Malfunction, page 28
All the screens showed the same thing. The system they’d been approaching. Closest to them, she could see the black hole and its accompanying planet. But beyond that, she saw other suns and planets orbiting them.
Then the monitors were closing in on the system, past the black hole, past other planets, finally homing in on one particular sphere that orbited a small orange sun. There was something odd about it, and she realized that it wasn’t rotating on its axis like the others. Instead, it appeared to be half in darkness, half in light.
“Welcome to the planet that never sleeps,” Rico said. “Half is eternal day and half forever night. I thought it would suit some of us just fine. We’ll be landing within hours. Get your stuff together.”
She’d gone into this not expecting to ever wake up. Then she’d woken, and she hadn’t expected to survive. They’d come so close to dying so many times. And she’d fallen in love. She’d been a loner for so long she didn’t know how she was going to take to being a loner no longer. She was about to embark on a new life. With a goddamn dog. A small laugh escaped her.
“What is it?” Logan asked.
“Just thinking how weird everything has turned out. Did you ever expect this when you went to sleep on the Trakis One?”
“You mean that I’d be standing on the bridge of a spaceship, in a crowd of werewolves, vampires, demons—”
“And werecats. Well, one, anyway.”
“Yeah. And the weirdest thing of all—that I’d fall in love. Hell, no, I never expected that.” He lowered his head and kissed her. “But you know what, it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that you’ll be beside me. I never had a home, ever, in my whole life. Now as long as you’re with me, wherever we are will be home.”
Rico was circling the room, pouring out glasses of whiskey, handing them around. Today was a day for celebrations. They were alive, together, and had a future. She raised her glass, clinked it with Logan’s. “To coming home.”
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Acknowledgments
Thank you so much to my fabulous publisher, Liz Pelletier, for suggesting I write this series and revisit my Dark Desires world, albeit a few hundred years before Break Out, book 1 in that series, begins. And thanks to everyone at Entangled Publishing for all the support and the amazing cover, and especially my editors, Liz and Lydia Sharp, for their great work and advice.
Thanks to my marvellous critique group, Passionate Critters, for reading my stories and telling me what they really think.
And finally, thanks to Rob, my other and better half, for putting up with me constantly disappearing into worlds of my own making.
About the Author
Growing up, Nina Croft spent her time dreaming of faraway sunnier places and ponies. When she discovered both, and much more, could be found between the covers of a book, her life changed forever.
Later, she headed south, picked up a husband on the way, and together they discovered a love of travel and a dislike of 9 to 5 work. Eventually they stumbled upon the small almond farm in Spain they now call home.
Nina spends her days reading, writing, and riding under the blue Spanish skies—sunshine and ponies. Proof that dreams can come true if you want them enough.
If you’d like to learn about new releases, sign up for Nina’s newsletter here.
www.ninacroft.com
Also by Nina Croft…
the Dark Desires series
Break Out
Deadly Pursuit
Death Defying
Temporal Shift
Blood and Metal
Flying Through Fire
the Beyond Human series
Unthinkable
Unspeakable
Uncontrollable
the Cutting Loose series
Falling for the Bad Girl
Blackmailing the Bad Girl
The Bad Girl and the Baby
the Order series
Bittersweet Blood
Bittersweet Magic
Bittersweet Darkness
Bittersweet Christmas
the Saddler Cove series
Handle with Care
the Things to Do Before You Die series
His Fantasy Girl
Her Fantasy Husband
His Fantasy Bride
the Babysitting a Billionaire series
Losing Control
Out of Control
Taking Control
the Melville Sisters series
Operation Saving Daniel
Betting on Julia
Blackmailed by the Italian Billionaire
The Spaniard’s Kiss
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Nina Croft, Malfunction
