Desperate, she signs her life away . . . to the scariest alien she’s ever seen. Losing her job is the last straw for Isabella. She’ll be kicked out of her apartment unless she finds more work, and living on the street is a very short death sentence. But no one’s hiring a woman from the bottom rung of life’s ladder and even the organ-rec companies shut the door in her face. Which means she’s desperate . . . desperate enough to sign up for the new Latharian mate program. Desperate enough not to run when the biggest, scariest alien she’s ever seen walks into the office. Until he says she’s his mate, then all bets are off . . . She can run, but she can’t hide. He’ll find her. And he’ll claim her as his . . . Berrick B’Kaar has been looking for his fated mate ever since her DNA matched with his. But she’s clever at hiding herself and he’d almost given up hope until he finds her in a grotty downtown recruitment office. She runs—but he’s not giving up. She will be his . . . She’ll accept him as her mate eventually, even if he has to whisk her off-planet to do so. But his courtship is derailed when events on the station almost claim his beloved’s life. Someone is targeting the humans aboard. He must get to them before they get to her . . .