This is a rerelease of the book Lisia’s Journey.

Lisia wants to go home, but is blocked by a powerful man who wants a pet. She’s willing to try anything. To gain safe passage, she agrees to help a friend in the UDA. When an Aridi male comes up to her in animal form, the connection between them is startling. He’s handsome, but his dominance and possessiveness make her wary.

Pirates are attacking Jarritt E’Sain’s clan, but help promised by United Defense Alliance arrives and then leaves for some reason. He intends to find out why. Finding a female Aridi helping the United Defense Alliance gain access to the planet surprises him, but even more so, the intense connection draws him to her. He won’t let this beauty slip away from him.

Lisia’s determined to resist his attempts to tie their lives together, but she can’t ignore the attraction between them. Suddenly, “complicated” takes on a whole new meaning.

The blaring horn sounded, breaking the silence. Birds darted out of the trees. Lisia jumped. The loud noise startled her. Her ears ached, but she leapt forward and ran toward the obstacles that filled the clearing in the lush forest. Even after hearing it when the first man ran, the jarring sound surprised her. How did the other Aridi stand it over and over again?

She wasn’t exactly dressed for the complicated course. When she’d decided to wear the bright blue shirt and silky dark, gray pants, she’d envisioned something a little simpler. This wasn’t simple. Something was at play here and it was more than a normal power play. She gritted her teeth. Not her issue, but damn, she was curious. She wouldn’t be here long enough to need to know about the politics and manipulations that went on behind the scenes.

She had to get those damn green and yellow flags and complete the obstacle course under the time limit to fulfill her part of the deal with Lieutenant Commander Carson. She sprinted forward grabbing the first flag as she leapt over the low, dark brown brick wall.

It shouldn’t be that hard. The course was enough like the ones at home that she’d spotted all the flags. Even the flags that were half hidden by the bushes. That was her second clue that something was strange on Enoch. The man in charge was doing everything he could to make sure no one broke the time limit. His methods bordered on outright cheating. Nothing was said about concealed markers.

She pushed the first flag into the elastic band at her waist as she headed for the second. Rolling into the short tunnel covered by a mound of dirt, she grabbed it. The next hung on the barrier, the wall. Something tugged at her right pant leg. A short rip sounded. She grimaced, but raced on. These were one of her favorite pairs of pants. And they were probably destroyed.

She climbed the man-made rock wall, plucking the flag off as she flipped over it. The fast pace, exertion and challenge set her pulse racing. She enjoyed the thrill and the test of her skills. It was something she hadn’t experienced in a while. Definitely better than the fear and worry she’d felt over the past few weeks.

The fourth flag hung amid the leaves of a squat thorny bush, but she grabbed it. The thorns scratched her palm. Annoyance rose, but she focused on getting to the next flag. She snatched the fifth from the top of a pole and plucked the sixth flag as it fluttered in the gentle wind midway up a slope.

She dragged in a gasping breath. It had been too long since she’d run freely. A simple course like this shouldn’t make her breathe hard. She reached the top of the incline and jumped from the edge to the base of the wall bracing the slope. The flag plastered to the ground in the water-filled rut behind the wall. She grabbed it and slogged out of brown liquid. Mud caked her black knee-boots and her pants. Totally ruined. If she didn’t need the Lieutenant Commander’s help, she’d make him pay to replace them.

With a not-so-silent curse, she ran for the eighth and ninth flags, on opposite ends of a climbing net. She bypassed the simple rope swing to grab the tenth flag off the corner of the platform. Jumping down, she landed lightly and grabbed the eleventh before leaping the final short wall.

Satisfaction coursed through her as she saw the brown-haired man’s dropped jaw. The Aridi man had shown he was a fool from the first. He was one of the few shifters who considered humans weak. She hadn’t met many Aridi who felt that way. It gave her a thrill to surprise him. He clearly hadn’t expected anyone to finish in time.