This novella is to be found in the anthology THE MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CAT.




Back Cover Copy:
Not available

Haley McQuire is a librarian in the small town near Sanctuary, the Feline Breed compound. When she unintentionally overhears a conversation in Sanctuary’s library that is not meant for her ears, this puts her life in danger.
Noble Chavin is a Breed Enforcer who has known deep down for over a year now that Haley is his mate but he chooses not to act on it because he can't bear to take her right to free choice from her. After an attack on Haley's life things change though and he takes on the responsibility of protecting her. Secluded in Haley's mountain home they wait for an assassin who is sure to come after Haley but while waiting the Breed mating heat can't be ignored despite both their efforts to do just that.

Haley is smart, tenacious and she is not unfamiliar with the Breeds and the issues that surround them. She has a fascination for Noble that she at first doesn’t want to acknowledge as love but all her actions contradict this.
Noble to me was a different kind of Breed than I'm used to. He was less commanding and truly did honor to his name because despite his need for Haley he lets her decide whether to answer to the mating heat. Although he was less forceful that didn't mean he was less dominant or less powerful. The way he puts Haley in control by some measure was truly touching and gave this Breed novella a very different vibe compared to the other stories in the series.

For a short story there's an abundance of secondary characters making an appearance here and there. Of course Jonas and the Vanderales once more leave their calling cards but Lora Leigh also opened a can of Breed Enforcers in this novella, along with a very intriguing human law enforcer: sheriff Zane Taggart. He's a character I wouldn't mind seeing a book about in the future.

Again, as with all the novellas in this series, this story was too short for my taste but even in the little amount of pages she had available Lora Leigh provides a lot of relevant information and expands the Breed world, adding to the ongoing plotline throughout the series. She managed to surprise me with the storyline about the assassin sent after Haley. First she let my mind go in one direction, speculating like crazy but then she ties the loose ends and comes with more intriguing information, taking it into a totally different direction. I should have seen it coming but I was too busy speculating.

Though this novella was definitely of more than average quality with the continued story arc and Noble and Haley as great primary characters, it was clearly a novella meant to tie some loose ends after DAWN'S AWAKENING and MERCURY'S WAR and a preparation for the next batch of Breeds and future developments in their ongoing story arc. Nevertheless it contained all the elements I love in this series including lots of fuel for speculation and anxious anticipation for what's to come.

Quotes:
Her touch was like electric pleasure. It shimmered over his flesh, dug talons of exquisite need beneath if, and left him tight, tense, torn between stopping her and begging her for more.

Haley felt her shoulders jerk from the bed. Her eyes opened, widened, unseeing, her senses dazed as the most exquisite feelings tore through her. Sharp and vibrant, a race of liquid flames, white-hot destruction and dark, primal pleasure.

Back cover:
Nothing matches Lora Leigh's latest entry in the series about genetically altered Breeds with feline DNA--and the humans who awaken their desire...

There's trouble at Sanctuary. Someone has been slipping secure information to a pharmaceutical company. Now it's up to Ria Rodriguez to pose as a clerk and uncover the leak. And she has no idea of the danger she's about to encounter.

Years ago Mercury Warrant--who, according to his file, is one of the greatest Breeds ever created--thought he lost his mate, and he's had to live with the idea that he'll never know true bonding. Then he's tapped to protect the mysterious Ria--and finds himself falling in love.

But Ria is a woman of many secrets, and she fears being consumed by her feelings for Mercury. Little does she know that she has every right to be afraid. Because the woman believed to be Mercury's true mate is back from the grave, and she's not about to let Ria--or anyone else--get in her way...

Gloria "Ria" Rodriquez, is not who or what she seems to be. As the Vanderales' paper pusher she is sent to Sanctuary as a clerk to find out if the funding of Sanctuary should be continued. But in reality she is there to investigate the traitor who has been leaking information in order to get rich. But there's so much more to her than meets the eye. She is extremely smart, loyal and a self-sufficient loner with sharp instincts. She tries to accommodate people so they will let her do want she's hired to do, but she's also a loner. Hurt early in life she has abandonment issues and when her boundaries are crossed she can turn from complacent into a fierce opponent to reckon with.

Mercury is assigned to look out for Ria's safety and his savage, sexy and straightforward character and behavior work as a catalyst on Ria's feelings. He is blunt and a true predator in a very sexy way. He is the epitome of the animalistic Breed the Genetic Council sought to create. He is the most primal, feral Breed I've encountered in the series so far. The one who comes closest to the Feline genes he was infused with. But his primal instincts, the beast inside has been subdued after he went berserk after losing his intended mate in the Labs. Ria is the one to trigger his inner beast into revealing itself, in a way I never saw coming.

Merc's previous mating makes it hard for Ria to give into her feelings for him. Like Mercury she also has always felt like an outsider without a place to belong, without someone to turn to and lean on. They both find what they search for, the sense of belonging in each other.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing battle to protect the Breeds' freedom and their secrets a search for a traitor leaking those secrets leads to a love story that is unique in all its aspects. There are a lot of complications blocking the way. Complications Ria and Mercury have to overcome first and nothing is accomplished without sacrifices and battles.

The secondary characters are almost all familiar characters from previous books. Callan Lyons, Dane Vanderale, Jonas Wyatt and Dr. Ely Morrey play significant and crucial roles as supporting characters, both to the plot and to Ria and Mercury's romance.
A lot of interesting information on the First Leo, his family, Dane and Jonas is disclosed in this book. This information has definitely whetted my appetite for much more. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg and I can't wait to see what will come of this in the end.

Again Lora Leigh hooked me with a tempting prologue that held a promise for the rest of the book. She definitely made good on that promise.
This installment of the Breeds series proved that the mating heat is irrevocably tied to the animal inside the Breeds. Without the animal's freedom there is not mating heat. It took me a while to understand this with all the other things going on in the book, but once I did I understood Mercury and Ria's journey and why their relationship had to develop the way it did. Their passion, even without the mating heat, seemed fiercer, more intense.
Because of the interesting and surprising developments where the mating heat is concerned this book had a different vibe than the other Breed books. In those books the mating heat was the compelling force bringing the couple together. In this book emotions and feelings between Ria and Mercury started without mating heat being in the picture, making it more complicated but not less inevitable or less strong. Lora Leigh enables the reader to follow the slow awakening of Mercury's inner beast out of the confinement it was placed in a long time ago. This awakening, seen through the small but enticing bits that portray the animal's point of view, follows the progression of Mercury's feelings for Ria.

From start to finish this book had my heart pounding like a jackhammer. When it wasn't the sexual tension or the amazingly hot love scenes between Mercury and Ria, it was the thrilling suspense of the plot or the revelations surrounding the Vanderales. I also got more knowledge of the rules of Breed Law, with which Lora Leigh adds another layer to the world of the Breeds. In this book Lora Leigh built the tension and emotions up in a tremendous way. Feeding me the emotions slowly, giving me bits and pieces of the plot, which gradually unfolded, and finishing with a conclusion that was the culminating point in the book. I've said it before and I'll keep repeating myself as long as she keeps writing books like these. She manages to give every book its own unique feel and still it attributes to the series as a whole.

I loved this book right from the beginning and then a certain turn of events happened and I was speechless with the emotional impact this had on Ria and on me as a reader. I almost actually felt her pain, her suffering, I felt her shatter into millions of pieces and then she turned it around, got a grip and literally fought for her man and I was in her corner cheering her on and at the same time in awe of Lora Leigh's writing talent. The way she described these events and emotions in the last third of the book was amazing. It was an emotional hurricane coming off the pages.
The second part of this book was the most intense and emotional part of it and probably of the entire series I've read so far. For me only DAWN'S AWAKENING as a whole reached the same intensity. The second half of MERCURY'S WAR took me into the eye of an emotional twister and when I emerged from it I was emotionally torn apart but simultaneously thoroughly satisfied with another superb book from one of my favorite authors in one of my favorite series. The balance of all the parts was mixed perfectly together: emotions, characters, romance, eroticism and plot were stirred and out came an overwhelming story of love, acceptance, loyalty, betrayal and commitment.

With every book more and more is revealed of this intriguing world. You'd think with this many installments repetitiveness and predictability are dangers that lie around the corner but the contrary is true as each book is better (with a few minor exceptions). Every installment in this series adds to the quality of it with its own unique plotline in the interlinked story arc that winds itself through the books, with its own couple who display different degrees of mating and reactions to the mating heat, with its erotic scenes that never miss their mark together with the intense emotions that come along with them. With each book she expands the Breed world and adds to the reader's knowledge of it. At the same time she comes up with not only new, intriguing revelations that shed a different light on everything you already knew but she also raises new mysteries and new questions you want answers to. For me the best ones in the series up till now are DAWN'S AWAKENING and MERCURY'S WAR, both as regards the emotionally strong characters and the intriguing plots. But I'm also utterly convinced there are some stories scheduled or in the making (Cassie, Jonas, Cabal) that will rival with my favorite ones.

