Vadir Rahal paced the floor of his office and tried to think of a way out of this insane predicament. He didn’t have time for this right now. What was the King thinking?

Turning his back on the sweeping view of the city outside his windows, he stormed back to his desk and snatched the thick piece of parchment off the surface.

No one used parchment anymore. It had been an outdated concept two hundred years ago, but the royal family loved their traditions. The damned thing had even been delivered by a royal messenger in full uniform. He read the words again, looking for a loophole. Something, anything that he could use to decline the honour bestowed on him by the King and Queen of Pyros.

There wasn’t one.

“By the Flames of the First One, why did it have to be me?” he tossed the royal decree back onto the desktop and started pacing again.

“I’ve got a half-dozen deals to broker in the next week alone, and the Qualla Mining Consortium is threatening a work stoppage that could affect the ore markets for years to come. I need to be here, not on the other side of the galaxy retrieving my mate. I don’t need a mate. I didn’t ask for one. Crown Prince Joran is the one who needs a…”

He stopped in his tracks. Joran. If anyone could get him out of this, it would be the prince. He activated a wall monitor and called the one man on the planet who had any chance of changing the King’s mind.

“So, I guess you got the decree?” Joran asked by way of greeting.

“You knew about this?”

The Prince nodded. “I’m going with you. Turns out, you’re not the only one whose mate is supposedly on that planet.”

“Why me? Is this because I refused to play nice with the Romakis during that last trade war? Is this your father’s idea of revenge?”

“Wrong parent.”

“Your mother did this to me? I thought she liked me!”

“She does. Which is why she insisted your profile be included when we screened for possible mates. The rest was luck, or if you believe my mother, the will of the Gods.”

“So, this is real? My mate is out there?” The air in his perfectly maintained office suddenly seemed too thin.

“That’s what the experts say. They may not be our true mates, but our scientists confirm we can have children with them.”

“How can they possibly know that?”

Joran laughed. “I asked the same question. The answer is hard to believe, but I’ve seen the reports. Some of these people, humans, already carry Pyrosian genes.”

“How?” Vadir demanded, too stunned by the revelation to manage more than a single word.

“I’ll send you the report, and our experts’ best guess as to how it happened. It makes for interesting reading, but the short version is, this is real.”

“Our mates are out there, on another planet? And we’re just going to wander over there, explain matters, and bring them back here? Do you know how insane that sounds?”

Joran nodded. “I know. Read the reports. You’ve got enough time to make whatever preparations are necessary, but you can’t tell anyone where you’re going. We’ll figure out a cover story, probably something about you and I taking the Firebrand out on its maiden voyage to tour the system. Your shipyard built it, so no one will question why you’re coming along.”

“If you want it to be believable, I should bring my private shuttle, too. Everyone knows I have control issues.”

Joran snickered. “Fine, I’ll leave room in the hangar for your ship. But don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. If you want to fly yourself down to the planet, you’re going to need to clear that with Commander Denza. He’s in charge of the mission.”

Of course he was. Who else would the King entrust with the life of his son and heir? “I’ll talk to him. I may have to obey this decree, but I’m not going to negotiate mating terms with some alien female surrounded by royal guardsmen. There are advantages to being me.”

“Just be on board and on time.” Joran grinned at him. “I’m sure you can negotiate the rest of the details to your satisfaction.”

“I wouldn’t dream of being late. An order is an order.” And apparently, this was one command he wasn’t going to be able to charm or buy his way around. Vadir recalled the final line of the missive he’d received. You will go to Earth and determine if the female is your mate. If she is, then you are hereby commanded to bring her home to Pyros. “I don’t suppose I’m going to be allowed to do some trade negotiations while I’m there?”

Joran laughed at him. “Father said you’d ask, and his answer is no.”

“I had to try.”

“Of course you did. We’ll talk again soon. I’ll send you over the file with all the information we have on your match. It’s not much, but at least you can see what she looks like. Her name is Lisa.”

Joran signed off, leaving Vadir alone in his office.

