Un Lycan Protecteur (Des Lycans dans la Ville t. 4)

Big City Lycans #4

by Eve Langlais, Valentin Translations (Translator), Viviane Faure (Translator)

Il a pour mission de protéger, mais il en oublie de veiller sur son propre cœur. Erryn cherche des réponses quant à la situation des Lycans. Malheureusement, elle est associée à un mâle qui prend son rôle de protecteur trop au sérieux. Elle ne peut pas s’ouvrir à lui. Si quelqu’un découvrait son secret, elle serait réduite en miettes. Depuis quelque temps, Quinn travaille en secret pour la Cabale, mais sa dernière mission pour eux est la plus délicate. Le docteur Silver est coriace et aussi mystérieuse que sexy. Mais elle n’est pas sa compagne. Du moins, son parfum ne l’indique pas. En tout cas, c’est ce qu’il pense jusqu’à ce qu’ils se retrouvent en fuite tous les deux en Europe. Pour échapper à la mort, ils se rapprochent, mais leur avenir est incertain, parce que ce qu’ils découvrent dans une petite ville de Roumanie en fait des cibles à abattre. Cependant, la survie n’est pas leur unique mission. Ces deux solitaires trouveront-ils un moyen d’unir leurs cœurs farouchement indépendants ?

Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Audiobook, Urban Fantasy, Shapeshifters, Fantasy

221 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 11, 2023

About the author

~ New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

Hello, my name is Eve Langlais and I am an International Bestselling author who loves to write hot romance, usually with werewolves, cyborgs or aliens .

I should warn you, I have a twisted imagination and a sarcastic sense of humor something I like to let loose in my writing. While well known for my shifter stories, I am also extremely partial to aliens, the kind who like to abduct humans and then drive them insane...with pleasure. Or do you like something a little darker, more serious? Then check out my cyborgs whose battle with humanity have captivated readers worldwide.

If you'd like to know more, read some excerpts or find out what I’m working on, then please visit me at http://www.EveLanglais.com or sign up for my newsletter at http://www.evelanglais.com/newrelease .
I am also extremely active on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eve.langlais.98

Reviews

[Jeanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good but not best

This series is getting more interesting with each book. I loved the Doc and Quinn. She had a lot of secrets! Scientifically, I was engrossed start to finish. The romance however, suffered. This was not the most romantic book, and at times it felt forced. That being said, it still has its hot moments. I think I was mostly disappointed with the lack of resolution in the end. It was more like things just stopped. Hopefully there will be a tie in with Brock’s story that will bring a more complete resolution. I still have a lot of questions! If that was the intent then 5 stars! If not, then why leave so much unresolved? Can’t wait to read the next one to find out.

[Dar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that was an interesting origin story! And, we’ll get the other two stories from those with that origin as well, so that’s makes me happy 😊 In this one though, we get two characters who are not friends, not even acquaintances, but are forced to work together. Great banter between them, lots of action and recurring danger, and a few big reveals, kept me invested in how they made out. The fact they fell in love along the way, well that was simply inevitable <3

[Diane Selander- maglioli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Werewolf Bodyguard

This author's latest book, which is the 4th in this series, is about Quinn and Doc Silver. They're in constant danger from werewolf like creatures who have been attacking, killing and kidnapping adults and children. Secrets, traitors and evil are uncovered in this exciting story. A really great book.

[Bethany Dupper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of action

The only reason I'm rating it three out of five is because I'm not super impressed with the writing overall, but it's a good story - filled with action, werewolves and other supernatural beings, and sex! every time I finish a book in this series I want to know what's going to happen next!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Eve Langlais book and it was pretty solid. Enough that I'll probably check out other books by her. The pace moved at a decent clip and both the hero and heroine were decent characters who didn't get on my nerves, so that's good.

So why not five stars?

Well, the romance didn't exactly set my heart to racing. Although the H and h were fine in their own right, I just didn't feel the chemistry between them. So the times when they got a little hot and bothered it just felt forced. Like it was happening because that's what supposed to happen in these stories, rather than because the characters just couldn't hold back on their desire a second longer. So the romance was passable but not great.

The ending also got a bit contrived and left too many unanswered questions. I assume that's to leave things for the next book but it did make this one feel a tad unsatisfying.


