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

Dazi said something half-pleading in Shoshoni. Kuhma replied in exasperation. This led to an argument from which Mateo felt awkwardly left out, particularly because the only word he could understand was his own name. Kesi made a frustrated remark or two. Dazi continued to beg, clasping his hands together in desperation. Kuhma sighed, said something brief yet accepting, and sat back in silence.


“So…what was that about?” Mateo asked.


Kuhma huffed. “Like you said, we have our secrets.”


Mateo furrowed his brow. Dazi was staring down at his hands. Whatever they had discussed, Mateo hoped Dazi would tell him about it the next time they were alone, if they were ever alone again. So far Dazi had been open and honest, or at least that’s what Mateo had thought. Now he was starting to doubt.


“It’s getting late,” Kesi said. “You said we should be out the door by seven-thirty tomorrow morning, right?”


Chapter 26