Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in ten sentences or fewer. However we now have a new rule which lets us add a bit more to round out the post, so I’m abusing that privilege today! I’m going to start sharing from my upcoming release soon, so only a few more Jacqui excerpts to go.

I’ve skipped ahead from last week, because I want to get a big revelation that affects everything that happens next. Jacqui is grilling Reggie about where he came from. Reggie speaks first.

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“The head of my clowder is a total asshole, so I split. I ran. Been running ever since. New York, Munich, Casablanca. There are more wild domestics than you’d think. They treat us the worst, I guess. Say, what breed are you, anyway?”

Jacqui had prepared for this question all his life.

“I’m a caracal. A wild African—”

*That’s ten, but I wanted to finish out this part of the conversation, in which Jacqui learns something disturbing about “his people”.

“No, you’re not. I met some caracals when I was in Morocco and you ain’t them. They’re bigger and their ear tufts are longer. I thought I knew all the tribes but you look kind of like, uh…holy shit.” Reggie blanched and his buggy eyes got wider. Even though they were alone, he dropped his voice to a whisper and asked, “You’re a mixed breed, aren’t you?”

At a loss, Jacqui glared at him.

Yeah. Probably. Maybe. So what?

“Got a problem with that, Reggie?”

“Me? No! Not at all. It’s just that, uh, they usually kill mutts—I mean—mixed breeds, at birth, so I’ve never met one.” His big eyes shifted around nervously. Clearly he regretted bringing it up, giving Jacqui the chance to have another internal mental meltdown.

Kill at birth. Reject. Outsider. Loner. Mutt.

We’re still alone.

Everything he didn’t want to be. Everything he thought would end when he met “his people”.

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PS To those also frustrated by WordPress’ new block editor, I discovered that if you start a post, save it and go out, you then have the option to edit with “Classic Editor”, which gets you back to the format to which we are accustomed! The only draw back is that every time you press save a message box pops up to ask if you’re sure you want to use classic. Worth it if you’re tired of struggling with the new format.

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I’m doing the book tour thing, featuring the entire Jacqui the Cat Mysteries line up. You can click here to read up on all the books and enter a giveaway for an Amazon gift card!

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Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 ~ Available Now!

Cat Shifter Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate, but unlike in a romance novel, reality has other plans. For one thing, Wyatt doesn’t know Jacqui is a shifter. For another thing, the dog men are back, and along with their slobber and their bad breath they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s. When Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time, he’s tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world, but cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must decide if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined.

Click Here to buy on Amazon.