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Alternate cover edition of ASIN B077XNNWGV.

Growing up in a coven with only one other shifter around doesn’t allow Arik much of an opportunity to find his mate, and he doesn’t know when or where he’ll find him. When dreams about his mate start interrupting his sleep, he’s content to wait for them to find each other. That is, until he dreams that his mate is in danger.

Alpha War has all but given up on ever finding his true mate. He’s looked for centuries, but so far, no luck. Then when his den starts being attacked by the local coven, all thoughts of finding his mate leave his mind. He only wants to protect his den members like any alpha would.

When an altercation with the coven turns deadly, the last thing War expects is for his mate to appear out of thin air, literally. Arik knew his mate was in trouble so he got his twin to teleport the two of them to the place he’d been dreaming about.
War is happy to have found his mate but can he accept a union with another coven? He already has enough witch problems; will a coven of warlocks be any different? But can he really say no to his fated mate? Is Arik willing to leave his peaceful coven for a den full of chaos?

With problems lurking, babies coming, and warlocks “poofing” in and out at odd times, will War and Arik ever find time alone for sexy times?

War’s Mate is 40,000 words and is book one in the Honey Creek Den Series. Each book contains a fated mate pair, Mpreg, lots and lots of knotting during growly sexy times, babies, no cheating, and a HEA. These bears will do anything their mates ask, just read and see. The Honey Creek Den Series is meant to be read in order even though each book focuses on a different couple. This book is intended for adults only as these shifters tend to get growly and don’t watch their language.

141 pages, ebook

First published December 3, 2017

434 people are currently reading
357 people want to read

About the author

Taylor Rylan

89 books499 followers
M/M PNR Romance Author 📖
Multitasker
Coffee addict ☕️☕️☕️
Loves unicorns, dragons, pets, and HEAs 🦄🐱🐶🐱🐱🩷

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5 stars
528 (33%)
4 stars
466 (29%)
3 stars
353 (22%)
2 stars
164 (10%)
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66 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
Profile Image for Rachel Emily.
4,467 reviews379 followers
May 25, 2018
DNF at 35% in.

The start of this story was like a textbook definition of an author telling us the story instead of showing is the story. Also, I'm pretty sure there were entire scenes that were literally just dialogue (and lots of it!) back and forth instead of any action or movement or anything else happening in that scene. The writing just seemed very basic and needed some depth and descriptive words used or something.

Things just didn't work for me. Arik wants to find his mate, but then he's afraid of him, but then he wants him, and he's pregnant in literally hours, and his dads know and everyone is OK with that and they're one big happy family. That's when I stopped reading.
Profile Image for AussieMum.
1,393 reviews56 followers
nope-not-for-me-not-interested
August 8, 2021
TIME OF DEATH 8% DNF No rating

The writing. The writing. The writing. I’m sorry but I literally can’t say anything good about it. There were whole pages of just painfully awkward dialogue. All telling. No showing. Not even any character direction. It was a verbal diarrhoea of exposition.It was chaotic and confusing and at one point I thought maybe this was meant to be a comedy.
“Hello, I’m Troy. I’m the den’s second-in-command. Can I be of any assistance to you two?”
“Hi, Troy. I’m Arin, and this is my brother Arik. We’re from Amherst and my brother here had a strange dream that told him his mate was in trouble, so here we are. Oh, and his mate is a big brown bear according to the dream.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Arin asked us but directed the question at me.
“Not unless you can help us get rid of the witches. But judging by your memorable entrance, I’d say that they’re probably too much for you to handle.”
“You’d guess correctly. But that doesn’t mean we can’t ask our papa and dad. And just because I’m a young warlock, doesn’t mean that I’m not capable.”
“That’s not what I was implying, and if that’s the way you took it, I do apologize. I simply meant that you are one young warlock against dozens of centuries-old witches. I wouldn’t wish those odds on anyone.”
“True, I am. But I also have a centuries-old papa who is a very powerful warlock. He’s the master of our coven, and I’ve never seen a more powerful warlock than Papa. And no, that’s not just my biased opinion about my life-bearer.”
“So, the warlock was your carrier?”
“Yes, is that an issue? Trust us when we say it didn’t detract from his powers in any way.”
“No, that’s not why I was asking. I was just trying to figure out the dynamics of the whole situation. If your carrier was a warlock, then your sire had to have been a shifter, correct? Or are they both warlocks?”
Just a moment while my head explodes...

