At their mate-selection ceremony, Grant rejects Mara in front of both tribes and gives her place to her crying younger sister. He swears it is only temporary. He has forgotten one thing: Mara turns twenty-two in three days. Under tribal law, an unmated woman loses her right to choose, and Mara has already been assigned to the dying Dragon King. Grant expects her father to stop it. Mara accepts the decree. Three days later, as Grant comes to bond with Brenna, one hundred dragon guards arrive at the Hale gates to escort Mara away as their future queen.