Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Nehalem Pack #7

An Unexpected Mate

Rate this book
[Siren Classic Erotic Alternative Paranormal Romance, M/M, werewolves, HEA] After suffering from years of abuse, Casper Sampson is free to live a normal life. Falling in love never factored into his visions of the future, but after just one look at his mate, Casper can't control his feelings and wants to surrender his heart to the man who's stolen it. Phillip Stefano has hunted werewolves his whole adult life, but all that changed when his son became mated to one, and now Phillip will do anything to protect the wolves who have accepted him into their family. When the head of council headquarters stops in for an unexpected visit, Phillip grows suspicious of his motives. To make matters worse, Phillip finds himself falling for a young wolf shifter who has awakened feelings in him that he thought had died years ago. When Casper turns up missing, Phillip knows who's responsible and will stop at nothing to get his mate back, even if it means his own death. ** A Siren Erotic Romance

141 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 17, 2013

1 person is currently reading
69 people want to read

About the author

A.J. Jarrett

81 books186 followers
AJ Jarrett is happily married to her best friend and the mother of four, yes, four children. Born and raised in Missouri and loves the area most of the time, until it snows a ton. She enjoys reading and reads a lot. When not reading she can be found propped up in her favorite spot on the couch with her laptop plotting her next story or finishing one of her WIP.

Can visit her blog or feel free to email her at: aj.jarrett@yahoo.com

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
76 (30%)
4 stars
79 (31%)
3 stars
81 (32%)
2 stars
6 (2%)
1 star
6 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Hc.
2,362 reviews35 followers
October 1, 2014
So... right off the bat, I really do NOT care for most older hero stories. (This is the ONLY reason I marked as 3 instead of 4 stars for me) If it's labeled that way it usually means much older and for me anything past 15 is pushing it.. 10 and under is better. I know..I know.. something similar with Brandon and Erik coming up... but the age gap I don't think (was his age ever mentioned?) is nearly as big.

IF you ignore the huge age gap (around 22 yrs) the rest I found to be very touching. This is sooo much more about relationship than sex. The sex was mostly non-existant. Dealing with past issues (abuse, rape, murdered lover...) and apparently something in the other is helping these two finally heal fully.

The story conflict was very entertaining with the twists we get. Of course the biggest twist at the end makes it feel like a series wrap up to me.. NO CAN DO! Have to at least resolve Erik and Brandon after all the crap the brat's done! I'm also wondering what new conflicts may pop up to keep the series moving forward..
Profile Image for Pamela Su.
1,169 reviews30 followers
January 16, 2015
An entertaining enough story for a Siren series.

I rather like age-gap romances so this appealed to me right off the bat. It was pretty much insta-love all the way and not even the mate-bond excuse saved it. I was a bit disappointed by that.

Occasionally, there's a choice of words used in a description that made me go "huh?"

Still, it wasn't too bad. I haven't read the previous books but it wasn't too difficult to figure out the story.
Profile Image for ~SexyBookWorm~.
1,083 reviews32 followers
September 6, 2013
Loved the age difference in their relationship. I really didn't expect the father Philip to become a mate to anyone in this series but it's a pleasant surprise!

BTW I'm getting really tired of waiting on Erik and Branden's story to happen! we keep hearing abt them in every book so it's making the wait harder!
Profile Image for Karina Vitório.
415 reviews1 follower
October 24, 2023
A série conta atualmente com 40 volumes publicados e eu adoro ler esses romances sobrenaturais “explosivos” e rápidos para relaxar e me divertir sem pensar muito! Tem alguns livros que eu gosto mais do que outros, mas em geral gosto muito da série por ela ser simples, com um universo bem definido, ser rápida de ler e não ter um grande aprofundamento.

Devon Carsten, o alfa da matilha de Nehalem, não poderia imaginar que ter seu irmão caçula sequestrado e em seguida conhecer seu companheiro predestinado mudaria tão drasticamente o curso de sua vida.

Nesse mundo criado pela autora, a existência dos shifters não é algo que todos os seres humanos estejam cientes. A maioria tenta viver em paz e sem chamar a atenção, mas a crueldade de alguns fez com que um grupo de humanos criasse o Conselho de Caçadores, que caça, estuda e mata indiscriminadamente qualquer shifter encontrado.

A série vai nos apresentando novos companheiros shifters e humanos, que precisam de ajuda ou de um lar, e conforme a matilha de Devon cresce, os momentos de felicidade e os perigos também aumentam. Pouco a pouco eles conseguem mudar o Conselho e fazer o grupo se concentrar em incentivar humanos e shifters a viver em harmonia e em caçar somente shifters criminosos. Porém, com isso, crimes e crueldades começam a ser descobertos, como por exemplo: shifters sendo aprisionados por anos, experimentos científicos para transformar humanos em shifters e até mesmo a gravidez masculina!

Cada livro traz a história de um casal (homem x homem), podendo ser formado por um humano e um shifter ou dois shifters. Além disso, apesar da maioria dos shifters serem lobos, existem alguns outros tipos como pumas, ursos e tigres.

