While most dryads had abandoned their woods to live amongst mortals, Dessa continued to guard her forest in Afghanistan and waited for a man to eat the fruit of her heart-tree and become her mate. But when her tree is destroyed, Dessa tries to live in the mortal world—where she is reunited with Lt. Nick Leandros, the soldier who once ate the nuts from her tree and now struggles with the trauma that turned him into a Chimera with the ability to split into three different bodies. Dessa longs to help Nick and save her lands—but to do so, she will need Nick to giver her a dryad child....