Chapter 1

It was that same dream again. The one I'd been having ever since the Dominion had invaded Arboria and burned our forest down.

I stood in a vast chamber bathed in golden light, its brilliance stretching infinitely in every direction. The very air shimmered with an otherworldly glow, the walls pulsing like the heart of something ancient and vast. And before me—just as she had been in every dream—was her.

A girl composed of light.

She hovered just above the gleaming floor, hands clasped in front of her, her ethereal form untouched by gravity. A soft, radiant blue, her body pulsed with faint and delicate circuitlike patterns that flickered as though whispering secrets in a language I couldn't understand. Her robes flowed around her, long and ceremonial, a strange mix of modesty and allure. Though her hood shadowed much of her face, I could see her eyes—luminous, impossibly wide, tilted just enough to hint at an Eldan origin.

She was small, no taller than I was, her frame delicate yet impossibly sexy. The glow of her form was soft yet dazzling, as if she were carved from the very essence of the stars. My breath hitched as those luminous eyes locked onto mine.

She was beautiful.

But more than that—she looked hopeful.

"Finally… you are coming…"

Her voice was so faint, so fragile, yet it sent a tremor through my very soul. A shiver that had nothing to do with fear.

I reached out. I didn't even think about it—my body simply needed to touch her, to see if she was real, to confirm that this luminous, divine being wasn't just a figment of my imagination. But my fingers found only air.

She tilted her head slightly, as if studying me, a small, gentle smile touching her lips.

"I am waiting."

And then, the golden light surged—too bright, too overwhelming.

The dream dissolved into white.

My hands slammed against cold glass.

I gasped, blinking against the harsh overhead lights as my vision swam, the lingering glow of the dream still imprinted behind my eyelids. A deep chill clung to my skin, the unmistakable sensation of cryosleep fogging my thoughts. I wiped condensation from the glass panel in front of me, the edges of my stasis pod hissing as it unlocked.

Outside, I saw Lucy, my Mordesh medtech. She was tapping away at a datapad, barely glancing up as I stirred. "Hold on, hold on. You'll be out in a second. We need you up and armed now—some Chua stowed away on board and are trying to scuttle the ship." I growled, my ears flicking upright at the news.

Fantastic. First thing out of cryo, and I was already going to have to shoot something.

The tube hissed open fully, and I stepped out, ignoring the neatly folded set of clothes waiting for me. I had my priorities, and getting armed was first. My pistols were right there, pristine and waiting, and I grabbed them without hesitation.

Lucy sighed, muttering, "Aurin…" under her breath as she studiously ignored my nudity and pointed toward the nearest exit.

"Cargo bay's that way. Try not to get yourself shot. I don't have time to put you back together."

Then she was already moving to the next tube, waking someone else up.

I bounced out of the hatch toward the wonderful sound of gunfire.

The Dominion had found us again. Typical.

But such is the life of an Exile.

I grinned viciously as I caught sight of my targets, already itching to repay some nasty Chua for burning my homeworld.

Normally, I like little critters. They're adorable.

But there was nothing cute about Chua.

They were vermin—pestilent little gerbil-like psychopaths who lived to burn, break, and ruin. I owed them for turning my tree into cinders, and I was more than happy to return the favor.

Gun-happy as they were, the little bastards had already done a lot of damage to the cargo bay, shredding supplies with wild, unchecked plasma fire. Most of it, honestly, was because they were terrible shots—not that it stopped them from making a mess.

Too bad for them, they'd picked the wrong ship to raid.

My ears twitched, tracking movement before my eyes even finished locking onto the target.

Natural Aurin agility and years of palace dance training had made me obscenely dexterous.

I twisted through the air, flipping over gunfire, my ears twitching at the sharp whine of missed shots. My pistols flared in rapid bursts, every squeeze of the trigger sending satisfying vibrations up my arms as I landed light as a feather on a cargo crate.

I kicked off before the next volley, springing off the metal surface in a controlled arc, twisting mid-air to return fire.

If I had been fighting the human Cassians, I had no doubt my nudity would have distracted them long enough to make this a pot shot slaughter.

But Chua?

They didn't even notice.

One of them cackled as he hefted a flamethrower.

The pilot light flared as I heard the whoosh before I saw the flames—heat licking too close, too fast.

I tucked into a tight spin, my tail singing at the tips before I gated behind him.

Not today, furball.

Before he could react, I put two rounds through the back of his skull. He crumpled forward, his flamethrower clattering to the floor, flames flickering out with a sad little sputter.

I flicked my tail out behind me, inspecting the singed fur with a scowl.

"Damn vermin."

Then I spotted him.

A particularly nasty little bastard, hunched over a large, blinking bomb.

Oh, hell no.

I kicked off a crate, twisting mid-air to land behind him. The high-pitched whine of the bomb's arming sequence barely had time to register before I put a bullet straight through his skull.

The Chua gurgled something unintelligible before slumping forward. One claw twitched toward the detonator.

No, you don't.

I kicked the charred little corpse off the controls and stomped the device to pieces for good measure.

The air stank of burnt fur and fried circuits.

A deep, gravelly sigh came from the hatchway.

A Granok—massive, bored, and built like a damn mountain—leaned against the doorframe, taking in the absolute mess I'd made. His gaze flicked once over the scene. The bodies. The smoldering bomb. His rocky face showing his disgust at the chaos.

And then, finally, he looked towards me.

He exhaled through his nose like an annoyed furnace.

