Guardian by Angela Knight

Riane Arvid is a Temporal Enforcement Officer, partnered with a Sentient (through the use of computer implants) wolf named Frieka, who used to belong to her Dad. Recently, though, the Temporal Enforcement Office was rocked by the defection of one of their own, Ivar Terje, who was working for a Rabidly Xenophobic, militarily aggressive race known as the Xerans. The Xerans, who go in for a lot of Cybernetic and Genetic modification, have tried to use time travel to ensure that they become the race that conquers the Galaxy.

Since the Temporal Enforcement Officers are there to ensure that time flows smoothly, and that nothing interferes with history as it has existed up until this point, this has brought them into conflict with the Xerans again and again. But with Ivar's betrayal, the Powers that be want to find out how it could happen, and prevent it from happening again.

To that end, the Higher-ups have brought in Chief Inspector Corydom to discover if anyone at the Outpost was in on Ivar Terje's betrayal with him. And he's settled on Terje's lover, who maintains she was completely unaware of her lover's true loyalties, and whom he hurt to get away. Riane believes Dona Astyr when Dona tells her that she's innocent, but that Corydom wants to blame her because he needs someone to blame.

Riane attempts to go to bat for Dona, but on her very next mission, her timesuit malfunctions, and she minijumps here, there and everywhere before finally ending up in South Carolina in 2009, separating her from all her comrades, even her partner Frieka. There, she is attacked by Ivar, whose Xeran-supplied implants make him much stronger and faster than she is, even with the berserker speed and strength supplied by the combat drug-state called riaat. But then another man appears to rescue her.

Nick Wyatt was a suicidal Fourteen year old when he first saw Riane's face. His mother had just died, and he'd inherited the green stone that had been hers. The stone punched through his misery and self-hatred to show a young girl in trouble, and was capable of projecting Nick's spirit through time to help a younger Frieka find Riane when a Xeran kidnapped her and was going to rape and kill her. Now, sixteen years later, Nick still dreams of Riane- lustfully. So when he runs off Ivar, and Riane is safe, he takes her back to his apartment- which is small and spartan.

He's on the run, too, from aliens who always seem to track him down and try to kill him. He's very rich, but can't settle for long in any place without the aliens showing up to track him down. He's forced to live a rootless existence, only taking along what he can carry. So he has little to offer her for her comfort. But since when riaat wears off she becomes very horny, that doesn't matter so much to her. She spends the night with him, and wonders how she will get home, and for that matter, how Nick, an otherwise normal human, could fight against Ivar, someone with cybernetic implants that lend him supernormal strength, speed and endurance.

It turns out that Nick isn't exactly a normal human, but part Xeran, and the stone that helped him rescue Riane so long ago is what allowed him to fight Ivar and beat him off Riane. And the aliens who are searching for Nick are actually Xerans, though why they want him is a mystery. Riane knows that Nick isn't lying about not knowing that he's part Xeran, and he doesn't have an internal computer that could help him pretend not to be lying- that's how Ivar escaped detection for so long back on Outpost.

Riane does know something of her mother and father's history- her mother was a woman from the 90's herself, rescued from Xeran attack by Riane's father. Her roommate was actually a Xeran who'd broken with her people over the slaughter of a pacifistic psychic race called the Selans. They had given her a Selan Orb called a T'Lin, a source of unimaginable power, to protect her. This is the green stone that has helped Nick all his life, and also the reason why the Xerans are hunting him- their Leader, The Victor, believes that the Orb should be his because of its power.

Now, Riane must overcome her prejudice of Xerans if she wants Nick's help to return home without the aid of her drained suit- and that means facing off against not only Ivar Terje, but the aliens that the Xeran are using to support and attack with him, and The Victor himself, who finds the lure of the T'Lin too much to resist. But can Nick use the power of the T'Lin to overcome the Victor, the greatest and most powerful of all the Xerans?

And back at the Outpost, Frieka must find the traitor who messed with Riane's suit as the Outpost suffers more attacks against its computer- and find out if Dona Astyr was really in cahoots with Ivar in his treachery. But if she's innocent, who is the guilty one?

Wow. I liked this book a lot. It was the perfect trifecta of interesting characters, an intriguing mystery and conflict, and lots of hot, hot sex. It's Paranormal Romance with a veneer of Sci-Fi, since about one third to a half of the book takes place in the future- but it isn't the science that's so much the focus as the characters. Even if some of those characters aren't quite human.

I fairly sped through this book, because the story just sort of pulls you along. Between the mystery happening in the modern-day past, and the one happening in the future-present (present for Riane, that is), the book keeps you guessing and reading with what will happen to the characters, and how all of them will get out of their predicament, find the culprit(s), fight off the Xerans, and bring Ivar to justice. And you'll definitely be rewarded with the outcome of all the story threads, while the makings of a sequel are dangled before readers like a tasty apple just out of reach- for now.

I've loved every book in this series so far, and this one is no exception. Once you've read Angela Knight, it's hard to stop- from her Mageverse series to this one, the Time Hunters series. I've learned one thing- that if it has Angela Knight's name on it, it will be stunningly good and incredibly hot. The men are smoking, the sex is incandescent and the story keeps you coming back for more. Angela Knight is definitely an author to watch- and read. Highly recommended.