone knew it. And not that we’d really, really believed it until a few hours ago. There were too many Disney princesses out there for us to have believed we were actual royalty from another planet.

Another freaking planet.

“Just shoot out their tires or something. That’s what they do in the movies.” Faith was grinning like a maniac, loving the adventure. Unlike Destiny, Faith looked innocent. Completely and totally innocent. Long golden brown hair. Warm, dark eyes. She looked like the biggest softie on the planet. And when it came to animals, that was true. She dragged home every sick creature within a ten-mile radius of our house, snakes included. But people? Ouch. Not so much. As twins, they should have been more alike, but they were fraternal and their personalities were as unbelievably different as they looked.

“Don’t you dare,” I threatened, keeping my eyes on the road. “We’re almost there. I can see the parking lot.”

“I won’t miss, Trin. Let me do it.” Destiny was already eyeing the SUV, the road, the angles.

“No. You won’t miss.” I glanced out the rear-view mirror at the SUV. “They’re going too fast. The stupid thing will probably flip and roll and some poor bastard just trying to do his job won’t go home to his family tonight. No. This isn’t their fight.”

With a deep sigh I’d heard hundreds of times, Destiny leaned back in the seat and let me drive. “Fine. Freaking diplomat. For the record, they’re chasing us.”

Faith turned around and waved at the sunglass-wearing Men-In-Black in the SUV behind us. I had to grin when I saw driver’s jaw tighten. “Stop tormenting the alien chasers.”

“Spoil-sport.”

“Hippie,” I fired back.

“And the freak to the rescue!” Destiny let out a yell of victory as I burned rubber making the turn into the parking lot of the Interstellar Brides Processing Center. We weren’t brides, exactly. We weren’t here to be tested and matched to an alien mate. We were the aliens. Sort-of. I was one-hundred-percent alien, according to our mother. But my pain-in-the-ass sisters were only half.

So, we weren’t brides. But we weren’t going to enter on the military side either. I knew the place processed both warriors and brides for the Coalition Fleet, but I didn’t want to explain things to a soldier. While there were women soldiers, plenty of them, I didn’t have time to deal with a man if one was on duty. And, from what my mother warned when we were younger, my Aleran Ardor had begun—a really long story—and getting in front of a man wouldn’t be the best thing for me right now.

Long story short, if I saw a man I wanted, I’d be aggressive, want to climb him like a monkey, and be totally disappointed and even more needy and in danger when the deed was done. My sisters? Well, we didn’t know yet. But my body was driving me crazy, and not one man I’d seen had flipped my switch.

Mother insisted I would need the sacred energy of an Aleran male to calm my need, but I hadn’t really believed that either. At least not until I’d tried to quench my thirst with one of the hotties I’d lusted after at work. Big mistake.

I kissed him, and I swear to God his mouth tasted like an ashtray. And he didn’t even smoke.

Plus, he’d fallen asleep for four hours after just a couple of kisses. I’d stayed and watched over him, made sure he was still breathing. And given up on ever having sex again on planet Earth. Now that I had to feed this ardor thing, I needed an alien man, one I wouldn’t drain dry and kill with a bit of kissing.

Damn inconvenient. So, I needed to get to Alera, or die. And we needed to save our mother. We needed transport off this planet. Like now.

But first, we had to get past the massive—and massive as in bigger than my mom’s Volkswagon massive—alien guarding the gate. I braked to a screeching halt with him in front of my mom’s little Beetle. His arms were crossed and he had one mean scowl on his face. He screamed alpha male mixed with giant. That meant he had a giant— Yeah, I didn’t need to think about alien men right now, no matter how big or how hot he looked. Stupid alien hormones.

“Holy shit.” Destiny’s jaw dropped. “Is that an Atlan? I’d heard they were big, but—”

“Hubba-hubba. Trinity, maybe he could help with that itch you want to scratch.” From the back seat, Faith waved, a huge, very genuine smile on her face.

“No way,” I countered. “Not happening. We’ve got to get inside and get someone to transport us to Alera. Now. I don’t have time to scratch my itch.” I was not happy about any of this bullshit, and I didn’t want to take a chance. He was magnificent, but he wasn’t Aleran. I was afraid I’d kill him, too, no matter how big and fierce he looked.