The story opens with this long flashback of our hero Quinn and two of his army buddies in a dungeon as POWs for some tactfully unnamed country. They're starving and their buddies keep being taken away and then never coming back. Eventually Quinn is taken and shoved into a cell with some really thin guy who is chained to the wall. This skinny guy is beaten by the guards until he gives in and bites Quinn on the arm. Quinn is then thrown into a different cell where he eventually transforms into a werewolf for the first time. Two of his buddies do too, and then the skinny guy breaks them out and they escape. Except the skinny guy gets shot a bunch of times and they're all really weak from being starved for months, so they can't really carry him. They make it out into the wilderness but then he tells them to leave him because he's going to die anyway and they still have a chance to make it. So they do, which really surprised me because usually our heroes are bit more, well, heroic.

Scene change and Quinn is now part of a nice pack of wolves and doing some work for "The Cabal" a sort of governing body for werewolf kind. They lay down the rules all packs must live by. Things like "don't tell humans that we exist" and the like. They also ruthlessly destroy anyone who gets attacked by a werewolf or happens to see one. Either the Cabal makes it so everyone thinks this person is crazy, thereby ruining their life, or they just straight up kill the person. Again, surprising since it doesn't really paint our hero in a very good light that he's loyal to a group like this.

Anyway, Quinn is assigned to act as bodyguard for the heroine Erryn's secret mission. She's a doctor and works for the Cabal. It's very unusual for the Cabal to employ a woman because, in this universe, women can't be werewolves. Only men are able to shapeshift. If a woman is bitten she just gets a nasty bite scar and that's it. Which is very strange, biologically speaking.

It's also really bad for a woman to get pregnant by a werewolf because the unborn babies have a habit of tearing their way out of their mothers before they can be born. Thus the Cabal insists all the men get vasectomies once they're turned. Thanks to these two things, women are basically seen as useless except for the purposes of banging.

It also seems that there's some level of the typical "predestined mate" thing in this series too since I gather from the story that all the previous heroes in the series were hyper-attracted to their mates' scents. And in this book a lot of emphasis is put on the fact that Erryn practically bathes in some hideous perfume in order to mask her scent from Quinn and the other werewolves.

It seems very strange to me that this entire society of werewolves decided that there was just no possible way for women to give birth to werewolf pups, but there still WAS a natural desire to find one's predestined mate. What's the point of having a one true mate, biologically/evolutionarily speaking, if it's not to have children? Guess we're not supposed to think this deeply about a fictional universe, but I just thought it was weird that no one until this fourth book in the series went "hey, wait a minute..."

Anyway, Erryn's secret mission is that she's going to this village in Romania where there isn't supposed to be a werewolf pack but a whole bunch of them are showing the werewolf gene in their DNA that they ever-so-helpfully put up in the 23 and Me database. Because that's apparently a thing that werewolves would do, despite them needing to keep their existence hidden.

Erryn suspects that they've been giving birth to werewolf babies and she wants to know how. But she doesn't tell Quinn what their mission is or where they're going until about halfway into the story. They hop on a plane and Quinn gripes about how awful she smells because of the perfume. Then their pilot gets sick so they have an unexpected layover in London. But when they get back on the plane, Quinn has a bad feeling and goes to check on their luggage. He finds that Erryn's suitcase is heavier than when they boarded. Erryn deduces that it must be a bomb and they jump off the plane as it's racing down the runway. And although the author made it a point to say that the pilot would surely have been alerted to the fact that they opened the door, he still just takes off like nothing's happened and then the plane blows up shortly thereafter.

Quinn takes Erryn to the house of one of the army buddies from the opening flashback who happens to live in London and is working for the local vampire "flock." (Not sure that's the correct term for a group of vampires...) While they're at his place, a crazy creature attacks them. It's a confusing mishmash of parts and has rudimentary wings. From the description I thought it sounded like a gargoyle but none of the characters even suggest that could be the case so, whatever. It takes all three of them to kill it.

Then the vampire princess shows up, is super nasty and condescending to the army buddy guy, and then reveals that this is the third one of these creatures that has popped up recently and she's been tracking and killing them all by herself. This makes army buddy angry because she could have been hurt so you can bet they'll be an item in a future book. This whole scene just seems to be set up for that future book, though, because it never gets explained as being in any way related to Erryn's mission. So it was kind of bizarre.

