I read a lot of books, sometimes upwards of 10-12 per week so there are many authors that I love but only very few that I go absolutely fan-girl crazy over when a new release is out.. Christine Warren happens to be one of those "special few" and with the release of Hungry Like A Wolf, I have officially released a mega fan-girl "Squueeeeeee"!!!!
This is the latest book in "The Others" series by the amazing Ms. Warren & like the rest of her novels, I could not put it down until I was finished! There is that unique quality which Christine shares with so few other authors that makes a reader want to immerse themselves in the book & never come up for air!
The uber-hot werewolf shifter Logan Hunter has been the beta to the Silverback Clan of Manhattan for a long time and he's been anxious, cocky & restless since his alpha has taken a mate... Logan knows the ins & outs of working with his boss, the sexy alpha Graham Winters.. 'Get your work done & move on'.. So it's not unusual that Logan thinks Graham is just sending him on a mission to check out the new female alpha for the White Paw Clan... However, Graham has noticed Logan's inattention & restlessness and thinks that this might be the perfect job to get Logan to loosen up & get away from city life & the stress that come with being the beta, at least as a temporary vacation...
Logan heads out to visit the White Paw Clan in Connecticut with nothing on his mind but to judge & verify that a rare female will be able to hold the alpha position in the pack without getting herself killed..
The sexy & stunning Honor Tate is a very reluctant alpha. She was beta for her father for years until cancer stole him away and thrust her in a role that she doesn't truly want but has no choice to defend.. After all, Honor is her name & her stubborn self won't allow for anything else to happen. Within the first week of being alpha, she's had to deal with several alpha-challenges, including removing her supposed best friends hand...with her teeth... And there are more challenges popping up daily because all that testosterone in the male wolves of the pack does not seem to want to willingly accept a female as their alpha..
Logan is dropped dead center in the middle of the chaos of the elder Tate's death & the takeover of Ethan Tate's daughter Honor as the new alpha.. And it's not a place no one wants to be... Especially considering that Logan's inner wolf has finally scented his mate.. Who also happens to be the aforementioned alpha who is in danger of death, every moment that she is unprotected..
But Honor isn't going to just roll over & show her neck to this arrogant but drop-dead sexy Silverback beta.. Ohhhno.. She is going to fight every step of the way, both with verbal battles & the sexual kind... Because of course, her inner wolf is also crying out to Logan as her mate... And Honor isn't too happy about another complication like that.. Can Logan and Honor fall in love and somehow come up with a way for the White Paw Clan to gain stability in the often violent werewolf world? Or does Honor have too many hidden enemies that aren't willing to compromise for anyone's sake.. And if that means not only killing Honor, but also the nosy Silverback beta, Logan, then that's what very well may happen..
Ms. Warren writes another intriguing, captivating addition to "The Others" series and you will not want to miss this book.. It's firmly in place on my bookshelf next to the rest of her series & it won't be leaving it's spot anytime soon.. If you are looking for a sexy, stunning, danger-filled paranormal romance, then Christine Warren is the author you need to see!
~ Vicki Rose
Platinum Gives Christine & "Hungry Like A Wolf":
5 Platinum Rings!!
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Blurb:
Logan Hunter has finally found a woman he wants for his mate. The problem is, she's already married to his best friend, Graham Winters, who also happens to be his boss—Alpha of the Silverback Clan.
Honor Tate found herself moving up through the ranks of the White Paw Clan, attaining the position of beta when she was only fifteen. Nine years later the Alpha of the White Paw Clan is gone, leaving her to serve as alpha in his stead. Unexpectedly facing challenges from several males in her pack, she asks Graham Winters to acknowledge her right as the new Alpha. It's either that, or fight every would-be challenger, quite possibly to the death—theirs or hers.
Instead, Graham sends Logan to determine Honor's fitness as the new Alpha of her pack. Logan's grateful for the chance to get the hell out of town and get his raging hormones under control. Too bad for him that those hormones are going to rage even harder when he meets Honor face to face and realizes that sometimes fate is smarter than your average were.
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Excerpt:
Logan watched the slim, young brunette emerge from the bathroom in a cloud of steam, and placed an immediate stranglehold on his need to pounce. And sniff. And lick. And maybe taste. Even through the perfume-y fragrance cloaking her natural scent—bath salts?—she smelled nearly good enough to eat. He inhaled deeply and considered whether or not to try a nibble. Suddenly she turned and noticed him standing in the door, and he revised his plans.
Definitely nibble.
“How did you get in here?”
Logan tore his eyes from the plane of creamy, pale skin rising from the top of the woman’s towel and saw the weary suspicion in her gaze. He also made note of the long, fresh scratch across her forehead and the bite mark on her right shoulder. It looked as new as the scratch. Seeing the obvious wounds, he made a surreptitious inspection of the rest of the skin he could see—which was quite a lot, praise be—and noticed a good dozen bruises. Some looked a few days old, others just pale shadows, not yet fully formed. She also had one skinned knee and a slowly bleeding cut on her left shin. This would-be alpha had gone through an interesting couple of days.
“Your housekeeper let me in.” He looked her in the eye as he answered her question, curious to see how she would react to the aggressive expression. It also helped him ignore the stirring of involuntary interest he had immediately felt in her. She met and held his gaze, her brown eyes steady and serious, but made no other show of force. Maybe alpha, but not stupid with it. “She also offered me dinner but I stopped in town and ate while I got directions up here. You aren’t exactly easy to find.”
“She’s my cousin, not my servant. Now, who the hell are you?”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “Some say they’re all servants to the alpha.”
