Valarius Lemusson’s pride leaders send him to a shifter gathering in Stone Ridge where various paranormal representatives are discussing the revelation that the government knows about their kind. While there, he enjoys a night at a club and discovers his mate, Brice Gaithers, being attacked in the restroom. He rescues the human and, after filing a police report, takes him back to his room for a night of tender aftercare and sweet seduction.

A surprise meeting with a wolf’s mate reveals that Brice already knows about shifters, giving Valarius hope, until he also learns that Brice wants nothing to do with them. He’s prepared to give his mate time to accept him, but enemies from his past come stalking, forcing his hand. Can Valarius figure out how to convince Brice—someone already intimate with the aggressiveness of shifters—that he can give him the love and stability Brice desperately craves?

Warning: attempted rape scene.