I liked the blurb. Honestly, if the writing had been a lot slower and more subtle, this could have been a really interesting idea.
Profile Image for Morgan.
244 reviews37 followers
April 22, 2018
dnf at 60%

I really try to finish a book when I start it. Sometimes I'll drop it for a while and then go back to it but this time I just couldn't do it and don't want to force myself.

First of all. Ok it's mpreg but getting pregnant after sex once (when even the character couldn't believe it happened since he wasn't in heat) I can BELIEVE. But getting pregnant after the first time... with twins.... and Arik's father knows about it the next day.... and everyone is excited about it and believes that he's pregnant after one day just No.

Secondly, there was instant lovey doveyness after sex with Arik after War initially didn't even want to mate him . And you know what??? Having so many anal rounds (5 if I remember correctly) the first time with a is really unnecessary. I'm tired of books that don't seem to suggest an alternative: the alpha bottoming (gasp!) or more blow jobs or something.

Third, it felt like War was delegitimatizing Arik as a powerful person simply because he was an omega. And I feel like more people would have noticed it if Arik was a woman and this was an mf romance novel. Arik was the one with the dreams that his alpha mate was in trouble... so he gathered himself and other resources to come to War's rescue. Saves people with his doctor know how and then gets mated. So... Arik starts out as a badass. And then he talks about how helpful he'll be to the pack (pride whatever the hell it is) as a doctor and all War says (paraphrase) is oh well everyone around here heals pretty quick so we don't really need a doc¯\_(ツ)_/¯ not even really thinking the whole ohhh right my bro woulda died without medical attention because his pack don't EVER really NEED a doctor around heeerrreeee¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

And then Arik is like but when your packmates start finding their mates then babies will start to come! You'll need me then! And War is like why don't you wanna just start focusing on our large collection of babies cause I want as many as possible.
Profile Image for Diane (Books and Tequila Blog).
1,519 reviews71 followers
April 7, 2019
War’s Mate is my first book by this author and also my first mpreg story. It is entertaining and a good series start that leaves you wanting to read more stories about these characters.

“...I was face-to-face with my mate. And now that I could actually get a good look at him, he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen.”

This story is a bit OTT, super HOT, and definitely insta-Love. All things that add up to a bit of a fun read or listen.
-3.5 Stars-
Profile Image for Mimi.
2,456 reviews
May 25, 2018
Great Introduction

4.25 stars

This was a great introduction to The Honey Creek Den. Warrick and Erik are great couple 💑. Bear shifter and a Bengal Tiger. What an interesting pair.

The world 🌎 that they loved in was modern but shifters still had to hide their true nature in plain sight of the human world. The sex was hot🔥and a little bit kinky. Which was a thumbs up for me.
Profile Image for Kim Stone.
1,551 reviews1 follower
April 3, 2019
This is a mm shifter story in the mpreg world. Loved the characters Arin and Warren known as War. A tiger omega shifter and an alpha bear shifter. And babies or cubs. A real page turner. Can’t wait to read more from this series.
Profile Image for Katherine.
2,870 reviews13 followers
July 13, 2018
Not much story to this story

For a book that wasn't very long, that felt extremely long. It meandered about with little plot and by the end of the book almost nothing had happened and absolutely nothing has been resolved. Rather disappointing.

War is an bear shifter and alpha of his pack. Recently they have been unexpectedly getting attacked by the local coven. Arik, a tiger shifter, dreams that his mate is in trouble getting attacked, and has his twin brother bring him to where he dreamed of. It immediately becomes clear War and Arik are mates and Arik's family steps in to help protect War's pack when the two mate.

Almost the entire book is about War and Arik mating. They meet- and very quickly have sex and officially mate. There is some talking, they have sex, an attack happens, they have sex. They find out they are pregnant, have sex. War goes to work which drives them mad from separation, they have sex. Essentially any action leads to them getting it on, but not much else. The story had very little point other than that. By the end the attacks of the coven had become muddled within the book and never actually solved. It made for a disappointing read that I struggled to finish.
Profile Image for SC.
810 reviews26 followers
May 26, 2018
This was bad. So bad. If I could have given it no stars, I would have done that. I think GR needs to fix that. Please, do yourself a favor and just skip this book. Think I'm being harsh? Yeah, go read my highlights and notes and you'll get a glimpse of what awaits you. I'll even do you one better, here's a solid example of the writing in this book ...

