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

“Let me guess,” the vendor said to Kesi. “Gray fox?”


“Ah!” The vendor nudged a trunk out from under his table. Inside were many smaller boxes, all labeled by species or category. “There isn’t much call for it, but I do have some coyotes in here. Took a summer course in New Mexico last year to learn some older techniques, and while the style isn’t my favorite, I did enjoy myself. Now where is that box of—here it is!” He pulled out a box labeled “Tribal” and opened it with a proud smile.


“Thanks, but we’re not interested,” Kuhma said.


Kesi turned and scowled at him. “I am, shut up.”


Kuhma sighed. “You can make your own at home and they’ll be a hundred times better,” he said in Shoshoni.


“I want to support the arts,” Kesi replied in English, adding in Shoshoni, “I don’t care if he sucks, at least he’s trying.”


Chapter 31