Checkmate (Mates #2) by Annmarie McKenna

What's an alpha shape-shifting wolf to do when the woman pre-destined to be his mate no longer trusts men? After returning home from an eight-month security job, Eli Graham is ready to claim his best friend's little sister as his mate. He'd put it off for years, thinking he was doing the right thing by waiting. Instead of the stubborn, independent, carefree girl he left behind, Eli finds a shell of the woman he once knew. Having lived through a near fatal attack, Nikki Taylor has hidden herself away from the world. Now the time has come to face head-on the one man who could devastate her completely, Eli Graham. She's loved him forever, craves him, body, heart and soul, but he's never treated her as anything but a little sister. When Nikki witnesses a murder, she has no choice but to rely on Eli's expertise. While guarding her from the man bent on wiping out a witness, Eli shows Nikki that he'll not only protect her body, but he'll show her just what it means to be a wolf's mate. Warning, this title contains the following: hot, explicit sex, graphic violence and language, and is not for the faint of heart!



 

I had never heard of this author until I saw this book in a used book store and picked it up. I'm glad I got this book BUT some things are a little misleading from what the back cover says. Nikki is scared of the world but she is never scared of Eli not even for a second and he's a security expert but all he does is hide her at his ranch there's not a moment when Eli is doing anything to find out who is after Nikki. Nikki trust Eli from the moment she sees him when she wakes up in the hospital so he never has to worry about earning her trust. I liked the book but looking back I didn't feel like I got to know any of the characters in the book. You never get to meet the rest of the pack which was kind of disappointing. I found the ending very predictable you have the cops saying they got the killer and Eli went along with it when his gut was saying it was wrong. Then she leaves and puts herself in the killers hands because of some very stupid ideas to catch the killer and Eli once again goes along with it. He was supposed to be a security expert and goes along with a plan that really wasn't a plan at all. If you don't take this book to serious and don't mind alpha males and their female mate just being stupid at times you will be ok with this book. The up side is the book has smoking hot sex scenes.