Home of the Alpha Showdown, and one-stop shop for urban fantasy, paranormal romance and fantasy news and reviews.
The fifth annual Alpha Showdown has been the hardest fought so far. We had countless matches where a handful of votes determined the winner. Thousands of people voted, and one of our final combatants won his last round by only a single vote.
Wrath and Kaleb have demonstrated dominance throughout the Showdown. The BDB and Psy/Changeling fans have rallied in each bout, which means this final match is going to be insane.
To recap. Wrath, the vampire king from J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, beat the archangel Raphael in his first match, deftly defeated Kate Daniels and squeezed out a win over Mad Rogan. Kaleb from Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling series took out not one, but two vampires before defeating the Beast Lord by a single vote.
Who deserves to be crowned the Alpha Showdown 2015 Champion? You decide.
We’ve lined up excellent bloggers to fill you in on why each alpha deserves to advance. Read the pitches, and then make the call.
You know him from: The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward
First appeared in: Dark Lover (VBC Review | Amazon
Supernatural status: The Blind King, the last purebred vampire
Championed by: Jill from VBC
Wrath is a no-hold-barred badass. He’s the king of the vampire race, but don’t let that fool you, he’s not some pompous politician. He could, and often does, take on anyone and anything. He’s a fierce protector of his people. He would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need. He’s exactly the kind of man that you would want to be your friend, your bodyguard, the leader of your people, or your sexy, badass, alpha boyfriend.
He is a very reluctant king. He just wants to be a simple soldier like the rest of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Wrath isn’t made for the simple soldier life, though. He’s way too much of an alpha to be just a warrior. Oh no, he’s the literal king of the warriors.
When some obnoxious posers decide that his chosen mate Beth isn’t vampire enough to be his wife, Wrath takes the throne so that no one will take his leelan. He has single-handedly fought off assassination attempts, evil soul-less demons, and smart-ass brothers, all in day’s work for this alpha king.
Throughout his few years as King, we see him grow as a man and as a leader. We’ve watched him discover love and loyalty, struggle with the heavy burden of leadership, and find the balance in being an understanding leader and not a political push over, all with his sexy shades and ass kickers on.
Wrath has a lot more coming his way, especially with the development in the newest book The King starring Wrath and Beth, set years after their first encounter. Wrath is compassionate, strong, intelligent, loyal, honorable, and this alpha king deserves your votes!
You know him from: The Psy/Changeling series by Nalini Singh
First appeared in: Vision of Heat, and gets his own book in Heart of Obsidian (VBC Review | Amazon
Supernatural status: He is a cardinal Tk – and this is the reason he is the baddest of the bad asses.
Championed by: Mandi from Smexy Books | @smexybooks
Kaleb Krycheck doesn’t give a f**k about anyone but Sahara. This is the reason he will destroy all of his competition. As a child, he was torn away from his home and placed into the hands of an extremely evil man. This man invaded his mind and tore him to shreds.
“Tell me you aren’t evil.” Please.
Kaleb’s thumbs moved against he temples. “I’m sorry.”
Shaking her head in a mute refusal to accept what he was trying to tell her, she lifted trembling fingers to his jaw. “What have you done?”
“Too much that can never be undone.”
See? Kaleb has already done every horrible deed that could ever be done. Wrath? HA! Kaleb could fight him with his big toe. All of Kaleb’s power is in his mind. With just a thought, Wrath is a goner. Dust. Ash. In fact, Kaleb could be in bed with his woman, giving her her fifth orgasm, and STILL out-fight Wrath at the same time.
And if we are having a battle of who can please their heroine more, let me give you this example during sex:
“I just checked the PsyNet,” she said, her own breathing not exactly even. “This region just experienced a medium-sized earthquake.”
Kaleb turned his head on the pillow. “It was located deep underground, I made sure of that. No real damage.”
“So we literally made the earth move?” A slight pause, before Kaleb said, “I suggest we don’t engage in sex in populated areas.”
Talk about rocking your girl’s world!!!!
Who deserves the title: Wrath or Kaleb?
At the request of last year’s voters, we’re going back to traditional polls for the voting, but keep reading for your chance to win awesome books. Your to-be-read pile could always use more. Trust us.
Participating in the Alpha Showdown is all about fun, and free books totally lead to fun, right? We hope you’ll find lots of great new reads during the Showdown, and to help that along, we’re giving away some stellar reads.
For our final Alpha Showdown giveaway, we’re offering up three paranormal romances we know you’ll love: Larissa Ione’s Chained by Night, Gena Showalter’s Burning Dawn and Jeaniene Frost’s Bound by Flames.
