Homeworld for the Holidays — Cassandra Chandler

He wanted to spend Christmas with the girl of his dreams -- but never dreamt they'd spend it in space!

Buddy didn't mean to stow away on an alien warship. He just wanted to surprise Nika with a holiday dinner she'd never forget. But now, he's stuck aboard the Reckoning with his dog, of all things, headed to a star system far from Earth and the Christmas dinner where he planned to introduce Nika to his family.

Nika has enough on her plate building colonies, dome worlds, and space stations in the Sol system -- all without Earth's governments detecting their presence. With a war going on throughout the galaxy, it's up to her to create sanctuaries for sentients who have lost their homeworlds. When she's called aboard the Reckoning to track down odd system errors -- and pulled from a holiday dinner with Buddy -- she knows something's gone very wrong. It goes from bad to worse when she finds Buddy and his dog on board.

Now, they have to work together to figure out how to fix the ship for good, keep Buddy and his dog hidden, and forge an alliance with a planet full of super strong warriors with impulse control issues. For a galaxy at war, can a chef, his dog, and a little holiday four-part-harmony pave the way to peace?

Contains an excerpt from Gray Card, book one of The Department of Homeworld Security.