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....