The answer to her people’s release from exile, a young maiden struggles to make sense of her feelings for the man she is forced to marry. She’s belonged to him since she was three, marked with his blood flowing through her veins. Yet they’d never met until the King’s warriors were released into the midst of the maidens at the yearly gathering. Each warrior was forced to find his chosen mate by her scent, resulting in a half-mad frenzy that heightened already aroused animalistic needs. The whole ordeal was terrifying, especially when the maiden realized she’d been marked with the blood of the very people who sent her family into exile—a warrior from the King’s own bloodline.

There was no denying the desire created by the marking, but it was Elenya’s heart that was in jeopardy. Fate was an evil taskmaster for forcing her to dance for a lifetime in the arms of her enemy, but could she hope that her warrior's blood flowing through her veins would be enough to unite their hearts?

In a time when men fought for their king, protected him and their families with might and sword, a warrior questions his self-worth after a battle injury has taken him from service. He grows calloused, maintaining a facade of bitterness and cynicism that only begins to chip away after he meets a woman at the annual gathering of the maidens. She’s smothered by her own shadows, her innocence tarnished by the baggage of her past, and now she's been thrown into the pool of beautiful maidens, whose sole purpose is to provide pleasure to the King's warriors. The whole ordeal has begun to open a floodgate of questionable memories that she’s sure are not her own.

But there’s more to both of them. He’s fiercely loyal, bound by his own code of honor. She’s stronger than any woman he’s ever known, which comes to light when her true past is exposed. Can they help each other find their true worth and move beyond the shadows of their own lives?

What happens when your oldest brother's best friend finally notices you're not a little girl anymore? LOVE, that's what!

In a time when marriage at a young age was inevitable, the oldest daughter of a wealthy and powerful family manages to escape its grasp, her heart yearning for love, not convention. And the love she had harbored for years for a family friend was anything but conventional. She also believed it would never be returned, but that wouldn’t stop her from trying. Tonight, she would persuade him to make her his. The rest was only ceremony, professing their love before man. Makinna didn't need that. She only needed him.

If you've read either Dance with the Enemy or Beyond the Shadows, you'll know Makinna’s brothers are the infamous Tahruk and Redahn. If you have not read either book, you'll get an introduction to the Land of Riandus, where the stories take place. It's a make believe land governed by some strange rules and a yearly moon that triggers events and makes things happen. So, if you like handsome warriors, beautiful women, kings and castles, and a heartwarming, heat-provoking love story, prepare to fall in love.

When the top warrior in the king’s elite guard is sent out just two weeks before Christmas Day, it’s looking like the young couple’s second Christmas will be mired in as much turmoil and uncertainty as their first had been. Refusing that reality, the warrior challenges his young wife to believe that he’d be home before the first light of Christmas morning. She tried, but as the Christmas moon made its way across the sky, her hope began to fade. No one had heard from them since they left, and with the cold and snow, not to mention the threat from a dangerous enemy, how could he possibly make good on his word? He would return—she felt that in her spirit. She just wasn’t sure it could happen before the light of Christmas Day.