Review: The last Lakeland finally gets his mate
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 29, 2013
Throughout Lynn Hagen's Brac Pack series, we watched Maverick's clan get mated, then enjoyed watching the Lakelands get their mates one by one. Here, the final Lakeland, Bryce, finally settles down with his soul mate. This story pairs Bryce off with one of the more central characters in the Brac universe, Ahm (the leader of the Shadow Elven).I've had mixed feelings about Ahm. He was introduced earlier in the Brac series as a villain. His sister was raped and killed by a wood elven, so he declared war on the entire tribe, killing many. Once his sister's killer was found, he ended the war, but I felt it still didn't excuse his actions as most of the wood eleven tribe didn't even know why they were being killed. Regardless, he's no longer a villain and is now part of the council the leaders created to keep the local tribes in line. He recognized Bryce early on as his mate, but the traditions of his tribe dictate that nobody is to mate outside of their own race. Should someone do so, they and their mate risk death. Unwilling to endanger Bryce, Ahm masked his scent and status from him so that Bryce would not know they are destined mates. This worked until Riley's story when Ahm showed up not knowing Bryce would be there and Bryce instantly recognized him as his mate. Not being a dullard, Bryce instantly knew that Ahm was hiding his status from him and was hurt and insulted.In this story, everything comes to a head. Ahm can't resist the mating pull any longer, Bryce is still furious with him, Ahm's traitorous cousin wants to kill him for mating outside his race (it's an excuse so she could inherit his land), and Ahm must choose between Bryce and his status as the leader of the Shadow Elven. To make the choice more difficult, his race is dying out from inbreeding (they're too stodgy and set in their ways to ever consider mating outside of their race to prevent this), and Ahm is dedicated to trying to find a way to help them.It's a action-filled sexy story as these two dominant men clash and try to find middle ground. It's especially hard for Ahm as he's a 500-year-old elven tasked with taking care of his entire race, and he'll be required to not only give up a lot, but to seriously change his attitude to become part of the Lakeland clan. The story flows, the characters are wonderfully developed, and it's delightfully fun.