While embarking on
separate quests in pursuit of duty, an honorable Warrior and
a courageous Healer plunge together into danger and
adventure to find redemption, and a love neither expected.
Ronan Macaulester is a tough warrior from the planet Maxxon,
known for its overabundance of men, its fierce warrior
culture, and its vast riches. He has traveled to the
backwater planet Ares seeking his brother. When he finds his
brother murdered, he flees to the coast, hoping to catch the
inter-galactic shuttle, his only means of escape from a
planet where outsiders are not welcome.
He stumbles upon Galatea (Lata) Riesling, whose virginity is
being auctioned in a religious rite. Ronan cannot leave her
to this degradation. Raised on a planet with too few women,
he’s been trained first and foremost to protect women.
Galatea is a courageous and intelligent woman who wants to
find a way to pull her planet out of poverty and ignorance.
She will undergo the humiliation of the auction because she
believes she can only help her countrywomen by working
within the constraints of her society’s strict religious
customs.
Ronan delays his escape, winning Galatea at the auction, but
awakening the ire of her countrymen. While fleeing the
Temple after the auction, Ronan is seriously wounded.
Galatea, a renowned Healer, insists on traveling with him to
tend his injury.
They share a kiss while waiting to pay the auction ransom
and Galatea finds herself becoming fascinated with this man
who is unlike any other she’s ever known. But her lifelong
goal of improving the lives of her fellow Areans precludes
any thought of her leaving the planet, and she knows Ronan’s
life is forfeit if he stays.
Ronan enjoys their shared kiss, but it convinces him that
the sooner he leaves her, the better. Though he enjoys
women, he never becomes emotionally involved. He’s never
resolved the guilt he feels over the death of his first love.
On the hurried and dangerous journey, sexual tension simmers
between them. Galatea knows well enough how to entice Ronan.
He, meanwhile, suffers under the torment of knowing it is
his right under their customs to take her at any time. Only
his own honor stops him, as he knows they cannot be mated
for life as his customs require.
When they stop for a night, Galatea tries to convince him to
perform the Initiation rite. Ronan fights the temptation. In
his culture, a man takes a virgin only when he intends to
mate for life. Despite his intentions, Ronan succumbs to her.
After they make love, Galatea realizes that, in giving her
body, she has risked her heart - a heart she cannot give
away if she is to fulfill her goals on her home planet.
Ronan realizes that Galatea has awakened emotions he’d
thought had died with his first love.
They arrive at the coast to discover the shuttle has been
driven off by the Temple guard. They find a scientist who
has developed a risky, untried transport which may allow
them to catch up with the shuttle. But Ronan’s protective
side emerges, and he refuses to allow Galatea to go with him
on the experimental transport.
Galatea fumes at his decision, but accepts it because her
goals require her presence on Ares. Then she discovers she
could help her people more by leaving the planet to
establish economic links and trade elsewhere than by staying
behind.
She convinces Ronan to modify his protective instincts and,
together, they take the dangerous journey to rendezvous with
the shuttle.
In choosing to embark on this adventure, Galatea learns she
has the courage and the ability to save not only her
countrywomen, but also the man whose heart she has claimed.
Ronan learns that he can only truly love someone who matches
his strength with her own.
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