Of all the species in the Real World, elves and faeras are the least compatible. Their cultures have nothing in common; only a mutual hatred binds them. Fiercely protective of his family, Brock Fortescue imposes exile from all his own kind as a punishment for a murder no one knows he committed. Stuck in Dorset, he feels completely isolated. Then a young woman comes into his life and shakes it to its foundations. Vanessa Elwood, half-elf and innocent, finds herself unable to forget Brock, despite her mother's attempts to separate them. But Vanessa doesn't know how much she needs the faera male. Her entire existence has been planned from the moment she was conceived, and the happy future she sees for herself is suddenly snatched away. Only a born warrior can save her.