Rating: 2.5 Stars

Publisher: Liam Kingsley

Genre: Paranormal Gay Romance

Tags: Paranormal, Kids/Family, Fated Mates, Mpreg, Series, Virgin, Wolf Shifters

Length: 204 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon.com

*** This review is full of spoilers. ***

Blurb –

Alpha wanted… must love dogs…

Trevor’s self-image issues from childhood bullies have followed him into adulthood. As a result, he has never experienced a relationship, or love. But he sure wants to, especially with the wolf alpha next door. One tiny problem: Jason can’t stand dogs and Trevor owns a doggie day care. Besides that, Trevor has trouble believing that anyone as hot as Jason could ever want someone as plain as him.

Omega needed… no pets allowed…

Jason has heard all the jokes about being a wolf who is afraid of dogs but his phobia is no laughing matter. When he scents the sassy omega next door and realizes Trevor is his fated mate, he knows he’ll need to overcome his fears if he’s going to claim his man. When Trevor is attacked, his inner alpha emerges and Jason will do anything to keep his mate safe.

As the pair get closer and their lives and families entwine – and expand – will Jason and Trevor ever learn to trust? Or will they let old fears win?

Review –

This one didn’t quite work for me. I really hate that because it’s the book I was most looking forward to in the series. I’d seen Trevor wish and want from afar, eager to find his own wolf just as he’d watched others find theirs, including his best friend, Kyle. Trevor is one of the few humans who knows about the wolf shifters in the area. He’s never been with a man before, never even been kissed. He’s very self-conscious about his weight and appearance. Every time he starts wishing for someone to love him like others have loved his friends, he brings himself back to reality, believing nobody would ever want him. They haven’t until now. He goes about his life with his dogs, Bonnie and Clyde, and others keeping him company. He owns a doggie daycare and is always kept busy.

He’s just really, really lonely.

Jason owns a florist near Trevor’s doggie daycare. He does not like dogs at all and has made this clear to Trevor on more than on occasion. They’ve had words here and there but things really heat up when Jason’s little girl, who has begged both her daddies for a dog, gets her dress ripped by excited dogs from the daycare. Jason goes off on Trevor, who in turn goes off on him. Trevor’s sorry the dogs got a little too excited with Stacia, but he’s at his breaking point with the jerk alpha. It’s during the time that Trevor is putting him in his place that things start to click in Jason’s little wolf brain. Trevor, the man he’s been rude too for a while now, is his fated mate.

Before I go any further I need to stress why Jason doesn’t like dogs. It’s not just dislike. It’s a phobia. He was bitten by a dog as a child and suffered severe injuries as a result. Jason is a wolf – also part of the canine family – but that doesn’t seem to matter. He’s absolutely terrified of dogs to the point where he’s had to get firm with Stacia when she’s pushed him to get her one. Her omega dad, Keifer, agrees she should have one, even if he has to keep it at his house for when Stacia is staying with him. Jason doesn’t agree.

Jason and Keifer are close friends. A little too much alcohol one night when Keifer was in heat resulted in them hooking up that one and only time. That’s how Stacia came to be. They’re good friends, nothing more.

When Trevor is attacked inside his business, Jason rushes to his rescue. He knows that no way will he not be there to protect his mate from here on out. Trevor is brought to stay with him and Stacia, along with Bonnie and Clyde, though Jason makes it VERY clear how much he hates the dogs. Even so, he kinda/sorta works around them.

Until he doesn’t.

And this is where my opinion of Jason was truly formed. The dogs, sensing something was wrong with their doggie daddy (Trevor), got a little excited and did what excited dogs do – they chewed on some things. Trevor has just been forced to identify one of his attackers at the police station. They get home to Jason’s place and instead of being there for his (now pregnant) fated mate, Jason loses his temper with the dogs and with Trevor. Instead of hanging around to calm his pregnant mate down, he takes off for a run to blow off steam, leaving a still scared Trevor alone after promising never do that. Then the next morning, instead of being there for his mate, he tells him they’ll be taking different vehicles to work that day when they’ve always rode together. He doesn’t explain why, just that he has to pick up Stacia (something they always do together) and get her to school. By the time Trevor makes it to his shop, his nerves are already shot. But then he hears something outside that scares him. Jason doesn’t answer his phone so he’s forced to call the cops. When Jason does eventually arrive, he’s still angry at Trevor and his dogs and he throws out an ultimatum.

