He expected gratitude, but what he got was a gorgeous she-wolf who defied him at every turn. 

For six torturous years, Omega Rachel Fields did what she could to protect her pack-mates from the evil Riverson werewolves. She endured living side-by-side with the men who murdered her uncle and seized his pack — all while raising her orphaned nephew as her own son. Now that their reign of terror is over, Rachel is determined to live life on her own terms. Screw joining another pack! And she doesn’t give a rat’s hiney who it pisses off.  

Gavin Blackwood has one job: Redistribute the survivors of the Riversons to healthy packs. There’s only one problem — and she just happens to be the old pack’s sexy-as-sin Omega, not to mention the most stubborn she-wolf he’s ever met.  Oh, and if his wolf’s sniffer is right, his mate! 

Even though he’s an Enforcer, Gavin knows brute force won’t change Rachel’s mind. As eager as he is to get her curves into his bed, he’ll have to tread carefully to convince her that she and her young ward would be safer on Blackwood lands. But will they be? Someone from her past has other ideas.

Sexy shifters and their feisty mates who aren’t shy about loving each other – in other words, there’s going to be sex involved in this story – so, this is an adult, 18+ reader tale.

Titles in the Real Men Shift series include:  Real Men Howl – Real Men Snarl – Real Men Growl

Title:  Real Men Growl
Series:  Real Men shift #3
Author:  Celia Kyle & Marina Maddix
Published:  August 14, 2018
My Rating:  4.5 stars

Gavin and Rachel’s story is complex and yet so simple.  As the Blackwood pack enforcer Gavin has been sent to former Riverson pack location to tie up loose ends, get some answers and relocate members of the now Fields pack into the Blackwood pack if that is their choice.  This pack has been through hell with an abusive alpha who massacred their former alpha and so many members of their pack – now he’s awaiting prison for his crimes and life can move on for the members of the pack.  Except there is one major holdout, a woman who is the pack Omega and has no intention of leaving her home.  She’s already a lone wolf and hiding a secret from the Blackwood enforcer.  Dumb luck that had Gavin being at the right place to learn Rachel’s secret and change her life and the young boy she’s protected for years from the wolf who killed his father and mother.  She might be stubborn, she may be an untrained Omega, but she’s also Gavin’s mate and while he can be patient up to a point, he’s not leaving his mate or their young charge behind.

Rachel doesn’t trust anyone any more.  Her experience with a vile alpha over the past few years has taught her to keep her head down, watch her back and protect Eric.  She is convinced that Gavin’s pack is just the same as the one she’s experienced these last years, and has no interest in putting herself under another alpha’s control.  Yes, she gets that Gavin is probably her mate… but her first priority is to Eric, and if Gavin doesn’t like that he can take a hike.  Unfortunately, not all of the abusive pack members were rounded up… and one is determined to have Rachel for his own.  She has to trust Gavin and her new pack to keep Eric safe, and that’s not easy for her to do.

Watching Gavin shed his enforcer hard shell and fall for Rachel and Eric is endearing.  The lengths he will go to in order for her to begin trusting him, believing that she’s in no danger from his brothers, his alpha or his pack are pretty amazing.  I get why Rachel feels and acts as she does, she’s basically been in a dangerous, abusive, frightening situation for years – and trust no longer comes easily, not even for her mate.  Watching her open up. learn to take people at face value once again was heartwarming.  Eric is a sweetheart and adorable as can be.  Definitely steamy once Rachel began to let her feelings come to the front for Gavin, dangerous and tense at times, overall I enjoyed my time in this world once again.  I don’t know if this is the last of the Real Men Shift series, but I have had an enjoyable time with all of these characters, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Real Men Growl to any Paranormal Romance or Shifter Romance reader.

I read this title through my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Available for the Kindle