I’m going to be mated. The thought hit him with the force of a rogue comet strike. He’d never imagined this day would come. Hadn’t planned on it. Why would he, when there were so few unmated females on Pyros? He enjoyed the occasional dalliance with females from the planets he visited for business, but those were simple, short-term affairs. Taking a mate was anything but simple, which was why Vadir had hoped to avoid it. But not even his wealth and power allowed him to refuse a royal command.

Faced with a new challenge, Vadir did what he did best. He set aside his emotions and focused on making a plan. He’d been ordered to negotiate the biggest deal of his life, and failure was not an option. If the King and Queen wished him to bring back a mate, then that’s what he’d do.

He needed to know as much about this Lisa as he could. Every being he’d ever met had a price. This female would be no exception. All he had to do was determine what she wanted, and offer it to her in exchange for leaving her primitive, isolated world to join him on Pyros and live in luxury for the rest of her life. It should be an easy sell.

Business had been slow all day, but that suited Lisa Woods just fine. She was still nursing a hangover from the wine she’d drunk last night. Or maybe it was an ice cream overdose. She pondered that idea for a moment and then rejected it. There was no such thing as too much ice cream.

There had definitely been too much wine, though. That’s the only reason she had broken her vow to never go back to online dating. Apparently, four glasses were all it took to drown out the voice of reason. The proof was in her email inbox this morning: confirmation of registration to the Star-Crossed Dating Service.

At least she hadn’t done it alone. She’d dragged Maggie and Gwen along with her on a quest for what the email promised would be an out-of-this-world dating experience.

“I could use a little out of this world,” she mused to herself as she looked around. Vancouver was a beautiful city, but it was easy to forget that when you never got to compare it to anywhere else. Lisa had spent her whole life here, and she dreamed of taking off to explore the world someday. Someday was still a long way off, though, considering she barely earned enough money to eat and make her rent.

Lisa made her living drawing caricatures and quick sketches for tourists. It wasn’t exactly a glamorous or high-paying job, especially when the tourists were few and far between. It was still early in the season, which meant the artists and street performers that dotted the seawall outnumbered their potential customers. She could head home to work on her paintings, but the spring sunshine was too nice to head indoors yet.

She sat underneath the canopy of her umbrella, idly sketching her surroundings when inspiration struck. She opened her sketch book to a fresh page and started drawing, the world around her fading away as she worked. Apart from the occasional pause to push her blonde hair back from her face, she stayed focused on the face taking shape on the paper.

Her mystery man had dark hair with a hint of curl in it, a strong jaw, and a mouth that curved up into an arrogant smile. Try as she might, she couldn’t get his eyes right, though. She’d drawn them dark and brooding, staring back at her from beneath a lightly furrowed brow. She kept working at them, and then, in a flash of insight, she knew what was wrong. She reached out with a bare foot to snag the strap of her crocheted art supply bag and pulled it close enough that she could reach it without setting down the sketch book.

She fished out two of the artist’s pens she used for signing her work and considered them for a moment. Gold or silver? She dropped the silver one back into her bag and quickly added a few gold highlights to her creation’s eyes.

“Better.” She stared at the face she’d drawn, wondering where her muse had drawn her inspiration from this time. It wasn’t a face she recognized from television or the movies. And if she’d ever laid eyes on a man that good-looking in person, she’d damned sure wouldn’t forget it. Especially not with those amazing eyes.

A breeze stirred, lifting her hair off her shoulders and ruffling the page of her book so that his eyes seemed to sparkle with silent amusement.

Lisa had long ago learned that when her muse took over like this, it was because the universe was trying to tell her something. Her friends teased her about it, but they knew it was true. After all, she’d drawn pictures of both Gwen and Maggie before they’d ever met. She’d drawn other things, too. Warnings that she had been too young and innocent to understand at the time. She wasn’t innocent anymore, though. These days, when the universe whispered in her ear, she listened.

The wind came up again, lifting the hem of her skirt so that it swirled around her legs and sending goose bumps chasing down her spine. Something was coming. She stared down at the picture in her hands. Or someone.