I opened my eyes, a soft groan escaping me as the light pierced them like toothpicks shoved deep. I squinted against the pain and looked at the alien—totally freaking alien—who was kneeling within arm's reach. Skin the color of burnished gold, angular features, eyes like yellow diamonds. He did not have short, dark hair. No haunted, intense eyes. No fangs.

Nope. This guy was a Prillon. Big and handsome? Yes. But not mine. Not. Mine.

I wanted my man, my mate, the one guaranteed to care about me and put me first. I’d never had that from a boyfriend, never even from a best friend, until Elena and Dominique had shown me what real friendship could be. I’d never had it from my father. My mom? She’d been amazing, but she was dead. Gone. For years. I was tired of being alone and ignored by the people I loved and loved by people who had no idea who I truly was. I had millions of followers on social media back home. Some of them said they loved me. But they had no idea what they were talking about. They loved a mirage. A fantasy. The person I pretended to be in order to make them happy.

My entire life was lies and games and illusion. I was tired of pretending. Cormac was going to be the first real lover I’d had in my life. This Prillon didn’t matter to me. Only Cormac.

“I have summoned the doctor. You transported a vast distance, and you are very small.”

Oh no, he did not just use my size as a reason for weakness. A boy in school once laughed at me when I was so furious I wanted to rip his head off his shoulders and dance in the shower of his blood. He’d grinned, said I was three hundred pounds of sass in a hundred-pound body and informed me I was cute when I was mad.

Cute.

Fuck cute. Fuck this rolling nausea. Fuck this headache. I was tired of being cute. I shoved up into a sitting position and fought tooth and nail to remain upright. I succeeded. “Where is Cormac?”

The Prillon studied me for long seconds before smiling. “You’re from Earth, aren’t you? A human female?”

“Yes. What difference does that make?”

His smile turned into a chuckle as another Prillon, this one with skin the color of copper and eyes like dark coffee, knelt next to him and extended his arm to hold a glowing green wand over me. “I am Doctor Benten. Human females have developed a reputation in the Fleet.” This new male, the doctor, wore a dark green uniform and was smiling as well.