Jane Donovan has been living a lie. Every day for the past ten years, she's run from reality and the temptation that Tony Ramirez represents. But this year, Jane’s getaway is filled with more than just relaxation; there’s a dead man on her kitchen floor. Suddenly, keeping Tony away is the last thing Jane can do.

Tony Ramirez has wanted Jane for ten years. While she may not be his mate, the attraction is undeniable. When he can’t shake the feeling he needs to check on her, he decides to crash her vacation to ensure her safety. When he gets to her cabin, Jane is gone and nobody knows where she could be.

Finding out who the dead man is may be the least of their troubles when a pint-sized, pink-haired little girl who needs help suddenly makes an appearance. Unfortunately for Jane, the trouble with a small lie is that it grows with time. The truth may come to light before she’s ready. Now they have a murder, a child, a mystery, and the unwavering attraction to deal with.

Chapter 1: Present day

10 Years Later

Jane finally relaxed as she exited onto the highway through the forest that lead to her mother’s cabin. She couldn’t believe she was coming up on her tenth year on Earth, tenth year of facing the annual heat alone, tenth year of systematically ignoring her body and mind’s craving for her mate. Tenth year of hurting over how much she wanted Tony and the intense denial she kept putting up with. A self-inflicted denial.

She laughed as she thought of the night before her job at FPU started. She was so clueless and nonhuman-like at that time, having just arrived on Earth a few weeks before, it was amazing no one called her out as weird. Then sadness pierced her, remembering what she had to do to her mate. 

Her mate, Tony Ramirez. Not once would she had thought she’d meet him on this planet, much less work with him. She’d never believed in fate until then. What were the odds of that occurring? About the same as her odds of restoring Tony’s memories of that night. She snorted. No. Wasn’t going to happen. Tony deserved someone better. Someone who could give him what he wanted. That wasn’t her. Her desires and dreams ran a different course.

She’d come to care more about Tony than she ever thought possible, but it wasn’t enough. Not happening: no being imprisoned in a home, no trying to control a brood of rug rats, no forced domestic requirements. But no family togetherness, no sharing her life, no love. Her heart squeezed. No Tony. So what?

In the time they’d worked together, it’d become second nature for her to turn the other way if she would pass him in the hallway or leave when he came into the same room, unless required to stay. 

She didn’t know how, but he always managed to sit next to her in meetings. Those times were the worst. She wanted nothing more than to spin his chair and straddle his lap, thus making those babies that would ruin her life. Maybe he wouldn’t want children anymore. One wouldn’t be such a big deal, but with her type of reproductive system, she was looking at a likelihood of two to four in one shot. That was a lot harder to deal with. Multiples were big in her planet. Having a solo child was uncommon.

She was lucky he couldn’t scent how much she wanted him. She was surprised he hadn’t mated another woman. For years she’d been tortured by the idea of him being with other women, finding another mate, but he was staying single for now. 

Before Trent mated Erica, Trent and Tony where the quintessential “players.” The way they talked in the office, how they each bagged at least one female a week. She’d been devastated to think she’d pushed him to do that by messing with his memory. 

With Trent mated to Erica, he’d never go that route again. But Tony, he still could. Nothing stopped him from sleeping with whomever he wanted. Not like he knew he belonged to Jane. Ugh. He didn’t belong to her. He could choose to sleep with the whole city tonight. Gross. Not lighting that candle’s wick. Right, keep saying that…  

On the passenger’s seat, her purse buzzed. Automatically, her brain split into dual mode while her hand dug through her bag for her comm unit. The size of a mini iPad, the device lay securely next to her as the other half of her brain remained in driving mode. Caller ID read Kayan Kozlo.

“Great.” She grimaced. “Communication answer.” She stared at the road, waiting for the voice to fill the car.

“Jane? Are you there?”

She sighed. “Yes, Mother. I’m here. I’m on my way to your cabin for the week.”

“Speaking of your heat,” Jane hadn’t mentioned “heat,” but that didn’t stop her mom, “your father and I are quite worried. You will be reaching fifty-five revolutions soon and you still haven’t mated. Your father and I will not have you dying—”

She winced at her mother’s tone rising with fear. “Yes, Mom. I know—”

“What do you plan to do about it? Wait, let me guess, dear. You plan nothing.” Frustration filled the inside of the car with every word out of her mom’s mouth.

“Mom, that’s not fair. You know what my life is like on this planet.” She didn’t have time for children. Having a family meant she had to give up her reasons for living: finding missing people, and hunting down killers. Important things that made a difference. She’d always known she was meant to do something to help others. She’d fought hard to have a career that improved the world and she wasn’t stopping now. Not for Tony and not for her body.

“Yes, darling. That is why, as your loving parents, we’re sending you a gift.”

Alarms flashed in Jane’s head. The last gift her parents sent was a nightmare. When she escaped to Earth, she was with a group going to the Asian continent. Shortly afterward she found her way to the States, but her parents hadn’t realized the distance or how Earth worked. 

Her mom sent several items Earth didn’t have. No one thought how items from her planet would react when introduced into Earth’s air pressure and gravity. She saw the results on TV news when they aired a possible terror incident at a small Vietnamese cargo transfer station. 

The security camera showed a small wooden building with people milling everywhere. It resembled a flea market but with farm animals and general confusion. In a stack of boxes among the chaos, the footage showed an explosion. Chaos didn’t come close to describing the resultant scene.

