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Caidi became Acine - alpha female - of her pack at a young age. In the years since that hard time, she has led her pack of shape-shifting Zarain into prosperity, all without the help of a single male. She has almost everything she could want, except for one thing… a baby. Caidi knows that even getting pregnant won't be easy, but she's willing to take the risk to get what she wants. And then everything goes wrong.

Raven, an alpha Shadatai Zarain warrior, doesn't know the blonde woman who approaches him in a tavern, but he knows he wants her. After just one night with her, he has no doubts. He's found his mate-and she isn't getting away from him. Now that Raven has found his mate, her safety is one of his highest priorities. Caidi's life is dangerous and she needs his protection. Whether or not she wants to accept it doesn't matter.

292 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

19 people are currently reading
407 people want to read

About the author

Rebecca Airies

63 books82 followers
I've always been an avid reader and writing just sort of followed. When I didn't like the way a book ended, I'd let my imagination run wild and paint a different ending in my head. New characters grew and I tried to get their stories on paper. I started with horror and straight sci-fi in my teens and eventually found romance.

I love to tell about the worlds and characters that sometimes seem so real to me. I write fantasy, futuristic, sci-fi, and paranormal romance, but if a character fascinates me, I'll give anything a try.

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5 stars
76 (20%)
4 stars
110 (30%)
3 stars
112 (30%)
2 stars
52 (14%)
1 star
16 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
Profile Image for Netanella.
4,754 reviews43 followers
August 11, 2010
Primal Quest is a futuristic erotic novel that just didn't quite seem to tie all the different ideas together. There are shifters living on strange planets using gates to jump to other planets. Most civilization seems very primitive but the gates are obviously not. Where's James Spader to make sense of all of this?

Caidi is our super-heroine, able to poison an entire tavern of shifters so her girls can have unprotected sex and make babies. Next thing you know, she's playing willing sub to Mr. Conceited, and that continues on for the entire rest of the story, while she obligingly reveals the Hidden Secrets of Her Pack to His Invading Highness.

Truthfully I had to skim whole passages just to get through this.
Profile Image for Pam.
1,093 reviews1,072 followers
January 19, 2013
3 stars

Caidi became the Acine, Zarain alpha female of her pack at a very young age, she had to deal with all the burdens and challenges alone. She gave up her goal of finding a mate, but still knows that in order for the pack to survive they need children. So along with some of her other members of her pack, they devise a plan to drug males of her kind and sleep with them without the intention of brining the men home. Her plan went all wrong when when the man who has chosen for her happened to be her mate.
”They were both alphas and Caidi wasn’t accustomed having to answer to anyone. Now, she had a mate-a Shadatai mate-and life had changed. This having a mate, a very large mate, was going to take some adjustment.”

Raven, a Shadatai Zarain alpha warrior, he was a dominating caring man , smart, patient, understanding, and overprotective …
”He admired her boldness even as he longed to temper it. She was a true alpha female, a worthy match, determined and far too used to getting her way.

He was a fast learner and knew how that to subdue her all it took was some



Plus it also helped that he had some extra powers to project certain images in her head



and he had ”fingers on her and the touch of those unseen hands.”



This read was a futuristic read, where there are mixed races that travel through gates to places that are worlds away, although it is a futuristic read, everything was primitive.

The beginning of this book was good, really good, got me all excited good, then the middle not so much. I got annoyed Caidi with her ranting and how she went about needing to prove to Raven that she is more than capable of taking care of herself. Luckily the middle had some very entertaining scenes to keep me distracted from her tantrums and Caidi was much more tolerable towards the end.

Although the book references shifters I thought the use of shifters were more like a race.
708 reviews16 followers
August 26, 2016
A truly great book that is a must read for any and all romance, fantasy, paranormal, and readers everywhere. A great story of a female leader of a pack of full of females and her choice to find a male to get pregnant by. Things turn out very differently and she has to face the changes that occur when she encounters a male by the name of Raven who changes everything.
Profile Image for Nat.
26 reviews
March 15, 2017
Rating: 2.5 stars.

