Meet “Heart of the Wolf’s” male lead, Gareth Delarosa, an Alpha wolf without a pack.
Welcome to Alpha Male Diner, a neat little cuisine off Highway 20, just outside the small town of Black River, NY. It’s a real backwoods kind of place, lots of mountains and trees and weird little gravel roads leading to nowhere. But you know, a lone Alpha wolf has to run his car garage somewhere.
Serving up a steamy “WOLF SHIFTER” on a silver platter, Gareth Delarosa is part Latin Lover, part Army vet, and 100% freak in the sheets. Order him up with extra HOT sauce:
Gareth Delarosa
Recipe created by A. Mariposa
1. Long black hair and tattoos.
2. Three or four inches over six feet.
3. Are those mountains or chest muscles?
4. Damn he looks good in plaid.
Seasonings:
1. Obsessive male vibe when he knows what he wants.
2. Moody, protective scowl and sensual lips.
3. Tendency to dominate every situation.
4. Gun he keeps under the backseat of his Camaro.
Consider pairing with these side dishes:
1. A collar and handcuffs after a sensual massage.
2. A bumpy ride in the backseat of his classic Camaro.
3. Netflix and chill (or Netflix and steam . . .)
4. Street tacos and a slice of lime.
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Waking Up in Your Forbidden Crush’s House. Wearing His Shirt. You know, Normal Things™.
“Hey.”
Maddy stiffened. Her heart gave a little flutter. She knew that voice. His deep, husky baritone was unmistakable.
She looked back over her shoulder.
It was him.
Oh good lord.
He stood at the entrance to the kitchen, a towel over one shoulder.
Their eyes met.
She felt a little zap of lightning.
She swallowed. Hard.
Maddy
turned around to face him. She was shocked. He was her secret. Secrets
were supposed to remain hidden. Not standing before her, face-to-face.
This
was her first time standing so close to him outside of work, in broad
daylight, without a dark moonlit forest obscuring his physique. His
honey-hazel eyes glimmered beneath stern brows. His black hair, a warm
tone like rich earthen humus, fell freely past his shoulders.
His
massive chest made two little mountains under his white T-shirt. He was
very tall and packed with muscle; she guessed him to be three or four
inches over six feet.
A full sleeve of tattoos covered each arm.
She had never really looked at them before. Up near his left shoulder,
partly hidden by his shirt, she saw a vibrant, grinning skull in the
sinister style of Dios de Los Muertos. The word LOBO in rustic Southwest
font ran down his right forearm, while LOCO ran down the left. If his
arms were both down, it read “lobo loco.” His right arm also carried the
astrological symbol of a Scorpio, or maybe it was just a big fucking
scorpion. The rest of the sleeve was too intricate for her to really
appreciate at a glance.
His skin was deep tan. He wore blue
jeans and steel-toed work boots. Something like car grease stained his
shirt. She wondered, not for the first time, if he worked at a garage.
Maddy
realized she was staring with her mouth slightly open. She shut it. She
met his eyes again. She really didn't know what to say.
“You hungry?” he asked.
Then he walked back into the kitchen.
Maddy
followed him with some hesitation. She felt like a stray cat who had
wandered into someone’s house. He set a plate of bacon down on the
kitchen table, and she pulled out a chair and sat down. Next to the
bacon was a plate of scrambled eggs and two big waffles with maple
syrup.
“I didn’t know what you liked,” he said, like he needed
to explain why he’d served her an entire breakfast buffet. “Eat up. I’ll
finish the rest.”
“Uh . . . thank you,” she mumbled.
She
picked up her fork and speared one of the waffles onto her plate. The
sight of so much food made her suddenly ravenous. She felt like she had
burned ten-thousand calories the night before. She started shoving warm,
syrup-covered waffles straight into her mouth.
He continued
washing the dishes. The voice on the TV droned on. Maddy’s ears suddenly
perked when she heard her name. “Now on local news, five bodies were
found in the woods just outside Black River, NY . . . Police are saying
animal attack . . . nearby mobilehome abandoned . . . currently
searching for Madeline Donovan, a student at Black River High School. If
you have any information about her whereabouts, please call . . . .”
