Wild | Alexis Duran

Greetings and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide range of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or fewer, with maybe a bit more to round out the scene.

My last excerpt ended on a downer note. Jacqui found out from Reggie that cat shifters don’t tolerate cross-breeds and kill them at birth. Jacqui, being part Caracal, part-domestic, is in mortal danger. Plus, his people are jerks. I’ve skipped ahead a bit to get Jacqui back to his usual brand of crazy trouble. I might share one more scene from Wild before I switch to my next release, coming soon!

***

Overcome with emotion, Reggie opened his arms wide and lurched toward Jacqui, declaring, “I’m so glad we met!”

Jacqui braced himself and accepted the hug. He expected to be squeezed and throttled, but Reggie folded around him gently and rested his chin on Jacqui’s shoulder. He was about three inches taller, and gangly like a teenager, but hard, his arms quivering with repressed strength.

Jacqui patted him politely on his bare back.

Reggie murmured in his ear, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Jacqui bristled and pushed him away.

“I thought you said you weren’t tracking me.”

“I wasn’t!” Reggie rolled his eyes.

That’s ten. Here’s a bit more to get us to Jacqui’s next challenge.

“I meant, in theory. I was looking for someone like you.”

“Oh.” Jacqui continued to scrutinize him with suspicion.

What the hell is going on here? What does this nude cat man want from us?

Footsteps on the stairs outside forestalled this line of questioning. The footsteps ended, followed by a knock. A certain rat-a-tat-tat.

Wyatt!

Jacqui hiss-whispered, “It’s Wyatt! Hide.”

Reggie smirked and said loudly, “What? You let your ord boss you around?”

“‘Ord’?” Jacqui asked before he could stop himself.

“Ordinary. Guess you’ve been out of touch for a long time, huh? Do you want me to shift? Be your new pet?”

“Yes. No. Wait. Stop.” He knew Wyatt would have heard Reggie’s voice, if not the words. He seized a bolt of fabric from his worktable, unwound it, and threw it over Reggie’s shoulder, then wrapped it around him like a toga. “You’re a client. Shut up and behave or I’ll claw your scrawny ass to ribbons.”

***

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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.

Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.

Today I’m shifting gears (and centuries, and continents, and genres) to begin sharing from Wild, Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4. Don’t ask me why this took so long. Sometime about a year ago I went completely off the rails, writing-wise, and so Wild had been much delayed. But now, I’m oh-so-close! Besides, it morphed from a novella into a novel! That’s a good thing, right? Today’s snippet is from the opening of the book, which I shared once before but that was like a hundred thousand snippets ago, so hopefully no one minds.

***

The Dog Men Cometh.

Of that, Jacqui had no doubt. They would come with their fangs, their drool and their fleas, armed with tranquilizer guns and iron cat traps. The only question was when.

Jacqui slid open the door to Wyatt’s back patio and stepped out, shivering as the cool night air hit his bare skin. He pulled the quilt he’d snagged from the foot of the bed tighter around his shoulders. 3:37 a.m. and he couldn’t sleep—hadn’t been able to sleep since his encounter with the dog men—didn’t wantto sleep. Sleep meant nightmares and vulnerability and an unleashed subconscious that filled every dark corner with snarling canines.

He wanted to shift and prowl the moon-drenched streets of Friday Harbor. He wanted to scour every yard for enemies, dig in gardens for buried threats, howl at the top of his lungs—Come and get me, Dogs.

***

Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 Blurb-in-progress-

Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate (Wyatt, in case you hadn’t figure it out yet), but unlike a romance novel, reality has other plans. The dog men are back, and along with their slobber and their drool they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s, as Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time and is tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world. Only cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must choose if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined. And that’s saying a lot.