Lora Leigh and her Breeds provide the ultimate reading pleasure, satisfying needs that arose from the moment I read the very first sentence of the first story I read in this series. Every installment after that has only fed the addiction, the need for more, the craving for those alpha Breeds and their stubborn mates who have the ability to set the pages on fire and rattle my emotions to the fullest.

Quotes:
If she kept twitching her ass like that he was going to f**k it. So help him God, he was going to take her to her knees, hike that plain brown skirt to her hips, and show her the folly of teasing a fully grown, hungry male Lion Breed.

"You're not serious, Mercury. Breed males don't wait for their mates to make the first move. When did you lose your senses?"
"When you screwed up my mind and my soul with every emotion I swore I'd never feel for a woman," he snarled back at her. "When I realized you'll walk away before you'll fight for any damn thing you want. A man has his pride, and a Breed has even more. You want it, mate? Come and get it."

Back Cover:
The runt of the lab she was created in, Dawn Daniels endured years of torture by her pride brother and the council soldiers. Finally freed from her torment, she’s now a Breed Enforcer, in control of her own life. Until she’s assigned to protect the one man destined to be her mate—and realizes it’s far too easy to lose total control…

One of the Breed’s most important supporters, Seth Lawrence has spent years trying to forget Dawn, knowing that her lost innocence has made it impossible for her to get close to anyone. But suddenly neither of them can find the strength to fight the overwhelming passion between them. At least until the most brutal tormenter from Dawn’s past reappears—and threatens to destroy their newfound love, along with their lives…

This is the story of Dawn Daniels and Seth Lawrence. A story I have been looking forward to since ELIZABETH'S WOLF and KISS OF HEAT. And my anticipation was thoroughly met and satisfied.

Dawn Daniels is a female Breed who suffered horribly in the Labs. The acts committed against her as a child have left a lasting imprint and she tries very hard not to remember them. She has grown into a strong woman, a Breed Enforcer who doesn't take any crap from anyone. But deep down she knows she can't escape the memories forever.

Seth Lawrence knew Dawn was his mate the moment he laid his eyes on her ten years ago but he also knew he couldn't have her because of her horrendous experiences in the past. He has done the impossible and fought the mating heat until it subsided. But now with his life in danger he has no choice but to accept the protection of the woman he could never have.

For Dawn men equal suffering and abuse, so when she starts having feelings for Seth she is utterly confused. Filled with pain and rage Dawn is both vulnerable and strong at the same time. She is defiant and underneath the traumatized and hurt woman there's a lively, playful woman with a witty personality that surfaces only when she feels comfortable, loved and protected. She has a wicked and sarcastic sense of humor that I found very entertaining. But her sarcasm and smart-ass attitude are also ways for her to protect herself and hide feelings that would leave her vulnerable. With Seth she learns how to put her trust in a man and accept the pleasure of a lover's touch.

Seth is the ultimate alpha. He is proud, powerful and honorable but he also has a tender side to him that he shows only to Dawn. These moments took my breath away and there were numerous occasions it would cross my mind that Dawn was one lucky woman to have Seth wooing her.
But before getting to the wooing part of their relationship there were lots of obstacles to overcome. The internal struggle that raged within Seth was intense and heartbreaking. He wants and loves Dawn but he knows his desire for her can evoke painful memories, memories he's afraid she won't be able to handle.

Next to the fiery dialogues between Dawn and Seth there were some endearing and romantic moments filled with emotions that reflected both the loneliness seeping from Dawn and Seth through every scene of this book and the tenderness of feelings that have been developing between them for ten years. Seth and Dawn were amazing, both individually and together as a couple.

There were many familiar secondary characters and some new secondary characters but the substantial supporting roles were saved for Callan Lyons, Cassie and Dash Sinclair. Especially Cassie's character was crucial to the book, not only to both Seth and Dawn and their evolving relationship but to the plot too. As an 8-year old Cassie stole my heart in ELIZABETH'S WOLF, now as an 18-year old she has matured into a creature wise beyond her years and with a future ahead filled with complications and obstacles. I loved seeing her character developed over the years and I can't wait for her own story to hit me.

A very mysterious secondary character pops up in this book. A character that is connected to Cassie but whose identity remains unknown. This character intrigued me to distraction and I really want to know who he is and what his connection to Cassie is.

And of course a Lora Leigh Breed book wouldn't be a Lora Leigh Breed book if there wasn't some enticing tiny subplot concerning a future couple and believe me I'm extremely anxious to see that particular story unfold.

With just the prologue Lora Leigh pulled me right back in and set the stage for this heartrending, emotionally devastating installment of the Breeds series. She took me back to the Felines who secured their place in my bookcase and on my emotional radar from the very first sentence of the first book I read in this series and now at book 14 she gave me the most emotional and heartbreaking story so far.

At first I wondered how Lora Leigh was going to pull this off. How could she get Dawn, with the amount of abuse she suffered, to handle the mating heat, to accept love and to trust a man who needs her trust?
But she came through with flying colors and did it, delivering a believable story, fitting the set-ups from previous books and for me DAWN'S AWAKENING she is her best work in the Breeds series till now.

Even with the recurring storylines of the mating heat and the battle with the
Genetics Council, Lora Leigh managed to give me new angles and developments. She combined everything I loved in all the previous installments into one perfectly executed, well-balanced, emotional rollercoaster and completed it with a mind-blowing plot.
The emotional part of the book invoked tears and was just heartbreaking. The love scenes were hot and sizzling and yet in excellent balance with the plot and the emotions. One moment the avalanche of emotions almost brought me down and to tears and the next I would melt away at the blazing sensuality between Seth and Dawn.

This book ate away at me emotionally and it will take some time for me to get over the heavy impact it left on my feelings. I truly wonder if Lora Leigh can top this one, and if so, how I'll be able to get through it in one piece. And I mean that in the positive sense. This book just blew me away in the emotional sense mixing my favorite characters from her books with heart wrenching emotions, scorching love scenes and a plot that has cost me my nails.

It’s these books that make me overlook the lesser installments in the series because with her canny talent for emotion-filled stories that singe the pages Lora Leigh has delivered my favorite, most appreciated book in the series up to now. She managed to keep me enthralled with known storylines and familiar characters and at the same time surprised me by intertwining them with new characters, elements and twists.

Quotes:
Seth jerked his head back, stared down at her, and God help him, from this moment on, if he wasn't touching Dawn, loving her, tasting her, then he would be completely alone. Because no other woman's touch would do.

"I want to touch you." Her voice was whisper thin and pleading. If she was touching him then he couldn't be stealing parts of her soul a little piece at a time with his words, his touch.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Matthias Slaughter is an assassin for the Breeds; he is a Wolf Breeds who's working with the Felines and Jonas Wyatt. His assignments involve killing high profile Council Members who are still performing horrific experiments on Breeds, despite the discovery of the Breeds and the condemning of the Genetics council.
During one of his assignments he recognizes his mate, Grace Anderson and she turns out to be a witness to one of his assassinations. He kidnaps her in order to convince her of keeping quiet about the killing and to tell her she is his mate.

Matthias is rugged, scarred and dominant, both physical and in his behavior. Still at the same time there's this air of vulnerability and desperate longing over him. He has a gentle and patient side when dealing with Grace. I really felt for him. He touched my heart in a very intense way and so did Grace.

Grace is gutsy, smart, stubborn and loyal. She is also a woman of principals.
Because Matthias came into Grace's life under false pretences and has lied to her, Grace has a hard time trusting him and what he says after she has witnessed him execute someone in cold blood, even if she is in love with him. She has trouble reconciling herself to the idea that he is capable of such a thing and that she could have feelings for someone like that. She makes Matthias look differently at what he's been doing and makes him think about and question his actions in the past. For her he's willing to give it up.

Grace goes into the whole mating thing knowing exactly who and what Matthias is and she is familiar with the rumors surrounding the mating heat too. So she's not completely unknowing but that doesn't mean she gives into it easily. Matthias has to work hard to convince her not only of accepting what he did and why but also of his love for her and hers for him.

There wasn't much room for secondary characters as the story concentrates on Matthias and Grace but of course the ones that were there had intriguing names like Lawe Justice and Rule Breaker and they left a nice impression, not enough to envision there own books but still I wouldn't mind seeing them browse along in other books as secondary characters.
And the mysterious Jonas Wyatt made another brief appearance. His story is in the making and I am eagerly waiting for it.

I really loved this story, it was short and sweet but set up well and Lora Leigh provided some background to the story that, together with the characters, made it better than some of the other short stories in this series. The balance between emotions, plot and love scenes was very good considering the 120 pages it counted.

Lora Leigh brought me to tears with an anthology story, a Wolf Breed anthology story! Me! And I’m really not that fond of both short stories and Wolf Breeds. She proved me wrong with this one. It was so very touching, the way Matthias loves Grace and the way Grace accepted Matthias and his past. Even if you leave out Lora Leigh's signature hot love scenes there was a wonderful and emotional love story that touched me at a very deep level.
What truly did me in was a scene at the end with Matthias and Grace's parents. I had held up quite all right up until that scene, but had to grab the tissues then!