So
the police were looking for her. Wow. Color her impressed. Someone must
have reported her missing. Maybe because of the gunshots? Certainly not
her father, it sounded like Dean still hadn’t come home.
Another
voice interrupted Maddy’s thoughts, a memory from the night before:
“Rough up the guy. . . Toss his place . . . Leave a message.”
Maddy’s hands started to shake.
Her fork slipped through her clumsy fingers. It clattered to her plate. Then to the floor. It made a lot of noise.
The man turned to look at her.
“Sorry, uh . . . sorry,” she muttered.
Her hands clutched the bottom of her shirt as she tried to stop trembling.
He
was still watching her. That made it worse. This isn’t normal. Nothing
about this is normal. She was in his house. Her head was bandaged, and
she was sitting in his boxers and a T-shirt. She felt a weird sense of
vertigo. Everything was surreal.
She stared at her plate. Her
cheeks were burning. She tried not to think of the unnegotiable fact
that she was wearing his clothes, which meant someone must have
undressed her the night before, which meant he absolutely saw her naked.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
He shut off the
sink. Then he passed through the kitchen and into the living room, where
he picked up the remote. He turned off the TV.
“Sorry if that bothered you,” he said.
“It’s alright,” she said.
She
turned in the chair. She could see him clearly; he was only about ten
feet away. She studied his face again. The light from the window cast
shadows beneath his high cheekbones.
Devilish. He had a
masculine neck, a cleft chin, a straight nose and a slightly prominent
brow that gave his face a stern appearance. His lips were firm and
sensual. His lashes were long and dark. His eyes were a bright, unusual
hazel color. Sometimes they were green, and sometimes they were gold.
She couldn’t tell if he was Native American, Mexican, Brazilian or a
little bit of everything. To her, he looked like an exotic model from
somewhere warm and tropical.
She felt a flutter in her stomach.
It was not a shy tickle, but a steroid-enhanced butterfly striking her
ribcage. She liked him so much. But . . . he was an adult, and she was
only nineteen.
So, like, probably too young for him. God, she could not stop blushing.
“So what happened last night?” he asked.
by A. Mariposa
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Black Butterfly
Date of Publication: 05/31/2024
ISBN: 9780999310298
ASIN: B0D1FKQ35J
Number of pages: 300
Word Count: 120,000
A steamy paranormal romance about forbidden first love!
Maddy Donovan is trying to survive her senior year of high school. Her life is far from normal. Her stepdad is a shameless alcoholic. The power bill is due. And she has a math test tomorrow. She's living in survival mode, and she has no time to date that spicy older guy who keeps coming by the hardware store. What's his name again? Right. Gareth Delarosa. Black hair, hazel eyes, over six feet tall--guys that hot don't belong in Black River. He's been her secret crush for the last five years, but there's an age gap, and he's way off limits.
But it seems like fate has other plans. When Gareth saves her life the night of a break-in, she wakes up in his bedroom, in his bed, wearing his shirt. Her secret fantasy is staring her in the face. Oh wait, he's a werewolf? Right. Seems like her luck. True love is about to upend her world.
Welcome to a love story about crossing boundaries, taking risks, healing from trauma and learning to live on the wild side. This is not your grandma's love story!
Recommended for readers 18+, contains spicy scenes and adult content.
About the Author:
Website-Goodreads
A. Mariposa is penname for YA Fantasy writer, T. L. Shreffler. She writes Paranormal Romance that's steamy, spicy, a bit gritty, a little messy, and a whole lot of Happily Ever After! Her first PNR series The Wolves of Black River can be described as Shameless meets True Blood. For fans of Alpha males, shifter romance, forbidden first loves and historic small towns, this series is for you. <3
Heart of the Wolf by A. Mariposa, a NEW friends-to-lovers Paranormal Romance with a spicy alpha wolf and forbidden first love! https://amzn.to/4bJgipj
#werewolfromance #agegap #alphamale #shifterromance #pnr #steamy #romancebooks #booktok #friendstolovers
