Book three in the Pantherian Tales series.
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Are they strong enough to be her men?
Cunning.
Everyone uses the word to describe Katy. In Quarterz, the virtual
reality world where men and women compete as hunter or prey, Katy has
never been captured. At least, not until the bear clan arrived in the
game. Powerful, smart, and straight out of her fantasies, Katy can’t always outmaneuver the tests they create. When the clan challenges her to take their team on in a real game of hunters and prey, she can’t resist the lure.
Is she strong enough to be their woman?
Grizz, Oso, and Kodie are Pantherian bear shifters, born into a culture where
men have learned to share and protect their species’ most limited resource—females. They’ve accepted they will never have a Pantherian female as their shared mate. But can a human female handle a
Pantherian, mating trio. If so, will she still want them when she knows what they are?
Are any of them strong enough to outsmart fate?
When the game puts hearts and lives on the line, taking a loss is the only way to win.
Buy The Grizzly’s Tale in you favorite store and country.
Excerpt
KatyDid
Everything’s a lie.
And nothing is…
The shadow cast by a branch above was a lie. An unnatural bulge shackled my attention, drew my gaze up into the golden stare of a coal-black panther.
My heart made a leap for my throat. As if it could escape its tether of veins and cartilage. Escape fate waiting behind gleaming teeth. Escape that impossibly long tongue already sweeping across the cat’s lips in anticipation. I imagined that tongue scooping out my heart the way a toad scoops a fly from the air.
By the time you see a big cat, it’s already too late. You’re dinner.
At five feet two, I wasn’t much of a dinner, so I pointed that out. “I’m skinny prey. More bones than meat. Not worth your trouble.”
The tongue swiped back in the other direction.
Staring death in the eyes, my primitive brain and instinct fought to take over.
To the primitive brain, every lie is truth.
Thousands of years of evolution had taught human bodies wisdom that didn’t require thought. The urge to run sent adrenaline surging, burning in my veins. I gripped a length of vine that brushed my elbow, clinging with both hands, as if that might somehow anchor me to life when the cat leapt.
Losing is only guaranteed if you give up.
My weight on the vine shifted the bough. The cat’s tail rose, going from a gently curved “J” to exclamation point. The tip twitched. When the twitching stopped, he would be on me before my brain registered the change. My heart kicked up to triple time. Sweat seeped from my pores. Even my knees were sweating. KatyDid was about to die.
Fuck.
Dying was such a time suck, and I had so little time left. This wasn’t fair. Nothing about the rules governing life in Quarterz Swamp was fair. That’s what I loved about it.
Somewhere above us, a raven called out a warning, drawing the cat’s attention for the split second it took me to launch from the rock where I was perched. I sucked down enough air to fill my lungs halfway before I let go and disappeared beneath the thick, bubbly water of the bayou.
Double fuck.
The splash and turbulence near the opposite bank could only mean one thing. Gator.
Knotweed carpeted that side of the channel. I could barely see through the fog of rising bubbles, but that huge log drifting toward me against the current had to be a lie. The stretch limo of alligators was heading my way.
Now I had three predators after me—panther, gator, and hunter. Two of them wanted to eat me. The other wanted to own me.
I should have let the panther have me.
I’d known the hunter was there even before the raven called. A sixth sense that always sent an electric tingle down my spine when Grizz was near.
The gator’s tail swished back and forth as it moved in.
That cat wouldn’t follow me under the water, but my lungs already burned with oxygen denial. If I crawled out on either bank, the panther’s teeth and claws would peel the wrapping off its supper before I’d drawn a full breath. I couldn’t go down stream either, not with the gator blocking my way. Upstream, I’d cross the sim border, a looming blackness I’d been warned to steer clear of. Possible death seemed a way better option than certain death.
I surfaced to guzzle enough air to fuel a swim for the border. Before I could dive again, a bigger splash knocked me back. A bear-sized man landed between me and the gator. Grizz in all his glory—muscles gleaming,long dreads, and loincloth swaying sexily as he clambered onto a submerged boulder, knife in hand. His attention was on the cat.
Did he see the gator?
I watched, my attention leap-frogging between the contenders. The panther’s muscles bunched as it prepared to leap. The gator’s tail whipped around as it turned…
