A woman with a talent for destruction is partnered with a Guardsman with a flair for bringing things to life. Winera showed her talent as a Scorcher in a spectacular first display of heat and destruction. The Citadel welcomed her with open arms. Years after joining the Citadel, she is finally a full-fledged Scorcher and ready for her first official mission with a member of the Sector Guard. She had no idea that she was getting more than just a partner when a bundle of feathery fluff claims her as his own, much to her new partner’s amusement. Hyl has been waiting for the matchmaker to find him a partner that he can do more than go into battle with. One look at Winera and he knows that this fiery woman could set his senses ablaze. Smudge is a Yaluthu who has been patiently waiting for his person. When he sees the woman of fire, he knows she is the one that he is destined to be with, and he flings himself into her arms. Let’s not talk about the ship. She has too much attitude.

Is the end of one life the start of the next? It is if you have been reset. Elizabeth has spent her life exploring the world, visiting strangers, and learning all the customs she could. When the first Volunteer Project began, she had been in her fifties and out of the running. Now, at eighty-two, they offer to tune her up and send her to the stars. What world traveller could resist? She becomes taller, stronger, but her sense of humour remains the same. Her assignment is to collect memories from alien ancients who have been gathered on one world as a disconnected think tank. She needs to get them together, one at a time. She begins her journey there as a novice monk and works her way up to master. She deals with the indifferent man who greeted her and prepares to be charming with the other ancients until one goes too far, and she shows him what she is made of. Her mind is not his playground, and she has a strong right hook.

Trapped in her body, she is given a chance at a new life as a caretaker, but guarding horny superheroes loses its appeal quickly. Beatrix’s world has been shrinking as her body slowly locks up into immobility and constant pain. A strange woman arrives at her door and offers her a chance for a body without pain and the form she had in her early twenties. The price of this miracle? Just her life and moving to an alien world as caretaker for a group of superheroes. The charm of the men wore thin fast, and she put her foot down after she overheard some hurtful remarks. She activated her one caveat from the contract, her right of refusal. Bea quit. She ends up with the avatar, pregnant, friendless, and alone on a world where everyone but her has scales and a forked tongue. The one refrain in her mind is simple... she should have read the contract. Resetting a life twice is hard enough, but doing it as the only one of her kind on an entire world is definitely trickier than she had imagined. At least she could dance now.

She left Earth to survive as a labourer, but things changed, and she was swept up in finding a new life that made her old one look like purgatory. Getting herself and her sister through the end of the world would have been a lot easier if Lily hadn’t been at her high school reunion. Taking care of over a dozen whining women had grated on her nerves. Getting to the rescue vessels had been a relief. Iris breezed through the training and learned as many languages as possible. She made some friends outside her collected group, but none of that meant anything when she was bundled into a sleeping pod and launched into space with the rest. She woke up with her sister nearby, and the rest of her arrival day went in a blur. There was a rushed landing, a sandstorm, and then a man, who smelled like summer, rescued her from the new world that was trying to kill her. She was given a few scans, and he insisted she gets medical treatment for old injuries. Time went by, and when she was discharged from the med centre, she had an interesting diagnosis for her current status. She was a companion class Terran, and Yavor was a Hmrain in search of a companion. It was like he had this planned all along.

Lacey was the newest member of the station before the explosion, but she lost her future right after the blast. Lacey had grown up with privilege, but she learned early exactly how deals got made. She used to use her skills to get Adaptation Station their hard-to-come-by supplies, but after the blast, the family that she had been gaining was pulled from her. Lacey was transported across the stars where she sat at the side of her grandfather while he bargained away the human race. When she objected, she became a test subject that the Splice took apart. Wallowing in depression lasted for a while, but when she got back on her feet and stood tall, she realized that she had work to do, and no one was going to do it for her. Time to get a plan into position and get her band back together.

She would do anything to survive, including getting herself damaged and off the companion list. A Hmrain finds her in an unlikely place for an unlikely partnership. Athena made it to a pickup point, past the physical, and up to the education station. Her training was difficult, but when she found out she was a likely candidate for companionship to a Hmrain, she took drastic action. Being disfigured was the one situation that the station would accept to lower her classification and position her in the bulk-purchase category. Her bond would be purchased as part of a group acquisition, and she would be able to earn out her price on some alien world before she swept out to travel the stars, working as she went. With her goal in mind, she put herself in the path of the most toxic creature on the station, and she ticked it off. The resulting scar across her face did the job. She was out. It was just her luck that when she was on her new planet, she was very good at her job. Her team comes to the attention of the Hmrain overseer, and her planning has come to naught.