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 sort of overreaction is this?” Mateo’s grandfather flicked one ear. “Next you’re going to tell me the punishment for an unsuccessful hunt is a public hanging.”


“As we told Mateo, an example must be made of him. The rest of the tribe must know what the consequences are.”


“The cub knew what the consequences were,” Mateo’s grandfather said. “I saw that when I checked in on Mateo last night. Even in his sleep, he was terrified, but that didn’t stop him from trying to be Mateo’s friend. These two care about each other. Surely you can sense that. From what I saw in Dazi’s heart, something in him recognized Mateo for what he was before the two officially met, and he has been following that guide ever since.”


“Their tribe was founded thanks to one man’s curiosity,” Mateo told his grandfather, passing along the rest of the story.


Chapter 58