Alien Heart

"I had nothing left to lose. Until her…"

CAMILLE

I've been assigned to go with the others to track down the life signs we saw on the ship scanners. We think there's another tribe out there. The journey might be dangerous, but I don't care. Frankly, I can't wait. Why?

Because I'm certain my mate is out there.

I want a mate. Badly. He doesn't seem to be here at the settlement.

So he must be out there. In the sixth tribe beyond the Death Plains.

Nothing will stop me from finding true love.

Not even the grumpy, one-armed bastard Varrow who suddenly decides that I'm the biggest new thorn in his side.

Varrow hates the food I make, he growls at me more than he talks, and he WILL NOT stop glaring at me.

Worst of all, he's coming on the journey with us.

I won't let him get in my way.

But the more time we spend together travelling, the more I uncover about this dark and brooding warrior, and he less prickly he becomes. Or rather, I realize his prickliness seems to be protecting something. A soft spot.

A secret.

Suddenly, all my dreams of true love start to shift.

And I no longer know what, or whom, I really want.

VARROW

If there's anything life has taught me, it's that that which we love most destroys us most powerfully when it disappears. After losing my brother and my arm in one fell swoop, I've held fast to that lesson. Growing up in the Death Plains with no unmated females proved I'd never have a mate. So it's always been easier not to get attached. To anyone or anything.

So why, oh why, can't I stay away from Cam-Eel?

She is tiny, and strange, and she ruins the meat with foul concoctions.

Whenever I speak to her, it seems to offend her.

She smiles at others.

But not at me.

No matter how much she hates me, when I find out she is journeying beyond the hostile Death Plains, I volunteer to go too. For some reason, I cannot let her leave this place without me.

And when the Lavrika calls me the night before we leave, that reason becomes abundantly clear.

She is my mate.

If only I knew how to tell her that.

If only I knew how to deserve her.