BLURB:
It’s never easy dealing with relatives during the holidays, but when you mix a feline coalition with a wolf pack, things get downright hairy. And that’s before adding the two missing Eagle brothers, a Lion trying to run away from home and a Hawk crankier than Scrooge or the Grinch. But coalition leader Mitchell is determined to have the best Christmas ever—even if he has to kill everybody to make them cooperate. Oh, and where is Shane and why did he leave his favorite gun behind?
Warning: this book contains a maimed tree, lots of sappiness and way too much holiday spirit.
EXCERPT:
“Hey, Cub. Why the long face?” Carson said as he came up from behind and wrapped his arms around Keegan.
Tilting his head up, Keegan gazed into the face of his mate. A Cheetah who lived to be unconventional, Carson had his eyeliner on and his dark hair sported blue streaks. His right eyebrow was pierced with a special gold ring that Keegan bought for him on their last anniversary.
Keegan, on the other hand, couldn’t be more conventional. While his hair was a speckled brown, that was only due to the fact that he was a Jaguar. Not because he was trying to be a rebel. He also favored jeans and plain t-shirts, as opposed to the all-black and chains that Carson wore.
How they ended up mates was a mystery to most of the coalition. Yet, from the moment Keegan laid eyes on his mate, he’d been a goner and he’d never wanted another man.
“I’m freaking out over this whole party,” Keegan admitted.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure it’ll be perfect. Just hire a couple go-go boys and have them dance on the bar and nobody will care about anything else.”
Keegan let out a short laugh. “What about the guys who prefer women?”
“I didn’t think we had any of those here.”
“We better or else the felines will die out.”
“I thought Owen was working on a way to artificially inseminate the females.”
“He is and he claims to be pretty close to a breakthrough. That still doesn’t change the fact that some feline men prefer woman.”
When Carson scrunched his face in disgust, Keegan had to hold back his laughter. God, how he loved the way his mate always teased and played around. Or at least, most of the time Keegan did. The other times it annoyed the hell out of him. But that still didn’t mean he didn’t adore and live just for his mate.
“I don’t think do,” Carson argued. “I’ve been with a good number of the guys here and I can tell you they all know their way around a dick.”
Fury and a strong bite of jealousy hit Keegan and he tried to pull away from his mate’s grip. Carson, jackass that he could be, just tightened his hold. Then he had the frigging audacity to laugh before pressing a kiss to the top of Keegan’s head.
“Relax, Cub. That was way before your time. Now there’s only one guy for me and it’s you.”
Sagging in Carson’s hold, Keegan let out a soft sigh. “I know. It still doesn’t mean that I’m not bothered by it.”
Spinning Keegan around so they were looking at each other, Carson gently cupped Keegan’s face. “Would it make you feel better to know that not one of them could even come close to comparing to you?”
“Maybe,” Keegan pouted, only partly mollified.
Sharing a soft kiss that was brief but still made Keegan’s head spin, Carson whispered, “I love you.”
“I know.”
“And you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“I know that, too.”
Looking deep into Keegan’s eyes, Carson said, “This is the part where you tell me that you love me, too.”
“Okay, I love you, even if you are a reformed man-whore.”
Leaning in, Carson began to nibble on Keegan’s neck. Damn that Cheetah, he knew that always made Keegan turn to putty.
Belated happy release day! :)
ReplyDeleteLove it! Can't wait to read it!
ReplyDeleteChris-Thanks!I finally found time to post this. *whew* The holidays are crazy!
ReplyDeleteBarb-I hope you enjoy it!
Yeah, more Lost Shifters!!
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! Congrats! *puts on list for Santa Clause*
ReplyDeleteThanks Vic and panalopy! This one was really sweet and sappy, so I loved writing it.
ReplyDeleteThe plot with the hunters towards the end might be interesting and maybe the whole Gage and Brandon and Thomas/Colby stories will be interesting. At least in the latter part it might be good to see a couple that at least physically has a bit more in common. It is weird that this happened the last time in the second book and also ever since the first one we never had a character finding a mate within his own species. In addition I cannot help but feel that the series gets more and more misogynistic.
ReplyDeleteHowever some things were either wird for me or plain wrong:
1. Penguinshifters? Seriously? I hope its an African one and not one from Antarctica because I have no idea what justifcation there could be for the latter case.
2. The shifters are nearly all Caucasians. Except for Doc Featherstone and Dr. North, they all appear to be Caucasians and no matter how you define the term that is weird, considered that they supposedly live for hundreds of years and don't mix with humans. All jaguars and cougars should look like Native Americans then. As do many snake-shifters. While a caucasian look would at least be plausible for many other shifters (although clearly a minority), not these two.
3. If you are "twink" you can only be tough if you are a killer. This seems to be a message of the books. Not to mention that so far all of the "twinks" were bottoms, even Noah and Riley. Noah was versatile before he mated with Seth but afterwards was only performing the bottom role. Riley's sex scene with Colin would suggest that he is versatile as well but now I doubt it.
This brings me to the main point.
