One look and shape-shifter Lucaine Herrick knew. Mate. The urge to claim the woman for himself was instant. Yet he could not. He'd come to a tiny Texas town in search of a myth-a Halfling healer who had no idea that Pack blood ran in her veins, or that she was the only being in generations with the power to heal shape-shifters with her touch. And if what he suspected about Samantha Warren was true, his people needed her too much for Luc to claim her as his own. But someone else watched Samantha from the shadows. And soon, claiming Samantha might not be Luc's forbidden desire, but his only choice for protecting her life.