Hi guys! We have Anna Martin popping in today with the blog tour for her new release Lone Wolf, we have a great new excerpt, a fantastic giveaway and Shorty’s review so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~
Lone Wolf
Anna Martin
Jackson Lewis isn’t a typical werewolf. He isolates himself in a small town outside Spokane and dedicates himself to making his business—Lone Wolf Brewery—a success. If it leaves him little time for romance, he’s okay with that. His soul mate could be out there somewhere, but he isn’t actively looking.
So he’s in for quite the shock when he literally bumps into his soul mate—Leo Gallagher, an adorable, nerdy, vibrant music therapist who’s Jackson’s polar opposite.
But he’s human. And a man.
Jackson is straight—or at least he’s always assumed so. Though he can’t deny his attraction to Leo, it’s a lot for both of them to deal with.
While Jackson and Leo figure out what their future might hold, they face prejudice from both the human and werewolf communities—including a group of fanatics willing to kill to show humans and werewolves don’t belong together.
Excerpt!
WITH NIGHT falling, Leo stumbled home, still feeling slightly dazed. It had been a really weird day.
He shared a two-bedroom apartment with Mitch, a guy he’d found on Craigslist when Mitch had advertised for a “gay housemate but not like that.” Leo had been due to start his training at the hospital and still didn’t have a place to live, so he’d made the call and prayed he wouldn’t end up living with a psychopath.
He’d ended up with a werewolf instead.
Leo had been incredibly surprised when, at their first meeting, Mitch showed him around the apartment, then casually dropped into the conversation that he was a wolf. Leo had thought it would be a far bigger deal; everything he knew about wolves—which, admittedly, wasn’t a lot—suggested they were reluctant to let outsiders into their personal space.
He still wasn’t sure if that was true for some werewolves. They mostly lived in small communities around the world, sticking together for protection. They often homeschooled their kids or created werewolf-only schools, so even though Spokane had a fairly large werewolf community, Leo didn’t come into contact with them all that often.
Except Mitch, and he didn’t exactly behave as Leo had expected. Mitch was the least jealous, least possessive, least aggressive wolf Leo had ever met. And he was absolutely fine with sharing a living space with a human.
“Hey,” Leo called, dumping his bag by the front door and toeing off his shoes. He shed outer layers as he made his way through the apartment to where Mitch was mixing cocktails in the kitchen, dancing to some disco/techno music.
“You’re such a cliché,” Leo said. He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest, biting back a smile.
“It’s Friday,” Mitch sang.
“Bitch, it’s Wednesday.”
“Not for me. I’m not working the rest of the week, so I’m making margaritas.”
Mitch was not a psychopath. At least, Leo didn’t think so. When they’d first met, Leo had been intimidated by the amount of personality Mitch packed into such a small frame; Mitch was barely five foot five, which was unusual for a werewolf. They were typically bigger. There was nothing typical about Mitch, though.
For Wednesday night margaritas, Mitch was wearing Daisy Duke shorts and a sweater that had been cut in half, leaving his midriff bare. His pink baseball socks stretched up to his knees, hiding his skinny calves.
“I was thinking of ordering dinner in. I don’t think I have the energy to cook something,” Leo said.
“Eating’s cheating.”
“Not when I have work at eight tomorrow morning.”
“Boo. You whore.”
“Thai or sushi?”
“Tacos!”
Leo tipped his head back so Mitch couldn’t see his grin. “Okay. I’ll call for delivery in thirty minutes? I want a shower.”
“Okay. I’ll get your margarita ready for when you’re done.”
When Leo turned away to head to the bathroom, he finally let the chuckle out. As a roommate, Mitch was a handful. As a friend, he was a godsend.
For just a little while, Leo wanted to push down the stress burning his lungs and the terror clenching his gut and do something achingly normal. He’d spent the afternoon forgetting about the werewolf by composing songs with kids on the cancer ward, making them roll around with laughter. Beautiful, androgynous children with their shiny smooth skin and ugly hospital gowns, distracted for a moment by a song about boogers.
Leo was clinging to that distraction even as it rolled in his grasp like glass covered in oil.
