Eli Graham has been gone on pack business for over a year, forced to leave before he could claim the woman whom he knows is his mate.  Eli is back now and is determined to claim his mate.  The perfect plan, right? Until Eli learns that during his absence Nikki has been in the hospital twice for serious matters and to top it off, she no longer trusts men. 

Nikki Taylor has been in hiding since she was attacked.  Nikki has wanted Eli for a while, but now she only wants to hide from him.  She even made her brother and Eli’s brother promise not to tell Eli what happened during his absence.  Nikki is persuaded to join some long time friends for a girl’s night.  However she arrives only to discover a worse nightmare than the one she has been hiding/recovering from.

Eli will let nothing else happen to Nikki if he has any say in the matter.  He totally takes over her security and at the same time tries to show Nikki that some men can be trusted to keep her safe and loved.  When Nikki and Eli’s guard is lowered by a mistake, can Eli still keep Nikki safe or will they lose any future by acts of a madman?

Checkmate reminded me of a great fire, it smolders at first and then is slowly built into an inferno.  Nikki has only become a shadow of her normal self after being attacked and fears what Eli will think of her when he gets back.  Eli has returned determined to claim Nikki and finds that while he was gone she has been placed in harm’s way twice.  Eli and Nikki have to work together to solve both problems, which isn’t easy when you are talking about an Alpha male and a strong, determined woman.  I read Checkmate in one setting, late into the night, just because I could not put it down.  The emotions that both Nikki and Eli go though had me on the edge of my seat and I was sorry to reach the end.  Checkmate is a must read, not once, but several times over. 

Note to readers: Checkmate is a sequel to Seeing Eye Mate and while they are stand alone books, the characters do intermingle.