Secrets is a smorgasbord of short stories and poetry from young writers across New Zealand. These writers share their creativity, insight and quirkiness - all with a good dose of humour!With stories from:Kimberley Neville-DownerAsher DaggElla Blake BrislenHelena L. MayerJesse PerrottKrishi ShahRaissa ZhangSreeya Bugata

Humans made a deal with the Stryxian males: Help us defend Earth, and when the war is over, we'll send you women to help rebuild your dying species.Now, the war appears to be over and Trinity Bentzer's number has been called in the lottery. Only, instead of winning a boatload of money, she's getting some badass winged alien she's never met. Trin's not thrilled to be shipped off and matched up, until she meets Raig. Maybe she hit the jackpot, after all.Comma...

I signed up for a research mission with five other women.Instead, we crashed on an alien planet with too many dangers to count. Separated from the other women, I'm on my own until a huge alien with color-changing skin and a massive sword gets me out of a bad spot. I don't understand Savair's language, but I think he's under the impression that I'm his.I am NOT his. I'm a 34-year old divorced scientist with no time for such nonsense. But if he can help me fi...

My research ship crashed, stranding me on an alien planet with no hope of rescue.When I'm captured by frightening, green aliens and given to Grael, a brooding, scythe-wielding Destran male with chameleon-like skin and the darkest eyes I've ever seen, I don't know whether to cower before him or kiss him. I've spent my life puzzling out the human psyche, but can I get through Grael's formidable walls?I am Grael, lord of my living, symbiont ship and protector ...

RaynaIf one male remained alive in the universe, and that male was Lord Ledos, I'd let both of our species die out. He looks like a rock star, swaggers like the galaxy's greatest gift swings between his leather-clad legs. He's a force of nature. I'm a wallflower. We couldn't be more opposite. It would be so much easier to ignore him if my body didn't light up like a display screen every time he was near.When I'm forced to live on his ship because some marks...

When Brandy Trentler's wealthy family insists she marry the jerk who cheated on her, she signs up for the Stryxian mate lottery.Who knew her number would be drawn in the first round? Nothing goes right after that - the transport ship is attacked, she is captured by the enemy Morr-ta aliens and thrown in prison. When a gorgeous Stryxian warrior rescues her, she thinks she's won freedom and her fated mate, but he has some big, bad secret, and apparently, it's a deal ...

I survived the destruction of my ship but now I'm stranded on a strange planet, protecting my only shelter—the crashed wreck.I'm a trained soldier, but I'm not prepared for wilderness survival on an alien planet. When a color-shifting alien male named Zurian finds me, I…well, I shoot at him, but after that, I'm intrigued by the gorgeous male who carries a staff and claims to be searching for his missing brothers.After a bad military operation resulted in a ...

KoraMy nightmares didn’t prepare me for this.Abducted off the space station where I teach the standard galactic language, I'm imprisoned with two other women in a cold, dirty cell on an alien ship. We're destined for something worse than death until a fierce, blue-haired alien male rescues us. We recover on his ship with his group of Heveian pirates. There, the attraction that formed when he first carried me in his arms grows into a force neither o...

When Axika Naxek is tasked with upgrading a newly acquired human space station, he comes straight up against Gwen, a brilliant human female whose strategic mind is integral to operations.He thinks little of the weak humans he is in charge of, but to his astonishment, she ignites his mala and his interest. He can resist the sparks between them for a while, but the day will come for him to claim her as his. Gwen Jadin disliked everything about the Stryxian lottery, i...

Xarik Tek-ra is one of few of his kind who do not want to take over the Stryxian empire by force. He is a Vanyi—one of the rare, silver-scaled Stryxians possessing devastating mind powers.When he finds an unconscious human female in the middle of nowhere and returns with her to his settlement, his mala is awakened. She may be his true mate, but she is terrified of him. It was other Vanyi who had abducted her, making winning her trust the greatest challenge of his l...

Fivra, a resilient Terian female born in a penal colony, is uprooted when alien raiders abduct her and her friends and sell them at a galactic auction. Thrust into the dazzling world of Erovik—the elite, galactic brothel that bought her—Fivra draws the eye of Cyprian, the enigmatic director of Erovik. As their romance grows, Fivra learns that the Axis—the shadowy force that imprisoned her people—plans to seize the stolen females, including her. With her life at stake and C...

Some love stories are born in a galaxy far away. Others are forged in dragon fire.Turi is destined to be given to a bondmate she's never met. Life in Settlement 112-1 is hard enough without forced matings, but when an abduction goes awry, she's brought to live in the fortress of the overseer who rules her settlement. There, she discovers that he's not only capable of kindness, but he's as much a prisoner as she is. As Turi falls for the powerful