Seventy-seven Dakokatan Outposters are stranded on a hostile planet, and Warlord Judan Ringa is desperate to reach them before more die. He appeals to Technikon Laboratories Consortium for aid, seeking the one scientist who can save his people. But his first meeting with Dr. Myrina deCarte stuns him. She's human. Yet she's his genetically coded mate. Orphaned at an early age, Myrina knows nothing about her past. All she has now are her job and her friends at TLC. That is, until she meets a tall, green-skinned man who literally electrifies her from head to toe—and who insists they have a future together. After years of yearning to be wanted, she's about to discover that it isn't enough. She believes in love, a word that isn't part of the Dakokatan lexicon. Determined to overcome their cultural barriers, Judan sets out to teach Myrina the customs and rituals between Dakokatan mates, both inside the bedroom and out. And along the way, she teaches him what it means to be human.