... and that if he missed anything, he’d send it along. Whatever that means.” “Okay, thanks, Troy. And it means that if he finds something else of mine in Amherst, he’ll send it to me


Need I say more ? How about the fact that for some reason, they barely used their own names when speaking to each other and stuck to "alpha" and "kitten" ? How about a leaking hole?

This author was new to me, I wanted to give it a chance so I read the whole book. About 100% sure I won't be reading any more written by Taylor Rylan.
Profile Image for Diane Dannenfeldt.
4,021 reviews78 followers
April 29, 2025
One of the things that I really liked about this book is the diversity of the shifters with warlocks thrown in. These two made a great couple. I would have liked the babies to have been one of each, but I guess the tiger babies can be the next set of twins :). I would have liked more of fighting with Arianna, that whole part was very weak. Maybe their will be a battle in the coming books. The thing that I didn’t care for was there seemed to be a lot of repetitive in their conversations. It almost seemed like I was reading the same sentences over again. Over all I really enjoyed this new to me author. Off to the next one
Profile Image for Carol Dawn.
Author 42 books350 followers
June 26, 2018
I had high hopes going into this book. I'm not going to say that I was disappointed but I wasn't completely satisfied either. There is definitely an instalove aspect going on, which I happen to really love. There is also a super protective and possessive Alpha which, again, I happen to love. The plot definitely had great potential and I did enjoy the book.

However, the plot fell a little flat for me. I hate saying that because I like my reviews to always be positive but I've read this authors works before and I did expect a little more detail. I honestly don't mind too much dialog, I saw someone complain about it in another review. Yes, there was a lot but we also had a lot of internal dialog. I wasn't expecting the ending to end when it did. By what I was reading, it seemed like there had to be at least three or four more chapters.

That being said, this book does end on a plot cliffhanger. I'm very excited to jump into the next book. Which I will be doing as soon I eat breakfast.

I do recommend this book, because I know it's the start of what could possibly be a very awesome series.

Troy's Warlock, here I come!!!
Profile Image for JoAnn.
774 reviews33 followers
July 21, 2019
2.5 Stars

I was very interested in this authors other series, which is a spin off of this one, but she recommends to read this one first.... kinda bummed I did because I’ve lost interest.

The plot was good, it’s a plot that appears to be continuing throughout the series, but everything was very long winded and stiff.

I’m not sure if this was this authors first book, if it was I might just skip the rest of this series and start on the one I really wanted to read in hopes that the authors writing style and comfort have improved.
Profile Image for Jane (PS).
2,776 reviews103 followers
September 28, 2023
This has been on my shelf for a long time and I just hadn't had the motivation to read it. Along came a challenge theme and a tight timeline and it fit perfectly. What was interesting was that I hadn't realised it was the first book in a related series that I had started to read. The books aren't mind-blowing but they are easy to listen to.

This couple is a classic alpha/omega mix, with the omega coming from a very strong magical/shifter family. I enjoyed the general pack/coven dynamics. There's more focus on the relationships in the story than on any mystery.

Narrated by Kenneth Obi - very good.
Profile Image for John-Torleif  Harris.
2,725 reviews12 followers
June 12, 2018
Very fun, new series

This was a pretty quick read that I found to be thoroughly enjoyable. I liked the world and the characters in both the den as well as in Arik's family. I am a bit confused on the difference between witches and warlocks in this world is, but that may be clarified in later books.
Profile Image for Anna.
963 reviews17 followers
June 17, 2023
Enjoyable! I wish that I would have known about this series before I got wrapped up in the 4th series concerning all of these characters!
What I really need to know is, where is Edison and Wallace’s story?
Smh
Profile Image for Chris.
1,155 reviews13 followers
May 1, 2019
Viel Sex, wenig Geschichte.
Profile Image for Ayana_*.
102 reviews
February 21, 2018
Interesting

At first I was going based off of the illustration and pic on the cover and I have passed this book plenty a times on my kindle but I decided to say “hey, what the hell??”.. anyways I must say I enjoyed this book immensely I love the warlock twist and how long the parent we’re together and etc.. story line is good .. I’m a pretty fast reader so kinda dosspapointed there’s only 2 books to the series so far after all I finished one book in less than a day :)
Profile Image for Caroline.
200 reviews42 followers
November 4, 2018
I really liked this book at first but then when i was half way in the book it started getting boring for me. There wasnt anything that kept this book fun and exciting for me. So even though i liked the beginning this book will only get 2,5 stars from me. It just wasnt that good in the long run for me.

Ariks and Wars relationship ended up kind of boring and i felt the only thing you read about was how horny they were for each other and that was it. And it wasnt even like really sexy sex scenes so that didnt even got me to wake up.

