Being accepted for the Amelioration Expedition was the easy part. It only took twenty years of education and knowing the right people. Marlin Delaney had wanted to be part of colonizing another planet since she was a little girl. Everything was going according to plan...until she was raped. Then it seemed that everything that could go wrong did. Before she could get off the planet of Oriel, she discovered she was pregnant. It was a fact she hid until the spaceship was far enough from Oriel that she was sure they wouldn't turn around and take her home. Even that didn't work out because by the time they picked up the doctor, Marlin was too far along to terminate the pregnancy. Thins could get worse - and so they did. The killer of her grandfather and the cause of her parents' separation joined the mission when they reached the planet Purlieu. Things kept getting worse, but she refused to let it destroy the mission for her. Donte was a mascot - a human genetically altered with animal genes. His mate had left him and he was no longer the Ruler of Bergen, but Dr. Oriana was convinced the expedition would be safer with his presence. Marlin didn't have to like him. She didn't even have to get along with him, so she didn't try. By the time they reached their destination on planet Opus, everyone but Marlin was in awe of Donte. Dr. Oriana was the expedition leader, but even she allowed Donte to take over projects. Someone had to do something before the colonization of Opus became his project.When Donte and Marlin fell into a cavern and the expedition thought they drowned, the only way they could survive was to work together. Marlin not only learned a lot about Donte, but herself as well. When they were befriended by a life form on Opus, they had to redefine simple words like people and humanity. Starving and losing hope of rescue, neither would find comfort until they learned to forgive each other and themselves.