WILD WOLF – Jennifer Ashley
Shifters Unbound , Book 6
Berkley Sensation
ISBN-13:  978-0-425-26604-5
April 2004
Paranormal Romance - Shape Shifter

Las Vegas Shifter town - Present Day

Graham McNeil is a wolf shifter who is fighting some wild wolf who entered his house; when in the middle of teaching it manners, he gets a phone call from his human girlfriend Misty.  Suddenly someone takes the phone away from her, and he can tell something is wrong.  When he doesn't find Misty at home, he goes to her flower shop to find it completely trashed, and the police trying to find out what happened.  Since humans are suspicious of shifters, Graham goes in the alley and uses his senses to see who took Misty. When he finds her in the desert, Misty meets a strange man who gives them the finest water in the world and puts a fae spell on them both.

Misty met Graham a year ago in a shifter bar, and despite dating him for over a year he hasn't attempted to have sex with her, and she can tell a relationship between a human and a shifter, especially an Alpha, isn't approved of by his clan.  Then Misty is kidnapped by men looking for her brother Paul, and she ends up in a shack in the middle of the desert.  When Graham finds her but gets injured fighting her kidnappers, Misty discovers a cave with sparkling water that is to be their downfall.  The clear, delicious water casts a fae or faerie spell on them, and eventually they must fight for each other.  In fact, it is Misty, the mysterious Ben, and the book of flowers she found that save their lives.  The more Misty and Graham fight the fae, the closer they become, and soon the mating heat is something they must either accept, or reject and completely end their relationship.

We met Graham McNeil in previous Shifters Unbound books, and he was always the loud-mouthed, bossy, bullying man, still half wild from living closer to the feral side in Elko, Nevada, where his clan came from.  The humans moved them into the Las Vegas area, and despite there already being Shape shifters with an Alpha, they were told to just settle it between themselves.  Alphas don't settle things; one of them gets killed.  But Graham has tried his best to live with the other Alpha, Eric Warden, and has even learned from him about negotiating and not ripping people's throats out.  But his human girlfriend Misty just proves that you can't tell human women anything and make them listen.  Graham has been with Misty for a year, but has never had sex with her. Who knows what a strong Alpha such as himself could do to this sweet woman with her soothing ways; he is so not good for her.

Jennifer Ashley has finally introduced us to Graham, the other Alpha living in the Las Vegas Shifter Town, the other Alpha being a feline!  Graham lives closer to his feral side than most shifters, and Misty is the human that over the past year has grown closer to him and is slowly learning what his bossy ways mean.  Told from their points of view, Graham is only trying to protect Misty, and yet get her away from him before he mate claims her.  Misty is facing disaster to her flower shop and her brother, but tries to learn the Shape shifter ways and face up to the fae that could be taking over the Shape shifters all over the country.

Secondary characters are a lot of the Shape shifters you have met from earlier books, the twins Matt and Kyle, and Dougal, Graham's nephew he has raised, who, while an adult, still hasn't come into himself as a strong wolf.  There is the mysterious Ben who appears and disappears at convenient times; who could he be? And Oison, a fae who puts a spell on Graham and Misty, and is out to place all Shape shifters under fae control.

WILD WOLF continues the fascinating Shifters Unbound series about Shape shifters facing discrimination from the human population, and now the faes, who have enslaved the Shape shifters through their collars, and their connections to the fae swords.  Will the fae be the downfall of the Shape shifters?  Read and find out if the sweet Misty can tame her own wild wolf and find true happiness.

Carolyn Crisher