Sharing Some Holiday Cheer With Jingle Claws

I thought for my day on Paranormal Romantics, I'd share my latest release with you. Jingle Claws is about a Tiger shifter who needed to find his mate. He's a nice guy, just a little confused because he's now in his human form. Here's a snippet to see what happens! Happy Holidays and Happy Reading!

Jingle Claws by Megan Slayer 

Paranormal, Contemporary, Holiday

Novella

Shara Azod Publishing

Christmas is the time to come together. But for a tiger shifter stuck in his tiger form, it can be a lonely time. Kash isn’t just alone, he’s stuck in the zoo. He needs to find his mate and fast—or his human form will be lost to the tiger forever. There’s one woman who can help him out...if he doesn’t scare the hell out of her first.

Charise doesn’t believe in shifters. There isn’t such a thing. When the man appears in the sick bay where the tiger once lounged, she’s not sure what to think. He claims she’s his salvation. Will she be able to accept the Christmas spirit and his wild story in order to get her happily ever after? Only time and a little visit from Jingle Claws will tell.

Available now:

Shara Azod Publishing:  http://www.sharaazod.com/ebook/jingle-claws.html

ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-jingleclaws-1385855-168.html

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Jingle-Claws-White-Tiger-Slayer-ebook/dp/B00HK3TW2M/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1388350760&sr=8-12&keywords=megan+slayer

And now an excerpt!

1

“What a way to spend the holidays.” Charise Sutton scanned the medical sheets on the tigers under her care. Volunteering to care for the animals over the holiday break had seemed like a good idea—back when the other workers were still at the zoo. Instead, there she was, alone on the night before Christmas. Well, alone save for the bare-bones staff. For once, she wished she still had family around. Someone to care about her during the Christmas season and a place to go to celebrate. Nope. After breast cancer had claimed her mother and throat cancer took her father, she’d vowed to help others. Charise shut the lid on her laptop and glanced over at the monitor for the tiger enclosure. She’d administered the meds they needed. The three Bengal tigers napped happily in their faux jungle enclosure. The white tiger grabbed her attention. She loved the look of the massive animal. Then again, she’d always had a love of cats. Big, small...didn’t matter. Such intelligent creatures and so full of attitude. The tiger hadn’t moved much since that afternoon. “He should be up and at ‘em by now,” she murmured. He’d been withdrawn since the transfer from the Paducah Zoo, but the meds should’ve worked. She left her seat and strode over to the quarantine enclosure. The tiger flopped on his side and stared up at her. His chest moved, proving he was still alive.

She squatted at the outside edge of the enclosure. “I just want you to get better,” she said to him. She closed her eyes and placed her hand on the chain link. “God, help him. If I can’t bring him around by my hand, then I offer him over to you.”

Charise opened her eyes. He didn’t seem to be responding—not even to her prayer. She sighed and stood. Sleep beckoned. She’d been up all day worrying about him. If she didn’t get some rest, she’d be no good tomorrow. “Good night, handsome boy. Merry Christmas.”

She made her way back to the main lab room and plopped in front of the monitors. The office chair wasn’t an ideal place to crash, but any port in a storm. Charise removed the clip from her hair and kicked out of her shoes. Just a little nap. Long enough to recharge, then she’d check on the tiger again. She leaned back and draped her arms along the thinly padded armrests. Charise closed her eyes. Just a tiny nap.

A roar jarred her from sleep. Charise sat up and blinked. Where the hell was she? She rubbed her eyes, then glanced around the room. Oh, yeah...the lab. She turned her attention to the monitor. A man sat in the sanitary white enclosure.

“No freaking way,” she blurted.

She scrubbed a hand across her face once more. Her eyes had to be playing tricks on her from lack of sleep. She checked the wall clock. Two a.m. Well, shit. Her nap had lasted more than four hours. She looked back at the screens to the isolation areas.

The man still sat against the wall, his long legs stretched out before him. She looked closer at the black-and-white image. No...couldn’t be...well…he was naked.

“Oh, my God.” Charise jumped up from her chair and bolted from the observation room into the main isolation room. “How did you get in there?” she demanded. “Get out of there. You could be killed.”

At once she regretted what she’d said. Get out of there? What if the man was a maniac? She slipped her cell phone from her pocket and dialed 911.

 @Copyright Megan Slayer 2013

Guest Post Greta van der Rol Talks Were-Tigers

Veronica sez: It’s my pleasure to introduce a Guest Contributor today- Greta van der Rol. We met in the Science Fiction Romance Brigade but we both also spin paranormal tales from time to time and she’s got a fascinating post for us about were-tigers. Take it away, Greta!

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Hi, thanks for inviting me to tell your readers a little about my paranormal romance, Black Tiger. It's about... um... tigers. And a were-tiger.

Readers of paranormal romance are used to the concept of the 'were-beast', a shape-shifter who can change from an animal to a person. Usually the idea is that the were-beast and the human are one and the same, morphing from one shape to the other, sometimes at will, sometimes because the moon is full (or something).