4. Riley is a totally different person. I might get Xavier's behavior due to his upbringing, albeit both didn't had a life to make them brats, but not Riley. I just hope you had them behaving that way due to being on constant lockdown because they are acting like mid-teens and not men in their early twenties. This is the Riley that was devastated because all he had to offer where his looks? This is the Riley that let it get to him that some hawks told him he was a waste of space except for being pretty and being used for sex? This is the Riley that complained that no one ever saw him as more than being airheaded and who was furious at Colin for always treating him like glass? He and his brother seem to have to count on that they are "cute", they do childish pranks, they seem to have no activities that bring something to the score. Basically both are a waste of space now, except for being pretty and being there for sex. It seems as though you made them like the "little mates" in Lynn Hagen's Brac Pack series, which in my eyes is nothing to recommend. You made children out of these two men.
Andre, thank you so much for reading. I'll try to answer some of your points as best I can without giving away too many spoilers for future books.
ReplyDelete1-The Penguin shifter mention was a shout out to a certain reader. If he made an appearance in any book, it would most likely be as a secondary character.
2-It will be revealed within the next couple of books that not only does Dr. North have an older brother, but that Doc Featherstone has a younger cousin. All four characters will play predominant roles in future books. As for the origins of the first shifters,I can't give that away yet, but when it does come out it will reveal many things about how shifters look and why they take some traits as animals, others as humans and others as....something else.
3. I think all my characters are tough, twink or not. Riley, Noah, Trevor and Gage showed that by surviving their year of captivity. Xavier by supporting and standing up for Dulla and Chance. Chance for doing whatever it took to keep his siblings safe. Keegan for overcoming his own adversities.
4. Riley is going to have a huge part in a plot twist in a future book and he is helping Colin in his efforts to make the Hawks more tolerant. Not only that, but Riley will once again prove to the coalition that he's valuable, despite all the problems he's had. in the past.
I hope that answers most of the questions you had and once again, thanks so much for reading.
Well Mrs. Hecht you kept having my interest with this and thank you for taking your time to answer.
DeleteBut nonetheless this still leaves some questions open:
1) Why did you choose to make the shifters predominantly caucasian?
2) Why is it that none of the characters seems to be versatile considered sex-roles after their mating? You gotta admit, considered the looks and behaviors of those who are bottoms or tops, certain conclusions cannot be avoided (especially since Brent was the last big guy who bottomed and that was to a former leader of the hawks I might add). Especially when considered that similar patterns seem to be abundant in the world of shapeshifter m/m romance when sex seems to be predominantly about power and control rather than love and enjoyment. Although I must congratulate you in having avoided the most stereotypes used when it comes to this.
3) I also wonder why the shifter societies so far seem so predominantly male and human. Especially for wolves that makes no sense, neither hyenas, and recent research has shown that wolves usually have no Alphas and often the leaders are females (e.g. see Delinda of the Bow Valley pack). All in all these shifters don’t actually come along as amalgamations of human and animal to me, but rather as predominately “primate” or “human”. The way they act, their societies, their culture. This all looks human. In addition while you wrote about different customes, so far we haven’t seen any.
4) Why did you choose to include the biting for wolf-shifters? I mean that behavior is not found in wolves. And sex has nothing to do with submission for them. At least as far as I know it is usually not the male that initiates matings, but the female.
5) And I also wondered why there are horse-shifters but no other shifters changing into domestic animals. Albeit to be honest, I think this might be for the better. This is not meant to be offensive in any way but it seems that most people today have no idea that their beloved "purebred" pets are often quite handicapped (respectively even crippled) and actually not as old as many think (e.g. the Neapolitan mastiff is still often advertized as an ancient fighting and war dog despite its usual frailty and only short history). And so I think it might be better not to write anything about them then further advertizing the modern mass existence of breeds as ancient.
Ah, one thing:
Did you ever consider of writing certain short stories or a book in general that would give us readers more background? For example a story on how Orion convinced the other snake breeds to follow him, or how those two canine breeds mentioned in the first book where hunted to extinction (I guess one of them would be coyotes, because I think if not you would have mentioned them already). Or maybe a story of the night of the mass Raven attack or maybe even some stories from the earlier lives of the main characters.
Okay, let's see if I can cover all the answers this time :-)
ReplyDelete1. As for a majority of my characters being Caucasian, that wasn't really a conscious choice, in fact my granny was Cree. So, I have several members of my family who are Native American (or rather Canadian, since that is where the Cree Tribe resides). While most people don't recognize it in me, one look at my mother will tell you of our proud family heritage.
2. As for the sexual positions, I just go with what feels right for the scene. Since most of my books only include one or two scenes, there is a lot open to what does and doesn't happen behind closed doors.
3.As for males only being the leaders. I have only showed one coalition and two packs. Plus, one of the reasons why Chris mated with Cassie is because she was so strong and he was lacking in leadership skills. She is the glue that holds that pack in line now.
4. As for the biting. Like I said before the shifters take on some traits from humans, some from their animal form and some from something else. The something else will be revealed in the future.
5. There are all kinds of shifters breeds that I haven't mentioned yet. I may or may not introduce them. It will depend on what the plot line calls for.
I have thought about doing short stories and spinoffs on some of the secondary character. I just have to find the time to work them into my crazy schedule.
Well that doesn't really cover it. But I will be content, for now. ;)
ReplyDelete