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 finished talking to Kesi and got into the driver’s seat. As he buckled himself in, he said, “Remember, you’re not allowed to be silent the whole way. I want to know what I’m up against. If you’re not allowed to tell me or you simply don’t know the details, fine. I at least want to know why you didn’t tell me sooner.”


That Dazi knew how to answer: honestly. “Call me scaredy cat, but I was afraid. I thought you might get upset, knock me out, and bolt, or at least be furious with me for putting you in this position.”


“Well, you’ve got a point there.” Mateo pulled out of the parking lot, following Kuhma’s beat-up Oldsmobile to the highway. “After all, the first impression you had of me was my jaguar form making a last stand in the bathroom. I was trying to scare you.”


Chapter 47