Colin McCullough gets the phone call that all military families dread his brother Hawkins has been shot. Colin only wants to thank Hawkins's commanding officer for saving his brother's life, but he can never seem to get past the guards in the hospital's hallway to personally thank the man. Major Lauren Burcher is all Army and head of a special task team usually sent in to clean things up. This time, her team is ambushed by friendlies, and Lauren and her best man Hawkins McCullough barely make it out alive they were set up. Someone wants them both dead. Another attempt on Lauren's life in the hospital fails miserably, and when Colin scoops her up in his arms to place her back in the hospital bed, he finds a gun pointed at his forehead at point blank range. In that moment he realizes this bad-assed scary woman is his mate. Lauren wants no part of this mate business. Relationships get messy and this jerk is bossy as hell. And Lauren doesn't take orders...she gives them. But it will take all of them, his family and hers, to keep her and Hawkins alive...."