Review: Another great story in this werewolf series
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 11, 2013
I have really enjoyed this series by Nicky Charles and I appreciate that the author offers these books for no cost, rather asking her readers to make a donation to a local animal rescue or food bank instead. Very classy.This book gets it's name from a law in the ancient book that the lycans wrote to keep themselves secret from humans, and therefore safer. If a single werewolf is found, the pack that finds it has the responsibility to bring it into the pack and  assimilate it, or if it is found to be unstable, to destroy it. There are not very many new characters in this book, rather, the story picks up where the last book, " The Keeping", left off. I do recommend going to the author's website for the reading order because if you didn't read the previous book, this one will have less of an impact. There is more development of each character, but especially of Bryan, the Beta of the Ontario pack. This is essentially Bryan's story, but Ryne, Mel, Daniel, Kane, Elise and Marla all make appearances.The villain is a repeat performance of lawyer Leon Aldrich who has only gotten worse since his last appearance when he murdered his employer and attempted to imprison Mel and kill Ryne. Even though Ryne started to tear out his throat, he survived his life-threatening injuries and is still in possession of the knowledge of werewolves. The Chicago pack hasn't been able to kill him because he lives in a fortress and never goes out unless it's in an armored car. He is now the administrator and executor of the Greyson estate, even though he shot Mr. Greyson during the "wild dog" attack that nearly killed him. He is searching for the adopted daughter who inherits everything, Cassandra, who disappeared the night of the attack in a blind panic after witnessing it all.Cassandra led an extremely sheltered life with private tutors,  cooks, maids and drivers.  She always knew something was different about her, she got treated for "migraines" with seriously strong tranquilizers five days every month, even though she didn't remember ever having headache. When she overheard her adopted father asking a man to let her come and live with his pack because she was a werewolf, she was shocked into immobility. Then she watched that man turn into a wolf and attack her father's lawyer and she saw her father die. She was sure she was next. She didn't see the woman who was kidnapped nearby or hear the lawyer threaten her. Werewolves were evil horrible creatures and there was no way she was one or was having anything to do with them. In her 17 year old wisdom, Cassie withdrew as much money as she could, maxed out her credit card cash advances and disappeared.Never having gone anywhere alone, Cassie was lucky that when she ended up in Las Vegas, she met a nice person. She didn't know how she got there and had never cooked, cleaned, taken public transportation or worked before. Kellan proved to be a big help. He didn't pressure her for sex, he taught her basic skills, and helped her get ID in her new name, Sandy Brown.  But Kellan was a gambling addict, and though he usually paid off his debts, when he got in too deep, Sandy had to bail him out. Mostly their friendship worked, for three years. Then a visiting werewolf spots Sandy working at her grocery store job and Kellan got into big gambling debt again. While awaiting his meeting with the loan shark, Kellan spots a flyer with Sandy's picture on it and a $100,000 reward. He mentions he knows that girl. Suddenly, Kellan's a hostage because the loan shark business is owned by none other than lawyer Leon Aldrich.The werewolf pack sent Bryan to find Cassandra also. They've been looking for her for three years, too. Not for money, but because she's a young wolf whom they'd been asked to take into their pack and had lost. Bryan finds Cassie in the middle of the kidnapping of Kellan. His wolf recognizes it's mate, and hers finally starts talking to her. Bryan takes away her illegally obtained tranquilizers that she's still using and starts to tell her about pack life. Cassie is still terrified, only remembering the attack that she witnessed.  When she hears the whole story, she starts to reconsider, but she's still afraid to be a wolf, afraid she'll go on a rampage and kill people. After meeting other wolves in Chicago, who come to rescue Kellan and deal with Aldrich once and for all, Cassie feels more comfortable.  The alphas, however, are enraged to find out that Marla, the wolf from Kane's pack who betrayed them all is working for Aldrich.With some help from Cassie's old servants, who had some very interesting careers in the "I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you "sector before coming to work for the Greysons, the group goes to war with Aldrich. Coming into Chicago and hunting down an enemy, and taking a wolf raised in the Chicago area to Ontario makes for some bad blood with the Chicago pack. Ryne successfully argues the case before the Lycan council, but the leader of the Chicago pack is still mad. And a mad Sam Hunter is one bad she wolf. Kane sends their friend Damien in to see what the situation is, and that's the next story. (Sorry, not til next year)I liked the way Cassie slowly overcame her fears and prejudices and how patient Bryan was with her, and how gentle. Cassie was a really loyal friend to Kellan, getting him into a gambling addiction recovery program. She also proves to be blue blooded royalty from her Spanish mother, with some unique abilities. This was a fun series to read, with characters that I really enjoyed and came to care about. The wait for a new book will be long.