Quinn and Erynn leave and get on a train. Up to this point they've been pretty brusque with each other. Erynn tells us in her inner monologue that she CAN'T let him get close and he just finds her generally annoying and stinky but also still bafflingly compelling. But they haven't even kissed or anything and then suddenly on this train they do the old "let's conserve body heat by spooning while we sleep" trick and next thing you know he's got his hand down her pants and gives her a "tiny orgasm."

But the train gets attacked by unknown bad guys who end up blowing up a bridge with the train on it in order to take out Quinn and Erryn. There's some fighting and Quinn takes out a bunch of guys but one gets the drop on him and Erryn has to save him by shooting the guy. Then they steal the truck the bad guys arrived in and drive off to this town in Romania.

Once there, by astonishing coincidence they run into the OTHER army buddy who was with Quinn in that POW camp. Yes, he just HAPPENS to be in this random Romanian village. We quickly learn that this is a community where werewolves and humans live together and intermarry. They're not a pack, they're a town with elected officials, not "alphas" who get to boss everyone around just because they're strongest. This army buddy really hates The Cabal because he says they're untrustworthy and they want to keep werewolves hidden. Army buddy thinks it's time for them to come out of the shadows and says this town is proof it can work. Quinn tells him he's nuts. One remote town in the middle of nowhere is not a representative sample size for the whole world.

Erryn tries to question Army Buddy about whether there are natural born werewolves in town but he's cagey about it and just keeps unconvincingly insisting that's impossible. Army buddy arranges for our H and h to stay in the attic of this local woman and then warns them not to go out after dark because it "isn't safe." They head to the attic and have another round of hanky panky which results in Erryn getting another "tiny orgasm" and then Quinn leaves to scout the town.

Army buddy starts following him and is pissed that he didn't heed the warning to stay inside. Then they hear a scream and rush to the scene of this teenage girl being attacked by some monstrous creatures. They don't look quite like what attacked them in London, though. They don't have any wings and looks more like wolfmen. See, in this universe when the werewolves shift they become full wolves that run on all fours and have paws. Not into some bipedal thing with hands that are just slightly elongated and sprout claws. But these "monstrous creatures" look like the bipedal wolfman things from the movies only wrong somehow. Misshapen and with the wrong number of fingers, etc. Also, most werewolves are completely ruled by the moon. They can't shift unless it's a full moon. The only exception to this are alpha wolves who can shift whenever they want. But these wolfmen things are shifted and it's not a full moon.

Quinn and Army buddy wade into the fight, along with the father of the girl being attacked, who happens to be an alpha so he's a lot more useful than Quinn and Army Buddy, even though they have guns.

Meanwhile, Erryn has been having tea with the old Romanian woman who very conveniently speaks JUST enough English to make it easy for her and Erryn to communicate. She tells Erryn about how her daughter died giving birth to a werewolf baby and then one of the creatures attacked and killed both the baby and the woman's husband. Directly after this story they hear a thud on the roof and wouldn't you know it, it's one of the creatures. Erryn and this ancient Romanian grandma chick are apparently WAY better at fighting than the three men because they managed to mop the floor with their creature. Erryn gets bitten in the process but she's unbelievably chill about it.

Quinn gets back after it's all over and then he feels bad because he's supposed to be acting as Erryn's bodyguard but he left her alone during a monster attack. He's also really upset that she's been wounded but she blows him off. She then tells him the reason she's so blase about it is because it's happened so often. Apparently her blood is just really delicious-smelling to werewolves when they're in their wolf form and that's why she gets attacked all the time, so she's used to it.

The next day the town takes stock and find that a toddler was taken. Army Buddy reveals that this is what always happens. The creatures attack and drag off some young women and/or children and they're never seen again. They try to track the creatures but the trail always just vanishes. Quinn and Erryn say it sounds like the creatures have inside information and that means someone in the town is working with them. Army Buddy says that's impossible. Not their idyllic town!

Army buddy asks Erryn to come look at the bodies of the creatures since she's got experience with this kind of thing. They go to the morgue only to find that the bodies have disappeared and the entire area has been doused with bleach, thereby destroying any DNA evidence. Nope, definitely not an inside job...Erryn also asks if all the people who have been taken were natural born werewolves and Army Buddy finally admits that yes, they were. That's why they're all women because the boy babies rarely survive. Apparently the wolf is much stronger in the boy babies so there's a much higher chance of the mother being killed. So not only did that happen a lot, usually killing the baby in the process, but also some women had started aborting male babies, just in case.

