The Night Pack Series, Shane Honorae

This is a really exciting start to an interesting series.  There are mysteries at every turn and enough answers that keep you satisfied enough to keep reading.  The Winter Omega is a prequel to the Night Pack series (and currently free!) which gives context to The Last Omega and is a good idea to read first just because it helps to understand what kind of world Asher lives in as well as making it a little easier to wait for the eventual answers the rest of the series will provide for Asher's parents.  Yeah, for all the sense that last bit made...I'll make that more clear below.  I'm really excited for more from this series!  These are my first tastes of this author's work and I'm totally in!  I signed up to receive an ARC of The Last Omega and was more than pleasantly surprised to not just like the book, but to enjoy the writing style.

So, here's a run-down of why I liked each book and why I'm really excited for more!

*Currently FREE!

In this short prequel we meet Frost and Kane, a winter wolf and a kitsune shifter.  We find that Frost is a special wolf, one that is thought to be unlucky and a curse because their snowy white fur can't hide them or their innate magic from an entity known as the Terrors.  It's unclear what they are except that they exist in the shadows and feed on humans and shifters alike.  A pregnant winter wolf, and a male no less, is in even more danger because humans fear shifters and believe them to be responsible for the Terrors.

Frost is spurned from his pack because his presence and his fur will attract the Terrors so he makes his way in the wilderness.  There he meets his mate, a kitsune shifter named Kane.  A kitsune is an uncommon and very, very special shifter.  They are foxes that grow multiple tails as they gain experiences and age and they also have a special magic innate to them.  Together they run, hide, and develop a great love.  They also create new life.  Frost becomes pregnant and as the time for the delivery fast approaches they are forced to make a choice that will forever change not only their lives, but the life of their unborn son and every life he will touch.

This was very short so we get basics and a summary but it's very clear that lives aren't peaceful and there's danger everywhere.  We grow to feel deeply for this couple and see them embark on an incredibly uncertain future.  Included are also some tidbits of information that give a very general overview of what the world looks like for them.  It's a really great introduction to how they live and what life is like for these three groups that fear and hunt one another.

And now we come to Asher and his story...

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Opening with Asher in an orphanage...

wait, WHAT?  We totally just read about his parents, what happened?!

...and in this orphanage he is older, a little jaded, built for survival and scrappy but has an innate goodness about him and is determined to protect those younger and smaller than him.  One particular boy requires more than the average saint's patience and is currently in a situation that needs rescuing.  Asher has the ability to see paths and where they'll lead based on certain decisions but is completely unaware of his magic and his own mysterious past.  He just thinks it's one of his quirks.  By saving Petey and escaping the human colony to protect him because he's a werewolf, they find themselves at the mercy of the wilderness.  A group of Terrors find them on the first night and would die if not for the wolf-witch Sage and a couple pack members who came to their aid.

Sage is an alpha but has taken vows to be only a wolf-witch.  He sees the coming of chaos and change in a dream and is unaware of all the implications of it.  When he finds the distressed young alpha and a human being attacked by the Terrors.  Once back within the pack's borders they find a whole other set of difficulties with a "Major A-hole" for a pack leader as well as his cronies, magic, humans, border threats, and mounting attractions.  Pun not exactly intended there...

So with the drama in the pack, frustrations with outside threats, and avoiding their attraction, Sage and Asher are having a difficult time navigating all the complex emotions and draw they feel for one another.  There's not really a lot of romantic build between the two but there is a lot of education and information that they share with one another that builds a foundation of trust and authenticity that and it serves as a much better way for them to have the passion last.  Well, until there's an ambush, a forced claiming of a claim (awkward wording, I know, but when you read the story you'll understand), and forced separation.

Even after and during all of that it's all Sage can do to maintain the borders and do his duty because he aches without Asher, now Ash, by his side.  Similarly for Ash, he longs for Sage but can do nothing except submit to the strictures placed on him by the pack alpha.  Ash does, however, have a plan because all is not as it seems with him.

Watching all of this play out was exciting and intriguing, so much so that I didn't mind all that much that the romance was a bit overshadowed.  The final confrontation was unexpected and really well done.  I'm excited for where the series will go, especially with all the hints and conflict left at the end.  I'm especially looking forward to two stories, Raven and Kane...yep, that Kane =]