SHE IS THE KEY TO MY EMPIRE’S SURVIVAL. Aubrey Campbell is a gift from Earth. A treaty-bound sacrifice. My people are fading, and her human biology is the only bridge to our future. The Council expected me to use machines to prepare her for the breeding protocol. They wanted clinical distance. They were wrong. I am the Prime Commander. I do not let cold technology touch what belongs to me. I will prepare her myself. I will claim every inch of her skin. Her body reacts to me with a sweetness my kind has never known. I watch her transform under my touch. She is heavy with the lifeblood of my lineage. She is a miracle of fertility.