Thorns and Starlight

Juniper Bell has spent eight years forcing a colony bog to grow. Kyren Arrhal has spent four hundred looking for the last steward bloodline, and he finds it standing knee-deep in her peat trench, hands filthy, arms crossed. The Alarxi cannot lie to a bond-mate. Kyren intends to use that. So does she. He has three weeks to decide whether her colony lives or is abandoned to dust. She has three weeks to prove him wrong about everything except her. But the Alarxi high court keeps lists, and one of those lists ends with a wedding he did not choose. Juniper is not on it. She arrives anyway.