Then Erryn and Quinn decide to have sex, which felt a little out of nowhere. They do it in a local barn because the roof of their attic room is still being repaired. They do it twice and of course it's very pleasurable for both of them. However, after the fact Quinn seems to have undergone some kind of religious experience. He claims that what they shared wasn't just sex. It was way more powerful than that. It was kind of weird because during the act itself nothing was said about Quinn feeling this powerful thing that was supposedly happening. It was just described like your run of the mill good time sex. But suddenly afterward he's all "she's the only one for me forever." Weird.

And Erryn is no where near being on the same page as Quinn. She tells him right to his face that this is just a fling. The sex was good and all, but they're not in a relationship or anything. Once this mission is over she won't give him the time of day. Quinn gets upset and says she can't pretend she didn't feel their connection, and she says that no, she didn't. And what's more, she'll hook up with someone less clingy next time. This makes Quinn mad and he says there won't BE any other hook ups. She's not going to sleep with anyone but him! Good thing this is a romance novel because all of this would fit right in to a horror story. You sleep with a guy one time and suddenly he's super possessive and trying to insist you're in a relationship when you thought you were just having a casual fling? Kind of terrifying. But, since this is a romance novel, it's swoon-worthy instead of scary, right?

Army Buddy comes and ask Quinn to participate in a search for the missing girl. He doesn't really want to leave Erryn but she tells him she'll be fine. She can hang out with all these nice people in town. So Quinn leaves her, again, even though he's supposed to be protecting her. And he's gone for HOURS searching the woods for this missing kid. But then they actually pick up the trail. It's the first time they've found ANYTHING when searching and now suddenly there's a trail that a child could follow. Quinn thinks this is suspicious but doesn't say anything to the rest of the group and still spends many more hours being steadily led further and further away from the town and Erryn because he's kind of an idiot in this part. Lo and behold, the trail ends at a sheer cliff face that no one could have scaled and he finally says he thinks it was a wild goose chase.

Back at the town, Erryn has been chatting with two women who had very late-term abortions. Like 8 months along kind of late-term. The women also say that the fetuses weren't extracted via c-section. The doctor got them out "the normal way," which Erryn thinks is impossible. And what's more, the babies would have been most likely born alive at that age, so what did the doctor do? Suffocate them upon birth? The women also say they never saw the bodies. The doctor "destroyed" them. All very sus. Erryn then goes down in the basement of the clinic and is promptly kidnapped and whisked away.

Quinn finally comes back and spends ages searching for her. He finally goes down to the basement of the clinic and smells her awful perfume. But what's more, he finds the skinny guy who bit him back in the POW camp there! As it turns out, this guy just HAPPENS to be Erryn's father. She's a natural born werewolf too. That's why her blood smells so delicious. And she's the oldest living natural born ever. All the others died before her age. And that's probably why she was kidnapped, just like the other natural born girls.

This is where things started feeling a bit contrived. I mean, you're telling us that by complete coincidence the man who has sired Erryn also just happened to be in the same POW camp as Quinn, and turned him into a werewolf, who was then destined to be his daughter's mate? Isn't that a little...incestuous? I mean, this same guy made both Quinn and Erryn werewolves. And A LOT of emphasis was put on the fact that lycanthropy IS genetic. To the point where you can actually tell whose bite changed someone into a werewolf because their genetic markers are passed through the bite. So, like, if the skinny guy's genes were passed to Quinn, and they are obviously part of Erryn's makeup too because he's her dad...doesn't that make them close to being brother/sister?? Guess we're not supposed to think about that either...

Anyway, turns out the town doctor is this super evil guy. He used to work for The Cabal and he supposedly performed the vasectomies on a ton of wolves, including Erryn's dad, but it was a lie. He actually wanted women to get pregnant with werewolf babies so he could study them. That's how Erryn's mom got pregnant. When her dad found out, he tried to convince her mom to abort. He even told her about the whole werewolf thing to convince her. She ran away and kept the baby but no one knows how she managed to carry Erryn to term.

