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

When one fursuiter came bouncing down the aisle towards them, the hair on Dazi’s neck stood up. Kuhma and Kesi likewise stepped back defensively. Mateo, however, held out his arms for a hug.


“Rosie!” He hugged the furry with a sort of child-like enthusiasm. Dazi’s heart twinged with jealousy. The creature with its arms around Mateo had small pointed ears like a cat, but the muzzle was too rounded, almost like a short fox snout. Its tail was thicker than a cat’s as well, and had alternating black and colorful bands. Dazi noticed all of this second, because he was first distracted by the neon pink fur.


Mateo finished his hug and turned to give introductions. “Guys, this is Rosie. I met her my first year here. She’s been attending these since the beginning. Rosie, these are my new friends. They’re all fur-curious, so they came by to see what furry conventions are like.”


Chapter 32