Being bitten doesn’t change the man who becomes a wolf. Only the love of a strong alpha does that.
Markus Julson IV is a billionaire investment financier who lives in New York with his husband, Danny Fletcher. His family has led the Manhattan pack for more than a century. Once a month, he flies to a secluded island in the ocean to let the wolf living in him run free. But when a stranger crashes onto his island and is bitten by his wolf, Markus’ world changes in an instant.
Dr. Peter Roberts is an assistant professor of marine cell and molecular biology at NYU whose research vessel is forced ashore onto an uncharted island during a storm. To find help, he leaves the protection of the boat and is bitten by a wolf during the storm, which changes him in more ways than one.
Markus must quickly bring Peter into the underbelly of wolf politics, because their chance encounter on the island may be fate or something more sinister. To further complicate things, Markus must manage his life with his husband while dealing with his wolf, who has chosen Peter as his mate.
Polyamorous relationships with paranormal beings are always complicated.
Reader advisory: This book has a scene of double anal penetration, and a murder.
General Release Date: 11th October 2022
I stared down at my laptop for the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes. This stage of the month always makes me jittery. The speaker at the other end of the long meeting table droned on about the company’s quarterly projections. I absently ran my hand over the table, feeling the smooth, varnished woodgrain beneath my fingertips. A memory of meeting the table’s artisan when I’d commissioned it five years earlier flashed through my mind. I had seen the woodworker’s handiwork somewhere, so I’d flown to his workshop outside Bangor, Maine. The nearly nine-hundred-year-old walnut tree had only recently arrived in the United States from Western Turkey. I picked at one of the many blemishes in the stained wood. Some were surprised when I’d purchased a table with imperfections for fifty-thousand-dollars. To me, life was imperfect, so pretending otherwise was a waste of time.
“Please, Mr. Herbert, get to the bottom line,” I said, raising my eyes to stare at the presenter. Instantly, beads of sweat appeared on the man’s brow.
“Yes, Mr. Julson. I’ll get to the bottom line, Mr. Julson.” Mr. Herbert’s voice took on a jittery cadence as he quickly flew through the end of his presentation.
I didn’t mean to growl at the man like that, I thought to myself when he finally sat down three minutes later. “Thank you, Charlie,” I said. I tried to smile at Charlie Herbert, but from the blanched look that crossed his face, I was sure my smile looked more predatory than friendly. “If there’s no other business….” I left the words hanging in the air, defying anyone to bring something else up. Friday meetings at Hamir Investments were always tense, but Friday meetings at the height of a full moon were downright dangerous.
“Thank you all for coming,” Torbjørn Falstad said from his position to my right. “We’ll see everyone back here next Friday. Have a great weekend. And thank you for your attentiveness to detail. Mr. Julson appreciates everyone’s hard work.”
I cocked my head slightly, only slightly surprised that Torbjørn talked about me like I wasn’t in the room. The senior staff stood and scattered from the room like mice from a feral cat on the prowl.
“Did you need to scare Charlie like that? You know he has a delicate constitution,” Torbjørn said, looking in my direction.
“It was…unintended,” I said. I didn’t apologize.
“Markus Julson the Fourth!”
Uh oh, I thought. He used my full name. Work daddy isn’t happy with me.
“What am I going to do with you?” Torbjørn said, shaking his head as he narrowed his eyes. “I realize that you have your commitment tonight, but you could have at least pretended to be present.”
“I’m sorry,” I said after skipping a beat. “You know how I get at this time of the month.”
Torbjørn’s facial expression softened. “You are like your father.” Torbjørn let out a sigh as he shook his head. “And he was like your grandfather. The Julson men are going to be the death of me.”
I gave him a half smile. “How you’ve put up with three generations of my family is beyond me.”
Torbjørn looked at me for a minute before dismissing me with a wave. “You have a ride to catch. I’ll see you at seven on Monday morning.” I started to stand when he added, “Be safe this weekend.”
“I always am. Besides, it’s a secluded island in the middle of nowhere, warded from outsiders.”
“That may be, but something in the wind seems off to me.” Torbjørn looked genuinely concerned. Torbjørn came from a long line of vitki. In Old Norse, the word ‘vitki’ translates to something like ‘a man with wisdom’, but their mystical powers were similar to their European wizard or sorcerer counterparts. When my grandfather had hired Torbjørn, he’d done a deep dive into Torbjørn’s familial line, which is when we’d discovered that Torbjørn’s business acumen and intuition might be more inspired by non-traditional methods than modern ones.
“You know I’ll always take your wisdom into account, old friend. You’ve never steered my family wrong.”
“And I never will.” He patted me on the shoulder before adding, “Just…be safe.”
“I will. I promise.” With that, I left the conference room and headed to the private elevator at the back of the floor that would take me to the helicopter pad.
Jason Wrench is a professor in the Department of Communication at SUNY New Paltz and has authored/edited 15+ books and over 35 academic research articles. He is also an avid reader and regularly reviews books for publishers in a wide number of genres. This book marks his first full-length work of fiction.
Find out more about Jason at his website.
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