The human breathes heavily and stares at me with wide, lightless blue eyes. “Thanks.”

“Everyone gets one free save. Pay more attention next time,” I say.

“Yes, sir.” He winces and jams a finger in his ear. “Prince Aurelius.”

“Don’t mention it. Really. Don’t call me that. Just Aura.”

He nods and moves deeper into the transport.

I scan the fields as females flood the arena along with the males. Most alien species I like. A few I don’t. It’s easier to look at everyone from up here, and I use the vantage point to scan every female I can. None of them stir my Storm, and I start to fear the one I hoped would be here isn’t.

Until I see a head of brown hair drawn back in a thick braid on a female who thrashes at someone and scrambles out from under the fortress.

She has gorgeous medium-toned flesh wrapped in threads of something I can’t decipher at such a distance.

But the way her slender yet curvy body moves, I know she’s a worker, not a princess.

The way she fights tells me two critical things: she’s not a sheltered aristocrat, and she’s not afraid to say no.

The female angrily flings a fistful of dirt at someone under the fortress. A shimmering hand claws after her, then another, and another.

Listhaetis? Stars, why are they here?

“Hey,” I call to the guard. “That species shouldn’t be in the races.”

“Why?” The guard I just saved turns back toward me.

“Because they are known for eating humans and their offspring!”

His eyes bulge. “I will report this immediately!”

“Look into the Mantis Expedition. That should give you all the proof you need.”

On the field below, guards race toward the slithery bastard. But I’m not sure they’ll make it in time. I am faster and three times their size.

Wisps of green light curl around me and grow into crackling threads, making me a ball of lightning. My Storm surges with a protective desire that compels me out of the transport door.

He’s trying to capture the one I want. And I won’t get to find out if she’s a match if he gets to her first.

Wind rips around me as I fall. I hit the ground hard and cave it in beneath my boots. I pry off the spark arrestor that fizzles as if it’s beyond spent.

I toss it in a pocket and slap on my spare. I don’t have time to worry about it, and launch myself in a furious sprint across the fields.

The female runs into the forest with surprising speed for her petite size. The Listhaetis clambers out from under the fortress and high tails it after her.

My legs move me faster in her direction. I wonder if she knows what Listhaetis are and the threat he is to her.

She fought him like she knows.

But mostly, I want to catch her and find out if this charge I’m feeling, this electric need that pulses in me as I sprint after her, is what I think it is.

It has to be.

My Storm zings around inside me like hot Firespine jabs, begging to get out, to toast the Listhaetis and any other male who approaches her. I want to get her alone. I need to know if she could ever want anything to do with someone as dangerous as I am.

Just because I want her doesn’t mean she’ll want me back.

I steal glances at other human females as I avoid collisions with them, other males, and the dense trees. None of the other females come close to stirring the heat in my Vybrance nodes the way this one does.

But I can’t lash out at the Listhaetis even if I could easily end him before he reaches her.

We’re all on the live Abr show, and I have no doubt some Amphirans are watching.

It’s an intergalactic stage, one I didn’t really think about.

I was more concerned with finding a mate who actually wanted me back.

I didn’t think this through, but I’m all in now.

The Listhaetis circles a cluster of boulders as the female runs into a small clearing in the forest. He coils for an attack as she looks around like she doesn’t know which way to run.

I know it as much as I see the behavior pattern.

I remember it from the Mantis mission. I saw what his kind does to humans.

I push myself harder. “You will not take another human on my watch!”

He notices me as he launches for the female. But he’s left the ground too late to change course. I’ve got him right where I want him. A loose arc from my supercharged state punches into the ground, spraying dirt into the air. Then another. And another.

We collide hard and land many paces off course. Our momentum carries us through the rustling grass, away from the female, as the whirring hum of a cameradrone closes in.

As soon as we stop rolling, I launch him off of me with my feet. Once a Listhaetis gets its hands on someone, it becomes nearly impossible to break free without a weapon.

Lucky me, I am a weapon.

As he flails away, one of his many arms pries the backup disc from my body. The Listhaetis smashes into the cameradrone, knocking it into the mountainside. His tail curls around my ankle and lugs me after him. We tumble until he has me in his death grip—all four hands around my throat.

I writhe as he squeezes and blinks his double lids and rasp, “You really shouldn’t have done that.”

“Why?” he challenges with gritted teeth.

The female I want watches from beyond a distant tree.

“Because that device was keeping you safe.” My Storm swells with chaotic bolts and lashes out from my body, zapping bushes and dirt and the flesh of my alien enemy.

He seizes as my charge courses through him, trying to find all possible ways to ground. But Storms do not always behave. Sometimes, they have a mind of their own.

The monstrous alien arches and writhes like he’s dying, but I can’t let go.

I have too many memories burned into me from his planet, what he did to the females and their offspring.

I don’t try to push it. I try to hold it back.

But I have long-buried hatred of his species for their senseless killing of one of the pioneering species of peace in this universe. And Storms never forget.

