He's a fighter pilot fighting the good fight in the Great Galaxy War, but when his spacecraft's navigation is sabotaged and he's stuck on an inhospitable desert planet awaiting repairs to his ship, he believes one woman might make his stay on the planet more than...hospitable. But the woman isn't like any that Quaid Lassiter has ever met. She has secrets that can get him killed. Zaira Cole is a shapeshifter, a pacifist, and is helping her scientist brother to turn the desert planet green. Her people must find the scrolls to give the High Council legitimacy and solicit help from Quaid Lassiter to train their pilots to fight in the war headed their way when they've always been a neutral planet. But she wants him for more than that. It's mating season, she's just turned of age, and she's selected him for her mate. Now all she has to do is convince the Prince of Orion, he wants the same. And so the battle begins.