Maybe you will like this book but unfortunaly for me it just didnt do it :(
Profile Image for Missy~.
1,015 reviews17 followers
July 11, 2024
Shifter Romance

This was a very sweet fluffy shifter mpreg romance.
As usual, there was Insta love.
And I’m OK with that, and also instant children .
There was just some thing about the writing that I didn’t connect with .
I didn’t connect with either of the main characters. The story, the characters, the conflict all felt somewhat surface shallow for me.
I do love, shifters, mpreg romance,
I like the omega line, trope, and lots of friends and family side characters .
Edison and Wallace were interesting.
I think I will probably try the second book just to see if I like it. This is a very long series and I do love a long series.
Profile Image for Kelly ~Booktrovert~.
724 reviews
January 10, 2024
This is not my first read by Taylor Rylan. I loved all of her other books, and with this being her first paranormal book I was not disappointed.

I'm a sucker for a fated mate story.

War and Arik were so cute together. The chemistry was off the charts!

I think it was an awesome introduction to a brand new series. Excited to see where she takes us in this crazy world of warlocks, shifters and witches. I also loved the way she set up the story for the next book in the series.


4 big stars!
Profile Image for Angie.
981 reviews6 followers
April 17, 2018
Shifter mpreg

3 stars

Ok story but unremarkable. Wouldn't reread.

Arik is the son of a warlock and tiger shifter. War is the alpha of his bear den. The 2 meet and mating happens almost instantly. Pregnancy also happens instantly. There is a bad guy lurking but I felt this was unresolved (maybe it carries into book 2). Overall, a cutsey shifter love story with lots of sexy times but not a lot of depth.

Will read the rest of the books in the series.
Profile Image for Jessi.
258 reviews48 followers
June 23, 2018
Difficult

This books was extremely difficult to get through. It was written as though the writer waited till deadline and had zero plans so just put words on paper and called it a day. It was horrible stilted. This is something even a high schooler would be ashamed of. Everything was bland. Characters are cringe worthy as best. This actually made my head hurt and I am so happy I read it for free. No one should spend money on this.
8 reviews
September 15, 2018
This was a bland and repetitive book. Most of this book is made up of really stilted dialogue, and I find myself thinking 'nobody talks like that' way too many times. The characters were also extremely cliche.

It really feels like the author just wanted to write fluffy domestic headcanons, but was forced to shoehorn in a villain, which was forgotten at the end anyway.

This was suppose to be the first book of a series but the it really did nothing to make me want to read more.
Profile Image for Megan.
143 reviews5 followers
June 4, 2020
Interesting premise, but I’m hoping the writing gets more polished with future books. The Alpha/Omega dynamic was in full force here. I think I’ve been spoiled by more recent books with badass omegas who just happen to also have a womb. Arik is a doctor relegated to party planning and child bearing once he finds his mate (because that’s what an alpha mate does). He seems fine with it, but it bugged me.
Profile Image for Savannah Acheson.
67 reviews2 followers
January 28, 2018
Absolutely a no

This started off as a really good baseline, but the author really dropped the ball. Arik was so whiny that I got sick and tired of it. And the sex was mediocre and repetitive that I found myself rolling my eyes and just skipping it. Finally the Arianna business didn't have enough action and I kept waiting on a attack that never came.
Profile Image for Keith.
2,149 reviews6 followers
May 22, 2019
Not As Good As the Preview

This series has been offered in my “recommended” list for some time now so after realizing the books need to be read in sequence, I started with book 1. I was disappointed. This was mostly long repetitive sex scenes, interspersed with fragments on a story. And the sex was not all that interesting, as well.
137 reviews1 follower
March 31, 2020
A decent book...

I really like this story. It's intriguing and we'll thought out. That being said, the grammar and spelling mistakes almost made me put this book down and run screaming from the room. It's hard to stay in the story when you're trying to figure out the meaning of a butchered sentence or a misspelled word. I hope the next ones are done better.
151 reviews
December 17, 2017
It started ok but then the alpha annoyed me and then it went to fast for me and, i don't know, i think i would have like more information about thi world to really understand everything... I can understand why some can like it through, it's just wasn't for me
82 reviews
October 15, 2018
Meh

Had the opportunity to be a good read but just no. It was like reading a technical manual that jumps from one thing to another. There was no depth or feelings, just words. No connection or complete storyline but a lot of sex that came across as flat.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews

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