Seth leaned over the cliff and searched to no avail for signs that someone had slipped or fallen on the ice. The snowstorm of the season had begun moving in before dawn and as the morning stretched into afternoon, visibility had declined to near impossible levels. Even his shifter senses weren’t doing much good in this shit.
“See anything?” his brother yelled.
Seth shook his head. If the missing skier had come this way there’d be no helping them now. The ground below was frozen solid and slick thanks to the rock underneath. There’d be nowhere to gain traction to stop a free fall except at the bottom of the ravine. Hopefully they were on the wrong track.
He backed away slowly before turning back to his twin brother, Trent. What he could see of him anyway. They’d both layered gear on top of gear before they’d left their cabin this morning. Search and Rescue frowned on their penchant for taking along as little as possible when out searching. They could cover far more ground if they shifted, unfortunately not everyone on the mountain today knew they were shifters. So instead they traveled through the forest weighted down with survival gear.
Snow crunched under his boots as he trudged through 4Eliza Gayle
the often knee-deep drifts. It’d been a while since they’d seen a storm this rough and despite all the weather warnings, the night before a group of daredevil college kids had hit the trails under the cover of darkness after the access roads had been shut down.
When they’d failed to show up after six hours, they’d been reported to the park service as lost on the mountain and Seth and his team had been dispatched. He lifted his wrist and examined his watch. That had been nearly seven long hours ago and no one had seen more than a few faint tracks in the snow. He worried in this weather their time was running out.
“Whoever or whatever it is can’t be far. The scent is stronger here.”
Seth nodded. “Can’t be sure it’s the kid were looking for though. It seems unlikely that a shifter would get lost out here that quick.”
“Unless he’s hurt. The damn storm moving in is messing with the trail. Hard to be sure about anything.”
They both studied the sky. Trent was right. Much longer and the search would have to be halted for safety reasons. He had to allow enough time for his team to make it off the mountain and into shelter before things got ugly. He sniffed the air. And they were about to get damned ugly.
“We’re about forty minutes past regulation,” Trent warned.
“Yeah, I know. Dammit. If it was just you and I we could keep going. This secrecy bullshit is for the birds.”
“Base to Seth. Hey, Boss, can you hear me?” The squawk and the warbled static of the hand held radio on his hip interrupted their conversation.
Seth grabbed the radio and depressed the button. “Yeah. You’re breaking up but I copy.”
“Awesome.”
He choked back the annoyance with the new intern manning the radio this afternoon. His enthusiasm wasn’t a bad thing.
“We’ve got—” The rest of his sentence gave way to pops and hisses that made Seth wince.
“Say that again. I didn’t copy.”
“The missing college kid has been found. He was lost over on the North Ridge. The other half of your team is on their way back in.”
“Copy that,” Seth answered.
Trent whooped. “Hot damn. Now we can go the hell home.”
North Ridge? That was more than five miles from where they were located. That didn’t explain the strange scent they’d picked up the minute they’d hit the Shining Rock area. There was someone else out here that didn’t belong.
“What?” Seth turned to look at his brother. Trent lifted one brow. “Don’t look at me like that. I know how your brain works. We aren’t going home yet are we?”
Seth shook his head. “How can we? The team may have found the missing kid but we haven’t found what we’ve been tracking most of the day.” The beast inside him snarled. “I for one won’t be able to rest until I know what’s going on, on our own damned mountain.”
Trent’s shoulders slumped. “You better radio it in so they don’t end up wasting their time and send a team out for us when we don’t make it home tonight.”
“Hey, you never know. Maybe we’re both wrong and there really isn’t anything out here.” Of course he didn’t believe that for a second. The cougar had been restless all day. Far more than usual. Figuring the mystery out was just a process of elimination at this point. The scent smelled feline but not like any cougar he’d ever encountered.
“It sure as hell isn’t a bobcat,” Trent argued, nearly reading his thoughts as usual.
Seth let him think that out as he let base know they likely wouldn’t be back until morning and yes, they were close to the old Willingham cabin so they’d have no problem finding shelter for the night.
Finished with communications for the day, Seth packed the radio into his gear. From the corner of his eye he saw Trent’s gaze swing sharply to the left.
“What is it?”
“I smell smoke. Right over there.”
Seth followed the direction his brother pointed in, and sure enough, several miles out, there was a faint trace of smoke on the horizon. If not for the setting sun’s reflection they’d likely not have spotted it.
“That looks suspiciously like the area around the cabin.”
“You think we’ve got a squatter?”
“Looks like.”
Review Companies
  
Blackraven's Reviews
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If you are looking for a snuggle into the blankets type of book with sexy twin shifters who like to be in control, and a not so very delicate damsel in distress, Frost Bitten may be the Valentine’s Day story for you.
