The Bride Clause

She wrote four hundred and twelve pages of peace. She never read the one with her name on it.

For eight months, Delia Marsh has been the voice of the human colonies, fighting the Sarovan Dominion one clause at a time. On signing day, the final clause is unveiled. It calls for a bride from the colonies, and carved beneath it in sunstone is her name.

Her own government has made her the price of peace. Refusing means war. Accepting means marrying Warlord Jarrow Teskan: seven feet of bronze skin and obsidian horns, the alien warlord whose fleet has hung over her little brother's sky for ten years.

Delia doesn't scream. She reads the fine print.

Then, before two governments and every camera in human space, she changes one word of her wedding vow, making herself his equal instead of his property. If Jarrow refuses to echo her words, the treaty dies.

He doesn't refuse.

By nightfall, she's aboard his flagship. By morning, her colony has been attacked with Sarovan weapons, and back home they're calling her the traitor bride. Someone is framing her. Someone on his ship.

Her new husband gives her his quarters, his protection, and a lock only she controls. But Delia can't stop asking why the markings on his skin burn gold every time she comes near.

Jarrow knows. His body chose her six months before the treaty did.

The Sarovan cannot lie. But he has been silent about why.

The Bride Clause is a spicy standalone sci-fi alien romance featuring fated mates, an arranged marriage, forced proximity, a fiercely protective alien warlord, dual POV, open-door heat, and a guaranteed HEA.