I've always had something of a problem with that. I enjoyed (if that's the right word' the scene in An American Were-wolf in London when the MC changes from a man to a were-wolf, and it's clearly a very painful and rather messy business, being as how, although dogs and people have the same bones, the configuration is totally different. Think knees, ankles, toes and things. Not to mention tails. Sure, fiction is about suspending belief but I usually write science fiction, so I've come up with a slightly different approach to my were-tiger-person relationship.

Just imagine you're a were-tiger, a being that exists in two dimensions, human in one, tiger in  the other, with sometimes a bit of mix and match between the two – if you can keep control of the tiger part. Because that tiger part is a killer. He's savage, he's solitary and his urge is to rip out throats if he can get a chance. None of this full moon nonsense, you can change whenever you wish, and sometimes when you don't wish. You're walking around with this thing as part of your psyche. It can talk to you in your head, a constant companion, a constant threat.

Raja Asoka Bhosle (Ash for short) is a billionaire Indian businessman who can trace his ancestry back to the rulers of the Maratha Empire. He also hides a secret. He is the last of an ancient line of were-tigers stretching back over a thousand years or more, protector of the jungle in his native land. While he jet-sets the world brokering deals in Hong Kong, New York and London, he fights the illegal poaching trade which has so decimated tiger numbers.

Like tigers, were-tigers are solitary and they don't tolerate competition. But they do need to mate with another of their own kind. Tigers in the wild are facing extinction and were-tigers are even rarer than tigers. In all his years of looking, Ash has never found another. If he can't find a suitable mate, his were-tiger bloodline will end with him.

Sally Carter is an Australian doctor, escaping her broken heart by taking on a six-month contract in a foreign country. She's always liked tigers and what the hell, she might get to see one in the wild while she's over there. But she's only been in India for five minutes when she learns that the society and culture are about as different from middle-class Melbourne as it's possible to be. And there's a mysterious, legendary Black Tiger. All superstitious nonsense, of course. Then the dreams start. Pretty soon, Sally starts to doubt her own sanity, as the creature stalks her nights. Her days are busy, dispensing Western medicine in the face of prejudice, but always on the edge is Raja Bhosle, handsome, reserved and totally out of her league for far too many reasons.

Ash fancies Sally, oh yes he does. But she's European. She couldn't possibly carry the were-tiger gene. Besides, his mother doesn't approve. She thinks he should marry a nice Indian girl. So what will he do when he falls in love with the wrong girl? Will he be the last of Tengai's were-tigers, or will his family obligations overrule his heart?

Come along with me to exotic places – an Indian tiger reserve, a raja's palace, the slums of Mumbai, the bright lights of Hong Kong, and the streets of Melbourne. You'll go on a tiger hunt on the back of an elephant, chase a poacher through a stinking slum, prowl through a Hong Kong alley, attend a Hindu funeral and a Christian one, and you'll probe the secrets of the tiger temple.

Fancy a small sample? Sally's having one of those dreams.

Sally walked along a jungle path, trees crowding on both sides so thick their branches met overhead. The only sound she heard was the soft shuffle of her own footsteps, muffled by undergrowth. Unease started as a prickle in her back, as though hidden eyes watched. She picked up her pace, her heart beating faster, her mouth dry. Cold light shone ahead of her. The moon? The light disappeared, blocked by a huge shape. She halted. Oh God. A black tiger stood on the path, the massive head lowered. Glowing golden eyes glared at her. Her heart pounding, she turned and ran. The beast bounded behind her, the heavy paws thumping on the ground. Thud… thud…

All profits from the sale of the book will go to the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation to support tiger conservation.

What's my next project? Black Tiger is a stand-alone novel but there's plenty of room for more stories about Sally and Ash. The sequel, White Tiger, a work-in-progress, is about the plight of the six thousand or so tigers in America, kept in backyards, circuses, inadequate private zoos and the like. Here's a taste of the book and what it's about.

Thanks for having me. It's been a blast.

Veronica sez: It was our pleasure! And here's the blurb for Black Tiger:

 Black Tiger

He haunts the jungle – and her dreams

When Dr. Sally Carter travels to India to regroup from a broken heart the last thing she wants is to fall in love. But Raja Asoka (Ash) Bhosle is entirely too attractive to ignore, even though she knows it can only end in tears. Hers.

Ash guards his forest and the precious creatures within it, protecting the rare tigers from mindless slaughter, and a secret that lives in legend. From the moment he sets eyes on the Australian doctor, he wants her, even over the objections of his mother and the unsuitability of her cultural heritage.

While Ash fights tiger poachers, Sally struggles against cultural prejudice. Can the Legend of the Black Tiger be the bond that brings them closer together, or will it be an impossible belief that rips them apart. The closer Sally comes to understanding what the legend means, the more frequent the nightmares become. Is she losing her sanity, or is there more to Sally than she herself knows? The answers lie buried in her past.