GENRE: Gay Paranormal Spicy Romance
LENGTH: 34,709 words
RATING:

Squirrels do not belong in cages.

Amir Kaplan works as a chef in a werewolf bar, which is why he’s so surprised when his boss sends him to a food expo for humans. He doesn’t like being around people, which his boss knows, and they don’t want human customers, so why is he there? The moment he spots a blue squirrel in a cage, he forgets all about the why, though.

Shun Hartman is having a bad day, has had several bad days in a row. He and his squirrel cousin were running in squirrel form when Shun was captured by werewolves. They put him in a cage and dyed his fur blue, and now he’s at some sort of food fair. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there is this guy trying to steal him. Hadn’t the guy been another wolf shifter, he might have been fine with it, but how is he to know which is the better monster?

Amir refuses to leave the expo without the squirrel. He doesn’t care what conflicts will follow, no squirrel should ever be put in a cage. Shun should run away the moment Amir frees him from the cage, right? No sane squirrel waits around until their werewolf rescuer gets hungry, but why does his heart ache as soon as he’s apart from Amir?

EXCERPT:
Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

“Hey, can you keep an eye?”

He glanced up at Morgan who looked a bit tense as she gestured at the Squirrel Blue booth. “I need the bathroom, and Ingolf hasn’t shown. I’ll only be a minute.”

He nodded and walked out from behind the table. “Of course. Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on him.” Then he squinted at her. “Or is it she?”

Morgan frowned. “What?”

“The squirrel, is it a boy or a girl?”

She shrugged. “No idea.” Then she hurried off toward the closest restrooms. Perhaps he should get her more bottles of water, and some coffee, and maybe a juice or something.

He hurried over to the squirrel and broke off another piece of the peanut butter cookie in his pocket. A woman watched him with narrowed eyes, but he gave her a glare and allowed a little bit of his wolf to show. He didn’t want to scare the squirrel, but he didn’t mind scaring a few humans. They wouldn’t know why they were uneasy around him, but their brains would tell them to move away. At least if they had some survival instinct. He was surprised by how many stupid humans there were in the world.

“Here you go, little one.” He pushed the piece of cookie between the bars and ran his fingers along the lid. There was no hasp or spring or lock of any kind. “Fuck, how do you open this thing?”

The squirrel stared at him with wide eyes.

“You better eat before Morgan comes back.” Amir nodded toward the cookie.

The squirrel shoved it into his mouth, the blue fur on his cheeks moving as he chewed. It made Amir still. Had he understood what he’d said or had it been a coincidence he’d eaten right as Amir had told him to?

“I’m back!”

Amir jumped, not having noticed Morgan returning. “Great.” He plastered on a smile. “I’m gonna head to the cafeteria to grab a cup of coffee. Can I bring you anything? Coffee?”

She grimaced.

“Tea?” What kind of person said no to coffee?

“Tea would be lovely.”

“Great! Milk? Sugar?”

“Yes, please.” She fluttered her eyelashes a little, and Amir smiled. Then he glanced at the cage. The squirrel ignored them. “Should I get something for the chipmunk?”

The squirrel’s head whipped around, and he was pretty sure it was glaring. Amir grinned. It had to be a shifter. His heart was beating fast. Crazy. The fourth squirrel shifter he’d met. Most people didn’t meet a single one. Or most wolves didn’t since they tended to eat them, and squirrels did what they could not to cross paths with them.

He winced. Fuck, the poor thing would be terrified of him.

“Nah, Ingolf will take care of it when he arrives.”

Hmm. “It doesn’t have any water.”

She looked between the cage and Amir. “Ingolf told me not to give it anything.”

It had to have water. Amir would find a straw or something. He waved and headed toward the cafeteria.