Maverik's Ashes — Sandra R. Neeley

Maverik's broken. His entire world came crashing down around him without warning, stolen from him brutally in the night by the one female he entrusted his soul to. His Wolf is all he's got left; both are bitter, wary, untrusting and dangerous. They hide behind a wall of snarky, biting humor erected to keep the rest of the world at bay as they try desperately to cling to survival each and every day. He's managed to find shelter in a clan of shifters. They have given him the support he needs to nurse his wounds in his solitary, self-imposed emotional isolation. It's barely an existence, but it works for him, only now it's getting harder. His clan is growing; they're finding their Mates, their One. They're having babies, loving, laughing - living. And he's not. He's feeling more and more isolated. And the fact that he's stumbled across another female that gives every indication that she's his Mate is not helping. The last one almost destroyed him; there is no way in hell he will allow another female, any female, an opportunity to complete the job. Valerie's a Lion shifter. She's independent, strong, loving and kind. She's got more curves than a country backroad and gave up the struggle to be model perfect years ago. She's learned to love who she is and knows exactly what she's got to offer the right male. Her Lioness has dreamed all her life of finding the One male who's meant for her, the one who will love her unconditionally and be proud to call her "Mine." Unfortunately for her, the wild, tatted, mohawked and oh-so-sexy Wolf shifter who joins the local clan that frequents her brother's bar is the male that her Lioness decides is hers. And the bastard won't even acknowledge her existence! His repeated rebuffs of her attempts to just have a conversation with him end in her blazing hatred for him. If he can't see past the curves that adorn her body to the amazing female underneath, it's his loss, not hers. Why then, is it his face she sees each time she closes her e