“Humans are animals,” he growls as he fights my Storm’s energy.

“They’re far more intelligent than you.” I wrench myself free of his trembling grip so I can break our connection and stop my Storm from hurting him further.

His body smokes, and he shakes, but he will live. Most would not be so lucky.

He slinks back toward Abr’s main complex with a limp as another cameradrone approaches, a red beacon flashing atop it. It tracks the Listhaetis toward the race grounds.

I pick up my disc from the field, unsure it’s still useable, and slap it onto my back again. At least wearing it will make Abr guards happy.

When I look up, the female is gone.

Damn.

The energy in me pulls me deeper into the trees.

She can’t have gone far, right?

Grass swishes in a distant opening. A brown braid swings as a female darts through a sliver of space between trunks. I follow her.

“Hey!” I call out.

I hear a soft gasp to the right, pause, and continue that way. My Storm tugs at me with desperate need. But when I reach her last location, she has vanished.

I think she’s playing with me. The notion stirs a joy I never thought I could feel and a hunger that’s growing nearly feral.

Does this mean she wants me?

A light thump makes me swivel and a defensive wave of electricity crackle over my skin. The disc siphons it after a second.

“Scaring me is probably not a good idea,” I warn.

A gold eye peeks around a tree at me. She giggles and hides again.

I run to her position, circle the tree, and find her missing. I’m starting to wonder if I’m hallucinating.

A branch rustles.

I scan for the sound, but I don’t have tunable hearing or vision. I am fast, strong, and electric. But somehow, she has me by the balls.

There has to be a way for me to track her. So I try something else. “I’m Aurelius. My friends call me Aura.”

“Jovie.”

Her voice is soft, gentle, and somewhere in the canopy overhead. I wander through the forest, scanning the treetops. “Do you know what I am?”

“I do.”

“Does my species scare you?”

After a moment, she replies, “No.”

Hope bolsters my Storm’s needs into something denser, more solidified. I continue trailing her voice and the susurrus of trees until I am almost to her. “It should.”

The forest falls silent and still. I scour the shadows and the canopy for her until I find myself at the edge of the flower meadow on the backside of the race grounds. “Jovie?”

I check the forest one more time and fear I’ve lost her.

At a thump, I swivel and find her rising to her feet among the flowers, the sun shining on her glossy hair, and a gray net hugging her flesh. Scars line the webbing.

Someone has damaged a stunningly beautiful creature.

“I’ve been electrocuted before,” she says with confidence.

My Storm surges, pressing against my skin, begging me to grab her, lay her back in the field, and take her here, now, in front of the cameradrone that passes overhead. It wants the universe to know she is mine.

But my heart is beating so hard and fast that I’m barely holding myself together. My bones feel like they’re filled with stardust, and I can’t get my voice to work.

I suddenly feel as if all of the threads of my life, everything I’ve done, has been funneled into this one moment. She is the pivotal point, the beacon, my entire life’s purpose. And I just want to savor it—her—this—just a few seconds longer.

She is the one from my dream.

I walk to her, studying her confident posture, and the loose ends of her long braid that drift in the breeze. She doesn’t pull away when I lift a hand. Instead, her eyes close as I run my fingers over her smooth cheek.

The thin cables in her flesh aren’t as palpable as I expected. I want to kiss her, take her, and make her mine in this beautiful place. But I need confirmation that she is destined for me and I for her.

“May I see your hand?”

She lifts a palm with only mild hesitation. I hold mine close to hers, then rotate it so our palms are almost touching. Electricity leaves my skin in soft arcs, weaving into hers. My Storm recognizes her energy and meshes with it without any backlash or thrown bolts.

I’ve heard of such a bond and read about it in illegal books in the forbidden library. But I’ve never witnessed it.

A light feeling fills my chest.

She doesn’t pull away, not even when her fingers start—to my surprise—sending the power back.

But she doesn’t have a Storm. This is impossible!

An orb forms between our hands, and I know she’s the one. Our bond is calm and steady. We are a match. She is my destined mate, the one who can balance my energy with hers.

She smiles up at me in delight, which quickly turns to fear.

“What’s wrong?” A sudden concern that I’m hurting her makes me break our bond. “Jovie?”

She staggers back, looking ready to run. Only then do I hear the thunder of heavy feet behind me.

Jovie’s scooped up in a blur of radiant blue armored plates and black horns. But as I reach for her, a tail bashes into my side, throwing me into the air.

Breath leaves me. Tree branches brush over my body. I slam into a trunk, let out a grunt from the pain that flares in my back, and fall to the ground.

Get up! Someone else has her!

I cannot bear such a dishonor for the rest of my life. My Storm is in chaos, writhing and tearing at my insides from the injustice, fear of losing her, and panic that she might be hurt. If I lose her to another male, I might just detonate.

An animalistic growl roars out of me. Arcs fry my spark arrestor. I get up, push through the tree branches, break several, find the male who has Jovie, and run with everything I have in their direction.

I will get her back or die trying.

She’s mine!