Kayla Madison is from Texas, so why did she take a job as a nature guide in a National park in the far north, almost near Canada? She's always enjoyed the outdoors and nature, but her sleep is often plagued by nightmares. Because when Kayla was only a child, her parents were killed by hunters who later claimed that her parents were actually wolves.
Kayla has only dim, confused memories of the time her parents died, but something about it makes her wake up screaming whenever she has the dream/nightmare about them. Last year, Kayla and her adoptive parents had come to the park, and something about it had called to her. She felt safer here than anywhere else. So, this year, when her shrink told her to face her fears, she decided to take a job in the park as a guide, also known as a Sherpa.
Her seventeenth Birthday is fast approaching, and she's surprised and stunned to see that the Sherpas have thrown a surprise birthday party for her, complete with cupcakes and candles. But on the trip through the forest with her friend Lindsay to the place where they spring the surprise on her, she feels like someone is watching them, and that the watcher is someone who wishes her ill. Lindsay doesn't seem to notice anything, but Lucas does.
Lucas Wilde is the senior Sherpa in charge, and he's very gorgeous. For her birthday wish, Kayla can only think of one thing she wants- she wants Lucas to kiss her. But the next day, they'll be going deep into the park with a scientific expedition under Dr. Keane, a professor at a college. The boys and single girl who come with him are his students, and as they travel deeper, they are unashamed about what they have come here to do: find and capture a werewolf for study.
Apparently, rumors of Werewolves inhabiting the forest have persisted around here for years, but Dr. Keane wants to see if it is true. Kayla and the other Sherpas are scornful of the possibility- Kayla has a hard time keeping a straight face, but later that night, she hears Dr. Keane talking with Mason, his son and also his student, and he really does think that Werewolves are real.
Meanwhile Kayla finds herself being attracted not only to Lucas, but also to Mason. But while Mason is a somewhat boring "safe" choice, Lucas attracts her much more. So much more that she's a little scared about the strength of the attraction.
But something is going wrong with the trip. Kayla still feels like someone is watching all of them, and is inimical to them. And then things start going wrong. Crossing a raging river, a rope snaps, sending Kayla washing downstream, where she bounces off a rock and is hurt. She barely manages to make it to shore, but meets a wolf who seems unusually friendly for a wild animal. She's rescued by the others and makes it back to camp, but she's hurting.
That night, she can't sleep, and walks around. Lucas finds her, and she's once again strongly attracted to him. But in the end, nothing happens except that she finds out that he can be nice to her. He tells her its dangerous to wander alone, and if she can't sleep and needs to walk to find him and he'll go with her.
When they finally reach the camp, Dr. Keane and his students (but especially Mason) ask Kayla to stay with them at their camp. One Sherpa was going to stay anyway, but Kayla says sure- as long as she can ask Lucas if it's okay. He says yes, but seems troubled by the request. He and the other Sherpas leave, and when she and Mason go out that night to spend a little time together, she sees the wolf she saw earlier, and even manages to pet it.
When Mason sees it, he pulls out a gun and shoots the wolf-twice. Kayla screams in anger and fear at seeing a wild animal hurt, but Mason and his father insist that this wolf is a werewolf- its eyes are still human. Back in camp, they imprison the wolf in a cage and reveal that this is what their expedition was all about. The girl in their party was intended to be bait for a werewolf, but Kayla proved to be much better at that. They intend to make the wolf turn back into a human and use its secrets to make supersoldiers and other scientific advancements.
Kayla, feeling responsible for the capture of the wolf, sets out to free it, and uses a nail to pick the lock on the cage, setting the wolf free, after knocking out the guard from behind. The wolf, much to Kayla's surprise, turns out to be Lucas, and they escape from the camp together. He reveals that he couldn't leave her there because her birthday is in two nights. She's a werewolf, and female werewolves undergo their first change at 17 at midnight.
She's shocked, but also shocked to discover that Lucas feels she might be his mate. He'd felt it last year, when he first met her, which is why he wanted her to come and be a Sherpa this year. As a female wolf, she needs to be helped through her transformation by her mate. But if she doesn't accept him, he'll be cursed to a lone and loveless existence.
But their escape from the camp doesn't mean that they are completely free yet. One man betrayed the werewolves, and Lucas expects he knows who it is, his brother, Devlin, who he fought for his position as leader of the Dark Guardians. It was supposed to be a fight to the death, but Devlin ran off when he lost. Now he seems to be back, and he wants revenge on Lucas.
There will be another fight, but will Kayla, who is still human at this point, be able to do anything to affect the outcome? Will she be able to accept being a werewolf, and Lucas as her mate? And can she and Lucas overcome Devlin, who's crazy and willing to do anything to win? And if she does accept becoming a werewolf, what will she do at the end of the summer? Can she go back to Texas for one last year with her family, or is she fated to remain in this small park forever?
This book did an effective job of portraying Kayla as someone with problems, who has come to the park both for a job and also a solution to her memories and nightmares. But she hardly expects what she learns about herself, or that she'll be used as bait to capture a werewolf.
Kayla comes across as someone who thinks she's a weakling, but hardly knows her own unexpected strengths. While Lucas is someone so indrawn and focussed that he can come across as cold and indifferent despite his male beauty. The story kept my attention well enough, but it wasn't super-exciting. I felt that the book deserved to be longer. The story felt curiously unfinished- the action takes place over less than a week, and the confrontation between Lucas and Devlin, once they actually get to fighting was practically a "blink and you'll miss it" moment.
The pacing felt uneven, and several possibilities for ramping up the tension went woefully unusued- something is watching Kayla from the forest- why isn't she more freaked out about this? It was just something of a disappointment to me.
This is the first book in a series, but it suffers from too little story. Yeah, the book isn't very long, but it felt as if more should have happened before the ending. The story felt anemic and bloated at the same time. Anemic with events and tension, bloated with an excess of words, and, pardon my french- useless crap. A major story thread, that of the good doctor and his students, is left to lie without any resolution once Kayla and Lucas escape them. I wish this could have been a better book, and I wish I could recommend it, but I can't. You're going to have to look elsewhere if you want anything like a really satisfying story.
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