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

Tuku’isa’s wolf was the first to face Mateo again, and Tuku’isa soon followed. “You have a strong hold on your people,” he said. “I do not believe you could be stronger than us, though. A jaguar’s nature may be secrecy and deceit, but you are human as well. We see you are telling the truth. We have decided to trust you.”


“Good, because there’s something I must ask of you.” With a flick of his wrist, Mateo cast the oath chain back into the mist surrounding him. Its part was done. “Lift Dazi’s exile.”


“Because if I can be trusted, then Dazi did nothing wrong.”


Tuku’isa frowned. “The laws are clear. Simply because you can be trusted with our secrets doesn’t mean we can allow anyone to tell them to people they think are trustworthy. An example must be made of him.”


Chapter 57