RELEASE DAY REVIEW: Ebb and Flow – Karena Colcroft

The heart of the wolf yearns for his mate.

Only weeks after the massacre of half his pack, Quinn Boucher is finding his footing as a guard of the U.S. Anax, the ruler of all werewolves in the country. But something is missing: His mate Malachi. Despite whatever fate drew them together, Malachi won’t accept Quinn—and that hurts like hell.

Decades after losing his human lovers, lone wolf Malachi Powers still grieves. The last thing he needs is a mate, especially one over a century younger. But when Quinn returns to Nova Scotia to assist the Canadian Anax, they reconnect and Malachi can no longer deny their bond.

Together, Quinn and Malachi build their relationship. But there are those who want the Anax dead—and Quinn and Malachi are caught in the crossfire. Will they be torn apart before their life together can begin?

Quinn Boucher is twenty-two and has lived through so much horror in his short years of life. He was kidnapped when he was in college and turned, lived in North Dakota with a pack where he found love with Kinney and when his life seemed to be going in the right direction his pack was attacked by another pack in neutral territory leaving Kinney and five other pack mates dead.

Now he is a guard for U.S. Anax, ruler of all werewolves in the country. His nightmares are frequent and the mate he discovered when he visited the Anax in Canada and was shot with a silver bullet has left unwilling to accept him. His partner is Malachi Powers a wolf without a pack and who is more than one hundred years older than Quinn.

Tobias his Anax has ordered Quinn to return to Nova Scotia to work with the Canadian Anax which would put him where his mate is. Malachi lives alone, is referred to as the hermit by his neighbors until the day he is approached by a man insisting he leave with him. Malachi was unwilling to go until two other wolves indicated that his human neighbors would be harmed.

He meets with Esau an Alpha wanting him to use his familiarity with Silas the Anax to bring him down, something Quinn will not do. He escapes to warn Silas and comes face to face with Quinn. Now after seeing him Malachi is finding, himself fighting an emotional battle not to claim Quinn who has just gone through hell losing the wolf he loved and who loved him in addition to all the pack left dead.

Malachi feels that Quinn is too young and has too much pain to get through before he can claim him, but Quinn is not of the same mind. While fighting his desire to claim Quinn enemies are after Silas, enemies too many to count. Quinn is there to help protect Silas and is successful, he has a gift, he sees colors and when the sun is bright red someone is going to die so he manages to get Silas to return home from a planned trip.

This was a beautiful story about loss and fighting for a new start. A young man turned and tortured and losing a loved one and half his pack. Quinn is not brave and is always apologizing for any misdeed he thinks he has made while Malachi tries to get him to see himself for what he is, a brave young man who has saved the life of both Anax he was assigned to protect.

Suspense, secrets, betrayals and sex, well that covers everything I look for in a paranormal romance.