Showing results by author "Lyra Starling" in All Categories

She crashed onto an alien ice world. He's been waiting 80 years for her. Dr. Ava Chen never believed in fate, until her escape pod landed on an uncharted planet ruled by seven-foot-tall aliens with glowing skin and molten silver eyes. Raeth, their battle-scarred chieftain, has kept his people alive through decades of slow extinction. He'd given up on hope... until a fierce human doctor fell from the sky and made his ancient soul burn. The Vothren don't just fall in love, they resonate. One look, and Raeth's bioluminescent glow blazes violet whenever Ava is near, marking her as his fated ...

He’s waited sixty-three years for her. She doesn’t believe in fate. Scientist Elara Quinn has built her life around logic and isolation. Stranded on a research outpost at the edge of known space, she needs only to complete her work and earn passage home. No attachments. No vulnerabilities. No exceptions. Then the Zarythian ships arrive. When she’s brought before their king, Elara expects interrogation. Instead, she finds a warrior whose golden eyes have haunted by prophecy since childhood—a prophecy of a human woman who would be his fated mate. His soul-bonded queen. Vaarek is ...

She fled across the galaxy to escape him. She didn't expect to find someone who could feel every fear she tried to hide. Lila Maren has spent years building walls, around her heart, around her secrets, around the bruises her husband left behind. When his lawyers threaten to take her five-year-old son, she makes the desperate choice to seek asylum among the Valyri, empathic aliens who've established settlements for human refugees. But the Valyri can sense emotions. And Lila has so many she's trying to hide. Kairis is a settlement liaison haunted by his failure to protect his last human ...

She screamed into the void. He answered. Tessa Chen has survived raiders, poverty, and the death of the husband she loved. But when slavers descend on her frontier colony, she faces the one thing she can't fight: losing her son. In her moment of absolute desperation, she sends a psychic cry for help—without knowing anyone could hear it. Three hundred years of silence. Shattered in an instant. Rhydian the Deathless hasn't felt hope since the war that destroyed his world and killed everyone he loved. He's spent centuries as a weapon without purpose—until a human woman's fierce love ...

She's a human engineer who refuses to back down. He's an alien master builder who hasn't felt anything in a century. Their collaboration could save the settlement—or burn it to the ground. Zara Chen doesn't do helpless. When her ship crashed on an alien world, she picked herself up and got to work. Now she's the human settlement's lead engineer, and she has plans—big plans—for expanding their mountain refuge. There's just one problem: the arrogant Vothren master builder who dismisses every idea she has. Korvax hasn't let anyone close in over a hundred years. After losing his mate to ...

Three years ago, Nina Volkov listened to her fiancé die over a comm channel she couldn't save him through. She's been frozen ever since, efficient, professional, utterly closed off. The settlement needs her skills. They don't need her heart. But Kethran has other plans. The Vothren scout leader has watched Nina for months, tracking her signal, learning her rhythms, falling for the fierce woman behind the ice. At 245 years old, he knows what he wants. And he's willing to wait forever to earn her trust. Then the Hollow attack and everything changes. When the largest assault in memory ...

She fixes machines because they don't leave. He follows rules because breaking them kills people. When fate decides they belong together, neither of them is ready. Fiona "Fi" Reyes is the settlement's best mechanic—brilliant with engines, terrible with people. By choice. Her father taught her everything about machines before he walked out when she was twelve. Lesson learned: love is just a word for future abandonment. Keep everyone at arm's length, and no one can leave you. Theron has spent 189 years as the perfect Vothren warrior—disciplined, honorable, utterly alone. His father's "...

She heals everyone but herself. He's never needed healing until now. One week after the battle that nearly destroyed their settlement, Dr. Yuki Tanaka is running on nothing but stubbornness and cold tea. She hasn't slept in days. She barely eats. She saves lives because stopping means feeling—and feeling means remembering the husband she couldn't save five years ago. Brennar, second-in-command to the Vothren warriors, woke from her surgery knowing two impossible things: the fierce human doctor had saved his life, and she was his fated mate. After nearly two centuries of waiting, he's ...

Draven has been a warrior for three hundred years. He's killed more enemies than he can count. His face bears the scars of a lifetime of violence, and his heart has been closed for longer than most humans have been alive. He doesn't deserve softness. He doesn't deserve light. He certainly doesn't deserve Priya Sharma. Priya came to this frozen world to build a new life. Instead, she found a war. As the settlement's teacher and caretaker, she's dedicated herself to protecting the children—giving them normalcy in a world of monsters. She doesn't have time for the terrifying alien warrior ...

His glow hasn't warmed for anyone in over a century. Until her. Hannah Wright doesn't talk about Sophie. Her little sister died in the crash—and Hannah has never forgiven herself for letting go of her hand in the chaos. Now she pours herself into caring for the settlement's children, being what Sophie needed her to be. It's penance. It's purpose. It's not healing. Varek hasn't loved anyone since Kyra. His mate died in the plague over a century ago, and he's spent every year since filling the emptiness with his craft. Building furniture. Carving toys. Making beautiful, useful things to ...

