The orcs of the Monktona Wood were promised long ago they would be gifted with fated mates or miresas as the orcs have called them. Their patience has run short as they scour the lands of Bergarian many giving up, including their leader.Thorn has long lost hope of finding his miresa. He now concentrates on his clan, tribe, and the protection of the elders as they grow weak since their own miresas have long passed. Once he sends out most of his tribe for another hunt of their fated miresas, he returns to his home to hear the faint cries of a female for help.When he reaches her, she's dead asleep by the dart implanted in her neck to capture the ogres that threaten the territory. He's stunned when he holds her in her arms and feels the fire dance across his skin. Emotion he has never felt threatens to choke him alive and an unbearable need to protect this female consumes him.He lets out a deafening roar, one of both triumph and worry. Now he has a sick female to care for, but now he also has his miresa. The first orc to claim a female--and a human at that. How would he claim a female that was so small compared to him he wasn't sure, but he did know one thing.Thorn would never let her go.