Continuing the story of the members of the various packs of the Southwestern Shifters series and focusing on the North American continent for now, this sixth book contains the tale of Harley, one of Joshua Dobson's victims, and Val, one of the Alpha Anax's guards who was injured in a previous book and is the only known wolf shifter to have ended up in a coma. With two men wounded externally and internally, emotions run high in this book, and I became immediately and deeply involved in Harley's and Val's plight. They had so much going against them, and yet, both seemed to feel they belong together from the start. But with Harley denying it and Val not sure because his wolf is "asleep" after the coma, their road is not an easy one.

Harley hates wolf shifters with a vengeance. After what Joshua Dobson did to him, he believes all wolf shifters are cruel beasts, and his fear almost paralyzes him. Even though Nathan and Marcus take him into their home and try to show him not all shifters are bad, Harley is so stuck in his beliefs they eventually let him go back to his apartment. Not even the man in a coma, who attracts Harley's attention just before he leaves, can change that. Harley is emotional, impulsive, and not exactly open-minded even after he has physically recovered from his ordeal. It's the mental and emotional healing which is far more difficult, and part of what this story is really about. His learning curve, once he meets Val and understands he is a shifter as well, is steep and painful. Luckily, Harley is a survivor and a lot stronger than he thinks.

My heart went out to Val from the very beginning. He is a freak among wolf shifters: so deeply wounded that even the almost-magical shifter healing powers don’t help, he is left blind in one eye and with a heavy limp due to a badly-healed wound in one leg. And worst of all, his wolf has "gone to sleep", as he calls it, refusing to come out. He faces the prospect of never being able to shift again. In a society where physical strength is valued above all else, he can't possibly fit. No matter that his Alpha Anax and highest commander thinks differently, Val will need to experience this for himself if he wants to truly heal.

As with the other books in this series, I loved the many twists and turns, the continuing larger story about the shifters' power games, and the secondary characters from previous books returning for an "update" or two. If you like shifter stories and complicated human-shifter interaction, if you have enjoyed the books so far, and if you're looking for a read that will give you deep emotions, devotion between mates before they even know they're fated to be together, and hot man-on-man action, then you will probably like this novel as much as I did.


NOTE: This book was provided by Pride Publishing for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )