One ship. One bed. Zero chance of escape.

Amelia has been fighting off the world since before she was old enough to vote. Evicted, broke, and down to a cat that isn't even hers, she does what she's always done when something picks her lock at 2 a.m. She grabs the bat and swings. She doesn't expect to break the nose of seven feet of alien warrior. She really doesn't expect him to sling her over his shoulder and carry her off the planet.

He crossed the galaxy for a cat, but he's not leaving without her.

Sub-Commander Thyaar has faced blood-crazed Krin and survived enemy charges, so collecting one cat from one human city should have been the easiest mission of his life.

Then a half-starved human who barely reaches his collarbone breaks his nose with a baseball bat, and his whole world resets around her. The bond hit the second she swung. So why can't he make himself tell her she's his?

He'll give her his life, if the pirates closing in on their crippled ship force the issue...

He just won't make her stay. Even if losing her kills him.