Devin Owen has come back from the Dragon Wars a changed Werewolf. For one thing, he's lost his wolf side as well as much of his desire to live. He spends most of his life doped up to handle the pain from his injured leg.
Lena Knox knew the moment she met Devin that he was her mate. But, she’d been a child at the time and he hadn't noticed her at all. Now, all grown up, she wants Devin to be the wolf she’s waited for. Not that she has a lot of time for longing with life and home crumbling around her.
A couple of heated encounters draw them together, but is it enough to overcome the war wounds they both carry? Or will an outside enemy destroy them before they get the chance to find forever?
Genre: Paranormal, erotic, military romance, fantasy, shapeshifters, werewolves
Heat level: 3
Word count – 16k
Cover art by Fantasia Frog Designs
~Excerpt~
“You’re my mate, Devin. I’ve known it since the first time I was in your company when I was seven years old.”
Devin gripped the side of the table he stood next to like she’d struck him. “No.”
“No?” She hadn’t expected the pain of his rejection. She’d known he might not believe her at first. Tears she refused to shed clogged her throat. “It’s not ‘no.’ I’m your mate, such that I am.”
Lena knew she wasn’t an ideal Female specimen. Her skin frequently broke out in horrible bouts of acne, although she looked pretty clear at the moment, her chin jutted out too far, her hands were not dainty, and when she shifted, her Wolf form frequently had trouble coming to a stop at high speeds. More than once she’d collided into trees, bushes, and other Wolves.
But she knew she was a nice person. She could work hard, and she never asked anyone for anything but common decency. She’d be a good mate to him, and he shouldn’t be rejecting her outright.
Unless he found her absolutely repulsive to look at….
“You’ve made a mistake. Whatever you thought you smelled when you were a child was the wild fantasy of a young girl. You should be over it by now.”
She sighed. “Devin, I can still smell it. I promise when you get to know me, you’ll find out I’m not wildly fanciful. I live in the real world.”
“I can’t smell it on you. Not at all. I’m sorry, Lena. You seem like a nice kid, but if you can really smell mating from me, then it’s one of those rare occasions where one Wolf feels something the other doesn’t.”
Lena had heard about those situations. It was every young Wolf’s deepest fear. Something went askew with the chemistry. One Wolf felt mated and the other one didn’t. They could even mate with someone else.
“I think you should go home and work on getting over whatever this is because, at least for my part, it is not a mating.”
Lena’s heart might explode from her chest. She turned on her heel. What else was there to say, really? He’d said no. He didn’t feel it. She’d waited fifteen years for him to come home, and it had been for nothing.
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