The Wish by SJ Sanders

Starlight, starbright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might. Have this wish, I wish tonight.

Ten years since the arrival of the Ragoru, a new alien species arrives. The Atlavans left behind their world of deserts and fading oases with their clans and few remaining females for a new chance at life on a new world. With their female birth-rate low, and losing over half of them to sickness on the voyage through the stars, the Atlavans are on the verge of extinction. Their only hope is to send out their unmated males into the world to seek out new nesting grounds on which to build their clan rookeries. Among them, Agrel and Gehj are committed to doing their duty, knowing that the joy of mates and family belong to other, more fortunate males, but when they encounter an abandoned village within the woods they are prepared for anything except the seductive call to mate with the female they discover there.
Nothing is as simple as it seems for this female with her daughter. A little female who made a very specific wish… for them. And just maybe they wished for them, too. But can everyone’s wishes come true?

This book is a 49k novella in the Ragoru universe (taking place coinciding with the Dawn of the Ragoru segment), and is the first of the Atlavan stories.