Tracy’s review of Dire Needs (Eternal Wolf Clan #1) by Stephanie Tyler
The full moon is their mistress. They are predators of pleasure and pain. Feared by humans, envied by werewolves, the Dire Wolves are immortal shifters, obeying no laws but their own bestial natures. Once they were many, but now only six remain, a dangerous wolfpack forever on the hunt…
Rifter leads the pack, embracing the lifestyle and ethics of an outlaw biker even as he battles an ancient enemy who has become a new, powerful force. But with his Brother Wolf raging inside him, howling to be unleashed, he needs to satisfy his hungers. And when he meets a drop-dead gorgeous blonde drinking alone in a bar that caters to both human and inhuman, Rifter’s primal instinct is to claim her.
Gwen has her own desires, long unfulfilled. She hopes a passionate night with the leather-clad, Harley-riding biker will ease her suffering. The seizures that have wracked her body her entire life are incurable—and they’re killing her.
But none of that will matter if Rifter can’t stop the growing threat to them all–trappers who are determined to enslave humankind and use the Dire wolves as part of their nefarious plan.
Rifter and his 5 fellow “brothers” are Dire Wolves. They are the only remaining dire wolves after their deities killed all the other dire wolves thousands of years ago after they went a bit nuts and started massacring humans. The 6 remaining were then gifted with immortality and have been charged with keeping the regular wolf shifters and humans safe from evil. All of the dire wolves have some sort of power and they help each other out in times of need. The 6 wolves seem to have not a care. They let their wolves loose at the full moon (even though they can shift whenever they want) and they have sex. These seem to be the extent of these hard ass men. But there’s definitely more to them than that.
Gwen is a medical resident who is dying. She basically has been given a month to live. She constantly has seizures and the seizures are killing her. She heads out one night to just get drunk and ends up meeting Rifter. They immediately head home to Gwen’s but a seizure stops anything from happening. Rifter, having the power to dreamwalk, gets into Gwen’s head and it almost seems to bond them in a way. After that Rifter just seems to know when she’s in trouble. When the bad guys go after Gwen Rifter is there to take her back to their mansion and protect her from evil.
The evil comes from witches practicing the dark arts and weretrappers who want to take wolves and especially dire wolves out of the picture forever. One particular witch, Seb, is almost all powerful and is immortal as well. He is started working with the dark arts because of his family but he doesn’t want to take over the world like his sister did. Unfortunately his sister spelled him and he can’t get out of it and is forced to work against his one time friends, the dire wolves. So he’s raising a spirit army of dead dire wolves to help him defeat the dire wolves. How horrible to see all your dead friends and family coming after you whether they want to or not. The witches are also after Gwen as it turns out that she’s a half human/half dire wolf but her blood can actually kill the immortal dires. If they get her they can replicate her blood and find the one thing that will bring the dires down.
Ok, the premise of this story is one that is good. The good against evil plot I can totally get into as well as Rifter finding a mate in Gwen, which they thought would never happen as all the female dires were killed by the deities years ago. The deities telling the wolves (far into the book) that maybe they aren’t the only dire wolves around is a shock but definitely leaves things open for the other dire wolves to possibly mate themselves was a good intro into the next book. There was a lot of action in the story and I found the other dire wolves interesting as the book went on and I got to know them all a little better. The tough guy attitudes weren’t all they were about. Unfortunately so much of the way the story was constructed just didn’t work for me.
Where do I start? The beginning of the book is when Rifter and Gwen meet. Rifter states that he’s been in prison but then that is never mentioned again. Ever. Was he really or was that just him being an ass? IDK. They go home together but their thoughts aren’t on each other. Gwen goes into her room to take medication in the hopes that she won’t seize and starts thinking of her house, her life, her impending death…stuff that ends up giving us background. Then she does seize and Rifter helps her but then he starts thinking about his fellow dire wolves and their powers, etc. What? Instead of a sexy, possible tension ridden scene we get info dumps. I was frustrated. Did I really need to know all that information right then? No, it could have been given to me over the course of the story but it’s dumped all at once, and at a completely inappropriate time. The same info is also given to us multiple times in different parts of the book so the repetitiveness got old and proved that the initial info dump wasn’t necessary.
Besides the info dumping the book became more convoluted as it went on. There was almost too much happening and after a while it became unbelievable and this is a paranormal romance. I’ve already suspended belief – how much farther do I need to take it?
Near the end the deities end up coming to help the dire wolves but they’ll only grant the dires one wish – only one thing that they can help them with. What do they choose? To save Gwen. Now, I get that Gwen gives all the dires hope that they too can mate in the future but let’s think about this. You’re trying to save the world, in a roundabout kind of way, you’ve got a witch that is immortal and causing a boatload of trouble and you have to find a way to take him down. You’re at a loss as to how to kill him and end up saving everyone…and you choose to save the girl. Now maybe it’s just me, but frankly I would have said – kill Seb and all our troubles will go away. Ok, maybe I’m not being romantic enough but still – there was your solution! *sigh* IDK, maybe it was just one too many eye-rolling moments for me.
In this story Rifter and Gwen do get their HEA. Unfortunately it was hard to concentrate on their romance when so many other things were going on. The impending disaster with the spirit army that they were fighting against is left hanging and didn’t conclude at all. I’m sorry to say that this book was just ok and mostly didn’t work for me. It had it’s good parts but the parts I didn’t like far outweighed the parts I did.
Rating: 2 out of 5
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This book is available from Signet. You can buy it here or here in e-format.