Burn Bright

For an excellent review, spoiler free, check out https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/burn-bright-by-patricia-briggs.

Patricia Briggs is back with the more traditional action packed supernatural mystery that I came to expect of her.

SUMMARY (SPOILERS)

Bran is out of the country, trying to help out poor old Mercy, who keeps getting herself into trouble. Charles is left in charge on his place when a call for help come from one Wildlings of the pack. They are a group of werewolves that are too old, powerful and unstable to live among or even near the others.

He and Anna travel to their remote hideout on the mountains, a place where no one is allowed to go, just as no one is allowed to leave. Anna expects to resolve the problem peacefully, but Charles knows that fighting and killing is very much more likely when dealing with the Wildlings.

Arriving at the scene, they find that Hester, an ancient and renowned werewolf have been captured. Her mate Hester, an even more ancient and powerful Fae, asks them to find her. During her search and rescue, she is killed along with some or hr capturers. They were a crew of highly trained soldiers, consisting of humans and werewolves, using a lot of high tech gadgets and magic.

Feeling the broken bonds, her mate kill himself, his grief nearly taking out all of the mountain with him. Charles and Anna finds a note he left behind, hinting of a traitor in the pack. Fearing for the lives of the other Wildlings, they join forces with Asil, Serge and Leah and form 3 separate groups to find and warn them. They all leave mostly separated from each other, in remote regions and often don't pick up the phone when called.

Anna and Asil are paired together and start their visits with the most dangerous of all of the werewolves, a witchborn named Wellesley. Anna can see that he is clearly broken, seeming to be schizophrenic. During their conversation, he attacks her out of the blue, but not with the intention of killing her. He senses she is Omega, and his wolf desperately and literaly hangs on to her for help.

What ensues is an event taken place in the astral plane, where Anna calls for the help of her mate in order to defeat the evil inside Wellesley. Bran, who is supposedly outside the country, lends his energy and that of the pack to help their somewhat psychic battle.

Wellesley being free of his curse is now able tell his story. But not before Leah calls them about another attack that has taken place. Everybody drops what they are doing and go to meet her.

Lots of dead bodies, all of them from the invaders. The two werewolves that are supposed to be there are missing. They find them in a cave nearby. By that time, Charles is almost convinced that the traitor is Leah, and that's why his father is recusing to come back home, because he suspects the same. But during the confrontation with the two missing wolves, one of them says he overheard a name during the fight, Serge, and she flees with the others hot in her trail.

Charles is temporarily incapacitated by some magic, Anna stays behind with him. After a while, one of the werewolves suggests a shortcut they can take to get to Serge faster. During their walk, the werewolf reveals himself to be an ancient and powerful Shapeshifter. Charles fights him, but he is too powerful for him. Anna tries to find help, and Wellesley shows up. It turns out he is the only one capable of defeating the Shapeshifter because of his holy heritage.

In the end, Serge escapes, the Marrock returns, Leah is hurt emotionally, but proves herself to be very tough and stoic in spite of the disthruts of her mate and the others. Oh, and Asil tracks down Serge and...