I’d already had problems with Jason up to this point. Even with Trevor pregnant with his child, he’s not mentioned the actual claiming (re: bite) of Trevor since the very beginning of their relationship, leading Trevor to believe that Jason wasn’t all in. When it was brought up very early on, he said, and I quote, “Claiming is a bit like marriage, as I’m sure you know. Just because we’re fated doesn’t mean I want to claim you.” Okay, then! You just want Trevor around as a play toy, just as long as his dogs aren’t nearby.

I felt so sorry for Trevor during this entire book. He was virgin, as I said, and Jason couldn’t even be gentle their first time. Granted, Trevor was fine with it, but I just thought it was inconsiderate of Jason to think about only his needs.

Jason would get angry and snap at the dogs, though he was never physical with them.

I understand phobias. I understand that being told to get over it doesn’t work. Anybody who thinks otherwise is delusional. I also understand Trevor’s constant body image worries about his weight. I’ve been there. I understand it better than most. What I don’t get about Jason is how he didn’t really even try to compromise. Yes, he brought Trevor and the dogs into his home. But instead of trying to work through his phobia, he yelled and hurt Trevor’s feelings, even throwing out the ultimatum. He was an alpha, damn it, and what he said goes.

He jerked his arm away from me and glared. “You don’t get to tell me what to do, Jason. You don’t control me. You may be my mate-” He said the word like it left a bitter taste in his mouth. “But that doesn’t give you the right to dictate my life.”

“Doesn’t it?” I asked, incensed. How could he throw the fact that we were mates around so loosely, like it didn’t mean anything to him? A knot formed in the pit of my stomach, and I felt sick.

My wolf prowled at the edges of my consciousness, uneasy and restless, and it only had me more worked up. The alpha in me surged to the surface.

“You’re my mate, Trevor. That’s how it works. I’m your alpha.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You haven’t claimed me, so no, you aren’t my alpha. And maybe that’s a good thing.”

~~~

“You do not give me an ultimatum, Trevor, I do, and it’s me or the dogs.”

“That’s an easy one. It’s the dogs.” He glared at me and pointed toward the door. “There you have it. You can go now. Get out of my daycare.”

It wasn’t just about the dogs. When it came time to decorate a nursery for the upcoming baby, it was mentioned how they couldn’t agree on a theme. Trevor wanted rainbows and sparkles, Stacia wanted a princess fairy theme, and Jason wanted a wood theme. Guess who got what they wanted? What was a ‘surprise’ for sweet Trevor was really Jason throwing out his alpha status again and decorating exactly as he wanted it, not really caring much about the so-called discussions they’d had in the past. Trevor seemed to love what was done to the nursery. There was no, “I can’t believe he did this!” or anything like that. This was a me problem, not a Trevor one.

There are other things about Jason that I didn’t like. The ones mentioned are a select few. He acted like a bossy jerk most of the time, not an equal partner. He even said very early into Trevor’s pregnancy that the baby was going to be a boy. Okay, maybe he hoped for a boy, but to decorate the nursery in the colors associated with a boy without even knowing for sure? Geez. What if it would’ve been a girl?

In the previous books (with the exception of Jax and Bryce’s story) I kind of rolled my eyes when there was a misunderstanding that had one of the guys leaving. This one? I was cheering Trevor on, thinking, “Run, Trevor, run! Don’t look back and don’t go back.” I felt like Jason acted like he was settling for Trevor, even if he did go on and on about how much he loved him. I felt that Trevor, sweet Trevor, thought he couldn’t do any better.

For all those reasons, this is my least favorite book in the series so far. And while I liked Stacia okay, I missed the antics of the other kids in the pack. Cole, Liam, and even Brock brought humor to the story. There wasn’t much of that in this one.

My thanks to my blog partner for the Forrest Gump gif. It was perfect. 😉