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

What seemed like five seconds later, someone above him cleared their throat. Dazi blearily opened one eye. His first reflex was to stretch all his muscles. However, in doing so, he not only realized he had his arm around Mateo’s waist, but his morning hard-on was pressed against the base of Mateo’s tail. He froze. Kuhma sighed behind him, but Dazi was too scared to move. If he rolled over, his friends would either laugh at him or worry about his reasons for confiding in Mateo. If he stayed there and waited for things to subside, he risked Mateo waking up and having the same reaction.


Gingerly, Dazi slid back and away from Mateo, who barely even twitched. Dazi’s heart pounded madly. He silently begged Mateo to stay asleep, just for a few more moments. In an attempt to mitigate his erection, Dazi closed his eyes and thought of unpleasant things: stubbing his toe, badger musk, fake-skins swarming to their reservation…


“Hey Mateo!” Kuhma exclaimed, kicking the bed.


Chapter 27