She’d lost count of the number of dreams she’d had of him over the last few months. She always woke up tangled in her Egyptian cotton sheets, aching so badly she was ready to scream. They were making it difficult to concentrate. She would be in the middle of reading a report or in a meeting with her team, only to realize that she had been staring into space, her mind focused on the huge, sexy Prime warrior.
It was time to nip this obsession in the bud. She was the Ice Queen. She could freeze a man’s balls off from a hundred paces. Her reaction to Core was simply primal attraction. They were both predators, how could she not want him?
Regardless of her desire, she would not allow her heart to become involved. Love created a vulnerability that could one day be revealed and exploited, no matter how hard a person tried to conceal it. No, once she satisfied her physical desire for Core, she could store the experience away and move on. It wasn’t like this was the first time she had been attracted to a man, and it wouldn’t be the last.

​

“Lock and load, ladies. It is time to kick some ass!”

As far as she was concerned, the Trivators and the Alliance had invaded Earth.
The resulting fallout had been devastating for humans. Her life and that of millions of others had gone to hell in a matter of hours. She’d spent the last decade since that unforgettable day fighting to free her fellow humans from the aliens and as well as from other humans.
It didn’t help when memories of being sold by one of her own species filled her mouth with a bitter taste. She wanted to return to Earth so she could kill Colbert Allen. Who the hell cared that revenge was a bad idea? She’d had a lot of bad ideas in her lifetime and would deal with the consequences just as she always had—with a fight.

She hadn’t planned to kiss him. She wanted to make the excuse that she had done it as a reaction to adrenaline, or because she felt sorry for hurting him when she knew he wasn’t at his best, or a hundred other excuses. Anything except the truth. She wanted him. There was something about him that made her physically attracted to him. Emotionally, well, emotionally she wasn’t ready to admit that there was something about him that made her feel a response she hadn’t felt for anyone else in a long, long time. It was those feelings that were the most difficult to deal with. How could she want someone that she should hate? The problem was caring for him all these weeks had shown her a different side to him that she never expected. She was finding it harder and harder to only see him as an alien, and not as a caring, compassionate man.

He is the kind of guy that a girl could fall for if she wasn’t careful, she thought. Protect your heart, Lina. You know what happens when you fall in love. It doesn’t end well. I can’t fall in love with him anyway. Remember, he’s the alien who broke my heart once already. Don’t give him the chance to do it again.

“Paul, are you sure about this?” Morian asked in a voice filled with doubt.
Paul looked at her with a startled expression from where he was packing the items he would need for his and Morah’s camping trip. Laying the rope down on the table, he straightened, held his arms open, and gave her that self-assured smile that always melted her heart. Walking toward him, she slipped her arms around his waist and pressed a kiss to his lips.
He looked down at her. “You know that I’ll take good care of Morah. I won’t let anything happen to her,” he promised.
Morian raised a delicate eyebrow. “What makes you think I’m talking about her? I’m not in the least bit worried about you, Morah, and the other children. I know you’ll be fine,” she replied with a soft chuckle.
Paul frowned. “Then what are you worried about?” he asked, puzzled.
“The guys! Morah, the other younglings, and you will be out in the woods with all of my sons, Vox, and Ha’ven. That is what I am worried about,” she exclaimed, pressing a kiss to the tip of his nose.