Anders is the typical middle child, he’s never really been appreciated and he has never really taken the time to prove himself. His one achievement is that he is an excellent pilot. Unfortunately he has managed to get himself banned from ever flying the best fighter ships because of a drunken mistake.
Gwen is human and his co-pilot and Anders thinks she would be a perfect mate/wife for him and has loved her from afar for a long time. She has always been out of bounds because she is married to another human worker on the ship. The ship in question is carrying the "Human Brides" and the hope of the Auxem race back to Auxem. Also on the ship are Ander’s four brothers and his father. His father is King of Auxem which makes Anders a Prince.
The previous two books in this series were the stories of Arnon, the Crown Prince and Ayrie and how they met their wives/mates as part of an agreement with Earth to provide women who do not carry a certain gene because carriers of this gene give birth to boys and Auxem is a world without women. All the women having died from a virus and now that same virus is beginning to effect the men, they will all be sterile within a few years and the race will die out without the birth of lots of girl babies to carry on the race.
In this book Anders finds out that Gwen’s husband has left her and she is now divorced. He thinks his attraction to her is not reciprocated and that he will have to be content being just her friend and partner at work. On the day he finds out that Gwen is a free woman their transport ship is captured by space pirates. Gwen and Anders are the only ones able to escape and try to get help. The pirates intend to sell everything of value on the ship, especially the women, and will probably kill the men.
Whist Anders and Gwen are off ship trying to elicit help their attraction deepens and they not only have to contend with finding help they have to battle their attraction to each other because each believes that the other is too good for them and to just have a fling is not possible because once a man from Auxem has sex with a woman they are bonded and if they bond without love then both of them can go mad! Added to this the men of Auxem have a secret that they are not able to tell not even to their mates/wives by Royal Decree, The future of their race depends upon it.
Even once they find help they still have to free everyone on the ship without the pirates finding out and killing people or selling the women. It’s a really exciting tale and is beautifully told by the excellent narrators. Piper Fairweather and Connor Brown.
I can’t wait for the next book in the series. All the brothers are so different as are the women they end up loving.