Quotes:
"Stop asking me questions, Grace. We'll talk when we get to the cabin."
"Stop touching me then. And I swear to God, if your fingers go any higher, the first chance I get I'm cutting off your hand."

"Tell your body it can't happen. Tell your heart you don't care. By God, Grace, fix it and then tell me how you've done it, and I'll let you go. Until then, I can't walk away, because it would rip my soul from my body to do so."

Back Cover:
The forces of survival and destruction swirl in the darkest corners of men’s minds. The nature of the beast cannot be harnessed, and survival is the purest of all instincts. Survival of the species itself goes soul deep.
But can the human heart accept and adapt as easily? Can Charity bestow the love and the acceptance that has always been a part of her, to the man whose very survival depended on the hardening of his heart, of his soul? And can Aiden maintain that cruelty now, in the face of the sacrifices she made? Only time and nature can tell…

Aiden has fought not to give the depraved scientist who created him, what they wanted, his ability to breed a child they can mold better than the original Wolf Breeds. With sheer willpower and self-control he has managed to feign impotence, even given powerful aphrodisiacs, so he wouldn't be able to service the women brought to him. He was succeeding until a new Lab tech starts in the Lab where he was created. She is his mate and he is barely able to hide and suppress his reactions to her. What he assumes is her betrayal causes a deep-felt hatred in him and he vows she'll pay for it, even after 6 years.
But Charity had no evil motives for her actions, her aim was to save Aiden and help the Breeds and she paid dearly for it. What she went through after Aiden escaped and left her behind in the Labs, no one should go through, but she has survived and is ready to confront the Breed mate who she loves and hates at the same time. But this is the least of their worries. The Council is after Charity and they'll do anything to get her back.

Though Charity seems timid she is strong and stubborn and when provoked she can lash out as fierce as any other.
Charity has a scientific mind and is determined to approach her attraction to Aiden just like that. She believes her need for him comes from the drugs she was forced to take and that this need is just a virus that can be diminished and even cured in a scientific way.
It's up to Aiden to convince her otherwise and Aiden has a lot of anger towards Charity in him but the more time he spends with her the less his anger becomes and the more he is determined to prove to her that there is no cure for their mating and they belong together. She triggers an unknown tenderness in him, something he thought he was incapable of.

Charity and Aiden feed and build up their mutual anger and unwanted attraction towards each other to an intensity that's impossible to ignore and their dialogues cause enough sparks to singe the pages. Charity taunts and tempts Aiden almost to insanity and it's amusing to see how Aiden deals with it and how long he can resist her tempting defiance.

The supporting characters are mainly the Wolf Breed couples from former installments but there are some new characters added to the mix, one of them is Dr. Nicole "Nikki" Armani, she's a doctor helping the Wolf Breeds. To say the least she is an interesting character and I hope she'll star in her own story someday. I see lots of potential and fireworks if she's paired with an alpha Breed.

In the previous book a new Breed species is introduced, one that's very intriguing and in this book a bit more information is disclosed on them. I really hope Lora Leigh will write their stories, starting with the elusive and mysterious Keegan.

I wasn't fond of the Wolf Breeds stories with the exception of ELIZABETH'S WOLF but with this one Lora Leigh has again created a story that’s worthy of my praise. The twists and turns in the plot are surprising and in hind side were beautifully set up in previous Wolf Breed installments in this series. But in this one I found the fireworks and intensity I have grown used to in the Breeds series and I was longing for in the Wolf Breed installments.

She does a great job of building up the sexual tension between Aiden and Charity and providing a satisfying climax to round it off. This is what I missed in the other Wolf Breeds. There was no build-up; they went straight for the bottom of the barrel right away, leaving me with a feeling of dissatisfaction.

I'm very glad with AIDEN'S CHARITY this has been rectified, proving that Wolves can make this reader's heart pound in anticipation just as hard as the Felines.
Again there are more titillating tidbits of information on the Mating Heat and the future of the Breeds, especially where the Wolf Breeds are concerned.
Of course Lora Leigh's tempting and addiction-feeding lure is present in this book too: she reveals small portions of information surrounding the Breeds that make you eager to know more and she introduces future main characters with just enough information to spike curiosity and anticipation to a high.

The erotic scenes, characters and plot were very well balanced. Neither takes precedence over the other. Nonetheless the way Lora Leigh describes the erotic scenes are imcomparable with other erotica writers, she knows how to describe actions and emotions so explicitly and vividly, the images and sensations form automatically in your mind.

The battle between the Council and the Breeds is threatening to become a full-blown war and Lora Leigh has managed to pull me back into the Wolf Breeds world with a great story.

Quotes:
As though her body had instinctively recognized its sexual master, it began to hum in joy. A joy her mind rejected, the intellectual part of her aware that she may have well escaped the physical pain, but the emotional agony to come could well be worse.

She wouldn't have believed lust could have its own unique flavor, but Aiden's did. It tasted of a summer thunderstorm, quenching her thirst for his passion but only driving her hunger for his touch higher. The taste filled her, intoxicated her, made her desperate for more. It made her as wild as his taste.

Back cover:
They are a new breed, a new race. Engineered rather than born, trained rather than raised, and their unique genetics have created more than one surprise…
Jacob left Faith six years before, unaware that the mark he left on her also left her in an agony of sexual heat that never dimmed. Now Jacob and Faith are together again, but surprises lurk around every corner and dangers as dark and deadly as their very creation surround them in more ways than one.

Six years ago Faith was given to Jacob in the Council labs. Jacob had always had feelings for the young Faith but knowing the scientist could use any weakness against him he did not show his feelings. Faith is drugged with a powerful aphrodisiac that brings forth an arousal that causes a need deep within Jacob to dominate her. In the process of their mating and after he marks her, the Labs explode and the Breeds, including Jacob and Faith, escape.

Since then Jacob has been avoiding Faith giving her time to grow and forgive him for that night but he is not aware that the mark he left on her has left her in an agony of need for him until she is sent to him and danger threatens her.
Marked and then abandoned for over six years by her mate, Faith welcomes him with anger and defiance when he finally returns to claim her.
And who can blame her, she's been in heat for six years and Jacob has left her hanging.

At first it wasn't clear to me why Jacob did this and why he waited so long to claim Faith as his mate but later in the story it was made clear that he felt extremely guilty about what he did to Faith in the Labs. He is afraid his animal instinct to dominate will prevent him from being gentle and tender with her and he is afraid that being with him will bring her life in danger because the Council is still hunting the Breeds they have lost control over.
But Faith never felt that way and always waited for him to come back. She became bitter and angry towards Jacob for leaving her.

In this Breeds book I was introduced to a new combination: two Breeds who mate instead of a Breed and a human.
Both of them want the other but they have their reasons for resisting. Jacob because of his guilt. Faith because of her fear he will leave her again. However, this resistance doesn't show in the sexual aspect of their relationship. They go at it like rabbits, and normally this doesn’t bother me but in Jacob and Faith's relationship it just didn't fit with the emotional struggle they were having with themselves and each other.
Faith challenges and taunts Jacob until he stops seeing her as the fragile and delicate girl from the Labs. She has grown into a strong and independent woman who knows how to handle him and his primal desires. But Jacob keeps pushing her away, claiming he doesn’t want to hurt her.

I had trouble getting into the story in the first half of this book. There was just a lot of sex scenes and very little plot and Jacob kept annoying me with his guilt and the denial of his feelings towards Faith under the cloak of not wanting to hurt her, but it just came down to the fact that he was afraid of his feelings and he was acting like a coward. He didn't see that he was actually hurting her more by abandoning her and pushing her away every time.
I kept this feeling of detachment throughout the whole story despite the fact that I did like Faith's character. She was feisty, mouthy and didn't let Jacob get away with his behavior. But I did not experience the searing emotional highs I normally do when reading an installment in the Breeds series. It just felt off somehow.

I think the Wolf Breeds are not my cup of tea. I can't relate to their stories and characters as much as I do the ones of the Feline Breeds. It just didn't click with me like the Feline books do.
It seems like a totally different world, both in characterization as in writing. Of the Wolf Breeds I've read the focus is mainly on the heat between the hero and heroine and there is a small, but very thin, plot. In this book this was also the case.

But there were also positive things about the book. It's still of high quality within the erotic romance genre even if the focus was a little towards the erotic side this time around.
The second part of the book was much better than the first. Jacob started behaving more like the mate he was supposed to be and he opened up to Faith and let her into his heart. His concern and protectiveness were still there but it was dosed in a more acceptable way.
The verbal sparring between Faith and Jacob certainly kept me entertained. Faith doesn't keep quiet because Jacob is an Alpha Enforcer. She defies and negotiates for what she wants and gives as good as she gets.
The plot was thin but with intriguing revelations about the Council and a new kind of Breed besides the Wolves, Felines and Coyotes. Also in this book I got more insight as to what actually happened in the Council's Labs and the effect that has on the Breeds. This is something that isn't covered as extensively in the Feline books so far.
And again the end of this book holds promise for the next book. The epilogue can be read as an introduction of the hero and heroine of the next book and again it offers potential but I'm careful in saying that because so did Jacob and Faith at the end of the previous book and for me their story didn't answer that promise.

