Once, we Drus were as the Dryads: eternally in our roots, one forever with the forest. But we not content. We longed for form, to set us apart from the trees. So the Dryads gave us the bodies of men, and trapped our spirits in mortal flesh... Holly Hillwalker has never dealt well with the curse of the Drus. He hates his humanity, and never more than now, when the magic of the forest is failing and it's up to him to save his people. Tristan Grueder, part-owner of the local sawmill is coming back to town, and a cloud of blood and death follows in his wake. Holly will do everything he can to stop him. Tristan has no idea of the hatred the forest holds for him and his family. They're just trees. And his sister's business is in trouble. He's going to help her get their company on solid financial ground again and then he's leaving. Tennga, Georgia has never felt like home to him, and there's nothing that could ever convince him to put down roots there. Until he meets Holly Hillwalker. It's a bad time for a lonely man to find his soulmate. It's a terrible time for a would-be King of Trees to fall for a human. And if there's one thing the enchanted forest won't tolerate, it's a human and Drus in love. The forest issues an ultimatum. He who is to be king must bring the man here to the sacred spring to die...