We're fighting for our lives, living for reward challenges, in front of an intergalactic audience—and, oh yeah, apparently the huge winged alien is now my mate. I’ve always been a reality tv junkie, heading up a fantasy league and hosting watch parties at my place. I jumped at the chance to apply to one, and my entire reality tv obsessed girl gang does too, drinking too many margaritas in the process. We didn’t care that none of us had ever heard of it, or that the premise is a bit too physical for us couch potatoes—there’s no way they’ll pick us, anyway. Except… they do pick us. And the show’s not set on Earth. Nope. We’re starring on the first season of Mated & Afraid, and that paperwork we rushed through had a whole lot of fine print we didn’t read. I’ve been matched with a Draegon alien—and he’s been mated to me, marking me with the poison (yep! Poison!) that means I’m his. We’re dropped into a biosphere, and the game is easy enough to make it to the exit and we win. That is, until the supposedly uninhabited moon we're on turns out to not be uninhabited at all—and the artificial intelligence we've awoken? It has a whole different idea of fun and games.

I convinced my friends to sign up for an alien reality show—now we’re trapped in a deadly survival game, I’m in heat, and a terrifyingly devoted alien has decided I’m his mate. I thought it would be a cute, dating or survivor game–style experiment. Instead, the show has gone violently off-script. The challenges are dangerous, the stakes are real, and the worst part? This is all my fault. I was the one who found the casting call, the one who pushed us to apply, and I thought it would be harmless fun. Instead, I landed on an alien planet, went straight into mating heat, and got claimed by a massive, possessive alien who refuses to let me out of his sight. I need to focus on getting myself and my friends off this nightmare show in one piece. But Vael-Torin is always there, watching me like I’m his, guarding me like I’m something precious. And the more he stays at my side, the harder it is to remember I need to make things right with my friends and get us home safe. Because I don’t just want to win challenges anymore… I want him.