DEA Special Agent Ethan Masterson works in Portland, Oregon. One day his squad gets a tip to raid a house, but they are given the wrong address. A young woman is a resident, having recently moved to the area. WHAT A WOLF WANTS is to take a shower in peace without having her doors busted open.

Shifter stories are great fun. In this series called Red Wolf, Charlene Cheswick has left her job as a homicide detective, so she’s not concerned about law enforcement methods, just startled. Given the handsome officer in her bathroom smells like a red wolf too, she promptly shifts and bites his arm to warn him of her nature. He backs off fast.

This werewolf romance brings Charlene from Florida to the west coast, where she revels in roaming wolf-clad among redwoods, berry bushes and hickories. Ethan asks her out to dinner to make up for the disturbance, plus he wants to welcome her on behalf of the local pack. They are mostly friendly here, mostly trusting of other wolves. Ethan wishes the same could be said about everyone in law enforcement, because he becomes convinced that someone is steering the drug cops in the wrong direction.

With a spread of characters, an established shifter community and some creeping paranoia as matters go wrong, this is a detailed look at modern crime in an unusual setting. I had fun reading Terry Spear’s romance among the red wolves, in which WHAT A WOLF WANTS becomes quite clear.