Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: Fixer
SERIES: Hidden Wolves – Prequel
AUTHOR: Kaje Harper
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 195 Pages
RELEASE DATE: November 9, 2025
BLURB:
Wade
When my little brother was fifteen, he kissed a boy. Someone from our werewolf pack saw him and told Alpha, and that was the end. The end of his life, because wolf packs have ironclad rules and one of them is, Thou shalt not be gay, ever. Shawn died. And the extra gut-punch on top of losing my brother was that the man who obeyed our Alpha’s order to kill Shawn was Dustin, our Fixer, a man I’d thought was my good friend. The man I’d secretly had a crush on.
Once Shawn was dead, once Alpha let me loose, I ran fast and far. I wanted to kill Dustin, to smear his guts out on the ground and dance on them, but he had four inches, thirty pounds, and fifteen years of fighting experience on me. He was pack Sixth to my Fifteenth. In a fight, I’d always lose. Still, as I made a new life a long way from the pack, I vowed that one day, I’d find Dustin and end him. Then, one spring night, I woke to a very familiar wolf peering in at me from the fire escape. I had my shot at revenge at last.
Dustin
Pack Fixer is a title, a job, an avocation. It’s also a prison, bound by vows to your Alpha and one sole commandment: protect the pack. My father, who was Fixer before me, taught me all kinds of ways to cover up evidence that might reveal werewolves. I could pick locks, alter photos, confuse, drug, blackmail, and eliminate threats. I was up on all the new technology that was growing by leaps and bounds here in the 1970s. I understood video, knew what a motion detector could do. And I used my skills to kill an innocent boy.
Well, that’s what my Alpha thought I’d done, what he’d commanded of me. What Shawn’s brother Wade believed, when he escaped our pack and vanished. In fact, Shawn was still alive and I was no longer Fixer. But it took me seven years to find Wade, to give him the good news. Question is, will he kill me before I can tell him he still has a brother?
Fixer is a 53,000 word, hurt-comfort, second chances prequel novella set in the 1970s, thirty-seven years before the events in Unacceptable Risk.
REVIEW:
After a man Dustin admired killed his brother, Shawn, on the orders of their Alpha, Dustin became a lone wolf and disappeared from the pack. Years later, the man Dustin hated found him. Wade, the pack fixer, wanted nothing more than to clarify his actions, but everyone had to believe the worst. The question was – would Wade get the chance to explain that all was not as it seemed?
Fixer is the prequel to the already existing Hidden Wolf series. Therefore, I suspect that anyone who has already read the series will, for loose ends’ sake, origins, or love of characters, probably get more from this story than an unsuspecting newcomer. I am a newcomer to this series, but having read novels by Kaje Harper in the past and enjoyed them, I gave it a whirl. I found the tale sweet and enjoyable, but low on heart-rate-altering moments, which is an aspect I relish in my reading. Any scenes that had the potential to be dramatically compelling were diplomatically avoided or easily resolved.
The story is told in the first person from the viewpoints of Dustin and Wade. Technical aspects and worldbuilding are of an excellent standard. I had no problems imagining the people and scenery. Also, the spice between Dustin and Wade will leave many needing a cold shower.
Dustin is a good man with a big heart. Although he doesn’t have a wolf pack, he is protective of the people in his building and does his best to keep them safe from harm. This could be a person a few blocks away or scheming profiteers out to line their pockets. The loss of Shawn hit him hard, but as the blurb says, Wade the fixer has the solution to that.
After providing a fix for Shawn, Wade eventually leaves the pack and becomes a PI. He is street-smart and is extremely competent at his job. He is a man fully aware of the good and bad within people and how to exploit it. After finding Dustin, Wade helps him find justice for the repressed while ensuring future happiness. I can imagine all sorts of ways these two would be used in future novels.
As a prequel and introduction to the series, I’d look forward to future instalments, hoping that Wade’s skills, lost and found packs, and other adventures, provide the heart-stopping moments I crave. There’s nothing wrong with the story. As already mentioned, it is sweet. I just didn’t get over-excited about it. I may have appreciated this novella more if I’d read the other books first. Then, maybe I’d understand why the prequel was written.
RATING: 
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