After seven hundred years of life， Marguerite Argeneau finally has a career. Well， the start of one， anyway. She s training to be a private investigator， and her first assignment is to find an immortal s mother. It seemed simple enough， until Marguerite wakes up one evening to find herself at the wrong end of a sword. Now she realizes she s in way over her head. Julius Notte wants to protect Marguerite， and not because someone just tried to take her head off. She doesn t know it yet， but she s his lifemate and he s determined to woo her. It s been over five hundred years since he last courted a woman， but surely the techniques haven t changed. Now if only he can keep her alive—so to speak—so they can have that happily-ever-after.