Major Sasha Young has been attracted to Grayson Evans (and vice versa) for three years. The problem? Grayson is a morph — a rare white tiger shifter — and Sasha is human, a military officer assigned by the Department of Morphological Affairs (DOMA) to guard the Alpha Colony shifters and ensure peace among them. Fraternization between the guards and shifters is strictly against the rules. Any misconduct and Sasha could lose her career.

The colonies were established to protect humans from the stronger and more violent morphs, but Sasha feels that the shifters are the ones being persecuted. She’s always been told that the shifters were genetic anomalies, accidents of evolution. When Grayson tells Sasha differently, her eyes are opened to a whole new world of possibilities.

Grayson is disgusted by how little Sasha really knows about or understands the morphs. After a leopard female is brutally attacked by a rogue tiger and Grayson has to step in to break up the fur-flying brawl between the tiger and leopard shifters, he decides it’s time for Sasha to know what’s really going on. He’s wanted Sasha since the first time he saw her. She’s triggered the mating fever in him, a sheer impossibility…unless Sasha isn’t entirely human after all.

When the continuing “dabbling” in genetics by military scientists comes to light, Sasha and Grayson know they must act to stop it. Sasha must choose between her 14-year military career or the man she loves and the freedom of his people. Can she bring herself to make that life-altering choice?

Alpha Colony 1: Untamed Hunger by Aubrey Ross takes place in a not-too-distant future after secret genetic engineering has resulted in the creation of shapeshifters or “morphs”. The Alpha Colony series focuses on the felidae-morphs (cat-shifters), but the book suggests that there are also canine morphs in another colony, perhaps a Beta Colony. These colonies appear to be crosses between today’s Native-American reservations and animal reserves. As with an animal reserve, the morphs are free to roam the colony in either their animal or human forms, but should they escape their confines, they are tracked down and either killed or returned to the colony.

Untamed Hunger, with Sasha’s gentle introduction to bondage and domination, is an erotic read guaranteed to heat up cold winter nights. Adding just enough action-adventure and intrigue to keep the reader turning pages, Ms. Ross has created a very believable story in a very realistic world. When Sasha goes to Grayson to learn more about the struggles between the different breeds of cat morphs it’s the perfect opening to set their passion free, allowing them to finally admit to their true feelings for each other. As a cat, Grayson is a natural dominant; it's not a choice with him. Yet there are scenes where he’s so tender and loving with Sasha I almost sighed out loud. Both Sasha and Grayson are strong, caring and capable individuals. Both are leaders, but Grayson is able to bring out the secret submissive in Sasha, while teaching her the freedom of submission.

I am looking forward to seeing where this series goes next. With Izak the rogue tiger still alive and conspiring with one of their own to possibly bring the felines in conflict with the canines, things should get very interesting indeed.