I came to meet a friend, but now I'm leaving with her...Carly is everything a Valkredian leader needs: stubborn, outspoken, and her body is temptation incarnate. She's meant to be sold off at auction, but I'll allow no one else to touch her. Her scent tells me she's my mate, and her blood calls to me. But a Valkredian prince must always be in control and giving into her pulsing veins will cost more than my sanity.I will protect the mate I've claimed and the people I rule. If a traitor wants to try me, I will bring down all of my wrath to make them pay.I'm no one's blood slave...I never expected to wake up on a space station with a red collar around my throat. But when Akzun claims me for himself, I know I'm in a whole other kind of trouble. He's as strong as they come, a leader of his people, and a man who makes me yearn. He wants my body and my blood, and I don't know how I'm supposed to resist. I don't know if I want to. But when treachery on his planet puts us at risk, we'll need to work together to stop a war. And the longer I'm at his side and in his bed, the clearer it becomes that I was made for him. I don't know how to be the mate of an alien vampire, but I'm going to have to learn if I want to see another sunset.