This week I chose the Shifter series by Rachel Vincent. All of her books are fantastic, but this is one of my all time favorite series ever :) This is one urban fantasy tale you won't want to miss!
There are only eight breeding female werecats left . . .
And I'm one of them.
I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.
Despite
reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped the pressure to
continue my species and carved out a normal life for myself. Until the
night a Stray attacked.
I'd been warned about Strays --
werecats without a Pride, constantly on the lookout for someone like me:
attractive, female, and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two
of my fellow tabbies had disappeared.
This brush with danger
was all my Pride needed to summon me back . . . for my own protection.
Yeah, right. But I'm no meek kitty. I'll take on whatever -- and whoever
-- I have to in order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays -- 'cause I
got claws, and I'm not afraid to use them . . .

Okay, so cats don't always land on their feet.
I
know that better than most. Since rejoining the Pride, I've made big
decisions and even bigger mistakes: the kind paid for with innocent
lives. As the first and only female enforcer, I have plenty to prove to
my father, the Pride, and myself. And with murdered toms turning up in
our territory, I'm working harder than ever, though I always find the
energy for a little after-hours recreation with Marc, my partner both
on- and off-duty.
But not all of my mistakes are behind me. We're
beginning to suspect that the dead are connected to a rash of missing
human women and that they can all be laid at my feet--two or four, take
your pick. And one horrible indiscretion may yet cost me more than I can
bear...

I'm on trial for my
life. Falsely accused of infecting my human ex-boyfriend--and killing
him to cover up the crime. Infecting a human is one of three capital
offenses recognized by the Pride--along with murder and disclosure of
our existence to a human.I'm two for three. A goner.
Now we've
discovered a rogue stray terrorizing the mountainside, hunting a wild
teenage tabbycat. It's up to us to find and stop him before a human
discovers us. With my lover Marc's help, I "think" I can protect the
vulnerable girl from both the ambitious rogue and the scheming of the
territorial council.
"If" I survive my own trial...

Sometimes playing cat
and mouse is no game...Play? "Right." My Pride is under fire from all
sides, my father's authority is in question and my lover is in exile.
Which means I haven't laid eyes on Marc's gorgeous face in months. And
with a new mother "and" an I-know-everything teenager under my
protection, I don't exactly have time to fantasize about ever seeing him
again.
Then our long-awaited reunion is ruined by a vicious
ambush by strays. Now our group is under attack, Marc is missing and I
will need every bit of skill and smarts to keep my family from being
torn apart. Forever.

Being the first female werecat enforcer isn't easy. Scars accumulate, but I'm stronger in so many ways.
As
for my personal life? It's complicated. Choices worth making always
are. Ever since my brother's death and my father's impeachment, it's all
I can do to prevent more blood from spilling. Now our Pride is under
attack by a flight of vicious thunderbirds. And making peace with our
new enemies may be the only way to get the best of our old foe.
With
the body count rising and treachery everywhere, my instincts tell me to
look before I leap. But sometimes a leap of faith is the only real
option...

The unscrupulous new
Council chair has charged Jace, Marc and me with trespassing,
kidnapping, murder and treason. Yeah, we've been busy. But now it's time
to take justice into our own hands. We must avenge my brother's death
and carve out the rot at the heart of the Council.It's not going to be
easy, and loss seems unavoidable, but I have promised to protect my
Pride, no matter what. With a target on my back and Marc at my side, I'm
heading for a final showdown that can--that will--change everything
forever. A showdown I'm not sure I'm ready for.But life never waits
until you're ready.

This short story was previously in the anthology Chicks Kick But
It’s
been more than four years since Abby Wade survived capture and torture
by a quartet of rogue shifters. Back then she was a scared kid, just
trying to survive.
Now Abby is all grown up, and if she’s learned
anything from training with Faythe Sanders, the world’s first female
Alpha, it’s that she can take care of herself—and anyone else who comes
along. So when her college roommate is abducted from a campsite deep in
the Appalachian woods, Abby knows exactly how to get her back…
The rules of the hunt are simple. Kill or be killed.
Abby Wade is not ready to die.