Vampire Elise Sylas returns home from college to attend the funeral of her sire, Anton Sylas. There she meets her father’s close friends and business managers, two wolf shape-shifters, Ace and Verne. The attraction is immediate.

During the reading of the will, Elise finds she’s been left Anton’s lumber business, though she’s advised to immediately sell to the villain of the story, vampire Justus Trenton. Being the spunky thing she is, she refuses the industrialist’s offer.

Ace and Verne are both alpha wolves. Ace handles the business operations while Verne takes care of the loggers. Though they have no proof, the wolves believe Anton’s traffic accident and decapitation was a thinly-concealed murder. Bunking with Elise is a convenient way to protect her from Justus’ henchmen and share in lusty vampiress delights.

When a suspicious fire rips through their woods and a masked man attempts to shoot Elise, the wolves must turn to Pax Julien, sire of the heir to the Vampire Nation, in the hopes the environmentalist will convince his lover to investigate Justus.

Despite the incredibly bad cover art—poor Elise looks like a badly done transvestite—this short carnal ménage (as the title hints) packs a lot into a little package. Ace and Verne are suitably attractive and well-rounded characters. Elise’s self-confidence is a breath of fresh air in a genre that often places women in either the victim corner or the bad-ass chick ring. Elise is neither, nor does she do things that make you want to whack her and cheer for the villain. Carnal Inheritance provides a sprinkling of everyone’s favorite paranormal creatures, vampires and werewolves, without complicating the storyline with back plot and lengthy explanations of supernatural beings. Bravo, Kate Hill.