Ella Maven

After finding my apartment ransacked for the third time, I'm done being stalked. I'm just some nameless orphan who's only trying to survive in this broken city. I shouldn't matter. I shouldn't be a target. I shouldn't have to live on the run.

My life has never been my own, and that's never been more true than in the Rinian Galaxy. I've always had dreams that led me to believe my life is bigger than being the servant to some snake alien queen, but as each year goes by, I'm beginning to think my subconscious is lying to me.

I heard about the Kaluma looking for me, and I'm not interested. No way. It's bad enough he knows I'm human, but if he finds out the reason I'm free from my captors, he'll surely lop my head off with his deadly blades.

Penelope: One minute I'm conducting important research on a distant planet, and the next, I've fallen through a crack in the surface and am transported to an underground world with terrifying fanged creatures who want to eat me, an army of feathered warriors who rescue me.

I've never met him before . . . so why do I feel as if I've known him all my life?

Mouse: I have no memory or what or who I am, all I know is that everyone and everything is out to hurt me. Hands slap, teeth bite, and boots kick. So when I meet a big, bronzed warrior with blue eyes whose hands are gentle and voice is kind, I don't trust him.

All my life I've been treated with kid gloves, and I'm tired of it. I want to live up to the legacy of the proud Drixonian females with which I share half of my DNA. There's one thing in my way—a young warrior who knows my secret and threatens to tell my father.

I've heard of the big Kaluma with a spiked bat, so I know evading him won't be a cake walk. As my assassin, he's ruthless. Until he finds out my truth. Now he's sticking by my side, claiming me as his mate, and I can't believe it but . . . I think I'm falling for the cocky alien.

I was odd even before the evil aliens kidnapped me and messed with my brain. Now? I'm even more of a weirdo. I never minded being alone until I found a group of friends who accepted me and who never made me feel like an outcast, even if I had never fully told them the truth about myself.

I'm tired of being scared, but fear is like a constant companion these days. Some big blue alien stole the last of my friends, and now I'm alone as a prisoner on a spaceship on my way back to the planet that stole everything from me.

I'm being handed off to different aliens one after another like I'm a dog-eared novel. My latest captors are about to take me off planet when a big blue alien botches the rescue mission. Now we're both prisoners of a fierce lizard species who will let us free on one condition....

The red aliens make me a deal I can't refuse-help them fight their enemies and they'll rescue my friends. I agree to act as bait to lure the blue Drixonian leader. But the heated, knowing look in his violet eyes makes me suspect I made a bargain with the wrong aliens . . .

I'm stranded on an island, but this isn't Castaway and coconuts. There's no Tom Hanks or Wilson. There's me, some monkey-like creatures and . . . oh yeah, I'm on another planet. Grass is blue, dirt is green, and I'm never getting home. Earth feels like light-years away, because it is.

The blue alien warrior pacing in his cage terrifies me. His long dark hair is wild and his scarred body looks made for murder. I deliver food to him every day, and I'm sure by the way he stares at me that he'd rather eat me....

I've waited many cycles to carry out my rescue mission for a fellow warrior. But when I re-enter the misery I escaped to free him, I get more than I bargained for. A human female who's as scarred as I am, and who's willing to risk her life for the most precious thing on this desert planet.

The blue alien warrior pacing in his cage terrifies me. His long dark hair is wild and messy, and his scarred body looks made for murder. I deliver food to him every day, and I'm sure by the way he stares at me that he'd rather eat me. Yet there's something about him that captivates me.

Space ship travel when you've been kidnapped sucks. I don't get a pillow, there's no snacks, and worst of all—the whole ship crashes. Except, it doesn't crash on Earth, or even Mars. Nope, I'm in a whole new galaxy on a foreign planet and some aliens have decided I'm their new play thing.

I don't know what my future holds, but I've always had a sixth sense about things. That's why I know when the blue alien with orange hair and black gloves meets my eyes, that my life is about to change. I just don't know if it's for better or for worse.

Hide and seek is a lot less fun in an alien prison where the winner gets . . . me.

I'm a glass half-full girl, but this last week has really tested my outlook on life. First of all, aliens exist. Yeah, there's a doozy. Second of all, they steal humans from Earth, and they're not nice about it. Like at all. Anger issues abound in other galaxies apparently....