Alpha

This is a book about shifters, and while it does use "Alpha" to denote the leader of a pack, that's where the similarity to the stereotype of a popular hyper-masculine-and-in-charge Alpha ends.

In "Alpha" we meet Hayden Scott, a young man whose mother was leader of their pack. He was raised with the twin beliefs that everyone in a pack has some way they can contribute and flourish, and that part of an Alpha's role is to help people find and be able to pursue that role.

So when he's outside of his pack's territory and he stumbles across a mother and pup being threatened by a murderous wolf shifter, he doesn't hesitate to defend them. And when he accidentally becomes the new Alpha of her pack by doing so, and discovers that all the women in it have been being systematically abused and controlled by the old Alpha and his lieutenants, he throws himself and all his resources into helping them recover -- and into trying to rehabilitate the lieutenants because despite everything, they're still pack.

An extensive quote, which was really a defining moment that made me certain I'd enjoy this book: "[My mother's pack] has a dozen alpha wolves, but only one of them leads, and I never aspired to be one of them, because that would have meant something awful had happened to my mother and the half-dozen wolves all better qualified than me.

I was okay with that. Modern packs have lots of important roles for those of us with alpha instincts, and I was content with finding the one that suited me best.

But this? This is singing in my veins. My human is still reeling from the changes that just roared into his life, but my wolf is enchanted. I have a pack. A ragged, broken, limping one—but I have a pack, and they’re not all slimed with the ooze of evil. There’s a woman with beautiful green eyes and strength under her fear, and a little boy who owned my heart the first time I heard him growl. They’re not evil and I don’t think they’re broken, either. They’re just afraid, and they have every right to be, but their pack needs them. The web of lines I can see on the back of my eyelids has far too many holes in it already -- and Lissa matters. A lot of those ties run through her. She's important here, even if the asshole who ran things until this morning made her life a living hell for it."

Content warnings (mostly reassurances):

• Violence: The initial fight between Hayden and the old Alpha is pretty intense, and bloody. That's also the last physical fight in the entire book (except for water fights and no-claws wrasslin'). There are no detailed flashbacks to abuse. There's not even any pack hunting of deer or the like.

• Sexuality: There is a lot of matter-of-fact nudity, since clothes don't mystically reappear after a shift. However, anatomical details are not provided. There are a fair number of sexual innuendo jokes (think "That's what she said!" but more original), most of which result in the joker getting poked and/or ignored by the person they were teasing. There is a lot of non-sexual cuddling, with adults and children all piled together.

• Death: No characters die in the book, except for the original Alpha. There is also mention of the pack members the original Alpha killed, including his predecessor.