Review: Wet Heat by R.D. Hero

Title: Wet Heat

Author: R.D. Hero

Length: 107 Pages

Category: Urban Fantasy, Suspense/Thriller, BDSM

At a Glance: I found this to be an entertaining story with some new twists on the werewolf, and especially the Alpha/Beta/Omega cannon.

Reviewed By: Sadonna

Blurb: Most omega werewolves want a mate and pups, but Lee Aung prefers an unconventional party-boy lifestyle. Yet at forty-two, he’s stopped going into heat, which means he’s expired goods—no longer a fertile, young omega that alpha wolves drool over. So Lee uses Wet Heat, a synthetic pheromone, to reel in the alpha hookups.

After losing his job at the bank, Lee can’t afford to keep up his Wet Heat habit. His solution: scam free samples by pretending to be a happily mated test subject at Wet Heat headquarters. There, Lee spends two years being interviewed by the reserved alpha scientist, Cain, who at thirty-two is unmated and—up until this point—content with that.

Cain never really felt his alpha instincts, nor took part in the usual alpha/beta/omega social dynamics. But after discovering that Lee has been lying about his unmated status for two years, Cain finally admits that for the first time, he wants to court an omega. Unfortunately, he’s picked the one omega who doesn’t want to be courted.

Review: Lee is an omega who has absolutely NO desire to be mated or raise pups. He’s long past his sell-by date, and he’s been scamming synthetic pheromones to pick up unmated alphas all over town. He’s partied for so long and so hard that he’s now lost his job. His mother is adamant that he has got to settle down, and she’s set him up on a blind date. Except it turns out to be not such a blind date and he is already well known to Cain, as he’s been his contact at the company who makes the pheromones for years.

It turns out that Cain does not want pups either, and that he’s considered himself to be above his nature—able to control himself. Except that now he’s decided that there is something about Lee that makes him want to give it a try. Lee, however, is not terribly interested in this plan, with the exception of needing a place to sleep until his next unemployment check comes through.

While Lee is trying to get himself sorted out, he is also trying to keep an eye on his young omega nephew, who is a bit wild and not interested in settling down just yet either. Lee and Shane seem to find themselves at the same clubs, and Lee tries to keep an eye on Shane, but Shane just wants to have fun. When he’s in over his head, however, Lee reins him in and takes care of him, much to the chagrin of Shane’s boss, the head of the Wet Heat lab.

When it turns out that there is some nefarious business going on that involved both a new version of the Wet Heat pheromones and Lee’s nephew, Cane and Lee join forces to turn things around. They end up working together to make things right and discover that maybe they make a pretty good team after all.

I found this to be an entertaining story with some new twists on the werewolf, and especially the Alpha/Beta/Omega tropes. Lee is a handful, to say the least. Cain is unsure of what he should be doing and he’s really feeling his way along with Lee. Their interactions run the gamut: Lee thinking he’s running the show and manipulating Cain, and Cain thinks he will bring Lee in line, and neither is necessarily right . . . or wrong. ;-) Shane is adorable, of course, and I’d love to read more about him (hint, hint). I liked that the main characters were more mature but still trying to figure out what they were doing and where they were going—kinda like most adults. This is the first book I’ve read by this author, but I look forward to reading more because I really like her style.

You can buy Wet Heat here:
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