It's a volatile world: waves of magic and technology fight and feed off each other, monsters prowl the streets, werebears, cats, hyenas stalk their prey, and Masters of the Dead 'pilot' blood-starved vampires with their minds. In Atlanta lives Kate Daniels, former mercenary, Knight of the Order of Merciful Protection, world class swordswoman and smart-mouth, and—recently—mate to Curran, the Beast Lord of Atlanta's Pack. His problems are now hers, and this one is particularly heartrending—many of the Pack's shapeshifting children can't control their beast nature and are doomed to perish. A medicine can help—but it's controlled by the European shapeshifters, who've proposed a devil's bargain to Kate and Curran: In return for the medicine, they must arbitrate a thorny dispute...which promises to send them straight into a deadly trap...