Wild At Heart

By: Amanda Cook

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

He's convinced captivity is always wrong. She knows it's sometimes the only option. Together, they might just save the animals—and each other.

Marcus Reid doesn't do compromise. As a wildlife behavioral specialist, he's built his reputation rehabilitating the most traumatized animals—and his philosophy is simple: wild animals belong in the wild, period. Keeping them in captivity, even for "education" or "conservation," is just exploitation with better PR.

Maya Collins has heard it all before. As a film industry animal coordinator, she's spent years placing retired performance animals that no one else wants. She knows the system is broken, but she also knows that sometimes a sanctuary is the only thing standing between an animal and euthanasia. Idealism doesn't save lives—pragmatism does.

When Happy Trails Animal Sanctuary lands a government contract as Alberta's emergency placement facility for seized exotic animals, Marcus and Maya are thrust together as the facility's behavioral specialist and placement coordinator. They'll assess each animal, determine its future, and try not to kill each other in the process.

The problem? They disagree on everything. Whether to socialize animals or keep them wild. Whether breeding programs serve conservation or just justify captivity. Whether the cougar seized from a Red Deer basement can ever be released—or if "freedom" is just another word for abandonment.

The other problem? The way Maya's competence makes Marcus forget every reason this is a terrible idea. The way Marcus's integrity makes Maya want to believe in something beyond survival.

Spring at Happy Trails means baby goats escaping, government bureaucracy, impossible cases, and two people discovering that the opposite of wrong isn't always right—sometimes it's the person standing across from you, making you question everything you thought you knew.

A grumpy/sunshine workplace romance with forced proximity, battling philosophies, and the wild animals that bring them together. Second in the WHERE THE WILD THINGS HEAL series.