Chicken feathers and dust filled the air. The critters dashed around, literally with their heads chopped off, tripping frantic people. Pigs crashed through stacks of boxes, knocking things onto those fleeing. Workers pushed and shoved and punched to get away from the area. A child stood in the middle of an aisle, crying and screaming. Someone snatched the boy on their way out of the screen’s image. Somehow, a cow meandered into the scene, sniffing for food, stepping on dead chickens.

“Mom—”

“No worries, darling. Your brother is hand delivering this present. It’s to help with your heat.”

If Jane’s brain hadn’t been in half-drive mode, she would’ve driven off the cliff. Only one thing popped into her mind that would help her heat. If her brother handed her a giftwrapped dildo, she’d kill herself. Then him so he couldn’t tell anyone. Then probably use it. She’d killed enough of them already with her lack of sex and nightly dreams of Tony. 

“Grandchildren are important to us, dear. It is everyone’s responsibility to have as many children as possible to bring back our mating population. That includes you. Your brother already has three young ones with a fourth on the way.”

Jane grinded her teeth to keep her thoughts in. If she wanted to be a fucking baby machine, she would’ve stayed on the home planet. “Mom, you know my reasons—”

“Yes, and your father and I have played along for ten years, hoping you would change your mind.” She heard her mother sniff. “Jane, we won’t let you die next year because you’re too stubborn for your own good.”

God. She just didn’t have the time for this right now. She needed to get herself to the cabin and just be left alone in her own damn misery for making a decision ten years ago she wasn’t sure had been the right one anymore. 

Lately, her heart kept laughing at her, reminding her she wouldn’t be in this predicament if only she’d given Tony a chance to be her mate. Good fucking luck with that. She’d made her bed and now she had to lay in it. “Mom, I’m not going to die.”

“If you work all the time, how are you to meet a male and mate within a year? You have to be pregnant before your next birthday.” 

To Jane, having a baby was about the same as not having one: either way, the life she loved would come to an end. Not only was she probably not going to have a single baby, but on her home planet once a woman started breeding, it meant she was stuck at home, having endless numbers of children and nothing else to show for herself. Jane wanted more than that. She wanted to make a difference. The past ten years had shown her she could, but being biologically forced to breed was not as appealing as making the choice herself. “Listen, Mom. I gotta go—”

“Wait, dear. I actually need to talk with you about something you’ll appreciate.”

She doubted that. If her mother mentioned babies one more time, she’d lose her shit. “What is it?”

“Do you remember the Smulit family?”

She snorted. “The richest people on the planet who live down the block? Yeah, why?”

“One of their younger girls, the one with pink hair and dusty rose eyes, is missing. I’ve forgotten her name again. I can never remember what they call their young ones. There are so many—”

Jane sighed with exasperation. Trust her mom to bring it right back to the kid thing. “Mom—”

There was a shuffling noise and then her mother came back on the line. “Sorry, dear. Your father said there are indications she was taken to Earth.”

“Earth?” her heart sped up. “Why here?”

“I don’t know, darling. You’ll have to ask your father. It’s something about a ransom in American dollars. One of the premier guards, Fladoq, should be at the cabin soon, if not there already. He’ll brief you and when you go back to work, perhaps you can help him.”

Jane’s heart thrust into her throat then fell into her stomach. This was why she came to Earth—to find and save as many people as she could. Especially children who were often powerless. Her nature to see, feel, and hurt like them made it hard to ignore her calling. Her car slowed to turn onto the rock driveway to the cabin. “I’ll take a look into it, Mom. But really, I have to go. I’ll call you later this week.”

“Make sure your brother calls when he gets there. He always forgets and we worry about him.”

“Okay, Mom. Tell Dad I love him. Bye.” She pressed the disconnect button as quickly as possible. After pulling up to the front door, she turned off the engine and leaned back against the headrest. It always amazed her how quickly her mother could give her a headache. Fortunately, it was only in half her skull. 

All that baby talk did something she hadn’t expected, she thought about what her life would be like at this time with Tony as her mate. Lots of fucking amazing sex. Well, yeah. That was a given. She almost hated herself daily for going without after having had it. Tony would definitely give her countless orgasms for sure. But he’d also give her children and that was the part she had the trouble with. Children equaled loss of her career. Loss of her job. Possible loss of her ability to stay sane.  

With a heavy sigh, she lugged her suitcase out of the SUV’s cargo hold, pushing aside the camo clothes, vests, extra boots, and the other items she hauled around with her everywhere. An electronic ring-a-ding-ding came from her purse. Her cell phone flashed Cyn Vega, her boss. “Hey, Cyn. What’s up?”

“Brock and I are checking-in to make sure you made it there okay.” 

Jane pulled keys from her pocket and unlocked the front door. “I’m stepping inside as we speak. And Cynthia, I want to thank you for letting me off. You being brand new to the department and all--”

“No worries. Brock has it all smoothed out for me. We’ll be fine.”

Jane headed for the kitchen in the back of the cabin. Coming into the room, something didn’t look right. She frowned and listened to her instincts to be careful. One of the chairs was tipped over on the floor. Several of the countertop appliances were on the floor in pieces. Jane froze.

“Jane, you still there?”

“Holy shit, Cyn. There’s a dead man on my linoleum.” A piercing shriek snapped her head around. A little girl with pink hair stood screaming. A sharp pain exploded in her head and the world went dark.