“Let other people volunteer to be brides and join the alien sausage party,” says mom with a deep frown.

“Okay, first of all, please don’t ever use the term ‘sausage party’ again. And secondly, Mom, my mind is made up. This might be our only chance. I will convince them to cure her. And I will be on a spaceship — with aliens!” responds Maya.

Maya Arnold was leading a normal life, working and helping care for her sister, until the Cerasteans arrived. Offering a cure for cancer if enough women volunteer as brides, Maya jumped at the chance. Saving her sister was her only goal. She never expected to actually fall in love with an alien, or find best friends in the other bride volunteers.

Since the mysterious destruction of Ceraste, Commander D’Avii and the surviving males have been searching the galaxy for a new home. Finding Earth and its women was a miracle. Like most Cerasteans, he finds humans to be fascinating creatures — none more so than bride volunteer Maya. His attraction to her is instant and intense. Still he knows Maya can never choose him, a warrior, with so many higher-caste scientists seeking their own mates. To do so would shame the scientists and tear the last of his people apart. Yet he aches at the loss of something he never even had.