For centuries, Lucian Daratrazanoff has been the dark guardian of his people, living a bleak existence of violence and horror. But now his kind, the Carpathians, are dying out or falling prey to the soulless life of vampires. Only by finding and claiming his destined life mate can Lucien stave off the ever present lure of the soulless evil. Part man, part predator, Lucian will stop at nothing in order to find his mate. Jaxon Montgomery is anything but ordinary. She is stubborn, independent, but a damn good cop with an unerring sense of impending danger. Honed by a traumatic childhood and years of training in Special Forces, she is determined to sacrifice everything to protect others. But now the monster from her childhood has returned, and anyone who befriends her is in mortal danger. The last thing she needs is to become involved with a man, even one as mesmerizing and bewitching as Lucian Daratrazanoff. But Lucian will not be rebuffed, and is determined to possess her, to guard her for all time, to make her his life mate...and save his soul.