He quickly made the call for dinner, then showered and changed into comfy clothes. He half stumbled into the living room, his body aching from all that time sitting on the floor, and fell into his preferred spot on the sofa. It looked like the food had arrived when he was getting changed; Mitch had already divided it onto two plates.
“What’s up with you tonight?” Mitch asked. He folded himself into an intricate pretzel in his armchair, balancing his cocktail in one hand and his plate on his knees. “You’re all….” He waved his free hand around demonstratively.
“I met….” Leo took a deep breath and shook his head. He hadn’t yet said it aloud. “I met a guy today. He’s a werewolf. And he thinks I’m his soul mate.”
Mitch made a noise that was very loud and very high-pitched.
“But you’re human! That’s so rare,” he said reverently.
“I knew it was a thing, but only abstractly, you know? It doesn’t happen often, right?”
“No, hardly ever. You lucky bitch. Girl, what’s he like?”
“Straight. So I’m not feeling particularly lucky right now.”
Mitch gasped dramatically. “Are you sure?”
Leo had long since learned that Mitch didn’t overreact to anything. That was just his way of responding to life. In a way, Leo was jealous. Everything Mitch felt, he experienced with his whole body, not repressing or holding back. Leo imagined it must be so liberating.
“Yeah.”
“What happened? Tell me everything. Don’t leave out a single detail.”
Mitch shoved his taco into his mouth to show he was done talking. For now.
“I ran into him. Literally. I was rushing to an appointment at work and checking my phone, and he just, I don’t know, bumped right into me. It wasn’t exactly romantic.”
“You expected romance from a straight guy? A straight guy werewolf?”
“No, I expected the overture from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet,” Leo said drily. “Rose petals falling from the sky. A single beam of golden light.”
“Ugh, you know I love it when you talk dirty classical music to me.” Mitch made a “carry on” gesture as he took another bite.
“He—I don’t know his name, by the way—he stopped and looked at me like I was something totally horrifying. So I gave him my card and ran off to my appointment.”
“What does he look like?” Mitch asked through a mouthful of food.
“Tall,” Leo said, picking at the edge of his taco bowl. “Taller than me. He has really chiseled features. His face is… dramatic. In a good way. He looks like he could be a movie star. A bit like Ryan Reynolds with a beard.”
Mitch stared. It made Leo uncomfortable enough to keep talking.
“Like… now I know he’s a werewolf, I can see it, you know?”
“Big ears? Fangs? Claws and a snarl?”
Leo resisted the urge to throw something at him. “No,” he said emphatically. “You’re the one with pointy ears.”
Mitch hated it when Leo mentioned his ears. They weren’t ridiculously pointy—they were actually rather cute—but Mitch was sensitive about it, and Leo wasn’t above using Mitch’s weaknesses against him.
Sometimes it was easy to tell if someone was a werewolf. There were the usual stereotypes of course: strength, dominance, the shape of their pupils—if you could get close enough to study them. Most of it was bullshit, though. Wolves had lived among the general population for hundreds of years now. Some people held prejudices… but Leo thought that would probably always be the case for anyone who coded as “different.”
There were all sorts of theories as to why wolves occasionally found their soul mate in humans, from widening the gene pool to the idea that the human had wolf ancestry way back somewhere. But it wasn’t an exact science, and Leo had never known a mated werewolf, so he hadn’t been able to ask.
He took a bite of his taco, not really wanting it but not sure how to keep talking. Mitch picked up the hint.
“He’s straight and a werewolf, and you’re his human mate. It’s like Jessica and William on Days of Our Lives!”
Leo tipped his head back and laughed, thankful in that moment for a friend who could take a serious situation and make it okay.
“That storyline ran, what, fifteen years ago?”
“Oh my God. I had the biggest crush on William.”
Leo grinned. “Of course you did.”
“It was so romantic, Leo. She was all swooning and delicate and pretty, and he was this big hulking werewolf. And she decided to say a big fuck you to society and run away with him because she loved him no matter what her parents said.”
