Little Wolf

Little Wolf (2015) R. Cooper (Beings in Love)

Tim Littlewolf ran to Wolf’s Paw to try and (at least briefly) find sanctuary on his run from his uncle and his uncle’s henchman.

“Who meant well, Tim?” Nathaniel was right in front of him, larger than before, as if he’d straightened in response to a threat. Tim had the distracted thought that Nathaniel was in control of himself and yet revealing so much. Nathaniel was furious, and Tim was too surprised to be wary at his questions. “Who locked you up?”

This is a hard story for me to read for multiple reasons.

First, it’s implied that Tim was sexually abused by Luca, his uncle’s employee.

Second, Tim has spent five years fleeing from his uncle who locked him away from the world.

Third, because he was raised in isolation, Tim knows nothing of his wolf side and how to use those senses aside from hearing. (I’ll get back to this.)

Fourth, there is a LOT of sex in the second half of this book. Despite the fact that Tim thinks he is weak for wanting to be the bottom in a relationship.

Of course, trying not to think up questions about werewolf sex filled his head with questions about werewolf sex.

So there are essentially two story arcs in the book: Tim and Nathaniel’s relationship and Tim’s Uncle’s hunt for Tim.

The second story arc I very much liked, and is what kept me reading even when other parts of the story didn’t work for me.

That brings us to Tim and Nathaniel. The crux of the problem was that Tim was kept isolated and didn’t understand how to be a werewolf, and of his instincts, and what mating was.

This story is written entirely from Tim’s POV, and attempts to show how different a werewolf would think and feel and behave. That is interesting, but is also why there was a LOT of sex–Nathaniel attempts to convince Tim of his feelings through sex and orgasms. Without, you know, ever really explaining what Tim’s confused senses were trying to tell him.

I can understand that Nathaniel didn’t want to push Tim, and was afraid Tim would flee. However, it was aggravating that no other person in the town would explain ANYTHING to Tim. Not even the humans. Everyone just let Tim flail along, assuming he’d work things out for himself. Which obviously he was unable to do.

People in this town mentioned mates a lot, usually before they saw Tim. Then they stopped talking. His uncle had mentioned mates once or twice, in an abstract way. Silas hadn’t had anyone in his life like that, not that Tim had ever seen. His mother hadn’t mentioned them, that he could remember. But Tim assumed a mate was like a husband or a wife, possibly with biting.

I suppose this was in part to show how different werewolves are from humans, how their senses and instincts created a very different world from that of humans. But it was also repeated that Tim was part human, so shouldn’t everyone have assumed his senses were faulty and perhaps talked to him more?

My other big question is that if Tim’s wolf had a handle on things and what was happening, why on earth didn’t Nathaniel and everyone else encourage Tim to spend more time as a wolf, so he could learn all those important things and integrate them into his human side?

Yet, despite all of that I couldn’t stop reading. So it was a good story, but I definitely didn’t love it.
Rating: 7/10

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