"An outstanding illustration of the alpha male's popularity."

Mixing human and animal DNA, a shadowy council has created new breeds of soldiers; caging, tormenting, and training them from childhood. With the project exposed, the various mixed Breeds of feline, wolf, and coyote are allowed to exist in safe zones, but continue to fight for their very survival in a society that is unsure of the status that Breeds should be afforded and is still subject to the efforts of the dispersed council.

Among the Wolf Breed is Jacob, an Alpha Enforcer. Six years ago, he and other Breed males escaped the labs in which they were imprisoned. The night Jacob escaped, Faith, a Breed female, was brought to him in the hopes that she could, with the help of aphrodisiacs, be made to conceive. It was a mating that both desired but not under the forced circumstances and observation of the council. With the act interrupted and the escape complete, six years pass before Jacob and Faith are reunited -- years in which Faith has suffered through a sexual heat caused by a hormonal marking when Jacob bit her that night in his cell. Through the novel, the couple must come to terms with the six years of separation, Jacob's guilt over what he views as a rape that night, and Faith's irate feelings of abandonment -- all while facing the continuing threats of the council and strained relations with the other Breeds.

This book, the second in a series that began with the short story "Wolfe's Hope", immediately draws the reader into the Breeds' world and doesn't let up. The story opens with Faith in the cell with Jacob, her body pumped full of aphrodisiacs, heart racing, chest heaving, wanting Jacob but denying the scientists' right to subject her to such treatment. It doesn't take long, with the aid of Lora Leigh's well-crafted storytelling, before readers are experiencing the same sensations.

The book, however, goes far beyond being one of the best erotic reads I've found to date. In addition to the delectable, mouth-watering details on the Breed male's physique that Ms. Leigh artfully introduces, readers are given deep insight into the Breed male's psyche. Ms. Leigh provides an outstanding illustration of the alpha male's popularity -- Jacob must subjugate his desire to dominate and possess Faith or he will lose her. Faith must find a way to love and be loved by Jacob while maintaining her independence. It is this eternal balancing act, in a sexually intense setting defined by the Breeds' biological imperatives, that gives the story its emotional and physical punch.

Reviewed by Connie Angle for Sensual Romance.

Reviewed by Sensual Romance
Courtesy Sensual Romance
Posted May 12, 2003

Summary

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.

Sexual Content: NC-17. Genre: paranormal.