I liked this book as a start to a new series. While the werewolf Maverick and his human mate, Cecil, are clearly the focus characters, a lot of the others in their "gay pack" are also introduced, and we get some background about the world these particular werewolves live in.

Maverick is, in many ways, a typical Alpha. Domineering, insisting that his rules be obeyed, and feeling responsible for the men in his care. He is also vulnerable when it comes to his mate, but is not willing to compromise. What did make his overly macho attitude somewhat more bearable is his clear love for Cecil and his need to spoil him.

Cecil has not had an easy life and doesn't seem to be able to get away from it, or his abusive "boyfriend". He does manage to escape the physical limitations of this life (eventually), but his mental state remains much the same. His inner strength and will to survive are the only things that save him.

Many aspects of this story are not new, and the overall "feel" is not different from many other werewolf stories I have read. The characters are pretty black & white (all macho or all weakness), but the interplay between them was mostly interesting and fun and made this an enjoyable read for me. If you like shifter-human interaction, with a strong partner swooping in to save the weaker one, you will probably enjoy reading this book.
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3.5 Stars ( )

I decided to start this series from the first book even if the author has already published more than 10 books in the same series. And I’m glad I did that since I was able to understand the settings Lynn Hagen has outlined, more or less a pack of shapeshifter timber wolf made of 1 Alpha, 1 Beta, 1 Commander and 12 warriors, 15 men in total, and I think the author is heading out to write a story for each of them.

The first book is pretty classic, big Alpha man who is waiting for his mate and once he finds him, he doesn’t let it pass one minute to claim him. True, I was a little bit taken aback from the fact that Maverick claims Cecil while the other man is sleeping, hypnotizing him and basically, according to me, not giving him much choice. Again, true to the author, Maverick said it’s only sex, the true mating will happen later, and if Cecil doesn’t agree, nothing is definitive, but still, while the other man is sleeping?

In the end Cecil will come out like a funny and overactive young man (20 years old) and so maybe Maverick “wall” attitude (nothing seems to move him) will be a good balance to the other man; of course, like the more classic Alpha/omega relationship, nothing can touch Maverick if not his little mate, and he will do everything, even killing if necessary, to protect the other man. This is another point that probably is worthy highlighting: there is violence in this novel, but it’s in the background. Maverick and his men have to do bad things, but that doesn’t touch their little men (we will find later in the series that the timber wolf, big wolf in animal form, big man in human form, tend to mate with diminutive human male).

The sex tends to be light more than erotic, the author doesn’t put weight in any of the “differences” between Maverick and Cecil (Maverick is a shapeshifter timber wolf, he is way stronger and bigger than Cecil, and so on) and prefers to have good, but quite ordinary sex scenes between them. Probably the main point of them is for Cecil to be a little (only a little) “easy”, sex for him is like yet another game, something he likes much doing. Again, after the first sex scene, with Cecil sleeping, he becomes the one in “control”: he is the initiator, the one who wraps his big man around his little finger.

All in all, this first story was good, some really minor editing issues (like when Maverick is complaining he doesn’t know his mate name, and then suddenly he comes out with a thought “He would send him to befriend his mate and have the two become friends. Next, the Sentry will invite Cecil over”, and “my” thought was, well, they have just had sex in Cecil’s home, maybe he read the name on the postbox… but right on the next page, Maverick thinks “What was his mate’s name? Maverick was dying to find out.”) that sincerely I wouldn’t have noticed if the author didn’t use that as an element of the story (Cecil’s name).

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004UBHYG8/?tag=elimyrevandra-20