Mateo, a jaguar nagual descended from Mayan shamans, attends the Northern Nevada Con-fur-ence furry convention to hide in plain sight. Who will look twice at a long, black tail and inhuman yellow eyes when there are neon huskies and dancing dragons around? There Mateo meets Dazi, a mountain lion skin-walker who is at the con with friends from his Shoshone-Paiute reservation. They want to find out if the furries are close to stumbling across their tribe of shifters. When these two big cats rub up against each other, their cultures collide in a way neither Mateo nor Dazi could predict. But Mateo has trouble being entirely human around his alluring new companion, and Dazi puts his tribe at risk when he reveals their secrets to an outsider. Can Mateo and Dazi overcome their natural secretive and bestial instincts to find their purr-fect ending?

Beasts Like Us

Mateo turned around nonchalantly for two seconds, hoping to see something that would stand out, something that could give him an explanation. However, the problem with furry conventions was that how people presented themselves and how they smelled could be completely different. For all he knew, whoever—or whatever—this was could be behind any of the fursuit faces in the crowd. The only way he could know for sure would be to sniff each furson individually, and that would be rude without an invitation.


Not wanting to draw attention to himself, Mateo faced back to the front of the room. His curiosity nagged at him, but he often had to remind himself about the adage concerning cats and their curiosity. Instead, he hoped whatever he was smelling would keep to itself. The last thing he wanted was a stalker at the one place he felt safe.


Chapter 3