He doesn't speak. He growls. And when he looks at me, I forget Earth ever existed. Lyra One minute I was photographing wildflowers. The next, I woke up in a cage lightyears from Earth—barely clothed, definitely for sale, and completely screwed. Until he tore the doors off my prison. Solear isn’t human. Not really. He doesn’t talk. He stalks. Moves like a predator, fights like a weapon, and watches me like I’m his next obsession. I should be afraid of him… but when he lays his rough hands on me, fear is the last thing I feel. Now I’m on the run with a beast of a man who doesn’t speak, doesn’t trust, and definitely doesn’t know how to be gentle. But I see the fracture lines under the fury. And I want him anyway. Solear I came for data. Revenge. Not her. Never her. Soft and stubborn, she smells like earth after rain. I tried to leave her. I can’t. There’s a storm under her skin that calls to the chaos in mine. I don't understand it. I just know no one touches her but me. She doesn’t flinch when I get too close. Doesn’t run when she sees what I am. She reaches. And stars help me, I reach back. She’s mine now, and I’ll chase her, or her enemies, to the ends of the galaxy.