Engineering Fate by Alexis B. Osborne

She’s been captured, stuck in a poacher’s cage, and slated for sale, but these aliens don’t know who they’re messing with.

Sasha Robinson is a low-level engineer in Earth’s Starfleet, sent to repair satellites alone in deep space. When her little ship is sucked into a wormhole, on the other side is a new and unfamiliar galaxy—and a smuggling operation that salvages her ship and tosses her into a cage. Captured by alien bird men, cat men, and lizard men who can’t understand her, Sasha’s only hope is escape. And when a cat man approaches her cage door…

Ardalon Bavara is a Kursh Peacekeeper, working undercover in an illegal animal trafficking operation. When the crew he’s infiltrated pick up a strange new sentient lifeform—one that seems to be trying to communicate with him—his plans are instantly turned upside-down. He’s determined to help the hairless creature and still bring down the smugglers in the process. But can he do it and still protect the alluring new captive?

Chaos erupts as Sasha makes a break for it, and she and Ardalon must work together to survive and complete his mission. Navigating the perils of new planets, Sasha soon discovers that the smugglers may have been the least of her worries…

Can a low-level engineer swept away into a completely new galaxy navigate the political intrigue surrounding three alien species on the brink of war?