After a century of exile, the demon Michael Gilbert had developed a fondness for his adopted home in the Human Realm, and established a delicate peace with the local Temple whose primary duty it is to protect the Human Realm from demons of any sort. He respected them and their duties, and they in turn grudgingly trusted him not to become a threat. So when he turns a corner and steps into the end of a brutal battle fought by the local Priestess and her Guardians against some grossly oversized demon-hounds, he impulsively defends the humans, then reluctantly agrees to a dying Guardian’s last wish: that Michael himself take on a Guardian’s duty. The breeder of the hounds, however has another pack, and a grand scheme that involves Michael himself as a linchpin. She wishes to seduce him into joining her and offers him an opportunity to return to his clan and his homeland, not just to stay, but possibly to rule with her at his side. Now, branded by a Guardian’s Mark, sworn to protect a human Priestess, and subjected to intense scrutiny from the Temple Elders, he is offered a chance to resume the life he had been forced to flee a century ago. Now Michael and everyone around him are forced to ask: what exactly is it that he wants?