Going from professional Companion to superhero was not in the plans. Plans change. Camile enjoyed seeing new worlds and new civilizations at the side of the Yemish ambassador. He used her to hide his preference for his own sex from species who would not be as understanding as he would like. A festival on Namkor turned their comfortable life around when Cam was seduced by a Guardian before she was chosen by the world itself to receive the Gift. Speed is a simple concept but the execution is difficult, and Cam has to adjust to a life with a craving for empty calories at the side of her one-night stand. She wants more of her hero, but protocol stands in her way. Can she move fast enough to move past it, or is high-speed frustration her new lot in life?

Making holes in space is far easier than patching her past together. Duulahar grew up knowing that her adoptive mother had killed her birth mother, or at least, that is what was on the video that her father kept showing her. It was not the most pleasant of upbringings. Her father decides to break a lifetime of habits and send her shopping in his treasured sports car, and she knows that her dementia-laden mother is the target with her as the scapegoat. Her father is not particularly subtle. Kidnapping her mom is a reflex, but Duulahar knows that putting distance between her father’s hypnotic talent and those in his way is all that she can do to keep them alive. Her talent for small holes in space will not help her here. Her stubbornness versus her father’s evil. Who will win?

Drahali has lived her life as a freak, a woman who was far more than one of the guys. Her strength was limitless, but it doomed her to a life alone until the day the Sector Guard recruiter arrived and offered her a chance to be his partner and possibly more. Remar suffered the same fate on his home world with his body able to split into multiple incarnations of the original. Meeting a woman who was petite, adorable and could snap him in two would have frightened a lesser man, but he could be more than she could handle any time he wished.

The visit to the city has not gone to plan, and now, the pilots need to find the one thing they can’t do without. Accessories. With the transformation from engineers to pilots, the ladies must fight the memories of their ancestors in order to keep their focus on finding the defensive weaponry that goes with their bots. The city holds the key to the weapons, but the bots are on the outside of the gates and the caches are on the inside. Each ancient pilot knew where the weapons had been buried, and those memories are now pressed into service as the engineers break through the city gates to get what they need to save their own people.

Invisibility is a state of being, but the winged charmer that flirts his way into her heart makes her want to show him everything. Iridia has grown up invisible. To family, friends, co-workers, she is barely there. They haven’t noticed her in so long that the Volunteer project seems like the best method to deal with her issues. They see the potential in her and welcome her with open arms, basic training in combat and weapons, as well as etiquette for dealing with alien species. Chosen to be a Guardian on a newly re-waking world, Iridia finds that she is the second Guardian chosen and the only girl on the team. Zanthan has been waiting for her, so has the world beneath him. Tharos Prime swore never to have an Avatar again, but he never said he wouldn’t take two.

A woman with a green thumb is married by proxy to a noble who has a secret life commanding shadows. Gardener versus Guardian. Rowen went along with her niece to apply for the Volunteer project, and when she is asked to participate, she has to decide if the stars are for her. When they offer her an entire world full of gardens, she is hooked. There is only one problem, no alien can work on the surface of Irudan; they must be married to a local to work there. Skorin Nakkua wants to get his family to stop asking him to get married, so when a marriage of convenience is requested by the Alliance, he agrees. His wife will live on Irudan and take on his social responsibilities with the community, leaving him free to focus on his life as Walking Darkness, the head of the Irudan Guardian Base. He had never expected their paths to cross while he was on duty, but the new Lady Nakkua is far more than he imagined and the convenience of their marriage begins to chafe.

Teaching the visitors about the holiday stars is fun until a man who burns brighter than the sun enters Vixen’s orbit. Vixen chooses life with astronomy, and she ends up as an educator and a researcher for a tiny observatory struggling to make ends meet. When Vi arrives, she makes an impression and takes over most of the day-to-day operations, which is fine until an elf comes calling. Xander has been sent to bring Vixen home, but he doesn’t know how he will go about convincing her that it is a good idea, until he asks her out and she tells him what she wants. Magic and wonder are the hallmarks of Christmas, and these two have it in spades.

Given the chance to feel touch for the first time, she sacrifices her body for eternity in the arms of an immortal. Gala suffered from lack of nerve response and had lived her life numb. Her lifetime was spent looking for damage to her body or avoiding it. When you can’t feel your limbs, anything can happen. Given the chance to gain a sense of touch by giving her body to a planet for occupation, she becomes the Avatar of Rekfa without hesitation. Rekfa shares her body and convinces her that she needs to seek out her own sense memories in whatever form they come. Arez has been waiting for a mate of his own, and the Avatar is as close as he can come in this lifetime. He offers himself to her and is amazed when she takes him up on his offer to teach her what seduction can feel like when both parties are focused on the outcome.

Rebuilt from the bones out, she finds her genes are her destiny and her fate is perfect. Tyanni has spent the last two years in a hospital bed with no chance to live a normal life. Her sister has remained at her side and kept her interested in the world by looking through their family trees, and a genetics scan turns up surprising news, they aren’t completely human. The Lrrko is a cloned race that is rapidly running out of usable DNA. The discovery of no less than five new sources gains a lot of attention, and they dispatch five of their best to bring the Terran women back. Brex is one of the Familiars sent to gather up the lost Brides. He is assigned to Tyanni, and he feels a sense of relief. Out of the two sisters, he got the quiet one. When she leaves the healing tank, he learns of his mistake. He takes over care for her body, soul and physical needs. He attends to her every want.

Tales of the Citadel 21 Control over the elements is dull until a man walks onto her world and makes her senses burn.     Vexaniali has spent her life in solitude, finding ways to entertain herself on an empty world that has become her prison. She was ordered to keep anyone from landing, but it was just a make-work job to keep her out of the way. Burn arrives and offers her a chance to use her skills on a variety of worlds under the aegis of the Citadel Arcani. Moving a cure around a world using her mastery of air is time consuming and tiring but not difficult. It is a good start, and when Burn offers himself to top up her flagging energies, how could she refuse?  

Zez’s ability to lock time makes her the ideal partner for a man who holds her past against her. Zez joins the Citadel at age eleven, with a colourful history behind her. Her skills grow with every year, and in a decade, her ability to stop time in a confined area draws the attention of the Sector Guard. Immune is paired with the young woman with the dark past, and he sets his mind to keep her under control and save the innocents she might sweep away with her actions. Somewhere in the mire of distrust, a partnership is formed. The partnership has the potential to grow into something else, but resentments and accusations will slow the development.

Born to master mechanics, she fights her way into the Guardians and finds a path to glory when she gears up. Niad has controlled herself since returning from the Citadel. She has kept out of the public eye and kept off the Guardians’ radar. Her talent is not encouraged by her people, and she is not legally allowed to participate in a rescue, a natural disaster or any law-enforcement actions. She keeps her head down and continues her work as a vehicle repair specialist until the day that her careful actions mix with a disaster. She finds a fire where a repair job is supposed to be and takes steps to do the best she can for those trapped inside. That one act is observed by one of the Guardians and evolves into an arrest, a charge, freedom and a change in position. She is ready to gear up.

A multi-level telepath is sentenced to living death, and her rescue is not precisely textbook. Life, death, life and a drop into a volcano. Skiria has been funnelling files out of the capitol for years, hiding those who can pass for standard, talentless folks. Her telepathy got her a position in the government, but it also put her on their radar, and when they needed someone to fill a vacancy, she was hauled out of her apartment and given a promotion. Tied down and given a sedentary position to keep Resicor from rising and claiming an Avatar, Skiria is slowly dying. When she finally succumbs, she is disposed of in the most direct fashion and swept off world for a mission that she doesn’t understand. All in a day’s work.