Hey, hey Curious One! I’m back at it here with the fourth book in the Wolf Nights collection, Savage Surrender: A Dire Wolves Mission by Ellis Leigh. Super short and packed full of action, Savage Surrender wasn’t that bad! It held all of the usual tropes that you find within a shifter book, but they weren’t too over-the-top! You know what I’m talking about here. Alpha commands that are obeyed unwillingly, hot and steamy sex, alpha personalities, fights to the death, mated to a stranger with one look, etc.
The Dire Wolves of Savage Surrender
Beelzebub (Bez) is part of a thought to be extinct pack of seven Dire wolves. He is full of macho alpha-ness but Savage Surrender didn’t focus on that sole trait. He’s essentially a trained solider that gets every single mission accomplished. No questions asked.
There’re seven Dire wolves in the family and they are all brothers. You get a little glimpse into half of them, short introductions that help connect the rest of the series, I’m sure. Savage Surrender focused almost solely on Bez and Sariel (the older Omega) meeting and realizing that they are fated mates.
The Meaning Behind the Kidnappings
Sariel and Angelita are two Omega’s that had previously been kidnapped. As far as we know, they were taken to be forcefully bred. Breeding whom or what, we have no idea. Or how or why. Savage Surrender is pretty obviously the first book in a collection that builds up to the final showdown between the good guys and the bad guys. Which we can assume the Dire wolves and their Omega mates will most likely be a part of.
Sariel was taken about a month before Angelita came into the picture. She went through the invasive procedures that determine whether or not a female can reproduce. Because Sariel is infertile, the kidnappers went about finding, kidnapping another Omega and killing her pack. That’s how we know their nefarious plan(s) has something to do with impregnating Omega women.
Angelita is probably around 15, maybe 17. She has a super naïve outlook because her pack sheltered her. That’s why she might be older than I remember. But, even though she’s young, she is strong and determined to get free.
Challenging Orders Within Savage Surrender
Bez is originally tasked with saving the one, younger Omega (Angelita). The president and the people of what we hope are the good guys only know about Angelita. They have no idea that Sariel was kidnapped a month ago, so they send in Bez alone to hunt down and take them out. But as soon as he realizes that Sariel is his mate, he obviously cannot just leave her there, even though his orders were clear, and he has never disobeyed before.
This is a part that I’m a little worried about and what makes me second-guess Blaze (the president of the NALB) and his motives. This guy, Blaze, has found BOTH his mates which is exceedingly rare, if not impossible to happen anymore. He knows first-hand how important mates are and yet, when he learns of Bez’s actions, he is more than upset. He’s literally blowing up, yelling into his phone, going crazy about what went down.
All because Bez killed all of the men who could lead them to the other Omegas.
Ummm…I don’t think so.
Something more is afoot here and I would love to figure out what exactly Blaze has up his sleeve. He just “knows” too much and is too desperate for more information.
Anyways, Bez obviously doesn’t just leave Sariel to fend for herself until help can arrive, so he rescues them both and gets them to a safe house.
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Werewolves in Savage Surrender vs. Werewolves
Bez decides to essentially use the Omegas as bait. Not real bait, but bait just the same. His plan is to wait out the hunting party until his brothers can come to help. The survivalist mood of Savage Surrender shifts for a moment at this time when Sariel and Bez take a moment to get to know each other’s names and expose the secret(s) that Bez has never had a relationship before.
They have that steamy sex scene that I mentioned earlier (thank goodness it was only one, right?!) before Angelita and Sariel go into the safe room to allow Bez the freedom of knowing they are safe.
However, they have a werewolf with them!
According to Ellis Leigh, in the world of Savage Surrender, werewolves are monsters that only feed off female blood. They live to hunt and kill and drain Omega shifters. Kind of a big twist from our modern “werewolves are warm and human and can love” kind of mythology, eh?!
No worries though, Bez takes this werewolf out with ease! 😉 He’s a Dire wolf, after all!
Fighting on Bez’s Own Turf in Savage Surrender
So, as the Omegas are kept in a safe room within the safe house, Bez slowly and methodically takes out all of the shifters and the werewolf that came to hunt Omega Sariel and Omega Angelita. Alas, Angelita can’t take the taunting of one of the evil shifters who exposes how her mother and brother died, relishing in the taste of their blood. Which, of course, causes Angelita to go mad with anguish and reveal their location to the werewolf.
Sariel has a brief moment of heroism where she defends Angelita from a shifter who got through when Bez was taking out the werewolf though, and it was a blessed relief from so much macho man alpha intensity!
Thankfully, and happily, though Bez catches up to him just in time and keeps him from harming both Angelita and Sariel.
This was when the mood shifted again, and Bez’s Dire brothers came into the picture.
…In the End…
Bez and Sariel defend their actions and Sariel is fully embraced by the Dire wolf pack. Blaze had his suspicious tantrum and Angelita went to the capital to undergo some questions and tests to figure out what happened and why. She was still a wolf too. I forgot to mention that Bez alpha commanded her to shift, and she was now stuck as a wolf! Serious problem that I hope we get an answer to in the sequels.
All-in-All, I think Leigh did pretty dang good with this version of shifters and werewolves. She created an entire family of what felt like modern shifters that were able to work together. They didn’t SEEM overbearing in their rules and even allowed freedom within outlying packs. It felt a lot like the urban fantasy novels where the humans know about the mythological creatures they live with. But everyone was mostly harmonious.
I guess I’m trying to say it felt believable with their “police” force built of shifters and the modern-day mentality.
More on Ellis Leigh
Ellis Leigh is still writing and doing her amazing thing in the paranormal world and it looks like she’s even continuing on in the world of the Feral Breed, which I think is the same world as The Devil’s Dire Series. And as you well know by now, I love continuations within the same world!
Her Facebook and Twitter are still active, and her website showed lots of locations for you to find all of her works, both digital and in print if you’re as curious as I was! There’s a cool feature on her website too that gives you a release date and percentage of how far along she is in a few projects that will release in 2021. I haven’t seen that before and it’s fun!
Keep on living your best life today, Curious One! The world can always use a bit more smiles, laughter and happiness!
I’m gonna keep on reading!
…it’s time for another book…
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