Quotes:
Some lowlife in a bar and Faith:
"You readee to play, leetle gurl?" He asked her in halting English.
Faith barely managed to keep from rolling her eyes. Oh yeah, she really wanted to play, her life's ambition was to play with a King Kong wannabe with the brains of a gnat.

Her voice was soft, so gentle and sweet it destroyed him. And in it, he heard her love. As though her soul had opened and from it the nectar of an emotional banquet poured. It washed over him. It seeped into scars and wounds he never knew he had, deep within his own soul.

This story can be found in print in the anthology PRIMAL HEAT


Back cover:
Hope believed Wolfe was dead, but he was only waiting for the right time to claim her. The scientist who created him, Hope's mother, has forced his hand. She wants her creation back, and she wants any children he may breed on her daughter.

He is a man whose DNA was altered, infused with the genetic code of the wolf. His unique genetic makeup has created a male unlike any other and will make itself known in the most surprising ways. Now Hope must convince her mate she hasn't betrayed him, and they must defeat the plans of a scientist gone mad.

In short Wolfe is a Breed in Hope's mother's Labs. They are mates and her mother discovers this and tries to use it to her advantage by breeding a new generation of Wolf Breeds. But Wolfe refuses and escapes the labs, leaving Hope behind. Hope thinks he's been dead for 6 years when he shows up and kidnaps her.
Her mother, the proverbial mad scientist, has tricked him into believing Hope has been with other men and is working with her to trap him.
But Wolfe has his own plans for Hope's mother.

This very, very short novella. With only 40 pages and being an erotic novella it leaves little room for a real plot, character development or intense emotions. Therefore this will be one of the shortest reviews I’ve ever written. There’s just not much to say about it. I started it, I blinked and I was at the end!

For me the Wolf Breed stories I've read aren't as good as the Feline Breeds and this novella is no exception. It's written in the same style as the Ellora Cave Feline Breed stories but it lacks the intensity and emotional build up those stories have. Not even the erotic scenes could do it for me.

Certainly after reading a few full-length stories in the Feline Breeds this one really doesn't compare even though I shouldn't compare a full-length with a short story. But still I've also read two Feline Breed anthology-stories in this series, who admittedly were a bit longer but the build up and characterization were absolutely there, where as in this story I really couldn't find it. But let's say I'm one installment closer to getting up to date with the series and it's another book I can take of my TBR-pile.

Maybe the next Wolf Breeds will convince me because consistent with all the books in this series there is a hint at the end about the next couple in the series: Jacob and Faith. It’s just one paragraph, but one with potential. So I'm still not giving up on the Wolf Breeds but for now I would have to say this is the least appealing installment in the Breeds Series up till now.

Back cover:
A one-time high-ranking member of the Genetics Council, Scheme Tallant's father will stop at nothing to see the Feline Breeds eradicated. Even if it means killing his own daughter...

After the Breeds' main base is attacked, Tanner Reynolds desires revenge -and knows just how to get it. In a bold move, he kidnaps Scheme Tallant and takes her deep into the Kentucky mountains. Yet when Tanner discovers that Scheme herself is a target in her father's ruthless mission, his vengeance must take a backseat to saving the life of the woman he hopes to claim as his mate. But can Scheme trust Tanner -or is she just a pawn of his passion and ploys?

Scheme Tallant is general Cyrus Tallant's daughter. The general is a Genetics Council member who used to run numerous Labs with a firm and torturous hand. General Tallant is bent on revenge on the Breeds and he's willing to do anything to annihilate them. Even sacrifice his only child. Especially when he discovers she has been betraying him when he thought she was helping him. Secretly she has been working for the Breeds, trying to sabotage as many of her father's actions as she can. When Tanner Reynolds, the Breeds publicity darling, kidnaps her in order to stop the General, she discovers that her father's torture was nothing compared to the agony of not being able to disclose her father's evil plans in time to stop him.

Tanner Reynolds is the Breeds' trump card in the battle against the Genetics Council. The people love him and the Genetics Council and the purist can't touch him because of the repercussions it will have on popular opinion. Tanner has been plotting to kidnap Scheme for years and it's not entirely about her supposed actions against the Breeds. He's obsessed and fascinated by her. But her kidnapping brings things to the surface that make it hard for Tanner to turn her in to Breed Law. Little by little he discovers that Scheme isn't what he thought she was. She is just as much a victim of her vicious father as the Breeds are.
But with betrayal, deceit and hostility between them claiming her as his mate and saving her and the ones she's trying to save, will involve more than Tanner might be willing to relinquish.

From the very first time he appeared in this series and in every following book he was mentioned, Tanner has captivated me and he definitely didn't disappoint me in his own book. He was portrayed as the playful, cheerful, easy-going and calm Breed. The spokesman for the Breeds with a playboy reputation and rumored sexual proclivities.
But his calm and easy to handle veneer is a very good cover for the merciless and cunning primal animal that lies beneath. He has always been able to control his animal side. It was imperative for him to do so because he never wants to return to being the animal he was forced to be in the Genetic Council's labs.
But in order to claim Scheme as his mate he will have to. She challenges his control to the fullest and can only be claimed and mated by the animal he is deep down.

Scheme doesn't know the words quitting or giving up. She's tenacious; she has to be in order to survive. Her father has tried to break her both physically as mentally but her resilience and tenacity have managed to pull her through every ordeal her father has presented her with.
She lives up to the name she was given. Working as a double agent she has perfected the art of deception and manipulation. She can fool anyone. But she hasn't counted on Tanner. His senses are so highly developed he can smell and sense things no other Breeds can. And he knows how to get to Scheme.

Tanner and Scheme are the perfect match. They are the first couple in the series that really start out as opponents at the two sides in the battle. This sets a unique and tense dynamic between them despite the fierce attraction and the fact that they are mates.
Their erotically charged dialogues sizzle with smart bantering and witty challenge from both sides. Though they are extremely strong personalities they are each other's biggest weakness. It seems contradictory but they have the ability to destroy the other, yet can't because that would destroy themselves.
They both love and crave control and don't pass an opportunity to make their mark with one another.
The journey to their happiness is a difficult one. A variety of complications and misery is thrown their way and even the mating heat doesn't manifest in the way it has with the other mated couples.

The supporting cast of characters as always is divers and colorful. In this book Callan's pride makes a bigger appearance as in the previous ones. Which is logical because Tanner is a member of that pride and they are close to him. We see Callan, his son David who is a lovely young boy and a true alpha Breed in the making, Merinus and a very quick mention of Roni and Taber. But Sherra, Kane and Dawn also make a quick drive-by.

But the one who really impressed me in this installment was Cabal, Tanner’s genetic twin. He is Tanner's mirror image. They form two halves of a whole with Tanner being the light and likeable one. Cabal is the dark, brooding, complicated one. I for one can't wait to see how he will deal with the mating heat. As much as I was anticipating Tanner's story, I now have another agonizing wait ahead of me, the wait for Cabal's story. The little revelations about him are very, very intriguing.

Jonas' role in this book was more subtle than is previous books but he is still the one manipulating and controlling many events and the pieces on the game board of the battle between the Breeds and the Council. The only one who has a bit of insight in him is Jessica Warden, the Breeds' attorney and his bed partner. She isn't his mate and I'm wondering if she is destined to be a Breeds' mate. If so who it will be and how that's going to play out?

Scheme's father was a secondary character that really repelled me. He is a horrible man. The things he's done to Scheme are truly appalling. He is cold-hearted and cruel. He's a villain who really believes his actions and torments are for the greater good. He believes he's doing the world a favor by wiping out the Breeds and doesn't care who he has sacrifice in order to do so.

All my favorite elements were present in this installment of the Breeds: the intense and erotic mating game and battle of wills between Tanner and Scheme, the manipulating Jonas Wyatt, the characters from the first Feline Breed books and the ongoing storylines. One of these storylines seems to be solved and wrapped up in this book. I say "seems" because with Lora Leigh you never know. I though I had the mating stuff figured out by now, after reading 8 books in the series, but man Lora Leigh ambushed me again by giving it yet another different twist. She just keeps surprising me, showing me I don't get to relax and sit back. I have to stay alert for her inexhaustible imaginative skills. The thing I like so much with her writing is that she takes recurring elements like this mating heat or erotic scenes and uses them differently in every book, creating a stories that keeps enthralling me and pushes me to the next book just to know what she's cooked up for the next couple.

Yet another Breed book that has taken me through the entire scope of emotions. I laughed, I feared, I cried, I was furious and I was turned on! Lora Leigh knows how to make you feel anything and everything reading her books. Especially the ones in the Breeds series.

Quotes
It was all he could do to keep the mocking amusement on his face rather than go to his knees and drool like a cur dog as she walked past.
Bengal Tigers did not drool.

