Alana Albertson is a multi-award winning author, current President of Romance Writers of America's Contemporary Romance Chapter and the former President of both Romance Writers of America’s Young Adult and Chick Lit chapters. Alana Albertson holds a Masters of Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University. A recovering professional ballroom dancer, Alana currently writes contemporary romance, new adult and young adult fiction. She lives in San Diego, California, with her husband, two young sons, and four dogs. When she’s not spending her time playing with her sons, dancing, or saving dogs from high kill shelters through Pugs N Roses, the rescue she founded, she can be found watching episodes Homeland, Devious Maids, or Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team.
I’ll be honest with you—I’m no princess. Sure, the media has branded me America’s Sweetheart after surviving unimaginable horror. Not to mention movie agents are hounding Pat and me to sell our story. United States Navy SEAL rescues sex-trafficked American girl, they fall madly in love, get married, and live happily ever after. It’s like American Sniper meets Taken. Uh, not so much.
My fairy tale is supposed to be like a real life romance novel. But being married to a Navy SEAL is not a fantasy—it’s a nightmare. My husband is never home, I go months without seeing him, our children don’t know their father, the man asleep next to me is a stranger. Sometimes I think it was easier for Pat when I was his mission, now I’m just his wife.
I’m not a quitter. I won’t abandon him, no matter how far gone his mind is, no matter how hard he tries to push me away, no matter how deeply he dances with his demons. He may have rescued me once, but now it’s my turn to save him.