Amo isso de amor à primeira vista, do shifter só ter um companheiro para a vida toda, do modo como o romance entre o casal acontece bem rápido e de, independente dos desafios, eu sempre poder contar com o “felizes para sempre” no final!

Meu Deus, as vezes eu fico rindo e pensando “Será que ninguém percebeu que as duas cidades, Nehalem e Silver Creek, praticamente só têm homens bonitos e gays!?”.
Profile Image for Phaney.
1,248 reviews22 followers
January 18, 2014
** Some spoilers. **

I am seriously underwhelmed. Oh, this book wasn’t horrible and I don’t actively dislike it. I just can’t find much to like either. Or anything, really. As much as I enjoy a good hurt/comfort story, this one fell completely flat as one.

Let’s quickly tackle the writing itself first.

The least Phillip could do was elevate some of Casper’s fears.

Just one example of the very sad copy-editing job. Lots more around. In case of doubt, that should be alleviate up there.
Steam’s bellowing (billowing); water is slicing (sluicing); something fails (pales) in comparison; excepting (accepting). And those are just the ones I bothered to note down.

Now for the meat of the story.

Hm. Casper seems not particularly traumatized, does he? And it’s been only three months since he was rescued. (Until inconsistency strikes again, anyway. Casper’s been free for three months. No, he’s been free for only one. Blah. It better be three. Otherwise I buy the changes in him even less.)

I mean it wasn’t just three years of abuse that he suffered; it was torture. And then the events in that previous volume... It just feels that an offhand comment like “sure, he could do without the nightmares” fails to do the damage justice.
Oh well. Resilient boy, I guess.
Also, I really thought Casper was younger than he is in this book.

And okay, I am not an expert on sexual abuse, but this trope that bad memories like those can be replaced by good ones? I don’t buy it. Recovering from something like that needs time and the past is bound to flare up at times even then.
I find myself kind of sick of the whole magically healing penis thing. Well, since it’s about healing the mind, maybe I should refer to it as magical psycho penis instead. (That sounds almost too cool for what it means.) And granted, they just make use of the magical psycho hand at that particular point in the story. Still.

“I can understand that.” Phillip’s stare roamed over his face. “But I have to ask how did you come out of this seeming so untouched by it all?”

That was a good question. A lot of it was show for everyone else but a lot of it was from his own self-determination to not let them win. He could be the victim and let everyone pity him but why? Sure he’d been through a terrible thing that no one should ever have to deal with but feeling sorry for himself wouldn’t change anything.

If only it were that simple.
I feel that implying victims of abuse allow themselves to suffer and be ashamed in a bid for sympathy/pity is hugely insulting to people who have gone through this sort of trauma. Guess I have to chalk it up to Casper’s personal opinion and not the author’s. Otherwise I’d have to throw something against the wall. (This is one of those moments when a physical copy of a book would come in handy.)

The sex is happening way too fast for my taste. Why does it even have to be full-on sex? Whatever happened to all those other pleasurable ways to get off together?
Especially in Casper’s case that would seem like the way to go. I’ll bet no one ever sucked him off, for example, or – if you absolutely have to have penetration – let him top. Go spend time with those things, lots of time. Don’t re-enact the rapes on the second (or third?) day of your acquaintance.

But maybe I am asking too much of Phillip. For claiming to be a no-nonsense adult, he sure falls in love fast. Or maybe it’s yet another instance of sloppy writing, since first he thinks to himself how he loves the guy already (after one conversation), a day or two later (after getting frisky) he thinks how “the beginnings of love start to take root in his heart”. That seems kind of backwards.

I am also having a small problem with how much is made of Phillip’s sexual experience. His wife only recently died, and I am pretty sure a stand-up guy like him was not cheating on her then or before, and his son’s old enough for Phillip to have been fairly young when he had him. Thus the marriage must have been intact a longish time too. And there was that one serious lover we know he had before. Now I don’t presume that he had no other sex partners ever, but he can’t have gotten around as much as they suggest here. Meh.



Jeez, these people really are idiots. I just... No.

To top off all the unlikeliness this older man has sex just a few hours after . Sure. Whatever.

The single good thing to emerge from this book was the way they . And even that smacked of too-damned-good-to-be-true. I’ll still take it, because I’m not a fan of a clichéd looming threat like that.

Now I don’t feel like reading the next volume. I’ll have to take a break to regain my enthusiasm.
Profile Image for Cheesecake.
2,800 reviews521 followers
March 21, 2015
This was better than I expected at first. I hadn't read the previous books so I was a bit lost the first chapter or so. But quickly caught up. I love May December romances and this was a good one. I don't read a lot of MM books, so it was a bit weird to read a book with no female characters. It didn't hurt the story, just made it feel like the setting wasn't really earth, but some alternate universe. I liked the way Philip worried he was too old for Casper, but he took into consideration Casper's feelings too. So he didn't let his worries get in the way. The end is pretty silly but again, didn't wreck the book for me, I just rolled my eyes a lot.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews