Reviewed by Jen
TITLE: Starting a New Life
SERIES: Cedarwood Pack #2
AUTHOR: Ray Celar
PUBLISHER: Self published
LENGTH: 376 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 20, 2026
BLURB:
Would you rather keep running from an entire pack of wolves or let just one into your life—and your heart?
Nix
My coven betrayed me. Even worse, they tried to sell me to a wolf pack to become their slave.
After five months on the run and constantly feeling the pack’s metaphorical breath on the back of my neck, I can’t do it anymore.
Hiding in the Cedarwood Pack’s territory was supposed to be a brief stop. Staying here is risky. What if they find and enslave me? If I stay, it’s just a matter of time until I’m discovered, but I don’t think I have it in me to keep running.
Will I lose my freedom after all, or is the Alpha my chance for a fresh start?
Gray
Weird things are happening in my territory, and my wolf and I don’t like it. First, the barrier started suddenly getting stronger even though it shouldn’t be able to do that, and now stuff is going missing. We’re a pack, a family. Family doesn’t steal from one another, yet it keeps happening.
So when I discover a strange mage on my territory who’s apparently been here for months, I snap.
Throwing him in a cell might be the biggest mistake of my life. I didn’t recognize the mate bond in time, and now he’s terrified of me and my wolf. I have no idea how to make him see that I’d never harm him.
Will helping him free other mages show him who I really am, or have I lost my chance for good?
REVIEW:
It has been about two years waiting on this one, so it took a few minutes for me to remember some of the details, although I remember really enjoying the initial book in this series and recall it being an interesting start to this world. You really should read that book to have a better understanding of what is happening when this one begins.
Gray is the leader of the Cedarwood pack. We met most of the pack in the last book when Gray’s second, Rhett, met his mate, Levi. Through the course of that book, we learned there was something special about Levi, but we never really knew what. When things left off, the magical barrier wall that protected the pack had been sort of mysteriously glitching. There were random shifters coming across the border, and Levi had befriended Nix, someone he though was just homeless and down on his luck. Turns out, he is a mage on the run.
In Nix’s world, Mages are not treated well at all by witches or shifters. They are basically kept captive and used for their magic abilities while being looked down upon as the lower species. Nix manages to escape and has been on the run in Cedarwood Pack territory for about six months, outrunning the shifters who want him back. This is what has been causing the disturbances in the border wall. Turns out that the mages are the ones who create and maintain the walls, and Nix has been working to reinforce it. After he decides he can no longer hide in plain sight under the Cedarwood Pack’s nose without seeking approval, he makes a plan to go to the Alpha. But that plan is thwarted when he comes upon two young shifters being harmed by other intruders. In saving them, he is captured by the Cedarwood Pack.
This sets in motion the push and pull of Nix and Gray and their mate relationship. They must navigate the difficulties of their initial encounter, compounded by Nix’s distrust of all things shifter related. Nix slowly learns that all shifters are not bad, and they eventually all work together to handle bigger issues.
This story gripped me a bit more than the first book. It was just a bit more exciting and interesting as things moved along at a faster pace and the story advanced more. I am so happy we got to see this story continue, as I have really enjoyed all of the characters involved. And, it looks like things will be even more interesting as the next installment is about Angelo and Heath, two already complicated characters who I just knew were more closely aligned than just pack members. Hope we don’t have to wait two years to get it!
RATING: 
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