Horrible
Luke’s story was just horrible. If he, or the side characters, weren’t made to look incompetent they were written to be down right stupid.
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If I recall correctly, the very first thing that I found was ridiculous was that after Luke found out Ollie had been kept in a lab by humans that KNEW he was a werewolf, no one thought to check for trackers, especially Doc, who’s supposed to be some kind of wildlife rescue dude on the side. Then, the fact that they reason away that the Triumvirate needs to be called after finding out this news, which is something much bigger than a small town, uneducated 19 yo alpha can handle. Then, after Doc’s house is compromised by the humans that know about werewolves, Luke leaves Doc and Macy there to await the Triumvirate’s arrival… not at a nearby hotel or anything, not knowing anything about what these humans are capable of.
Then, in Madison while visiting Keir, Remy, who is supposed to be the smart one, reaches out to the pack Ollie came from, not knowing whether they had something to do with his captivity or not and actually tells them that Ollie is with him! I thought they were calling to find Blake, but somehow that’s deflected and Remy spills all the tea. No trump card and no finding out about Blake. The real kicker is that Ollie keeps getting memory flashes and keeps having horrible thoughts about his packs, vice happy ones, yet he agrees to go there, a lone omega wolf, with one alpha, to this potentially hostile pack that Remy has explained is very hard to reach, and very isolated. No self preservation skills whatsoever. Keir is also there and his only advice is to complete the mate bond before going…. 😐 After all the danger Keir has been in, that’s his only advice. Julien doesn’t even have anything to say. So all the characters went plum stupid all at once in order to progress the storyline.
Prior to arriving at the Rockcastle pack territory, Luke is contacted by Yang and Smith, who tells them that this pack has ties to the human lab that held Ollie and that they would like for them to gather intel for them since it’s been about 20 years since the Triumvirate last contacted this pack. Now, if the fact that they have ties to the lab doesn’t raise red flags and tell you to be wary, I don’t know what does. Yet, the author has them waltzing in there, not really being suspicious of anyone, despite the perceived animosity throughout Ollie’s POV, which he just ignores, as well as the disdain the Alpha feels and shows towards omega Ollie. Yep, we ignore all that and go inside, ignoring all the suspicious actions of Alpha Mate Wanda and her blantant issue with anyone thinking they can replace her beta son as heir to the pack, even her mate. We ignore that the other pack members have collars around their necks, although somehow we are able to acknowledge that they are servants… and at one point, author even has Luke talking about them getting paid for this… it’s like, seriously? Can he read the room? He could smell fear coming off of Ollie, but none of the servants? Then they commence to eat and drink merrily after knowing all that they were told and seeing all that they have seen! Even after Luke begins to feel the effects of his roughied drink and questions it, seeing Macy taking a hit and Ollie damn near passed out… HE SIPS THE SHIT AGAIN! Like seriously! Can you be any dumber! Needless to say, they all got roughied and locked up in varies ways.
Later, after Ollie escapes and tries to find Macy, the author has him running through the woods barefoot, but has him mentioning his pain and cuts and bruises when he finally stops running… um shifter healing? He had no signs of injury after three years of captivity, but suddenly he has cuts and bruises on his feet? On top of that, he can’t even see at night! She has him say he can see better than humans but he still can’t see in the dark. What? Why? Unnecessary added drama.
So, Ollie finally finds and frees Macy a they are standing outside the building waiting to scale the fence. Clay shows up and walks to the building to unlock the door. Instead of them both running to safety while he unlocks the door and goes inside, Macy had the bright idea to stay behind and fight him and let Ollie runoff instead. Ridiculous. They both could have escaped! But you know what happened… Wanda showed up, used Macy as bait and lure Ollie out. Then Wanda claws Macy anyway… idiots.
I would have put this on the DNF list if I hadn’t gotten to about 75% of the book completed before everyone’s IQ dropped a few octaves…. Before, the stupidity was here and there but the barrage of dumb hit as soon as they got to Rockcastle Pack Lands. It’s like the area was covered in a mist that reduced brain cells to nil.
Oh, and the whole thing that started this entire adventure, you know, the human lab experimenting on werewolves? Nothing was mentioned to have been done about it. Guess it’s still there.