“It was an incredibly problematic storyline, is what it was. And Jessica and William weren’t soul mates. She was using him to rebel against her parents. Which is gross.”
“You know what I’m getting at.”
“I don’t know that I want to be the Jessica in this situation. Though I’m pretty sure my parents will take it about as well as hers did.”
Mitch looked lost in thought for a second. Then he shook his head. “Girl,” he said, and paused to slurp his margarita. “Girl, I don’t know what to tell you. You didn’t even get his number?”
“I barely heard him speak,” Leo said. “He was too busy gaping at me like a goldfish. I really didn’t have time to stick around and wait for him to freak out on me some more.”
“What was it like?” Mitch’s voice had dropped to a breathless whisper. Like all of this was the biggest secret in the world. “Did you just know?”
“I guess so. I looked at him, and it was like… the world shifted on its axis. Like putting glasses on when you didn’t even know you needed them to read, and suddenly everything comes into focus.” Leo shook his head. “I’m human; I wasn’t prepared for this. I don’t even know his name.”
His name was important. Such a big deal, Leo was actively trying not to think about it. The implications of the whole situation were huge; it would affect his parents, his friends, his job. He’d seen enough of the world to know there was still prejudice against werewolves, even though it wasn’t considered polite to air those opinions in public anymore. Living with a werewolf as his roommate would have been extremely taboo even thirty years ago; now Leo had to deal with the implications of being one’s soul mate.
Leo knew werewolves considered their soul mates almost sacred; it was one of the most pure and intimate connections they could form. But what that actually entailed? What would be expected of him? Leo didn’t have a clue.
He was pretty sure he was going to fuck it up.
Mitch looked over and studied Leo hard. “Do you think he’ll call?”
Leo shrugged. Because wasn’t that just the crux of it? What happened if he didn’t call?
About Anna!
Anna Martin is from a picturesque seaside village in the southwest of England and now lives in the Bristol, a city that embraces her love for the arts. After spending most of her childhood making up stories, she studied English literature at university before attempting to turn her hand as a professional writer.
Apart from being physically dependent on her laptop, Anna is enthusiastic about writing and producing local grassroots theater (especially at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she can be found every summer), going to visit friends in other countries, and reading anything thatís put under her nose.
Anna claims her entire career is due to the love, support, prereading, and creative ass kicking provided by her best friend Jennifer. Jennifer refuses to accept responsibility for anything Anna has written.
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Review
Title: Lone Wolf
Author: Anna Martin
Genre: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Length: Novel (230pgs)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (October 9, 2018)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: 💖💖💖 3 Hearts
Blurb: Jackson Lewis isn’t a typical werewolf. He isolates himself in a small town outside Spokane and dedicates himself to making his business—Lone Wolf Brewery—a success. If it leaves him little time for romance, he’s okay with that. His soul mate could be out there somewhere, but he isn’t actively looking.
So he’s in for quite the shock when he literally bumps into his soul mate—Leo Gallagher, an adorable, nerdy, vibrant music therapist who’s Jackson’s polar opposite.
But he’s human. And a man.
Jackson is straight—or at least he’s always assumed so. Though he can’t deny his attraction to Leo, it’s a lot for both of them to deal with.
While Jackson and Leo figure out what their future might hold, they face prejudice from both the human and werewolf communities—including a group of fanatics willing to kill to show humans and werewolves don’t belong together..
ISBN-13: 978-1-64080-795-2
Product Link: Dreamspinner | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Reviewer: Shorty
Review: I wanted to like this story about Leo and Jackson. The tension between them is off the charts. Jackson repeatedly mentions that he’s straight throughout the story. It became annoying after a while as I understood the first time he announced it. I imagine Leo was quite annoyed as well.
But alas Jackson is not as straight as he thought and he and Leo do get closer. But not without complications in between their meetings. There is a lot of back and forth with this book as I struggled to understand what the big deal was and why the character went on and on about it. Jackson should have just walked away rather than making him and Leo uncomfortable.
I was expecting some action but got a lot of over the top drama instead. Lovers of dramatic relationships will love this story. I however did not care for it myself.
O.k. read for me.
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