And because Erryn's dad is an alpha, and she was then bitten by another alpha under a full moon when she was in college, it's made her into this uber werewolf. She can do the whole two-legged wolfman change. And she's able to talk and have full control when she's shapeshifted. And of course she shifts at the end to take out all the bad guys. Except the evil doctor and his sister, who was also involved for some reason, get away so they can cause trouble in future books.

Afterward Erryn runs off because she's SURE Quinn will be disgusted by her shapeshifted form, even though there's been no hint up to that point to suggest this would be how he reacted. Quinn follows her and finds her passed out from shifting back to her human form. When she wakes up, they have sex again and HEA.

So yeah, the ending felt a little contrived and abrupt but overall the story was decent. It isn't clear why exactly people were trying to blow them up at the beginning of the story. It wasn't the doctor's doing because he specifically wanted Erryn alive. There were some hints that it might have been The Cabal's doing because they didn't want Erryn to blow the lid off the werewolf baby thing, but then they're the ones who approved her trip in the first place and assigned Quinn to protect her. So that doesn't really wash. There was some throwaway line at the end to say that the evil doctor's evil sister is married to someone who's on the board at the Cabal or something? So maybe that was who was trying to kill them? But again, why? The doctor wanted Erryn alive so....? It just doesn't add up.

And the creatures that attacked in London are never explained either. Just so many loose threads left at the end.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid continuation of the series. I had figured out the plot twists early on in the story, but I still enjoyed it. I have enjoyed the other books in this series as well. If you are looking for a quick werewolf romance, go for it, but you may need to read at least a few of the previous books to get the full picture.

Sidenote: I wish we were able to give ratings out of 10 instead of 5. I would say this book is a solid 7/10 (3.5/5).

[Jane.w · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book
I enjoyed this book. Erin is such a baddass. She’s got secrets, bad bad side manners as a doctor and doesn’t put up with anything. Quinn starts falling for her while acting as her bodyguard. Lots of action with a strong heroine and studly hero. They have fun & edgy banters and I enjoyed watching their relationship grow. The plot about natural born lycans is very interesting and kept me inthralled and guessing along the way. I recommend this book.

[Karen Hackett · Rating 5 out of 5]

WEREWOLF BODYGUARD by Eve Langlais, Big City Lycans Book 4

Great banter between Quinn and Erryn, the drama, the angst, the action! Erryn’s secret brings an unexpected turnabout in WEREWOLF BODYGUARD. Eve Langlais loves to write hot romance, usually with hot shifters, cyborgs, or aliens throwing her sarcastic sense of humor into the mix.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twist

On werewolf lore. Enjoyed the departure and twists and turns in the book.
Was genuinely surprised by the last one. Usually I see most conclusion or big reveals.
Looking forward to others in series.

[Mindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this story so much. It was nice to see Dr. Silver become human so to speak 😂. Quinn was good for her. Boy were some of the folks of this town awful. To do what was done was an interesting story. On to the next one. Brock and his Vampire 😂😂😂. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰💜💜💜💜💜😊😊😊😊😊

[Emily Mims · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good fun

Werewolves and vampires and treachery and hot sex. As always, Eve Langlais delivers a fun read and delicious escape for an evening. Looking forward to the next one!

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

I love this series! This time we took a tour of Europe with a bit of planes, trains and automobiles. I can't wait to find out how the others fair.

[Michelle v · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

This book was so intense. This series is getting better and better with each book. You will fall in love with all the hot werewolves.

[Chrissy Loves Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great story. Lots of action. There were a lot of twists and turns in this book that I couldn't easily predict. I'm always a sucker for any story that has a strong female lead.

[Ceola · Rating 4 out of 5]

meh!

[Romane | Bookylicious · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75
A welcoming surprise! Normally I'm always on the edge concerning the book of this author but this one really hooked me

[Ace · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

[Nessa]

DROPPED.

Unless you're following this series and know the characters or are fans of Erryn and Quinn, I found the romance a little...dull.

[Mindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Adult content

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome book

Full of suspense, surprises, twists, & turns plus lots of love. Highly recommend reading and I recommend the whole series.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️: 3.5/5
🌶️: 3/5
Narration: 3.5/5

[Thenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

RTC

[Habibah · Rating 2 out of 5]

needs editing

Some of the writing is elementary. I almost quit mid story but I’m glad I forced myself to finish. It got better.