While i liked the world setting and the potential it had as well as the variation of species. I found more could be told about this.
The story progressed mostly from sex scene to sex scene. Certain moments in time were skipped over all together, though they would have contributed to understanding the relationship between the main characters. Oftentimes this made me feel irritated. Raven was dominating her in a way no alpha woman would just accept and it didn't sit right with me that most scenes outside the bedroom simply weren't there. (Seriously obey every order of his swiftly and without question? Who are we kidding? I would just stand there laughing if someone said this to me.)
The plot thickened only after he heard of her history and even then ended in a somewhat disappointing manner.. it was over too fast and victory was too easy.
Of course his underestimating the female gender (again), didn't help his case any either.

Language wise I felt there was repetitive word use as well as some words i found to be.. offputting. For example, I came across the word vagina only once. It was otherwise refered to as "cunt", "pussy" or "wet channel".. And while the latter two don't much bother me as long as there are other ways to refer to her lady parts, cunt especially irked me. It was only ever him using the word and i felt it a little.. disrespectful. Not sure why exactly. Perhaps part of his overly dominating attitude?

The switch between her and his inner monologue wasn't always very clear from the beginning either.

I will be reading book two. To see if the author's style of writing improved in it and i would like to see more of the world she built. Perhaps the next male main won't have Raven's faults and there will be more story outside the bedroom as well. One can only hope.
Profile Image for Anya.
68 reviews
hard-pass-just-could-not-finish
March 13, 2024
Not giving it a rating because I didn't read more than a chapter but for some reason I bounced off of the writing style and nothing about what I did read was intriguing enough to push through it.
Profile Image for Teri.
37 reviews
September 21, 2015
This is the first of the Primal Attactions series, so it explains some things the others do not and contains some characters we see in other stories, too. You'll see Raven again at least a couple of times; Caidi; Dari; Zaden.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, found it a bit uneven, there being a first part of the story encompassing the couple discovering each other and finally getting together; and second part of the story about life in the h's holding and getting into a routine; and a part of the story about the h being kidnapped and rescued.

I love that the h was a strong, independent woman among other women of the same sort. The women were all Zarain, shifters of a particular sort, and they had no menfolk which among shifters in this universe is just somehow sacrilege. The women decided it was time to create the next generation, so they went off to another planet and another city to have some hot sex with guys of their kind who would presumably not want to join their pack and leave their city. This was by far the best part of the book, IMO. I love that the h was not going to just lay down and give up her life to the H. I loved his frustration.

The H was strong and alpha, nothing unusual there. Owing to circumstance, I suppose, he came across as fairly overbearing in the beginning. Somehow, unlike other Airies characters, I was able to forgive it because it was part of the conflict and the h did not simply cave, nor did he maintain that stance forever. He did give her some credit and see her as a person worthy of respect. (Getting back to Between Two Tiron here, the H in that never saw the h as having any qualities beyond sex.) I was troubled that the H felt, once he had the secret to the women's ability to disappear from the men's ability to sense them (e.g. the rocks), that he felt the need to hide them from her. What? He wasn't sure of her anymore? Only men can handle that kind of ability?

I'm also not sure I bought into the explanation for why the men hid the entrance to the mine, either. Because the women would be mated and leave the taivain, then possibly give the info to their men? Sure, and the men would never leave their taivain. And what about all that sharing the wealth crap they keep doing in regards to the fabric, the ancient books, the stones? Huh?

I enjoy this series overall, this is a strong entry. Would really like to see inside Airies' world building framework more.
275 reviews1 follower
April 11, 2013
I have been looking at this book for a long time on Ellora's Cave's website. I loved the cover. It caught my eye and I tend to be drawn to books with covers like these. As I had read the synopsis I thought that this could be a book that I could really like/love.

Awhile back EC had it for free a two week free promo and I couldn't resist.

Ok, review, here we go. When this book first starts out I loved it. I loved Caidi's character. She was a alpha female, strong, tuff and sassy. Raven was a alpha male, all handsome and arrogant like most alpha males are. Being that this was a shifter book, I was loving that we not only got the alpha male but also the female. I knew that they would clash and butt heads and I was right. I loved everything about this book. The characters, the way the worlds were described, and I loved the story line.