“Yeah, don’t want to give our special friends a show anyway,” Faith added. “Let’s go!”

As we’d planned—about five minutes ago when the SUV decided to try to stop us from getting here—we figured our best bet was to beg for asylum. Jumping the first huge alien hottie I came across wasn’t part of that. “Doesn’t look like he’s going to let us drive through him.”

“Don’t you dare hurt a single hair on that magnificent alien’s head,” Faith ordered. She sighed...dramatically. “Damn. I think I need an Atlan.”

“Oh hell, no. You’re not going into heat, too, are you?” Destiny was serious. And I was worried. They were only three years younger than I was, but Mother had been watching me like a hawk since I’d turned twenty-two, figured I was a late bloomer because there were no Aleran males around to rev my engine.

But the twins were half human, so who knew? “Faith?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes. “No, my Vah-Jay-Jay is not melting. I’m fine.”

Destiny raised her brows.

“Seriously. I wouldn’t lie about it. Not now.” She looked over her shoulder at our special friends and grinned. “Looks like they’re not sure what the big, bad alien is going to do either.”

“They won’t wait around forever. Get out,” I told them. “Let’s run for it.”

As if they could hear me, the men behind us opened their car doors and got out, using the doors as shields. The giant in front of us took two steps forward, a frown on his face when he spotted the men climbing from their car. I watched as the duo chasing us looked at each other, trying to decide what to do, whether or not they wanted us badly enough to take on a huge-ass alien.

“Who are they anyway, and why are they after us?” I asked.

“I can go all female Rambo on them,” Destiny said, determined. “Just say the word.”

I shook my head. “No. The smartest thing is to get the hell off of Earth.”

I looked out the windshield and spotted two more big warriors heading in our direction from behind the Atlan. Reinforcements. Apparently, we were drawing a crowd.

“Go!” I didn’t have time to worry about whether or not my sisters would listen to me. Our mother was missing. No, not missing. She’d been taken. And we were going to get her back.

Grabbing my backpack, I opened the driver’s door and ran for the giant as fast as I could. Destiny beat me to him, of course, dashing past him screaming “Sanctuary!” at the top of her lungs. I ran, slightly out of breath by the time I reached him, more from adrenaline than from the distance. But Faith…

“Damn it, Faith! Come on, or I’ll shoot you myself.” Destiny stood between two hulking giants as I stood behind the original alien who’d stopped our car. Faith, however, was barely jogging, swinging her bag in the air, taunting the government, or military, or whoever they hell they were—agents behind her. They could have caught her. Easily. And she knew it. But she always loved a good cat and mouse game, and she knew the humans wouldn’t want to mess with her with the alien hotness surrounding us.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” She was smiling. Radiant. The giant closest to me stirred to attention, looking at her. With a grin, she patted him on the biceps as she walked past, the top of her head not even coming up to his shoulder. “Thanks, big guy.”

“My pleasure, my lady.” He bowed slightly to her.

The agents walked forward but stopped at the open doors of our car, peering inside. Perhaps hoping we’d left a decoded message about the alien ship that landed at our house this morning. Insane, right? But no such luck for them. All they’d find were sweaty gym clothes and some mint gum my mom kept in the cup holder.

Still, they lingered. Safe now, sure the aliens wouldn’t allow these men to take us anywhere we might not come back from, I stood and watched with my arms crossed.

“Please, Miss Jones. We just want to ask you and your sisters a few questions.” The older agent actually took off his sunglasses. He looked like he was about fifty, his gaze hard, but not evil. He looked like what he was, a warrior. Maybe a different kind than the giants guarding the Coalition building, but a fighter all the same. An Earth warrior of some kind. CIA, NSA, some other letters...

“I’m sorry,” I replied. “I told you on the phone, we can’t give you any answers.”

He took a small recorder out of his pocket and placed it on the hood of the car. No doubt he was taking video as well as audio records. “And your father? What about him? Where is he?”

“Stay away from my dad, you asshole.” Destiny took two steps forward, but the warrior standing next to her placed a massive hand on her shoulder to hold her back. She glared up at him, completely unafraid, and shook off his touch. But she stayed. Thank God. I didn’t want her to have to face murder charges if she decided she wanted to come back home. After.

