The Owl and His Fated Mate by Michael Clanton

Ava Martin has built her career preserving Appalachian folklore, forgotten cemeteries, and the stories people leave behind. She has also spent her life refusing to accept one terrifying family truth: Martin women die young.

When her research takes her into the remote mountains of West Virginia, Ava discovers a cemetery missing from modern maps and crosses onto land controlled by a private wildlife reserve. A collapsing ravine nearly kills her, but a massive owl saves her before disappearing into the forest.

Minutes later, she meets Ulises Williams.

Reserved, commanding, and far too aware of every sound around him, Ulises wants Ava out of his territory immediately. The blood on his shoulder matches the injury she saw the owl suffer, and his reaction to her presence raises questions he refuses to answer.

Ulises is more than a wildlife ecologist. He is an owl shifter, a powerful Watcher responsible for guarding a hidden supernatural boundary between the living and the dead. The moment he encounters Ava, he recognizes a forbidden connection neither of them expected.

Their bond could change everything.

But Ava refuses to let supernatural law decide whom she loves, what she chooses, or what happens to her body. Ulises has spent his life protecting his people through discipline and control, yet the human woman he cannot ignore challenges every rule he has trusted.

The Owl and His Fated Mate is a passionate paranormal shifter romance filled with forbidden attraction, rare mate-bond tension, hidden supernatural society, ancient secrets, protective hero energy, dangerous family history, and a heroine determined to choose love without surrendering herself.

For readers who want a fated-mates romance where desire may be supernatural but love must still be chosen.

Enter Black Laurel Hollow and discover why some bonds are worth defying an entire world to protect.