Slightly different take on the Amoveo (shifters) finding-their-mate story. Zachary, a new Guardian introduced in Unclaimed, vows he’s going to kill the next person from the Caedo family he meets after being attacked by one. He’s still healing from the attack and heads to a beach in Mexico, feeling he has a mate who is human and it wouldn’t be fair to involve her in his specie’s troubles.

Annabelle and her father had to move in with her father’s cousins when he lost his job and found they are a bunch of fanatics whose only goal is to wipe out the vicious, human-killing Amoveos. Fearing for her own family wants to use her to get to their enemies, she liquidates her funds and heads to a small town in Mexico, and meets Zachary the day she arrives.

He’s surprised she’s so accepting of what he is, and of her fear that the people she’s running from will find her and kill him, so she can’t stay. This one is also different in that since she’s not at least a hybrid, he knows he will lose his Amoveo powers over time.

I find that novellas are often too short to effectively make a romance believable, but this author is able to pull it off. Part of that is through the use of telepathy, making thoughts and feelings done via this manner more intimate than words and actions alone. And boy is she torn with wanting to tell him who she is while fearing he’ll walk away.

This book will definitely make more sense if you’ve read the prior books. ( )