(full review)
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Just Erotic Romance Reviews
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As Frost Bitten began to come to a close, I found it was rather abrupt. Overall all I didn't enjoy Frost Bitten as much as I wanted.
(full review)
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Seriously Reviewed
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Daisy is a jaguar shifter, determined to go through her heat cycle on her own. That's why she's rented a cabin several states away from her packs normal territory. What she didn't...
(full review)
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Sizzling Hot Book Reviews
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Frost Bitten will thrill those readers who love a steamy shifter story. The sex between the three characters is sure to make you breathless. Every woman needs men who will take care of her as Trent and Seth do for Daisy. I really hope that Eliza Gayle will write another shifter tale as desirable as Frost Bitten.
(full review)
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The Reader's Roundtable
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Frost Bitten is a sizzling short read that I enjoyed tremendously. It contains all of my favorite story elements: peaceful setting, sexy plot, gorgeous shifters with mad skills and a beautiful, seductive woman with a backbone of steel and has the strength of someone twice her size.
(full review)
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You Gotta Read Reviews
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Daisy came to the Mountains to think and deal with her being in heat. But with her being in heat, she attracted two cougar shifters, two very sexy cougar shifters. Seth and Trent, twins...
(full review)
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MR Review
Rating:
Reviewer: Sabine
Review:
It seems like yesterday that I first discovered shifters and I have been in love with them ever since. They are usually strong, dominant and sexy, and that’s not just the men! In Frost Bitten by Eliza Gayle, part of the Perfect Strangers collection by All Romance Books, three shifters come together in a severe storm and one of them is in the throes of mating heat. Will the heat the three produce be enough to last them through the storm and beyond? Will they be together after the storm is over?
Twins and cougar shifters, Seth and Trent are members of the local search and rescue, who have been dispatched to find some teens who went out after dark and are feared lost on the mountain with a severe storm heading their way. Seth and Trent have picked up the scent of something and then the missing teen is found, but the mystery of what they have been tracking hasn’t been solved. Add to that some smoke coming from a cabin and they decide to continue their tracking and then take shelter in the cabin nearby.
At this stage I need to point out that there are several inconsistencies in the story, as you can see from the above paragraph. First of all, a group of teens goes missing and then the missing teen, one, gets found. Where and what happened to the rest? Then on page 28 of the story the brothers are mixed up in the dialogue, one went outside and one is inside and the names have been switched around. This part I had to read twice to see what was going on. Also in another part of the story there is a mix up with the personal pronouns, which also throws the reader a bit. These kinds of things should have been picked up with good proofreading and editing.
Getting back to the story, Seth and Trent happen on a shifter in the severe throes of sexual heat. Daisy, a jaguar shifter came up to the mountains and the cold to get away and hopefully deal with the heat on her own. Now instead, she has to deal with the attention of two strong and sexy cougar shifters. Needless to say that cougars and jaguars don’t mix, at least not on this mountain, but Seth and Trent have rather different ideas!
Seth and Trent are kind, considerate and of course as shifters are extremely sexy and well built. Daisy on the other hand is rather petite, but she can and does whack a punch; she learned how to early on, with five overprotective brothers. Daisy has reservations about a ménage, even though she is in urgent need of some sexual relief, which the brothers are all too happy to provide.
To say that the heat generated by the three when they get started is enough to melt snow is an understatement and the love scenes are sensual and both brothers are more than attracted to Daisy and capably see to her needs and their own. They may even be her mates!
Daisy doesn’t think she can deal with a ménage. Then she can’t deal with the mates issue, well it is hard to deal with as she is from one part of the country and on the mountain her kind and the cougars really don’t mix. If you are looking for a happily ever after, this story unfortunately doesn’t provide it. It provides a happy for now, which is just as good and when I think about it, probably better than a HEA because that might have seemed a bit on the fast side and strange even for shifters.
Apart from the inconsistencies, I really did enjoy this story, but I felt that much more could have been revealed that was only touched on, the obvious friction between the cougars and jaguars, the territorialism if you like. Daisy was, despite her size a real spitfire and I liked her attitude and the fact that she could give as good as she got. Trent and Seth were kind and considerate and they also didn’t take any crap from Daisy. It is obvious they have things to figure out between the three of them, and I, for one, hope there is a sequel, so readers can see what happens to them! I would say get a copy of Frost Bitten and enjoy the heat and the storm provided by Ms. Gayle!
Disclosure: Manic Readers receives books from authors, publishers, and publicists which are given to
reviewers in exchange for their honest opinion. Each review represents the opinion of the reviewer
which may or may not have been influenced by receiving the book at no cost.
