Rating: 3.75 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
David Hammersmith has always loved his best friend Robin “Rob” Kerrigan, but not even a stolen night of passion when they were teenagers was quite enough to get either of them to come out. After all, for werewolves like them, being gay has always been a capital offense; it’s far better to have a living best friend than a dead lover. Nearly two decades later, David became the pack Alpha, bonded to a human woman, and had Rob at his side as his Second. But when his mate and unborn child died, David ran the risk of being Challenged for his inability to cope with the loss. David knew he could easily best any Challenger, but he recognized a unique opportunity to do something he wanted to do after his first night and only night with Rob–run away together.
David and Rob take off in David’s old truck, running from a past that would only keep them from ever having a future. David is done being Alpha; he is done with following the rules that say loving the man at his side is a crime worthy of death. He just isn’t sure how he can move forward with Rob, but that discussion is put on hold when David’s truck gets stolen in a small Wyoming town. It doesn’t take long for David and Rob to discover there is a small contingent of lone werewolves in the area and they have been dealing with a string of strange werewolf sightings that threaten to expose the existence of werewolves to humans. As much as David just wants to keep running, his inner wolf is eager to help the other wolves, eager to make them into a new pack with David as their Alpha–which threatens to put David and his budding romance with Rob right back under the yolk of werewolf law.
Once an Alpha is a novella in Kaje Harper’s Hidden Wolves series and is set about one year before the series officially starts in Unacceptable Risk. The story is partly an exploration of David and Rob as a couple and partly an adventure/thriller where David grapples with satisfying his alpha wolf’s need/desire to form a pack and with solving the mystery of the strange events caused by a werewolf locked in werewolf form.
The story is narrated entirely from David’s perspective, which gave a bit of insight into the character as a bisexual man who always had a special place for Rob in his heart, but was also completely mate-bonded to his human wife. This seemed like it should be huge; after all, David is literally on the run at the start of this book because the third most dominant wolf in his old pack thought David was grieving too hard/too long for his deceased mate. That said, there didn’t seem to be much exploration of David’s grief, nor was there much discussion about how Rob would or could fit in David’s life or could help David cope. Even more strange was how Rob always seemed to come in second with David; granted, Rob seemed content to wait and see, but it did make the romance between David and Rob feel a little…tepid.
I got the impression the main event in this story was David helping the lone wolves in a small Wyoming town deal with an interloper named Asher. The thriller-like plot surrounding Asher did a great job introducing readers to the harsh world of werewolf politics. Through Asher, we learned more about the myriad zero-tolerance laws werewolves must abide by, the extra laws any individual Alpha might lay down, and how some Alphas–like Asher’s Alpha–bent those laws for their own gain. Asher’s story not only built up a clear idea of werewolf society, it also showed how different the lone werewolves were. Even as Asher’s predicament forced David’s hand in forming a new pack, the readers could also see that this gave David a (narrow) path forward to be his bisexual self with Rob.
If you’re familiar with the original series from 2012, you’re sure to enjoy this prequel to the series. I loved the idea of unrequited love finding a way, even if David and Rob’s love story felt more like a side element to the thriller plot. Fans of lovers reunited/unrequited themes or themes of fighting for justice (for Asher’s sake, for being able to express love more openly), people who enjoy knowing bad people not only got their comeuppance but got it twice over, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this story.