“Our father is safe. And the problem will be taken care of. You have my word on that, officer…” I doubted he’d give me a name. But he did. Kind of.

“Agent Smith.”

“Smith, huh? Right.”

“Just as your name is Trinity Jones.”

“It’s on my birth certificate.”

“Of course. But we already know your father is not Adam Jones. His name is…” He looked down at an old-fashioned notepad. “His given name is Baxter Adam Buchanan, born in Boston. And your mother…” He looked at his notepad again. “Hmmm. Strange. We can’t find any verifiable record of your mother at all. Care to explain that, Miss Jones? Or the alien vessel that we tracked to your home early this morning?”

They knew Dad’s real name? Shit. They’d dug deeper than I thought in such a short time. Not that it mattered. Nothing mattered now but getting off the planet and finding my mother. Yes, it sounded ludicrous… having to leave Earth, but reality proved we weren’t Disney princesses.

“No, I don’t.” I stepped up to the big alien next to me and looked up, way up, into his face. If he’d been angry, or mean, he’d have been ten times scarier than the M-I-B who had just chased us down. But he was neither. He looked, curious—and ready to kill to defend me, which made me feel safer than I had for hours. Since those monsters had stormed the house and grabbed our mother, screaming, from her bed. Had it only been this morning?

“I need to see Warden Egara, please,” I told him. “It’s an emergency.”

While I found him attractive, my desire wasn’t all that strong. Sure, I wanted to have a man—or big, hot alien induced orgasm—but it wasn’t going to be from him. I saw no interest in his eyes. No heat, only duty. And while the need to fuck grew stronger every day because of the Aleran heat women went into, I wasn’t going to get it on with just any big cock. No, it had to be Aleran cock. Someone big and powerful and strong enough to survive me.

Inwardly, I rolled my eyes. I didn’t have time to be going insane with lust.

The alien bowed at the waist, breaking me from my thoughts. “Of course, my lady.” He held out his arm to direct me toward the building, all but ignoring Agent Smith and his sidekick, the other two guards staying behind until my sisters joined me. But Smith wasn’t done.

“I’ll get answers, Miss Jones,” he called. “If not from you, from your father.”

At the threat, I turned and let him see the rage in my eyes. “You will have your answers. I will return, Agent Smith. And when I do, if you have hurt one hair on my father’s head, I’ll kill you myself.”

“Not if I find him first.” Destiny pulled her gun from one of the mystery pockets on her leather pants, only to have the giant next to her pluck it from her hands as if taking candy from a baby. She just grinned up at him, not a hint of apology in her eyes. “Sorry about that.”

“Earth females,” he said, tucking the gun away, far away, from my bloodthirsty sister. Destiny wasn’t normally like this. In fact, she was a big softie. But hearing our mother’s screams this morning had flipped a switch in all of us.

For years, Mother had told us stories of her home world, of the ancients who had helped her people, bestowed a royal necklace of magical stones upon her ancestors to help our bloodline rule. A citadel only those of royal lineage could enter. Of the attempted coup forcing her to flee, the death of my biological father, the king. How she’d come to Earth and met Adam, fallen in love, married him. Gave birth to Faith and Destiny. But her daughters—all three of us—had never belonged here, on Earth. She’d made that clear since the day we could understand language. In fact, she’d insisted we learn to speak Aleran from her. We weren’t completely fluent, and who knew what had gone on there over the last twenty-seven years, but we’d learned everything we could. She’d said our time would come to return to Alera. And now, here we were, whether we liked it or not.

We were royal. We were from an ancient Aleran bloodline. Princesses. Mom hadn’t been taken by some idiot home invaders on Earth. The space ship in our front yard proved that. She’d been taken by someone from Alera, from home.

Why now? She’d been pregnant with me when she left...twenty-seven years ago. That was a long time for a queen to be in exile.

While we’d lived on Earth our entire lives, it was time for us to return. The people of Alera weren’t going to know what hit them when the Jones sisters arrived to find their mother, to save their queen.

It was time to go to our home world and kick some serious ass.