He grinned, a shiverlicious kind of grin that made a woman want to just eat his lips up. Not to mention other parts of his body.

Back cover:
Harmony Lancaster is of the Lion breed, created to be a huntress with a thirst to kill. But the way she seeks justice outside of the law makes her a liability to her own kind. Yet she also possesses information that they need on the existence of the First Leo - who holds the precious secrets of desire.

To save her life, Harmony is paired with Sheriff Lance Jacobs, who tries to tame the killer within her, while protecting the gentle woman he longs to possess. But a dangerous cult leader, bent on destroying the Breeds, could change the way Lance looks at Harmony forever…

Harmony Lancaster escaped the Genetics Council's labs when she was just 15 years old. She was trained to be a cold-blooded assassin called Death. Killing is the only thing she knows and it's what she does best and she continues after her escape but now avenging innocent victims of violence, especially children. When she escaped she took some secrets with her and not only the Council but also the Breeds are after those secrets.
When she is captured by her brother and forced, or we can just call it blackmailed, to work as a Breed Enforcer with a Sheriff’s department somewhere in the desert, her life changes drastically. Especially when she's paired up with her mate, Sheriff Lance Jacobs. He shows her that there is so much more in life than death and vengeance. But Harmony knows who and what she is and she's afraid her enemies will use Lance in order to get to her.
Lance would never have guessed that the passionate woman he picked up in a bar would turn out to be the Breed Deputy he was supposed to pair up with for the next 6 months, much less that she is his mate. But having witnessed his cousin Megan mate a Breed he knows his destiny is inevitable. He accepts his fate and embraces and vows to protect his woman, a woman who has only known deception, pain, death and loneliness. But before the both can embrace their future there are many obstacles to overcome.

This is the second book featuring a Breed female and her human mate. And I'm starting to form a preference for this specific combination. I loved Kane and Sherra in their book and I loved Lance and Harmony in this one.

Harmony is stubborn, independent and strong-willed. She is Death and nobody messes with her. But everyone has his or her weaknesses and Harmony is no exception. She is convinced she has no emotions and is not capable of feeling anything but vengeance. But she's so wrong. The moment she mates Lance she's thrown into an emotional rollercoaster. Feeling things she has never known and doesn't want to accept: fear, hopelessness, lust and even love.
But Harmony is not an unfeeling creature. She has compassion and loyalty within her. Her actions since her escape from the Labs show this but she doesn't believe there is redemption for the innocents she was forced to kill when she was controlled by the Council's scientists and trainers. The good qualities have always been inside her but they have never been allowed to develop until Lance and the mating heat. She now has to deal with her own vulnerability for the first time in her life. She has to deal with having someone's trust and giving her trust to someone else.

Lance is perfect for Harmony. He is strong, dominant and he doesn't buy the emotionless tough attitude she tries to maintain, even with him. He sees the vulnerable and honorable woman the tortured child-soldier has grown into and tries to show her that too. He is determined not to let her run from what she is feeling and he is willing to sacrifice everything for her to be happy.

There were quite some very intriguing secondary characters in this part of the Breeds series. Of course there is Jonas Wyatt. He is turning out to be a key figure in this series and in this book a bit more is revealed about him and not all of it is good. He is still playing his manipulative games and uses everybody, even his sister Harmony, to achieve his goal. Whatever this mysterious goal might be is something I still haven't figured out completely. His manipulations are riding on the edge. Because you know there has to be a logical explanation and some kind of greater-good motive for his actions, it doesn't tip to the wrong side of said edge but they were bordering on the brink of unacceptable by the way he used Lance and Harmony. Fortunately a few tidbits at the end attributed to his redemption in this case.
Throughout the books bits of information on Harmony and Jonas and their relationship are revealed. These bits bring insight into both their pasts and motivations.

And then there is Dane Vanderale. He is connected to Harmony. That's all I can say without spoiling but not even Harmony knows the whole story behind Dane. Despite some very interesting information being disclosed in this book, there's still a lot of mystery surrounding Dane and I can't wait to get to the bottom of it.

Again there is an enemy, Reverend Henry Richard (H.R.) Alonzo, bent on the destruction of the Breed couple of this book, only he's not directly a Council member but he is connected by blood to the Council. And the connection is an intriguing one to say the least. Too bad Lora Leigh just left his character hanging after the confrontational climax towards the end of the book. I wonder if he will reappear in future books.

There are more secondary characters that triggered my speculative and imaginative mind, such as the Breed Mercury Warrant who has been briefly mentioned in several books now, Ryan DeSalvo who is Dane's "partner in crime" and Jess Warden, the Breeds attorney who has a sexual relationship with Jonas.
I also liked seeing a bit of Braden and Megan in this one, which was to be expected Megan being Lance's cousin.

I'm really loving the full-lengths in this series! They give Lora Leigh the space and pages to tell the Breeds' elaborate and intricate stories and past. Well-dosed and perfectly timed she unleashes a great blend of intriguing world building and explicit eroticism. The world of the Breeds unfolds little by little, answering questions and at the same time these answers are creating more and new questions. This is a sure way to keep me coming back for more.

The love scenes again are explicit but as I've said before about MEGAN'S MARK, they are a little bit subtler than the Ellora's Cave-installments. They are intense and amazingly emotional. How Lora Leigh manages to write book after book with love scenes like these and make them all different and fresh and unique is beyond me. But you won't hear me complain!!

Even though the series is a coherent and interconnected unity, no book is the same. One binding component is the mating heat between the Breeds and their mate and even there every couple has its own uniqueness that makes them stand out. Another binding element is the dialogues. They are top-notch and it doesn't matter if they are sexually charged or purely non-sexual. The mutual exchange of smart retorts is what makes these books a delight to read.
Every book has its own side story to melt with the ongoing storylines from previous books. It's these things that make me keep coming back to this series no matter how many other great books I have on my To Be Read-pile!

In this book I detected two ongoing storylines in the Breeds series that have started in earlier books and are being continued. One is about a spy/traitor within the Breeds compound, Sanctuary. This storyline is subtly touched in this book and I'm very curious as to where it will lead and who this person is and what his or her motives are.
The other storyline has to do with the first Leo, the first Breed ever created. This storyline also comes in little doses but in this book there were some revelations that had me picking up my jaw from the floor in shock! These revelations have spiked my curiosity to an all-time high. I must know more! NOW!

The end of this installment shook me to the core and my heart just broke for Harmony and Lance. There just weren't enough tissues to get me through the last 2 chapters. Amazing how Lora Leigh can take me from excitement and being all hot and bothered to intense heart wrenching emotions! She's a master within the erotic romance genre, without a shadow of a doubt!

Lora Leigh has done it again, or should I say she keeps on doing it!! She has delivered another intriguing, erotic, fast-paced, keep-me-addicted installment of her Breeds!

Quotes:
Harmony had admitted long ago she wasn't necessarily a sexual being, despite some of her more animal-like genetics. But this man, he made the feline inside her stand up and roar.

"Ready?" His voice was dark, the rasp of a sexually aroused primal male ready to claim a female.

BACKCOVER:
Cursed with the extraordinary power to feel other peoples’ emotions, Megan Fields has tucked herself away in a remote corner of New Mexico, working as a small-town sheriff’s deputy. She finds solace in the silence and heat of the desert. But when Breeds begin dying on her watch,
Megan realizes that the secrets from her past can’t stay buried forever. Someone is out for blood - her blood.

An arrogant Feline Breed, Braden Arness broods with feral intensity. His mission to solve the mysterious murders brings him to Megan, a woman who accosts his senses like no other. Only with him can she let down her guard - and surrender to the insatiable hunger that wracks her body. But as they team up to hunt the elusive killers, Braden and Megan find themselves becoming the prey…

After the short story on Breed Enforcer Tarek Jordan (in the Anthology HOT SPELL) this is the first full-length book in the Breeds Series. It centers on Megan Fields, a deputy sheriff who is hiding in the desert from a gift she considers a curse, she’s an Empath and is unable to block other people's feelings. She feels their fears, angers and frustrations as well as all other emotions. After trying to go follow her dreams of being in law enforcement, she has to give it up because her inability to block the emotions she senses causes danger for herself and others. When the Genetics Council targets her, Braden Arness is sent in to protect her and to help her find out why she's targeted. She discovers that with Braden there's peace from the emotions, but another complication rises when they find out she is his Breed mate

Megan is feisty, brave, not easily scared, sharp-tongued, challenging and defiant. She gives Braden hell when he tries to dominate her and tell her what to do. Her gift isolates her from others, both literally and figuratively. From relationships and men, from family, friends and colleagues. I loved Megan; she is just as fierce as all the other females mated to the Breeds.

