My teammates and I had bleak futures and pasts we'd rather forget, so when we were tasked with finding four missing WarGuard warriors from an alien race, we jumped in feet first.

Now, two of my colleagues are missing—and I am too. Trapped belowground, I still have access to VELMA, the machine-learning program that gave us our rescue mission. Thanks to her, I know I won't die here. Probably.

But when I find one of the alien warriors, I also find an irresistible attraction that I can't ignore. VELMA tells me there's a precedent for alien/human couples, but I don't know. Can an alien warrior and a human woman have a future in a place called Predator Planet? Or will the desire we feel for each other make us too vulnerable to risk falling in love?

This is one of the WarGuards of Ikshe novellas from the Predator Planet Universe. It has Instalove, mild peril, cultural misunderstandings, and a steamy consensual scene that leaves little to the imagination. One click now and continue your adventures on Predator Planet!