"I'll admit, you're a pleasure to look at, Bunny," he rumbled, "but you might wanna go get your clothes before you see the Queen." His tone held equal parts amusement and resignation. He was obviously all too familiar with us Aurin.

I grinned, planting a hand on my bare hip as my bunny ears twitched, my tail swishing playfully.

"Myala wouldn't mind. I've danced for her naked plenty of times."

"Uh-huh," he said flatly, rolling his rocky eyes. "Maybe so, but you're gonna cause a stir if you don't cover up. Especially with the humans."

I perked my ears, smirking. "But they're so cute when they blush."

He snorted. "Yeah, yeah. You Aurin and your damn sex games…" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Queen's in the greenhouse down the corridor." His gaze flicked to the unactivated bomb, and he sighed. "I'll deal with this. She's waiting for you, so hurry up."

I was really tempted to just walk right in. But, eh—it would be rude to show up with just my guns on.

So, I sauntered back to the cryobay, where I found a cute human girl pulling on her uniform.

She froze mid-motion when she noticed me, cheeks turning a delightful shade of red. I licked my lips, deliberately slow, watching the blush spread down her neck.

Lucy flicked my ears. "Wait till you get planetside before you seduce everything in sight, you dumb bunny!" She checked her datapad. "You're scheduled to depart for Everstar Grove with Myala's entourage in 30. I hear there are plenty of trees there you can get intimate with."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Okay. Okay. No need to assault my ears, Lucy."

"Then stop trying to flirt with my patients first thing out of cryo!"

I giggled before heading out the door. Lucy knew about my treeporn stardom before I joined the Exiles as a spellslinger. I had been a fairly well-known star on Arboria due to being an albino, nicknamed "The White Rabbit." My pure whiteness had been exotic enough to even catch the eye of the queen, who had invited me to the palace to fan girl over me, only to then make me her "pet." My official title had been "Dancer", but all of Arboria knew I was Myala's playtoy. Lucy, the daughter of Victor Lazarian, was assigned to take care of the palace staff, so she'd known me for a couple of years now.

I hadn't made a movie in a decade, but I had been a dancer at court up until we were forced to flee. Officially, I danced for the Mother Tree during the various yearly rituals, which kept me in the public eye, but Myala loved my "private" shows.

She'd been sad when I had traded in my silks for pistols and had tried for a week to talk me out of it, but I could do more good as a slinger than an entertainer. My rather excessive coordination made me exceptionally well-suited to spell-slinging, and we had a new planet to settle after all. She'd grudgingly let me join the explorer's guild before we left Arboria. I wasn't technically staff anymore, but Myala had obviously dragged me into the palace group anyway.

I wandered through the cargo bay and down the corridor to the greenhouse zone, finding Myala playing with her veggies. She was giggling as the semi-sentient critters wandered from soil pot to soil pot looking for their favorite mix. She waved to me when she saw me. "Hey Valya, you enjoy your nap?"

I yawned. "Yeah, but the wake-up call was a bit abrupt."

"I heard you gave them a show."

"Just a little one."

"Well hopefully after we get a little settled in, you can drop by and give me one every now and then?" She looked at me wistfully. "I've missed seeing you dance, and I haven't petted you in months!"

I smiled; she obviously wasn't counting cryosleep time.

"We'll see. I expect I'll be pretty busy on the exploration team." I pointed at the two Aurin behind her. "Besides, you have official consorts to take care of you. I'm just your toy." Arwick and Yaenna rolled their eyes at me. As chief male and head female, they were nominally in charge of Myala's household.

"But you're such a fun toy." Myala pouted.

I gave her a little bow. "Thank you, your majesty. But in the grand scheme of things, I'm not important. I can't in good conscience let you keep me as a pet while our people are in such need. I'm just a dumb bunny who's good at dancing and shooting things."

Oh, you are so much more.

My ears twitched as I looked around for the source of the whisper, but nobody was close to me. A flash of blue out the corner of my eye drew my gaze to the dome looking out on space and for a second, I thought I saw the glowing blue girl from my dream in the glass, but when I blinked, she was gone. I rubbed my eyes. Must be suffering a little stasis sickness.

Myala and I chatted and twined tails until the call for our shuttle came and I followed her to the shuttle bay.

I could tell how exhausted she was, though she was hiding it well. If you weren't familiar with her happy, bubbling nature, you could miss the subtle signs of exhaustion. The flicker of hesitation before she smiled, the way her normally hyper-active tail clung to mine like she was trying to draw comfort from it instead of playfully teasing. Even her ears, usually twitching in a dozen directions at once, drooped just a little at the tips when she thought no one was watching.

I wished I could do more for her, but I was so weak with the weave I was pretty useless. I had been denied as a consort due to it. All I could be was her friend and occasional sextoy. She had five real consorts to meet her needs.

She didn't need me to be her pet. Unlike her other consorts, all I was good for was sex. As an adventurer and explorer, I could contribute far more meaningfully. As fond of her as I was, I wasn't in love with her or anything. We just played for fun. Her consorts didn't mind me being her toy because I wasn't trying to be anything else. I was perfectly happy to be the palace bunny. Or had been until the Dominion invaded.

She didn't need one little nympho ex treeporn star sponging off her, no matter how much fun we had. Too many people had died for me to live as a decoration. Sex wasn't all I was good at. I wanted to prove I could be something more.

More than just Valya Moonbreeze. Palace sponge.

I saw her settled into the shuttle and let her pet my tail all she wanted as we headed for the planet below…