A Curse of Blood and Wolves

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

She felt the stranger’s gaze tracking her as she traipsed through the woods.

On Ruby's walk home from her bartending job, she's felt a stranger's eyes. She's scared but also turned on. When the man steps out of the shadows finally, he's got glowing silver eyes and growls. Ruby's the “freak” goth girl in her small town and keeps to herself, so she feels it's on brand for her to not completely fear this stranger. It's when a wolf attacks her one night, another comes out of the woods to save her but ends up injured and she has to drag him home to take care of him, only to wake up in the morning to a naked man in the wolf's spot that Ruby starts to think maybe fear isn't a bad thing.

He’d spent the last five years wrangling that side of himself, denying that side of himself, trying his damnedest to act human, to be human. But lately, his control was slipping. Ever since she’d started walking through his woods. Her scent drove him wild.

I'm going to give it to you straight, by one percent a “cock is twitching” and depth is pretty much nonexistent, worldbuilidng or character wise. Ruby and Rafe's connection is based on finding each other physically attractive, she wears short skirts and red lipstick, he's growly and muscly and they turn out to be fated mates, relationship development done. Rafe hangs around to protect Ruby and her sister Lena that she lives with ever since Lena lost her job because of a sickness, that doctors can't figure out, which causes her to trance out. Rafe walks Ruby to her job sometimes, there's some side characters that are identified as witches, nymphs, and we get to meet Rafe's werewolf brothers, Theo and Knox. Lena's barely in the picture but she seems a big part of what is going to be a continuous thread throughout the series, she could be a seer, someone who can see the future.

Lena cocked her head, as if hearing something no one else could. “They’re coming.”

There's not much for setting, we're in the bar, the house, and woods at times and for lightly brushed in backgrounds, Ruby lost her parent's young and lived with her aunt, there's also her continuous thinking about how the town (which we never really see) thinks she's a kinky freak. Rafe gets more with flashback scenes to how he once fell in love with a human and how that blew things up in his pack life, fighting with his father and then the fallout that lead to him leaving the pack and living on his own. He's constantly thinking about how he's a danger for Ruby, not good enough for her, but not being about to stay away because of that pesky smell of her being his mate.

She was looking at him like he was a monster. Like the monster he was. He hadn’t wanted anyone to look at him like that again. Especially not her.

These two were a lot of dirty talk wanting each other, with some foreplay sex for the vast majority of the story, kind of confusingly, because of the vibe of what the story seemed to want to be, they don't actually complete the bedroom deed until at around 90% of the story. With the lack of story, this should have just leaned into the sexy times and let these two rip, but it almost had them acting more like late teen to early twenties in thought and action (Ruby's 25 and Rafe is 200ish yrs old).

She was in love with a werewolf. She was in love with Rafe.

After numerous going in circles of Rafe not good enough for Ruby, Ruby wanting to have sex with him, and talking about the danger Ruby could be in, we get some wolves attacking Ruby again. This prompts Rafe to take the plunge with Ruby because he realizes he does love her and can't let her go. After Rafe takes care of the attacking wolves, they spend a month having sex in the woods and then we get an epilogue that showcases Rafe's brother Theo and his “friend” Phoebe, who look to continue the wolves searching for the seer story thread. I really don't know what else to say other than if you're looking for a light character and setting Litte Red Riding Hood inspired story, Rafe says he's a furniture maker, so put on some Pony by Ginuwine and feel free to zone out read.