So why you are asking, did I rate it only at a 3? Ok, here is my answer. At about just past half way threw this book I got kinda bored. The cool sassy, protective, tuff, smart Caidi from the beginning of the book seemed to disappear. What we got was a women who instead would get angry with her mate and who gave in when he sexed her. All the excitement from the beginning of the book seem to disappear.

Also, now I love a good sex scene in any book. And sometimes if the sex scenes don't over shadow the story I like LOTS of sex scenes in a book. This book had lots of sex scenes, but....Here is my problem. The sex scenes started to bore me. We are talking about pages (lots of pages) on just one sex scene. What bored and irritated me is that in the middle of the sex scenes we would get thoughts from either Caidi or Raven. Lots of thoughts about how he or she felt this or that. For me it got to the point that I was dreading the scenes. Finally when I read threw about 75% of the book I just started skipping the sex scenes. I dunno just how I saw it.

Other than that I really like the concept behind the book. I really like the story line. I mean, you got to give props to an Author who can create a worlds soo completely. If it wasn't for MY issues with the sex scenes I would have rated this book high. But truthfully the scenes just started to irritate and bore me.
179 reviews3 followers
February 14, 2016
If you love stories of intelligent and capable heroines who escape the hero and lead them on a merry chase, this is your book! If you get riled when the heroine of a story gives her everything to an over protective almost-asshole hero, stay well away!

The universe Caidi and Raven live in is very Stargate-esque with portals that allow for travel between worlds. This is the first time I've read of this and I'm thoroughly intrigued about this world. I only wish there was more tech in this universe.

Primal Quest has an awesome strong and competent heroine. I loved Caidi! She has the true qualities of a leader: strength, ingenuity, patience, forbearance and foresight.

Our hero Raven on the other hand, there's only one word to describe him: alpha. He's so alpha that he starts losing some character towards the end of the book and starts coming off as a sex crazed knucklehead.

Caidi rules a fortress of women-only shifters and comes up with a plan to impregnate herself with a stranger (but also a shifter) in an off world tavern. A great premise but the story's plot diverges from this about half way and goes in two other loosely connected ways quite suddenly. It's not really a problem as our heroine is rational and hella entertaining.

The reason this story lost one star was the unnecessary amount of sex in the last third of the book. It was very out of place and didn't add anything to the storyline, for example at one point our h&H got it on 4 times in explicit detail in a 24hr peroid without anything happening plot wise. I started to dread these scenes and found myself skimming across it to get to the actual storyline which was far more enticing than their sex life. The other reason I knocked off a star was because Raven became intolerable towards the end. Too alpha for my tastes.

Overall I'm thrilled to have stumbled across this gem and have my fingers crossed that the next book in the series is just as good.
Profile Image for Felicia (Ferishia).
633 reviews37 followers
August 10, 2014
Free Read, read for PR/UF Aug Challenge.

I should have been able to get through this quickly since it's only 188 pg. Instead it was a bit of a struggle. I had a few problems.

Now, I fully expected it to be smexytimes, all the time, because, hello Ellora's Cave. And those were what I expected. The struggle I had was with the various unfamiliar names for places, people, endearments, etc., that I had to sound out. Now, I don't mind a few words here and there, and actually, applaud the author for the creativity in coming up with them. But there were more than just a few of these "creative" words and they pulled me out of the story every time I read one.

Also, Raven & Caidi didn't seem to be emotionally invested in each other up until the very end. Yes, they were having smexytimes a lot, but it felt kind of disconnected from them somehow. I can't explain it. Then I had issues with both characters. They were both very strong characters. Raven was kind of an extreme Alpha, and it annoyed me that he didn't think Caidi knew how to take care of herself, even though she had been ruling and protecting a large pack of women since she was 14. Also as I mention, Caidi was very strong, until Raven touched her and it seemed she 'melted' at his touch too many times, especially if he pissed her off. Just one touch and she was over it. lol I guess it's the Scorpio in me, but I tend to stay angry/hold a grudge for a long time. lol

Even with that, it was still interesting even if a little frustrating for me to read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for TINNGG.
1,238 reviews20 followers
November 7, 2013
More of a 2.5. Lessee… what passes for a plot is a somewhat half-arsed re-imagining of stargate or whatever Dara Joy has in her Matrix of Destiny series. IOW, this takes place in some galaxy far far away, across multiple planets, and people all fight with sticks and stones. Errr…

Futuristic cave men shifters.