Braden is a Breed Enforcer, a trained assassin who has turned his training in the Labs to the good of the Breeds, taking down people who are a threat to the Breeds.
Megan and Braden's interactions sparkle from the very start and it only gets fierier throughout the book, fueled by the danger they find themselves in. Though they are both alpha personalities they complement each other to the extreme. Together they work the best, even if they irritate the hell out of each other and fight the mutual attraction and the mating heat to the limit. They both life for adventure and freedom, despite their constricting circumstances, for Braden it's being a Breed, created to kill and not to be compassionate or have human feelings and longings. For Megan it's being an Empath and driven to hide herself in a desert where she can live without fearing other people's emotions.

There are many secondary characters, mainly other Breeds and Megan's family members. The most important ones are the Head of Breed Affairs, Lion Breed Jonas Wyatt, the senator who is after Megan, Macken Cooley, her cousin Lance Jacobs (who is the hero of the next Breed book) and Dr Elyiana Morrey.

The glimpses of Jonas Wyatt I got from previous books were just the tip of the iceberg. He is calculating and manipulative and plays an important role in this book, one that prepares me to expect much more of him in the future books.

Elyiana Morrey is a Breed doctor who conducts the tests on the Breeds, their mates and everything concerning the Mating Heat. She is interesting to say the least and there is much more to her than you would guess at a first glance.

In this book the Genetics Council is made more specific in the form of Megan's enemy, Cooley. In the previous installments the Genetics Council was a nameless, faceless threat, always hovering in the background but now it's starting to have names and people representing the Council and making it more tangible.

This Breed story takes place in 2023, nearly ten years after book 1, placing that book in about 2012/2013. It was nice to have a more specified timeline; this was something that didn't become very clear in the previous books.

Lora Leigh again did not fail to please me with this installment of the Breeds; being the first full-length book it's more elaborate, with much more plot to it than the previous parts. This did not mean that the explicit and graphic sex scenes were lost in it. They were masterfully imbedded into the plot, as functional as in all the Breed books.

It was a delight to read with everything I'm used to in this series: action, humor, sex and emotions.
In every book there is more development concerning the Mating Heat and this one brought some additional information that broadens the knowledge on it a bit further. This part of the books remains intriguing and gives this series it's uniqueness I admire so much.
There is a surprising outcome of the plot I really didn't see coming but I should have known that Lora Leigh would give the plot a nice twist and she surely knows how to keep me wanting more, especially with the more than intriguing epilogue that only raises questions I most definitely want answers to!

Quotes:
Megan and Braden:
"I don't want or need you. And next time you manhandle me, I'm going to shoot you."
"You try and shoot me, and I might have to bite you again."
"Keep your damned vampire teeth to yourself and let me go or I'm going to scream bloody murder on your ass. This is called harassment, you know. Sexual harassment."
Hmm, that's not sexual harassment, baby. When I decide to get sexual, trust me, you'll know it."

That just felt way too good. Good enough that she couldn't still the hard exhalation of breath that nearly turned into a whimper of greedy need. Talk about a banquet. A smorgasbord of hard, tight male flesh.

This story is part of the anthology HOT SPELL.







Lyra’s neighbor can’t be for real. A man that stares at home baked bread like he’s never tasted it. Who chops his lawn up with the powerful weed eater and lawn mower he has. A man that makes her hormones stand up and scream every time she sees him. He cut down her rosebush, and he’s breaking through her reserve to invade her dreams at night.

But Tarek Jordan is much more than he seems. A Breed Enforcer with a plan. First, find the Council Trainer he’s tracked to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and second, claim the woman he knows belongs to him alone. Until the danger that shadows his life begins to shadow hers as well, and then Tarek knows, he can’t wait to claim the woman his heart and soul burns for. His next-door neighbor will have to accept him as he is, and now on his terms, rather than hers.

Lyra is the perfect Breed heroine. She's feisty, headstrong, passionate and doesn't take any crap from Tarek. She's used to handling arrogant and dominant men like Tarek, having three brothers who meddle in her life constantly.
Tarek is a Lion Breed on assignment for the Feline Pride. He's a bounty hunter and assassin on the hunt for a Trainer who used to work in the Council's Labs. He is scarred both physically and emotionally, almost broken by his upbringing in the labs, but that doesn't prevent him from wanting and longing for "human" things like love, affection and happiness. Tarek is unpolished and not the social type but still he possesses the code of honor all the Breed males have naturally.

As with most of the anthology-stories there is no real room for many secondary characters. In this one Jonas (head of Feline Enforcer Affairs) makes a brief appearance and Braden is just mentioned but I know he is the hero of the next Breed book (MEGAN'S MARK). Lyra's father and brothers also make a brief but impressive appearance.

This story gripped me emotionally from the prologue down to the last chapter. The opening sentence was enough to launch me into the emotional world of Breeds and their mates I have come to know and love. After the prologue it starts right away with fireworks between the neighbors Lyra Mason and Tarek Jordan arguing over landscaping skills. Their bantering is fast, fun and hot, laced with sexual undertones you know will be explored before half of the story is reached.

This installment in the Breeds takes us a bit further in time, taking place seven years after the end the first book. But Lora Leigh also takes it a step further plot wise with a Breed World that's getting more self-sufficient and powerful with rules, leaders, enforcers and political power to go after the scientists and trainers who tormented them in their labs. There is a first real confrontation, be it a very small one, between Breed and Council in the form of Tarek and the Trainer he's after. It was very intriguing and left me wanting more of these scenes, more insight into the conflict between them.

Even if I hadn’t known I could have guessed the change in publishers for this story. In comparison with the Ellora's Cave installments (which all the previous books were), the sex is subtler. Don't get me wrong because it's still explicit but the focus is a bit more on the emotions and the more intricate plot developments. Next to the intense emotional and sexual moments there were plenty of dialogues that put a smile on my face. Lora Leigh mixes humor effortlessly with intensity and sexuality, creating a nice vibe to the whole story.

Within the Breeds Series I really have a strong preference for the Felines over the Wolves, with the exception of ELIZABETH'S WOLF (that was the best one in the whole series so far for me). The character and plot developement of the Feline-books are immensely appealing to me, at least until this 6th part. I still have some Wolf Breeds to read further along in the series.

For me this story was just too short. I would have loved a full-length book on Lyra and Tarek but I had to make due with the about 90 pages it had. I can say Lora Leigh made the pages count, delivering another great installment of the Breeds. I can't wait to start with the full-length books that I have ahead of me in the Series. I suspect these short stories were just the appetizers and I'm in for a meal fit for kings!

The following two quotes show exactly the perfect blend of eroticism and emotion Lora Leigh masters like few other authors can.

Quotes:
"Now is not the time to be nice, Tarek," she snapped, infuriated at him. "But I want to be nice to you." (...)"I want to be very nice to you, Lyra. I want to lay you down on that couch, spread your pretty legs, and show you just how nice I can be to you. Wouldn't you like that, baby?"

Velvet darkness enclosed her as the words whispered free, her heart expanding as her soul seemed to lift, shudder and open to accept a part of him that she knew not even death could steal.

Mother Nature has a way of making the most unlikely couples ‘fit’. And what could be more unlikely than a sassy, independent President’s daughter who doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut and a loner Coyote Breed with a hunger for a cute rosebud mouth that he’s determined to still.

The vote for Breed Law is coming down the pike. Kiowa’s job is to watch Amanda, the President’s daughter—look, but not touch. Just make sure the Goof Troop, the Secret Service detail assigned to protect her, do their job until the law is passed.
But when they don’t and the bad guys move in to take her out, Kiowa reluctantly slips in to the rescue, snatching her away to safety. But she isn’t going to come easy and it takes more than smooth talking to make her see his point of view.

For a man who’s had nothing, Amanda Marion is food for the hunger that has tortured him, the reality to every dream Kiowa never dared believe in. What he feels for her is more than heat, more than love. She breathes life into his hardened heart, melting the icy chill that has protected him all his life, and touches a part of him that he thought had died—his soul. And now he’ll kill anyone who tries to take her away from him.
But the one person he can’t fight is Amanda, and when she wants to leave…


When the President is about to pass the Breed Law, a law enforcing the Breeds to take action against the attacks on their compound and ensure safety for themselves and their mates, the Purists try to influence him by attempting to kidnap his daughter, Amanda Marion. But they didn't count on Kiowa, a Coyote Breed, assigned to keep an eye on her just because the Breeds suspected this action by the Purists.
Little does Amanda know that her savior will pose a different kind of danger to her, a danger for her emotions and her independence.

Kiowa is who he is. What you see is what you get. He is not gentle, direct, blunt and exudes raw masculinity. But he grew up to be this way. His past is heart wrenching, growing up all by himself, with no one to take care of him or to give him the love and guidance a child needs. Everything he knows and has he has procured by himself.

And then there's Amanda, a young woman who's strong, smart and headstrong. She craves independence, the freedom to do as she pleases and to live her dreams. She's happy with her life and the way she's used in as a pawn in the "war" between the Purists and the Breeds combined with the freedom of choice being taken away from her by Kiowa and the mating frenzy (or the mating heat as it is called in this book), spikes her anger.
She needs this freedom and that's why she fights the mating heat and doesn't want to accept the relationship with Kiowa.

In this fifth installment of the Breeds a new Breed is introduced: the Coyote Breed. This is the Breed that is said to be ruthless, without any conscience or soul; the ones who came the closest to the ideal killers the Council intended the Breeds to be.
They don't fit the picture of the Felines and the Wolves; they were created to be jailors to the other Breeds, aiding the Council scientists in the labs.
But Kiowa doesn't fit in this description, he does have a conscience and a soul, even when he was a little boy, all on his own, but he realizes it only when he meets the woman who touches his soul.

First I want to say I again I thoroughly enjoyed reading this Breed story with glimpses of former main characters and their lives, the Breeds' struggle for acceptance and the way a new community is created. But...there is a little point of criticism.
Kiowa and Amanda didn't touch me emotionally as much as the main characters in the previous books did. They each individually had their emotional baggage I could empathize with but their interactions weren't as sparkling as I'm used to in this series and the development of their relationship felt a bit rushed and forced. They were more tuned into their own personal emotions than into each other's emotions and this was what mesmerized me in the previous books.

This installment for me wasn't as mind-blowing as the previous ones. Where in books 1-4 there was a lot of intensity and emotional rollercoaster, this one was focused a bit more on the eroticism than the other ones. Where in the other books the sex fitted smoothly into the emotional storyline, in this one it seemed like it were two parts of the book that were just combined together, especially in the first part of the book. Towards the end it got better and the emotions and the erotic scenes were more in sync, so for me it's another great Breed book. Even though it was a bit less intense than the others it still was a story of rejection and acceptance, freedom of choice and passionate desire.

One other thing that kept bothering me was that the mating heat in Amanda seemed to be so much stronger than in the women mated to the Felines (Merinus from book 1 and Roni from book 2). Nowhere in the book is explained why and I really would have liked to have an explanation for it. They did discover some other, intriguing things considering the mating heat. The whole Breeds World is getting more interesting with every book when many discoveries are made and the Breeds community grows in number and power.

Quotes
Kiowa: "I can smell your heat, Manda," he whispered then, causing her eyes to fly open in alarm. "It smells like honey syrup. And I'm really partial to honey."

Amanda: "I'm supposed to be resisting you." she whispered huskily. "You aren't supposed to be the answer to all my sexual fantasies and make my heart ache at the same time, Kiowa."

They’ve waited a decade to come together. Long years filled with unbearable pain, and soul-wrenching torment that have changed them both. Left wounds that have laid their souls bare. Wounds that stand one chance of healing — if only they could stop fighting each other long enough for the truth to work its healing balm.

Kane, a relentless warrior, lost more than his heart to Sherra in a night of mating passion that marked them both for life. But news of her death ripped his soul apart. For years he has fought to avenge the death of the woman he loved more than his own life, by revealing the deceit and cruelty of the Council that created the Breeds.

But Sherra didn’t die. In a cruel and evil twist she was convinced by her sadistic handlers that the man she had given her body, heart and soul to had betrayed not only her, but the child she carried - and lost.
Amid the rapidly escalating violence against the Feline Breeds, Kane and Sherra learn that there’s more to mating than just the “heat”, just as there’s more to love than just the sex…

Kane Tyler is very familiar with the Council and the Breeds. He was once a soldier in the Council's labs. In one of those same labs he found his mate, Sherra. But scientists and a Breed traitor on a power trip betrayed them both, causing a separation that has left Sherra hating Kane for what she thinks he did to her and Kane thinking he had lost Sherra in the destruction of the labs.
Now circumstances and fate have brought them back together. Kane is unknowing of the tragedies Sherra went through since he left her and must now face her hatred. Sherra has no knowledge of the tortures Kane went through and the pain he suffered thinking she was dead. But no pain, anger or hate can be more powerful than the bond between two destined mates or the Breeds' mating frenzy.

The scenery for Sherra and Kane's story is the hunt for the Breeds and the attempts on their lives and attacks on their compound, Breed Sanctuary. Attacks by the Council as well as the Purist Society, a group of fanatics who believe the Breeds are not to be considered human and are abominations that have to be eliminated. But the Breeds will tolerate it no longer and there will be a shift in how they react to the attacks. Where they would hold back and go to the authorities for justice, they now make a decision to put Breed Law into action and fight back when needed against both the Purists and the Council.

Sherra is torn between her resentment (she believes he betrayed her) and her passion (he is her destined mate and she is in heat) for Kane. She wants to hate him and really tries to, but fails miserably because of their strong emotional bond. She knows she loves Kane but will not admit it because she fears admitting it will be a sign of weakness and leave her defenseless and vulnerable, open to be hurt if she ever lost him again.

Kane is a hardened soldier; he has no need for the emotional rollercoaster Sherra has him in. He fights his emotions and feelings with snappy, provoking insults and tough behavior. It is his defense mechanism against vulnerability he doesn't want to feel but he knows deep inside he eventually will have to admit and submit to his feelings. There's a contradiction in Kane. On one hand he's arrogant, strong and tough. On the other hand he needs and wants Sherra and her love so much, he almost seems desperate in his need for it. These contradictory feelings do make him into the deliciously dominant and protective alpha he is, as fierce and compelling as any Breed male could be.

Both of them have suffered a lot because of the deceit and betrayal. They individually fight their hunger and attraction to each other, hoping to escape a fate that has been set from the beginning but they also both know it's undeniable and inevitable. They struggle with themselves, they battle each other for dominance, and even their kisses are battles. I thought I'd read intensity between the mates in the previous books but that was nothing compared to these two.

The Feline Pride from the first two books again plays a big part as secondary characters. Though the focus stays on Sherra and Kane, the other characters do enrich the story and complement the relationship between the main couple.

There are some fascinating and intriguing revelations made about Cabal (briefly mentioned in book 2) and Tanner (Callan's Pride brother), causing me to have speculating thoughts about Tanner's book now. This marks a great author in my eyes. Lora Leigh knows how to build up a series in a way I haven't experienced before, revealing provoking tidbits on future main characters at precisely the right time, causing a need to read that character's book. It happened to me with Kane/Sherra and now it's happening again with Tanner and Cabal (Cabal's book is not on the radar yet, unfortunately but hopefully will be in the near future). Another set up for a future book is made with a scene/some scenes of Dawn and Seth Lawrence who is Roni's half-brother (Roni is the heroine of book 2) and turns out to be Dawn's mate.
Cassie from EW makes an appearance too and that little girl again pulled at my heartstrings, despite her age she's wise and knows so much. She has also taken a liking of Kane and is very protective of him, even against Sherra.

Sherra and Kane's story has been taunting and tempting me from their first hostile but passionate interaction in TEMPTING THE BEAST. They have a history and I was eager to explore this history and see how they would deal with their future. I must say I was not disappointed. Definitely not disappointed...I would recommend this book if just for the dialogues, spiced with innuendo and provoking insults, between Sherra and Kane. And I'm not even talking about the sexually charged dialogues between them.

After a slightly different approach in the previous book (ELIZABETH'S WOLF), in this book we go back to the original Feline Breeds and the hormone-induced mating frenzy, with the only difference in the change of gender, the Breed being female instead of male like in the first 2 books. This difference gives a whole other dimension to the concept. I knew the effect of the hormone on human females but the effect on males...that's something else!

Lora Leigh has the talent to write intense stories, both in the emotional and the sexual aspects. She combines this intensity with a writing style that reads like a hot knife going through butter, smooth and easy. She has created an interesting new world of humans with animal DNA and all the problems that go with it in a perfect mix of fast-paced action, a little suspense, lots of great dialogues, and amazing sex scenes that only underline the intensity I mentioned before.
She also manages to keep you coming for more of her books by giving teasing and very intriguing tidbits of future main characters. Revealing just enough to make you yearn for the full stories to come.

Quotes:
"I’m a strong man, Sherra," he whispered, his breath caressing her neck as she felt his head lower toward her. "I’ve lived when I wanted to die without you. I fought for you, even when I thought you were dead. (...) His voice echoed with the building, blinding lust she could feel ripping her insides apart. (...) "Kane, please…" she whispered the plea, desperation thickening her voice.
"I’ll please you, Sherra," he growled. "I’ll please you until you beg me to stop. I swear. Here. Now . Wherever, however you want me.

“Dammit, Kane.” She drew herself up straight from the boxes she had been going through. “I have work to do here. I don’t have time for this.”
(...)“Snapping and hissing as always,” he said mockingly, allowing his lips to tilt into the sarcastic grin he knew she hated. “I prefer that sweet little purr you make when I touch you.”
(...)“I do not purr.” She looked horrified by the thought.
“Oh, yes you do.” He watched her instinctive need to retreat, hiding his smile as she halted it, fighting to stand up to him, to best him. “You have the sweetest little purr when I touch you, Sherra. I remember it. Low and soft, resonating with pleasure.”

She brought him back from death and made him live again.
Dash thought himself alone, a soldier, a fighting machine and no more.
Elizabeth made him realize he was a man.

