In what was once Texas, those who own the water own the people.

As punishment for her unauthorized pregnancy, the owner of Balder's Ranch casts a teenage maid, Claire, out into the scorched wastelands beyond the protection of his ranch. Before she goes, Balder interrogates her during a general assembly meant to cow his remaining workers. Even when he splits her lip, she refuses to reveal the father. But when Balder brandishes his cane at her,  sixteen-year-old ranch-hand Aldin makes a split second choice. Rather than stand with the rest and bear witness to Balder’s brutality, Aldin steps forward, and blocks the blow, tacitly admitting fatherhood. 

Claire is forced to marry Aldin before their banishment. Four months later, the two shelter from a deadly sandstorm  with a real-world five-hundred-foot clock housed in a silo carved out of the heart of a mountain. Aldin is Claire's sole support during her labor in this forgotten monument to generational responsibility. When the frail newborn wraps his tiny hand around Aldin's finger, Aldin vows to find a safe haven for his fledgling family.

But this savage land has broken men more equipped than Aldin. To keep his word–and win over his reluctant wife–he'll have to do battle with baby-stealing coy-wolves, wife-stealing polygamists, and the omnipresent predator that prowls this arid land—thirst.

Content Warning: This new adult dark-dystopian features teen pregnancy, graphic childbirth, repeated on-page domestic violence, forced-marriage, human trafficking, birth control, and explicit sex.