Heroine lives in a group of females whose tradition is to go forth and become fruitful from some random shifter male - only she runs across her mate.

Eh, if you really want to remain free, you make sure he's not around to follow you home. Also was v. bemused that this enclave that No Attacker Has Succeeded In Invading before was invaded and taken over while the women were asleep. Come again?

Lots of sex, chest beating, and heroine giving in without much of an argument later, I'm finally through with one of the few books I've read that could honestly been just as well off as a short story. At least there wouldn't have been pages of his seducing her into agreeing with whatever he wanted just to get laid. Pages of face palming. Pages of "where did you leave your spine, girl?" Etc.

Oh, and the CGI cover is awful.
1,673 reviews17 followers
Want to read
February 15, 2016
294p Caidi became Acine 14alpha female 14of her pack at a young age. In the years since that hard time, she has led her pack of shape-shifting Zarain into prosperity, all without the help of a single male. She has almost everything she could want, except for one thing 26a baby. Caidi knows that even getting pregnant won't be easy, but she's willing to take the risk to get what she wants. And then everything goes wrong. Raven, an alpha Shadatai Zarain warrior, doesn't know the blonde woman who approaches him in a tavern, but he knows he wants her. After just one night with her, he has no doubts. He's found his mate 14and she isn't getting away from him.Now that Raven has found his mate, her safety is one of his highest priorities. Caidi's life is dangerous and she needs his protection. Whether or not she wants to accept it doesn't matter.
Profile Image for Aiysha Duncan.
79 reviews23 followers
August 18, 2014
It was alright but I hate that as soon as she meet him, she loses 99% of her fire and just let him walk all over him. She went from a fiercly independent women to a meek little girl in ten seconds flat. To top it off, whenever it would seem that she had managed to scrape back together a tiny bit of her independence, he would go all He-man and destroy it.

It really annoyed me that whenever he did something she didn't like and she got angry he would touch/kiss her and obviuolsy she can't be angry anymore and has to completely forget about anything else apart from jumping in his pants

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Profile Image for Elisa.
403 reviews19 followers
August 24, 2014
I quite enjoyed this one. I know some of the other reviewers have gotten bent out of shape about how wimpy the heroine was, but it fit in with the mythos of this world that Rebecca has built so I don't quibble with it even if I had to grimace occasionally because of it.

This isn't a human story, it is epic storytelling of a different kind of shifter race who travel the worlds and I reveled in getting a glimpse of it. I'll definitely be reading the next one in the series. I recommend it to anyone who likes quests and shifters and a little sci-fi thrown in for good measure. On the other hand, if you are seriously disturbed by a lack of women's lib in a story line then this is not the book for you.
312 reviews1 follower
December 3, 2014
Author described alpha female is the main character that is in charge of an amazonian like society. The women are strong, intelligent, wealthy, innovative warriors. However, when a group of men invade their territory and lay claim to all they possess, they accept this without even a tiny amount of rebellion occurring. I find it highly improbable that a large group of Amazonian warriors would accept being conquered without at least one person raging against the total upheaval of their lives. The unlikely character reactions occurring in this novel result in me not liking this novel.
Profile Image for Puna.
1,330 reviews15 followers
April 17, 2014
Female lead has be the alpha of her people since she was a young teen. As soon as the male lead comes in he starts treating her like the little woman who don't know nothing about nothing and she takes it. Ugh. I could barely get through it and am now rather annoyed I bought the other two in the series before reading Primal Quest. I wouldn't have spent the money if I had known when I was through with PQ I wouldn't have any desire to read more. Oh well, live and learn. :(
803 reviews
November 12, 2014
Everything was just so "set" in this book. None of the conflicts feel like plot conflicts.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
660 reviews87 followers
February 9, 2016
Great erotic novel and love the characters!
Profile Image for Kathy.
7 reviews2 followers
March 27, 2014
Very hot! Good book. Didn't want to put it down.
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