Chapter One

Entering the Sol system. Target: Planet Earth. The nightmare continues. Assistance required. Vital that message reach highest level.

-Starforge

Increase guards on DK. Spy aboard Exanthus. Exercise extreme caution.

—DW

BROOKE ST. CLAIRE HATED running, but she loved chocolate, and the battle to keep her size sixteen figure from becoming a size eighteen was all too real. She started her days in the cool, crisp silence of the mornings, running eight kilometers along the worn path that ran the boundaries of her heavily forested land— Land that had been in her family for over two centuries.

This morning she stepped out of her beloved Victorian home into the early morning light, the fading fog still light and wispy on the ground. The sun was shining through the tops of the trees, the promise of another glorious day in the blue of the sky and the early morning bird song. She was in a mood. Right after her run she was going to town and buying chocolate. A lot of chocolate.

Pushing her short auburn hair back, she inserted her ear buds and pressed the play button on her smartphone. Classic Bon Jovi, she thought, as “It’s My Life” blared out of her earphones. Brooke adjusted the volume, turning the music up a bit, then straightened the bottom of the green tank top that matched her eyes, and began her run.

As a counselor, she knew she needed to let go of this, but honestly, why did the whole world think you needed a man? She’d already had one, thank you very much, and he’d given her two beautiful children and more heartache and pain than she’d needed for a lifetime. Two-timing bastard. The S.O.B. had died of a massive heart attack, in the bed of his secretary.

She never understood why that pretty, young woman had been in bed with her husband. It wasn’t like he was any good in bed, never mind the absolute disaster he’d been as a husband. The man could not have found a clitoris if he’d been given a detailed map. She shuddered at that memory. This morning’s phone call from her cousin wanting to set her up on a blind date had triggered an avalanche of bad memories.

Forcing her mind off her thoughts, she laughed as the next song in her playlist began. “You Give Love A Bad Name.” Yeah, he had, and she wasn’t falling for that B.S. a second time. She turned up her music, singing along, loud, and off tune as she pushed herself a little harder. She was going to need to burn a lot of calories before she hit town.

Four kilometers into her run, she contemplated giving up chocolate as the path led her briefly out of the forest and followed the fence line that ran along the south side of her property. A familiar police car drove past, and she lifted her hand in a casual wave at Officer Clay Brendon, knowing he would be waiting at her house when she got there, and he’d probably have another speeding ticket for her. Damn speeding tickets. Her lips curved into a slight smile as she ran. Maybe, this time she would claim her heavy foot was genetic. After all, her son Jaxson and his best friend, Clay, drove race cars in their spare time.

The path turned, taking her back into the cooler depths of the shaded forest. The scent of the damp woodland filled her senses, and she inhaled deeply. Who was she kidding? Chocolate was as close to heaven as she was coming in this life. There was no way she was giving it up. If running was the price she had to pay for that, then she would pay it, even though there was a vast cosmic unfairness to that.

At forty-eight, she should be able to—a bright flash of light erupted out of nowhere almost blinding her, and she threw up her arm to shield her eyes. The next moment she slammed into something... someone... and crashed hard to the forest floor. Her hand scraped the rough ground, and she felt a snap as her wrist gave way under the impact. Pain surged through her a split second before her head hit a rock. She lay on the ground stunned, trying to get past the pain. Fighting the dizzying blackness that was bleeding in from the sides of her vision, she heard movement, and someone crouched down beside her. She found herself looking into the face of a very odd-looking man. Nausea rose with the pain as the man picked her up, and she cried out in agony. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she went limp as she lost consciousness. Light flashed in the forest, and silence descended once again.