title: Excessive Force
author: Barton, Kathi S.
description: Reid Atkins is ready to take on the world, or at least his pack. As long as he passes his exams he will be a doctor and assume his position in Austin Force’s pack. He owes Austin for taking him and his brother in when they were young pups. The boys would have died without Austin’s help and he wants Austin to be proud of what he has become. Jodie Turner just wants to do what the bylaws demand: let the local Alpha know you’re here and nothing more. She wants to be left alone---no entanglements---not ever. She doesn’t have the time or patience for any shit. When Reid put the stethoscope on her chest, she felt something move along her skin and realized it was her wolf responding to him. He must have felt her too because he looked at her. As he leaned toward her throat, she knew that he was going to taste her. Her entire body was on fire for him to bite her, and she tried to move back from him. But Austin held her tightly, and before she knew it, Reid was pulling her into his arms. “Let me go.” He touched his mouth to her pounding pulse just as Austin let her go. She stumbled slightly, but Reid held her. “Please let me go. I don’t want you to touch me. Let me go.” “I don’t think so.” His teeth scraped along her throat, and when he lifted his head, she could see his wolf. “You know.” She shook her head, but he was already lowering his mouth to hers. As his mouth brushed over hers, she heard Austin saying something but not what it was. As soon as Reid kissed her, she knew as surely as she was standing there that getting away now was going to be twice as hard. Then his tongue slid between her lips, and she figured she’d be lucky if she ever got away. Jodie Turner is more than Austin’s pack or even her family expected---a shifter with the magic to shift into anyone or anything she wishes. Power like hers comes with a price---a mage, Ethan Randolph, wants her dead so that he can absorb her powers. Reid will protect his mate at any cost---whether she wants it or not. When Ethan kidnaps his mate, Reid and Austin band together with the vampires to plan her rescue and wipe out this vermin once and for all. Reid and Jodi are an Excessive Force, but will it be enough to defeat this powerful being? Find out in the 7th installment of the Force of Nature Series---Excessive Force