Wrath
Kaleb! I’m not really a fan of Wrath, sorry BDB fans.
Kaleb!
Kaleb!!!
It’s getting harder to choose but it has to be Wrath!
oh crap this one is uber hard 🙁
Love me some Wrath!
Wrath is pretty alpha, but Kaleb would definitely come out on top!
Hard choice but Kaleb it is…
Go wrath!!!!!!
go wrath
wrath is #!!!!!!! so alpha!!
Whoooooo Wrath is in the lead!!!!
Kaleb all the way <3
this one was easy for me as I am not particularly a Wrath fan, now if it had been Zsadist or Rage the choice might have been dificult
Kaleb! <3
Wrath
Kaleb has become my most favorite hero recently, but either way, I have to admit I’m happy to see these two Alphas (and their respective series) battling it out for the final round. Soooo much goodness and badassery in both of them, will def be the best out there in the genre for years to come too!
Wrath!!!
Looks like Wrath is gonna win and take home this years crown!!! Whooooo were finally gonna have a vampire win!!!!!! Its about time!!!! HUUZZAAHHH
#I’minlovewithvampires
Wrath all the way
It has to be Wrath!
Let’s take wrath all the way
Kaleb should totally win this….not only is his mind deadly but he kicks ass in a physical fight too!!
Kaleb all the way!
I love Kaleb!
Love them both
Has to be wrath
Kaleb FTW
Wrath….
Love them both but Kaleb takes it.
I love Kaleb. His powers are beyond the capacity to understand. There is no way that Wrath, as magnificent as he is, could come close to that level of power.
As much I love wrath, kaleb would destroy him without even having to touch him he could use his powers to literally blow off his head, that’s how powerful he is.
HAHA Kaleb is losing, suck it psy changeling fans the king of bdb is coming for his throne
Only because u lot are probably cheating.That is the only logical conclusion
lol someone is a sore loser, Kaleb is going to lose you watch.
LOLOLOLOLOL
Friendly reminder that this event is all about finding great new books to read. Cheering on your vampire king is totally cool, but let’s not hate on those who love Psy/Changeling.
We would hope that everyone checks out both series, because one can never have too many awesome book series to read. (My TBR pile attests to this.)
This one is really tough, Kaleb, Wrath, Kaleb, Wrath….Kaleb by the barest of margins, I love them, their series and authors so much 🙂
Kaleb! Kaleb! Kaleb ! I love him and He should win this
I liked them both but prefer Wrath…..
oh man..Wrath is a great alpha and so is Kaleb(reluctantly) Both are have been holding their society together by their sheer alphaness!
oh man..okay i am just gonna vote for both of them (laptop and phone!)
Multiple devices are totally allowed. 🙂
What?!?!?!? NO!!!!! That messes up the results!!! If everyone votes from multiple devices then a character can easily win even if the majority of people voted for the other one!!! I know you keep saying the point is for people to find new books to read but most of us just want our favourite character to win!!! And win fairly!!!
@Jay – Our parameters are one vote per IP address. Lots of people vote once at home and once at work. Or once on their phone and once on the laptop. We’re fine with that.
but it messes up the results…
Wrath for the win!!
KALEB….KALEB….KALEB….KALEB….KALEB….KALEB…..KALEB….KALEB….KALEB…..KALEB. …KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. …..KALEB. ….KALEB. .. …KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. …..KALEB……KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB…..KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. …..KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. …KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB. ….KALEB..ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂
Love Wrath.
Kaleb
Kaleb!!! I love that series and I can’t stand the BDB… mainly b/c of the ridiculous way she has them talk! Thanks for sharing!
come on, Kaleb. You better not lose…
Kaleb
I’m still stunned about Bones!
Me 2. Its killing me inside.
Wrath for the win!
Kaleb. All he’s gotta do is flex his mind and Wrath is toast.
kaleb
This poll is obviously rigged,notice how every time someone votes for team kaleb the other team gets higher? but when things are quite no body is voting for anyone?
I can assure you the poll isn’t rigged. The VBC team *adores* both of these series. We’re happy with whomever wins. Both are deserving of the title, and we’re happy that readers are selecting the winner instead of us, because that’d be TOO DIFFICULT!
That said, you will see influxes of votes that are usually tied to when an author or blogger shares the link on social media.
Both authors have HUGE fanbases (hey, they’re both verified on Facebook!), so it’s going to be quite the battle.
With all due respect it’s actually easy to rig polls, I have seen it done before, though I can’t quite remember how so
I love Wrath, but Kaleb’s got the power!