Blackwood Pack - Book 5
by
The Blackwood Pack saga continues…
This is part of an on-going series and reading the previous titles is advised. Readers of the past books will enjoy meeting old friends once more as the pack does what it does best ̶ caring for each other.
Slate, one of the last Dire Wolves, has carved out a life which suits him fine—plenty of traveling to exotic locations and an abundance of one night stands to handle his needs. While he’s happy for his brother, who has found his Fated Mate, Slate isn’t interested in finding his—at least not for a long time. That is, until his body betrays him. Seeking his mother’s help—who is an Oracle—Slate pays a visit to the Blackwood Pack where he finds the Fates have once again, messed with his life.
Dakota, the chef for the Blackwood Pack, fell in love with cooking as a young child and ultimately the kitchen became a place of refuge for him. Suffering with a ‘curse’ through much of his childhood, he relied heavily on his mother’s help to deal with it. After the massacre of his mother and siblings by their greedy uncle, Dakota barely survives, but finally forges a life for himself, content to stay home and take care of the people he loves.
A long-hidden secret, rejection of a mate, acceptance of rare gifts, and a brutal kidnapping are just some of the obstacles Dakota and Slate must battle together to save their relationship. As the pack rallies around them, both must learn to trust the other before they can find the happiness that the Fates have ordained for them…
- 4 To Be Read lists
Genres:
Pairings: M-M
Heat Level: 5
Romantic Content: 5
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Gay
Tropes: Alpha Character, Fated Mates / Soul Mates, Mpreg, Rescue
Word Count: 119000
Setting: California/Scotland
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Continuous / Same Characters
Wondering how this had happened, Dakota sat at the kitchen island, head in his hands, trying not to panic. A Fated Mate! My Fated Mate! He shouldn’t have been surprised but he was—gobsmacked to be exact. His mind flipped back to a scene in his favorite movie. Of all the kitchens in all the towns in all the world, he walks into mine. Well, he didn’t really walk into mine but in a way he did. Ever since childhood, the kitchen represented the place where he was secure, protected from all the noise he heard in his head every day. Now, as Dakota sat where he thought he’d always be safe, a hurricane had blown in, tearing apart his carefully constructed world, leaving only rubble. He would always remember the moment.
As usual, his morning was going according to schedule, breakfast was over and he was in the process of making rare roast beef sandwiches for lunch. The beef was ready and he was kneading his rustic Italian bread dough thinking about his latest student, Theo.
A recent addition to the Blackwood Pack, Theo, arrived with Norman and Kieran after his brother Cody and his mate, Dylon, rescued them from Arald, who, according to everything he’d heard, was a real asshole.
When Cody approached him about taking on one of the rescued shifters as an intern, he was leery at first about whether it would work since he already had Lizzie—Dylon’s mom—as his assistant. He’d been working with her for a month and loved every minute of it—it was the first time since his mother had been killed that he could feel her presence in his kitchen. But in the end, when Cody assigned Theo to him, it was a perfect match—his intern had always wanted to learn to cook. Dumb fucking luck!
But now it seemed his luck had run out. Dakota wasn’t like his brothers, Logan in particular, who wanted to find their Fated Mate. Oh no, he had first-hand knowledge of the pain it had caused his mother to be in that position and he’d made up his mind early that he would never mate. At first, it seemed strange for him to think that way—wolves always talked about finding a mate—but the longer he thought about it, the more he realized it was the right decision for him. After all, he was gay, so it wasn’t as if he’d ever have any pups. What Dakota wanted out of life was to become a chef. And if he was lucky, it would be at some top rated restaurant where he could learn how to eventually run his own. His mother backed his plan, and he was in culinary school when his family was massacred, throwing his life into chaos.
It had been a very long journey since that fateful night in Las Vegas—when he learned his beloved mother had died—to get where he was able to find a modicum of happiness. Now his hard, fought-for peace was shattered. What the fuck am I going to do? His cock hadn’t gone down since the first whiff of orange blossom, allspice, and whiskey drifted into his kitchen when Slate walked through the front door. It had taken Dakota a minute before he realized the full implications of what it meant, and that’s when panic set in. Dropping the dough into the bowl, Dakota quickly covered it before inching closer to the doorway, trying to hear what Slate was saying.
The good news was Slate wasn’t staying long and the bad news was…Oh shit, what the fuck am I going to do until he leaves? Hitting his head with his hands, Dakota needed a game plan—one that would keep Slate from ever knowing who his mate was while he carried on as usual. Shit! Shit! Shit! What about Oracle? Does she know? Will she tell Slate? What a fucking clusterfuck!
