Forged in the Wastes

A Sci-Fi Monster Survival Romance

By: Pippa Farthingale

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

She is the apex predator of a ruined universe. He is the fragile human who holds the only map out.

Arthur Pendleton is a survivor by necessity, not by nature. As an omniverse cartographer, his life is defined by safe, mathematical certainty—until his transit pod violently crashes into the decaying, hostile dimension known as the Scrap Wastes. His fragile human biology should have guaranteed a quick death among the acidic fog and slavering scavengers. But Arthur has one bargaining chip: a biometric map out of the collapsing sector, encoded directly to his heart rate. To survive, he must make himself indispensable to a creature straight out of a nightmare.

Kesh Vethari is the goddess of the Wastes. A nine-foot, bio-electric feline hybrid, she was exiled by her own pack for showing a single moment of weakness. She now operates by one brutal rule: relying on others is a death sentence. When a trembling, desperate human falls into her hunting grounds, her instinct is to strip him of his supplies and leave him to the dark. But she needs his map, and he needs her kinetic devastation.

They forge a hostile contract: he provides the route, she keeps his heart beating.

But the Scrap Wastes are merciless. As plummeting temperatures and neuro-toxic predators force them into suffocatingly close quarters, the clinical lines of their arrangement begin to violently blur. Arthur’s anxious need to prove his worth collides with the crushing, inescapable heat of Kesh's massive frame. Soon, Arthur realizes the apex predator doesn't just want his map—she wants to claim him.

To escape the collapsing sector, Arthur must stop treating his survival as a debt to be paid, and Kesh must do the one thing that terrifies her more than death: trust a fragile human with her life.

Tropes & Keywords:
● Sci-Fi / Monster Romance
● Forced Proximity / Survival
● Extreme Size Difference
● Role Reversal (Powerful Female / Fragile Male)
● Gritty, High-Heat Romance
● Opposites Attract