Tracy’s review of Dark Instincts (The Phoenix Pack #4) by Suzanne Wright
It happens whenever wolf shifter Roni Axton is near Marcus Fuller: a crackle of sexual awareness that’s intoxicating…and deeply annoying. Marcus is a pack enforcer who oozes power, but Roni is lethal in her own right—nothing like the flirty females who flock around him. Even still, his possessive gaze makes one thing clear. Marcus has singled her out for seduction, and he wants to make her sit up and beg.
No matter how aloof and unfazed Roni acts, Marcus can tell she wants him. When a brutal attack by a jackal pack forces them to work together, it’s the perfect opportunity for Marcus to chip away at her defenses—until he falls into his own trap, completely unprepared for the intensity of their connection. Roni is the only one who’s ever seen past his shifter charm and discovered the man hiding beneath it. And for Marcus, claiming Roni once will mean needing her forever.
Roni Axton is a warrior. She is hard and tough, definitely not girly and frilly. She gets bored in social situations and would rather suck on a lollipop than converse with just about anyone. She knows this about herself so she’s confused when Marcus Fuller starts paying attention to her. She’s not like any of the girls he’s dated before and he’s “dated” A LOT of women. She doesn’t tell him but she secretly likes his attention because she is definitely hot for his body. He plays in most if not all of her sexual fantasies.
Marcus is tired of the women who don’t want him for anything but sex. He’s tired of clingy women and he’s hot for Roni. No, she’s not like the women he’s dated in the past but she’s definitely a challenge. Slowly but surely he quietly works his way into her life and they decide to stay together – even though they aren’t mates. In fact they go so far as to tell each other that if the others mate did show up they’d have to quietly get rid of them. Lol
While the romance between Marcus and Roni is going on both of their packs are working to discover A) who tried to kidnap the son of the Phoenix packs alpha pair and B) who is running a horrible website called snm.com that displays videos of hideous violence. They figure out that a jackal pack is behind it all but finding out where they’re located is not easy. The two packs will stop at nothing until the creators of the website are gone for good and the site taken down.
Dark Instincts is the fourth book in the Phoenix Pack series and it was another great story. I really love the dynamics in the pack – in this book both packs: Phoenix and Mercury – and love reading about them.
In this story Roni is, imho, hilarious. She’s definitely not had an easy life and has been coddled by her brother and mother since an attempted rape 12 years earlier. It has also put a fair amount of guilt on her as well as her brother had to go to juvie for killing the men who tried to rape her. She loves being a warrior but she’s highly intelligent and gets bored easily. She spends a lot of time in her wolf form to try and get away from the coddling of her family. Marcus comes along and doesn’t put up with her crap and I loved it. He knew what she needed and how to handle her – or in some cases not handle her – and he did it well. Marcus was not a stupid man and was open to doing things a different way in order to get what he wanted – Roni. The romance was incredibly sweet and I loved that once they got together there wasn’t a whole lot of angst between the two of them.
I’ve really enjoyed this series so far and I’m hoping that Wright keeps writing about this great group of shifters.
Rating: 4 out of 5
This title is available from Montlake Romance. You can buy it here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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