Risking Her Heart

She thinks she was never meant to matter.

He sees the treasure Tajss refused to let die.

Katarina survived the crash, but she has never been able to shake the feeling that it was some kind of cosmic mistake.

She was a garden caretaker on the generation ship. Useful, maybe. Important, no. The man she thought might give her a family is buried in the desert, the life she understood is gone, and every day beneath Tajss's brutal twin suns feels like one more reminder that stronger, smarter people should be the ones making history.

Then she falls.

One wrong move beside the settlement's failing water machine sends Katarina over the edge toward the rocks and waves below. She should die. Instead, wings block out the sky, claws catch her from the air, and Zas'tu crashes into her life with cool hands, a crooked smile, and a single word that makes no sense at all.

Treasure.

Zas'tu once belonged to the Order. He believed in duty, discipline, and the dream of restoring Tajss until the new Eye twisted everything sacred into control and fear. He left that life behind, but he never truly believed the stories his brothers told about human females and fated mates.

Then he catches Katarina.

His dragon knows immediately. She is his heart. His wife. The female he would cross deserts, fight warriors, and risk every breath to protect.

Katarina has no idea what to do with that kind of certainty.

There is no time to figure it out safely. The water system is failing, the Order is coming, and the settlement needs allies before hundreds of survivors are trapped with nowhere to run. Zas'tu is sent across the desert to seek a hidden mountain refuge, and Katarina must go with him because one human woman may be the difference between alliance and war.

The journey tests everything she believes about herself. Heatstroke. Dangerous guster travel. Forced proximity in a tent with a warrior who treats her like she is precious. An Order ambush that leaves her broken, bleeding, and fighting to save herself instead of waiting to be saved.

And when Zas'tu's rage threatens to destroy their only chance at refuge, Katarina discovers the truth she has been too afraid to believe.

She is not pointless.

She is the one person who can reach him.

Risking Her Heart is a steamy alien dragon romance featuring an anxious self-doubting heroine, a protective former Order Zmaj warrior, fated mates, a dramatic rescue, desert danger, heatstroke caretaking, forced proximity, Order ambush, hidden refuge, best-friend reunion, found family, and a guaranteed happily ever after.