She didn’t answer.
“My name is Logan Hunter.” He watched her face for a reaction. “I’m beta of the Silverback Clan. My alpha has requested that I offer you his condolences on the recent death of your father.”
“Beta. Sent to offer his condolences.” She blinked; wide, chocolaty eyes seeming slow to focus, but her expression didn’t shift. “Right. Tell your alpha to shove them.”
Then she turned her back on him and walked to a closet.
Logan tore his eyes from the point where her towel dipped down far enough to threaten to reveal what looked like a truly luscious bottom. Before Missy, he’d never really been an ass man, but as Graham could tell you, that little human had an ass that could inspire men to poetry. It had inspired Logan to a thing or two over the last few months, but now the image of this stranger’s derrière had all but supplanted Missy’s from his mind.
The thought caught him by the scruff. Lately, part of Logan’s subconscious had compared any female he encountered with the Luna, because he couldn’t get the woman out of his head. Just because he knew he couldn’t have her didn’t stop his wolf from insisting that no other female was worth his trouble. Until now. When he looked at Honor Tate, his finicky beast made not a peep of protest.
Huh.
With all that going on in his head, it took Logan a few extra seconds to register what she had said.
Shove them?
“Excuse me?” he ventured.
“You heard me. Tell him he can shove his condolences up his ass with a pogo stick. I don’t want them, and I didn’t ask for them.”
Logan watched as she pulled some things from a drawer inside the closet and tried to keep his mind off the possibility of that towel coming loose and landing on the floor. And of him coming loose and landing on top of her.
“He knows that. He doesn’t offer you sympathy because you asked for it. It’s just the right thing to do.”
“No, the right thing to do would have been to come here himself instead of sending his lackey. And to have agreed to my very sensible request for a formal recognition of my new position as alpha of this pack. Since he has done neither, he can go take his pogo stick and have a little moment of privacy with his thoughts.”
She began pulling on clothes with that peculiar talent women have for dressing without undressing first. She pulled a pair of loose cotton pants on under the towel and topped them with a tank top that she managed to don without displaying one additional millimeter of skin.
Logan bit back the wave of disappointment and shoved his hands into his pockets while he attempted to wrestle his attention back to the question at hand. “The Silverback alpha hasn’t made up his mind about whether he’s going to agree to that request or not. That’s why I’m here. Before he makes a decision, he wants to hear an outside opinion of the workings of the White Paw Clan.”
“The White Paw Clan works just fine,” she growled, turning to face him and tossing aside the towel. “You can tell Graham Winters I said that. And you can tell him that if he will not honor the request of his fellow alpha, then he and his pack members are not welcome in our territory.”
Logan heard the fierceness in her tone and scowled. “That sounds like a hasty decision. Breaking ties between the clans won’t benefit either one of them. And in your current situation, frankly, it can only make your position in the pack even more precarious. Your people are not going to like hearing you bu-fued three hundred years of cooperation between our clans because of a fit of pique.”
He hadn’t expected her to move so quickly, and only instinct kept him from jerking backward when he blinked and found her about three inches from the end of his nose, snarling up at him with a fierceness that surprised him.
And aroused him.
“This. Is. Not. Pique.” The low rumble in her chest told him she meant every word she spoke. “And I am not the one who ‘bu-fued’ anything between our clans. That would be your alpha, the one who has denied our request in our time of need.”
Logan did not back down; it wasn’t in his nature—the only creature on earth he backed down from was Graham, and even that was a struggle these days—but he willed his hackles not to rise to the bait she presented. He could make her regret taking this attitude with him, but he was here on a diplomatic mission and pinning and mating the alpha of another pack with no warning, no invitation, and no permission stretched the bounds of allowable behavior. Actually, it was out of bounds. But if would have been satisfying.
“If you would listen more carefully to my words, you wouldn’t need to make an ass of yourself by making groundless accusations and hurling unnecessary insults.” He spoke through clenched teeth until he managed to force his jaw to relax enough for normal speech. “Graham Winters has denied you nothing. What he has done is to send me to observe the situation in your pack and conclude exactly what decision he can make that will result in a positive long-term outcome for both our packs. Graham has no horse in this race; he doesn’t personally give a shit who leads this pack, but as the alpha of this region, he most definitely does give a shit that whoever leads is qualified to do it. The most important thing to him at the moment is preserving the peace we currently enjoy in this part of the country, and he’s not going to let anyone jeopardize it.”
She sneered at him, her tempting pink lip curling up to expose her white canines. “Right. And what exactly do you pan to conclude then, Mr. Hunter? How long will you hang around here pretending to mull things over before you run back to Papa Wolf and tell him no female could ever be qualified to lead a pack as well as a male?”
“I won’t be pretending anything, Ms. Tate.” He tried not to make it a growl, but a man could only do so much. “I’m here to do a job, and I intend to do it, not just go through the motions or phone it in. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got better things to do with my time than play games like that. I was sent here to check out the situation, so that’s what I’ll be doing, and if that takes me a day or a week or a fucking year-and-a-half, then that’s how long it takes. This isn’t something I can rush, Ms. Tate, and neither can you. When we last spoke, the alpha and I figured it would take at least a week or more before any conclusions could be drawn.”
She laughed then, though the sound had not a trace of humor that Logan could detect. “Right. In a week or more, I won’t need your alpha’s endorsement, Mr. Hunter. Because I will already have been forced to cripple every adult male in my pack. So don’t you tell me about waiting for a royal blessing from his majesty, the King of Indecision.”
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