In a world preparing for war, two young artists discover that creating beauty isn’t frivolous—it’s revolutionary. She paints to remember who she was. He carves to become who he could be. Together, they create something neither expected: hope. MEI came to the stars to escape her past. Instead, she crashed into a war. The only thing keeping her sane is her art—painting murals that transform cold caves into spaces of beauty. It’s frivolous, she tells herself. Pointless. But she can’t stop. TOREK is everything a young Vothren warrior should be: strong, eager, ready to fight. No one ...

She speaks to plants because they never ask the questions she can't answer. Elena Vasquez is the reason anyone survives on Keth'vora. Her greenhouses transform an ice planet into a place where life can flourish. But the woman who nurtures everything around her has spent seven years hiding a truth that makes her feel fundamentally broken—a secret she's never shared with anyone in the settlement. When the settlement's first baby is about to be born, Elena can't escape the painful reminder of what she'll never have. As bonded couples celebrate the future they're building together, she buries...

Iris Blackwood knows how to make things grow. It's people she struggles with especially since losing Maya in the attack that stranded them on an alien world. She's been going through the motions, doing her work, keeping her grief close like armor. She doesn't need anyone to save her. She just needs to be left alone. Thalir has always been different from his warrior brothers. Softer. Gentler. More interested in healing than fighting. In a culture that values strength above all else, he's learned to make himself small, useful, invisible. He doesn't expect to resonate—not to anyone, and ...

Previously published as Hearts of Obsidian SIGNAL: Book 8 by Lyra Starling (Due to an error it, it has since been updated to Nourish) She feeds everyone but herself. Carmen Torres has been providing for others her entire life. Single mother. Colony cook. Now the woman responsible for feeding a settlement at war on an alien ice planet. She doesn't have time for loneliness. She doesn't have time for the quiet hunter who brings her supplies and watches her with eyes that see too much. She definitely doesn't have time to fall in love. He provides in silence, expecting nothing. Soren has always ...

The epic conclusion to The Starlit Claim Trilogy spans twenty-five years and two generations. Elara and Vaarek have built a life together. Raised children. Changed a kingdom. Their bond has only grown stronger through decades of challenges. But the Purity Coalition has never stopped working in shadows. And when civil war erupts, everything they love hangs in the balance. Their son Korath has grown into a warrior with his father’s golden eyes and his mother’s fierce heart. When he discovers his own fated mate—Sera, the granddaughter of their greatest ally—he must fight for her while ...

Pregnant. Hunted. And fighting for her crown. Elara Quinn never asked to be queen. Four months ago, she was a scientist on a remote outpost, until an alien king claimed her as his fated mate. Now she’s pregnant with the heir to the Zarythian throne, bonded to a king who would destroy worlds for her, and targeted by enemies who see her humanity as an abomination. The Conclave convenes in thirty days. They will judge whether a human can truly rule beside a Zarythian king—and their decision will determine whether Elara lives or dies. As assassination plots unfold and traitors emerge from ...

She believes in evidence. He believes in her. Only one of them can be right. Grace Sullivan negotiated peace treaties on Earth. She doesn't believe in magic, fate, or fated mates. When she's tasked with creating the settlement's first formal charter between humans and the Vothren, she approaches it like any negotiation: facts, logic, mutual benefit. No room for fairy tales. Vorath has spent 220 years preserving his people's sacred knowledge—including the histories of resonance that have guided Vothren bonds since the beginning of time. The human diplomat fascinates him: so brilliant, so ...

She came to this world soft. She refused to stay that way. Sloane Murphy didn't survive a crash landing on an ice planet just to have some arrogant alien warrior tell her she's not good enough. So what if Varn is the deadliest fighter in the settlement? So what if watching him move makes her forget to breathe? He thinks humans are fragile. She's going to enjoy proving him wrong. Varn has trained warriors for over two centuries. He knows what happens when the weak pretend to be strong—they die, and they take others with them. The human woman is fast, fierce, and infuriatingly skilled. ...

32 seconds. That's how long she hesitated. That's how long it took a man to die. Dr. Rachel Chen was one of the best surgeons in the system. She made split-second decisions that saved lives. Until the moment she froze, and Marcus Webb died on her table. Now her license is suspended, her confidence is shattered, and she has 180 days to prove she deserves to practice medicine again. Her sister's solution? An alien rehabilitation center Rachel doesn't believe in. He communicates without words. He hears everything she can't say. Veyth lost his voice long ago. Now he speaks only through ...

She's saved a thousand lives but can't save herself. Combat medic Mara Ellis has seen too much death. Now stationed at a frontier clinic, she throws herself into work, fighting corrupt officials, treating patients no one else will see, and burying her trauma so deep she almost believes it's gone. He feels every wound she's buried. Tovan is a Valyri healer with centuries of experience and empathic abilities that let him sense every emotion around him. He's learned to manage the weight of others' pain. But Mara's anguish cuts through his defenses—because she's not just hurting. She's ...