Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega, #2) - Patricia Briggs

286 pages

Mated to werewolf Charles Cornick, the son—and enforcer—of the leader of the North American werewolves, Anna Latham now knows how dangerous being a werewolf is, especially when a werewolf who opposes Charles and his father is struck down. Charles’s reputation makes him the prime suspect, and the penalty for the crime is execution. Now Anna and Charles must combine their talents to hunt down the real killer—or Charles will take the fall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My first thought when i finished reading this was there is so much more to this book than what the stupid blurb states. This is a pretty good book – although not as good as the first one Cry Wolf – but then pretty good from Patricia Briggs is better then the best by most authors.

Charles and Anna have been together for a month now. Anna still has problems with dominant alphas and all the horror of her past, but she and Charles are in love, and they're getting to know each other.

The timeline of this books coincides with book 3 of the Mercy Thompson Series Iron Kissed - Bran, the Marrok of the North American werewolves has decided to bring the werewolves out in the open, and has planned a meeting with the European alphas to address their issues first. Charles feels something will do wrong and so Charles and Anna go to meet the European wolves instead.

Trouble starts with vampires trying to kidnap Anna. The talks are at an impasse with Jean Chastel, the French alpha also known as Beast of Gévaudan, not agreeing to the suggestions Charles offers. Then, the death of the British alpha's mate. Matters get worse when one of the wolves Charles fights with is later found dead with Charles' scent all over him (won’t say who, gives away the plot then).

Anna & Charles now have to figure who the real killer is before an execution order is made out for Charles..and Anna will need all her Omega abilities to save Charles' life

There was something missing in this book, but i can't put my finger on it. The real villian and the motives were definitely a surprise, i didn't guess who it was till the end. But for most of the book I felt like the situations kept getting cut off, the story changed to different peoples points of view too quickly and most of the time i would have liked to have known more from the previous person's viewpoint. Other than that, this was a pretty good story, my only other complaint being it was too quick a read.

Theres new characters in this book that you'll love. Arthur, the British alpha who thinks he's the re-incarnation of The Arthur, Chastile who they call the Beast, the other older alpha's who've been around a while, Dana the fae who oversees the meetings. A bit of legend and folklore added in as well - which always interests me. Plus there's a bit of Bran - i find him very enigmatic.

I love Briggs werewolves series. The world building is amazing. The third book comes out only next August, so rereads will have to do until then.

Favourite line:
His grandfather had often told him that he tried too hard to move trees when a wiser man would walk around them.