Story Rating: 3.75 stars
Audio Rating: 4 stars
Narrator: Nathaniel Black
Length: 6 hours, 50 minutes
Audiobook Buy Links: Amazon/Audible | iBooks
Book Buy Links: Amazon | iBooks
Justice Volkov is a wolf shifter, the alpha to the alphas, and the youngest one to hold that position. Justice is a fair leader and the safety of his pack is his greatest concern. His leadership is his priority and with uprising within the wolves and a government looking to control them, Justice remains focused on his family. He has no time for romance and the idea that he has a true mate is so rare that Justice doesn’t even give it a passing thought. Until he catches the scent of the least likely man he thought could ever be his mate.
Chadwick “Wick” Bentley is the Vampire King. He was born a vampire and this life is all he has ever known. He has enjoyed living in London, but is now expected to return to the States. Some of his vampires need better control and with Wick being over 100 years old, he is certainly the man for the job. Wick lives life on his own time since he has so much of it and he remains smooth and cool at all times, until he sees Justice, his true mate.
Vampires and wolf shifters have never been anything but enemies and Justice wants to reject his mate at first. But all that does is cause them both immense pain and longing. The true mate pull is too strong and the men can’t stay away from each other. The men continually surprise each other as well, as they do not have to be the enemies they were taught to be their entire lives. And, the men will soon realize that Wick has a special gift that will make them even more compatible.
This book fulfills the fated mates aspect well and Justice and Wick are made to be perfect for each other. They have always known wolves and vampires to be enemies and Justice tries to resist his mate at first. True mates are not easy to find and when Justice first rejects Wick, it causes both of them to unravel as the pull to be together is everything. We get introduced to where they both are currently in their lives and the unrest that is brewing in both worlds of vampires and wolf shifters. The book excels on the fated mates aspect and how finding a true mate takes over everything else. There is no getting to know each other here for Justice and Wick, as they claim each other first and get to know each other second.
The fated mates aspect was what I enjoyed most about this book. I liked seeing Justice and Wick drawn to each other and then seeing how they were committed to making it work between them. The larger story around them was a little more difficult for me to fully get into. Prophesy is book one of this series, but I felt like I was in the middle of the story and there was a lot that was not clearly explained and a lot that I felt I was missing. Justice is dealing with rogue shifters and a government that wants to regulate shifters, as well as talk of experimenting on shifters, and Wick is dealing with his own vampire issues and, at the end, I can’t exactly say that it was all clear as to what was going on. I didn’t have enough information to work with for the larger story and that part was not explained well for me at all. Also, a lot of what Justice and Wick experience is attributed to gifts from The Mother and there was a lot that I just had to go with as we were told that was just the way it was.
Justice has siblings and his brother is set up for the next book and the fated mates aspect is the draw for me here. I would have liked for the larger storyline to have been more clear for me and it’s that part that I hesitate to recommend. However, if you like seeing fated mates that have no choice to be together despite initial obstacles clearly in their way, you might want to check this one out for that.
Nathaniel Black narrated this audio and I wasn’t sure at first how it was going to go. His narrative voice at the start of the audio was overly dramatic and reminiscent of a 50s radio police procedural. As the audio progressed, it was toned down some and I also got used to his style and I was able to really enjoy his performance. Justice has more of that dramatic narrative style, but Wick has a British accent that I enjoyed listening to. It was always clear who was speaking and the narration gave the story a truly visual quality that enhanced it. There were several lines that repeated themselves in what was clearly an editing or technical issue that was distracting, but overall, this was a well performed book where the narration gave the story that something extra.
