Jessa had a contract with the Blackwood pack to be a surrogate to a child for them. But when it came down to it, she couldn't conceive, so seeing that her usefulness was at an end to them and helped by Simon, she escaped to the neutral zone. Here she meets Calder, who instantly knows that Jessa is his mate...but she's human and somehow she knows about shifters. Once Jessa has talked to Bhric, the leader, Calder is put on protection duty, since he believes that Jessa is at risk from the Blackwood pack, but Bhric is clearly keeping more secrets. Jessa and Calder fall more and more in love, but when Niki and her baby Hannah shows up and Calder falls all over himself for the little cub, Jessa realizes that she can't give Calder what he needs - a family. Now she's tempted to run, but the Blackwood pack is still after here and Bhric and the Comyn pack may have been keeping secrets.
This was slightly better in the plot department. It held itself together pretty nicely since Jessa was trying to escape and she found Bhric to tell him what was going on. I liked the suspense as Bhric communicates on the phone with someone (we don't know who) and it's clear that he's up to something and Jessa is an unwitting part of it. The issue with Jessa and her inability to give Calder babies made for some decent angst, especially since Jessa was ready to run and what not. I wanted it to be more drawn out actually. Then of course there was the Blackwood pack coming after Jessa which added a bit more action, especially once Calder goes all grizzly on their asses.
As for the negatives, there's very little UST here - even though Bhric (an alpha) tells Calder it's hands off with Jessa, presumably for good reasons, he completely disregards and has sex with her. And Bhric doesn't care, so I'm not sure why he bothered. I also wondered if Jessa's own inhibitions about jumping into a mating relationship would slow things down and draw out the UST, but she changed her mind in a snap...actually seemed like she forgot all her reservations about sex with Calder. My biggest complaint had to do with Niki's majorly out of character move. When Calder leaves Jessa with Niki, she is in major bodyguard mode...won't let Jessa out of her sight and blocks her leaving at every turn. But then suddenly, when Niki realizes she forgot her baby's stuffed animal, she allows Jessa to go back to her cabin alone and orders one person to follow her. This after she claimed it would be so humiliating to admit to Calder that she lost Jessa on her watch (after Jessa wanted to run). It just seemed so wildly out of character for gung-ho protective Niki to suddenly say, "Sure, take the SUV back to the cabin all by your lonesome to retrieve my infant daughter's stuffed sloth." She never seemed the type to trust her job to someone else. And asking someone who hasn't proven themselves to follow Jessa from a distance is not the same as person-to-person protection...especially when she knows the entire Blackwood pack is out to get Jessa. Didn't feel right for her character at all. Other than that, this was still an enjoyable read and I do like Calder quite a lot. Not sure I'm gonna like Bhric's story, but I'm game.