Summary
Hunters hunt. Predators stalk. The union between the two could bring about a prophecy the world isn’t ready for.
Centuries of hunting bloodsuckers courses through my veins. Until I met the powerful Vampire Navy SEAL Sam Mason. He’s gorgeous, possessive, deadly, and all mine.
My family begs to differ. Since I crossed enemy lines, I’m a disgrace, lost my mind, and committed a sacrilege they want me to atone for.
My penance for sleeping with a vampire—lock me away until they can brainwash me.
But there are bigger things at play. It’s not me the Aberdeens should worry about.
Beneath Sam’s boyish charm lies a predator, a ticking time bomb ready to destroy anyone who dares to mess with him or those he cares about, especially me.
Yet he hasn’t met the Aberdeen matriarch. My human grandmother is sweet with a dash of salt and a sprinkle of acid to complement her personality. It’s a lethal combination that will burn the toughest of adversaries right down to the bone.
Nothing will stop her hunger for control, power, and to lead a genetically altered army of supernatural killers with me standing stoically by her side.
I’ll walk through the fires of hell before I become her lieutenant.
The players are set. Lines are drawn. Now, the battle begins.
Excerpt
My screams died in the wind as I plummeted to earth. If only my sweater hadn’t ripped, or I hadn’t chased after Sam, or I hadn’t signed up for a job to capture the arrogant vampire in the first place. That night at the vampire club seemed like eons ago when in fact just over three weeks had passed. I had to stop kicking myself over meeting Sam Mason. I wasn’t in a good place in my life, but Sam was the one good thing in the hell I was living. He might be an ass—arrogant, dominant, and possessive—but he was mine. He was the only one who loved me in a way no one had loved me before.
Still, so much had happened in a short time span that I couldn’t process any of it quickly enough. But crying wouldn’t save my life or that of my unborn child’s. Stupid, stupid me.I’m going to die. I’m going to splatter on the ground, and my body parts will be strewn over the open field.
I would never see Sam again or see my baby at all. Hell, I would never have the chance to ask Dr. Vieira all the additional things I needed to know about having a supernatural kid. Above all, I would never have the chance to tell Sam I loved him.
Snow plastered my face as I continued to scream, thinking about all the what-ifs. But the number of what-if questions or regrets wouldn’t save me. Tears poured out, and my pulse pounded in my ears. I had no clue how far up I’d been, and I was deathly afraid to look.
“Mom, Dad, I’m coming to see you in heaven. Jordyn, I love you. Rianne—” My other sister’s name caught in my throat as anger overshadowed the panic gripping me.
I swore if I lived, I would kill my uncle Ray after I shook him for Sam’s whereabouts. Then I would hunt everyone and anyone who had a hand in Sam’s kidnapping, including my sister, Rianne. Trying to reason with her was a waste of energy.
But I was out of time. I squeezed my eyes shut, sucked in air, prayed harder than I ever had before, and braced for impact, preparing for the pain. But it didn’t come. It took me a second to realize someone had caught me. He smelled like a mixture of pine and earth. Maybe I’d made it to heaven—or hell. My head spun like an F5 tornado as blackness crept in from my peripheral vision.
“I’ve got you, Layla,” the man said, cradling me in his arms. The heat emanating off my savior competed with the chill coursing through my body.
“Sam?” I cried. Maybe this was all a dream, and the vampire I was hopelessly in love with hadn’t been kidnapped. “You’re okay.”
“No, darling. I’m afraid I’m not Sam.” He sounded sad with an undercurrent of anger. “We need to get you on the plane and warmed up. You’re shivering.”
“Plane?” I whispered as the face of the man who resembled Sam spun before me. “Steven?”
Sam’s dad grinned, his green eyes high beams in the growing storm.
My heart split wide open.
“You’re not dying on my watch,” he said as if he read the questions on my face.
Tears streamed down my windburned cheeks and stung my chapped lips as I locked my hands around his neck. “I’m sorry. I wanted to save Sam, and I almost killed our baby in the process.” I’d recently learned I was carrying a fanged creature—or maybe not. Maybe the embryo inside me would be born human, without fangs.
Normally when a male vampire impregnated a woman with Vel-negative blood, the child was human until the teenage years. At that time, the kid would have the choice to activate the vampire gene. However, Dr. Vieira had previously speculated the child would come out of my womb with fangs, ready to drink blood. My stomach protested as acid shot to my throat. The idea of a fanged baby was mind-blowing. But the thought of losing Sam was even more overwhelming.
“We need to find Sam.” How am I supposed to have a baby without him? We were in this together. We were supposed to be a team.
I bounced in Steven’s arms as we headed toward the plane. “We’ll get him back,” he said as certain as the snow was falling.
Review
(audiobook) Though there was less of Sam and the story focused mostly on Layla, I was quite invested in this book. The pace was also much better, with a lot of action and twists packed in a shorter book.
After Sam’s kidnapping at the end of the previous book, he’s away for a while, and we follow Layla as she’s looking for him, butting heads with her family at every corner. After many revelations, she’s gonna have to choose a side. That was quite a character development after her complete devotion to her family. On top of that, it isn’t only Sam and her relationship with him she evaluates to make her decision, but she reflects on the Mason family and all their friends. I liked that.
Sam’s misfortunes don’t stop with the kidnapping, and between two bouts of unnatural sleep, he doesn’t get much time with his girl. But he still manages to move their relationship forward, and that was kind of cute. At the same time, Layla finally aknowledges her feelings, and everything seems to fall into place until, of course, something happens at the end of the book.
There are still a few reminiscences of the events of the past series and the first two books, but even when the pace is slowing and the characters have time to think, they rather try to understand the conspiracy they’re caught in, and find the bad guys.
My main complain is that Layla is on the verge of becomming a Mary Sue. Between all the powers she gets from her family–yes, a few secrets are revealed–and the ones that seem to come from her magical pregnancy and from Sam’s blood, she’s almost as powerful as the Mason family. Not exactly the kind of character I want to read about.
The narration was good. The female narrator definitely got better, and though the male narrator has fewer chapters, he always does well. I have a good feeling about the next book. Fingers crossed!
Quickie
- Series: Vampire navy SEAL: Sam & Layla #3 (ends on a cliffhanger, and references a lot another series by the same author)
- Hashtags: #paranormal romance #military romance #romantic suspense #enemies to lovers #surprise pregnancy #vampire #vampire hunter
- Triggers: violence and death, lots of blood, including blood play
- Main couple: Layla Aberdeen & Sam Mason
- Hotness: 4/5
- Romance: 4/5
- + Layla deciding who she wants to be, what she wants, and who she wants
- – she has a really shitty family
Stalker mode
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