Danger surrounds the woman his soul marked as his mate, death and blood and a treachery that goes beyond even his worst nightmares. But he will protect her and what she claims as her own. He was created to kill, trained to do it efficiently, and only a man bound to her, heart and soul, will have the strength to save Elizabeth and her prized possession.

He is a lone wolf. A man alone. No pack, no family, no one to call his own until one single, innocent letter awoke Elizabeth’s wolf.

Wolf Breed Dash Sinclair is with Special Forces, but a missile-attack brings his whole team down and he ends up in the hospital recuperating for months. During his hospital stay he starts receiving heartwarming letters from a little girl, Cassie, who tells him of her and her mother's life. Her letters are the incentive he needs to hang on to life and they stir his will to live. Then when he's almost recovered he receives devastating news of their deaths and he sets out to exact revenge and find justice for the only two people he's ever let get under his skin. But he soon learns that they live and that Cassie is the target of a powerful drug dealer. He rushes to find them and protect them against the people after them.

The beginning of this book had me in a gripping emotional knot immediately and I didn't come out of it until I read the last page. It's a book of unconditional love, loyalty and passion.

Not Dash, not Elizabeth, but Cassie starred in this book! Her letters to Dash were heart-wrenching honest and pure. She was the glue that kept this book together from start to finish
Cassie's interactions with Dash are endearing and heartwarming. She's such a true little girl, devious and mischievous. She has been through so much but never loses her spirit or her childlike enthusiasm despite all the horrors she has witnessed in her young life. Horrors a little girl shouldn’t have went through.
I cried at a certain part of the book...an erotic romance and I actually cried...cried for a little girl in fear, fear of rejection, fear of abandonment. This little girl really touched a place in my heart and made this book unforgettable for me. One moment she had me teary-eyed, the next smiling at her childlike logic and accurate reading of people.

Elizabeth has been through so much protecting her child. She is on the verge of a breakdown, not being able to trust anyone for fear of betrayal. She can only rely on herself. In Dash she finds a strong protector whom she can lean on but she has to learn to trust him first.
Dash is such a fierce and honorable hero in this book! His hunger for Elizabeth is eating away at him but he keeps it on a tight leash, first ensuring Cassie and Elizabeth's safety. But there is no doubt in his mind that Elizabeth is his mate and he will convince her of that.

Both the story and sexual tension are built up along the same line. Feeding me little bits at a time, giving me small amounts to process before going to the next stage. The sex-scenes again are explicit and graphic but very in sync with the whole story and the relationship developing between Dash and Elizabeth.
I've said this before about Shannon McKenna and now I'm also saying it about Lora Leigh. Her way of describing feelings and sensations, both emotional and physical, both of the heart and sexually is truly outstanding.

There are some great secondary characters in Dash's friends and the infamous Simon (I heard about him even before I started reading this series) makes an impressive entrance in this book. He's mysterious, he's a smooth talker, he's gorgeous and he has a harem of female soldiers whom he calls "his Ladies".... Need I say more?
Brooding and intriguing Kane Tyler also makes an appearance. With every book he intrigues me more. He and the Feline Pride play a small but important role in this Wolf Breed book, tying books 1 and 2 of the Breeds to this installment.

This story had some more plot and body to it than the previous story and not just because it had a slightly higher page count. There was a bit more suspense and a little less focus on the Breeds mating frenzy...certainly in the first part of the book.
One thing bothered me a bit in the beginning: Everything I learned in the previous books on the mating frenzy didn't come back in this book.
Dash kissed Elizabeth but there was no hormone induced mating frenzy as with the Lion Breeds. I didn’t get that. Wasn’t this a given for Breeds and their mates or didn’t this go for Wolf Breeds? Later in the book fortunately it’s explained, partially by the characteristics of Dash specifically...and the Wolf Breeds have a unique specific twist concerning the mating thing but it is totally different than the Feline Breeds.


Again Lora Leigh managed to surprise me with twists and turns...not only in the story of Cassie, Elizabeth and Dash but also in the whole Breed storyline. Giving me more thing to ponder and more questions popping in my head, questions I wanted answers to and luckily I found most of the answers in this book, but I know some will be answered in future books.
The impact of certain disclosures in the plot and concerning Cassie had my mind reeling and I really didn't see them coming. I'm truly amazed at how authors, in this case, Lora Leigh, not only have the imagination to come up with great plots and storylines like this, but also are able to give them shape in a perfect, well-dosed, mind-blowing way.

With every book I learn more about the characteristics, origin of these fascinating Breeds and still I hunger for more...more knowledge to satisfy the craving started with the first book of this series.

Quotes
"When I get you beneath me, I'm going to devour you," he told her harshly as her finger slid from his mouth. "Every inch of your body, Elizabeth, I'll make burn for me."

“Elizabeth.” He caught her against him as she moved to step beneath the spray, staring down at her with those golden eyes that never failed to make her breath catch. “I love you because you hold my soul,” he told her simply. “I’ve always loved you. I just haven’t always known you.”

He had protected her as a child, filled all her teenaged fantasies and stole her womanly heart, only to break it.

Now, fifteen months later, the news has released. The man she loves is one of the genetically altered Feline Breeds who have shocked the world with their presence. He’s also her mate. The mark on her neck attests to that. The fire that rages in her heart and in her body further proves it. But he hadn’t wanted her then; does he really want her now?

Deceit and treachery, born in the past, now haunt the present as Taber and Roni fight to make sense of a sudden bonding. The mating of heart, body and soul as the man and the beast within merge; both battling the forces raging against the union and dominance over the woman he claimed.

Veronica (Roni) Andrews has loved Taber Williams since she was a girl, not able to fully understand what loving someone entailed. When she thinks she has him where she wants him, he leaves and she is devastated, crushed with the knowledge that Taber doesn't want her.
Roni is a real spitfire, taking life in stride, until her love for Taber almost brings her down, but she picks herself up and goes on. More than a year later he reappears in her life to once again rescue her, only now from the mess he got her into and even though she can't forget or forgive him his betrayal she knows she can't deny the attraction between them and the love that never really went away. What they do not know is that their separation is a caused by deception outside of their reach.
Since the Breed came forward and made themselves known to the world in book 1, many more Breeds than just Callan's group were discovered and rescued from the Council. This has only angered the Council and they have upped the ante, hunting and murdering them more openly and aggressively than ever before.
But not only the Council is after them, there are more players who have joined this hunting game with the purpose of annihilating the Breeds, their mates and their future children.

The dynamics between Roni and Taber are very different from Merinus and Callan's. Where Merinus fought the frenzy in the beginning out of unfamiliarity and soon gave into her feelings for Callan, Roni has a hard time with the Taber's alleged betrayal and abandonment which really fires up her resistance, rejection and defiance both toward Taber as toward the frenzy and the consequential conception. But the more Roni pushes Taber away, the more protective and possessive he becomes, determined to prove his feelings and worth to her.

In the supporting characters we get reacquainted with some of the characters from book 1: the Feline Breeds Callan, Sherra, Tanner and Dawn and Merinus and Kane from the Tyler family from book 1 and introduction of new characters: there is mention of the Wolf Breeds, Feline Breeds Cabal St Laurens and the intriguing Mercury and some non-Breed characters who have much more in them than this first glance allows us to see.

I found out more about the mating frenzy in this book. It does not have to be triggered by kissing alone. A love bite also does the trick, though in a less intense way than a kiss does. It's nature's way of ensuring survival of the Breeds.
Again the snappy interactions, this time between Taber and Roni, in contrast with the fierce sexual attraction and the submission to the mating frenzy hit the right note with me! And not only their interactions were fun to read, Lora Leigh has the talent to combine fun bantering with intense and explicit passion, giving me two things I like to read in erotic romance.

The intensity levels of book 1 and 2 are pretty much the same but still this second book has its own unique feel. The basics are the same but there is new information added to the initial excellent world building of book 1. And even though the mind-blowing effect of learning about the Breeds for the first time had dimmed down a bit it was still it was just as intense, emotional and passionate.

I know these stories qualify as erotica because of the explicit language in the love scenes but in my opinion they lift this genre to a high level, if only for the intriguing plotlines and the intense emotions portrayed in both the main and secondary characters.

The last chapters provide answers to some questions that were raised in the few chapters before but at the same time other questions pop up, setting up the next storyline in the series. The book ends with another tantalizing tidbit about Sherra and Kane, leaving me even more desperate for their story. Just one to go and then I'll get to them. I’m also really looking forward to the moment I'll be diving into the full-length books since I met some of the main characters who will be featured in those books now and they look so very promising!

After reading three stories now of the Breeds Series I'm truly hooked. Lora Leigh has me dangling and with each installment she pulls me in a bit further and I'm very willing to be reeled in.

Quotes
Taber: "Cats love cream, Roni," he whispered wickedly. "And I bet you have the sweetest cream in the whole damned world."

Roni: "I swear to God, Taber. I may not be woman enough for you, but if you leave me after this, I'll make you pay. I'll cut your black heart from your chest myself and I'll carve your c**k into so many pieces you'll never find them all."