Allisande of Lockwraithe paid the price for her father's treachery when the Viking invaders destroyed her home and abducted her for ransom.The Viking leader, Joran Ivarsson, swore to make her suffer as his slave. One look into his fiery slave's eyes and he was the one enslaved.Allisande expected to suffer at her captors hands, not feel the first stirrings of desire for her barbaric new master.Forced into slavery in a harsh, unyielding land, she comes to understand the man who owns her. Sworn to hate him forever for the death of her father, Allisande learns the insidious truths that make her question all she has ever known.Joran the Stonehearted, he is nicknamed, for his lack of softness for women and mercy in battle. Allisande undermines his best intentions to remain aloof to her, cracking the granite layers of his heart, making him question his using her as an instrument of revenge.Slave soon conquers master as the fires of passion bring them closer. A force of wills clash and a tragic circumstance drives them apart.Allisande and Joran become embroiled in a bitter web of deceit when Joran's father seeks his ultimate revenge against his enemies. Joran must choose between the woman who owns his heart and the father he has sworn loyalty to.