Alana expected salvation to come at a steep price, she just didn't think it would involve a collar. A single woman at the end of the world can be no stranger to rough times, but the odd brush with the law is preferable to taking on mutant beasts and walking corpses in the badlands. Such is Alana Burke's deep-seated conviction, until a town council decision orders her into wedlock to a man she does not love. Her only choice is compliance-at least until a mysterious traveller sets fire to the town, forcing Alana to make an even tougher call-stay and be married to a man she does not love or flee with the one responsible for the destruction that has consumed her world? Jackson Idaho is a drifter, a man whose people are notorious for pillaging and raping all across the western seaboard. His way of life runs counter to everything Alana holds dear, but he can save her. If she consents to becoming his thrall. Free of her oppressors but delivered to the underground fief of Jackson's fellow drifters, Alana wrestles with her new situation and the gnawing suspicion that there may be more to her protector than meets the eye.