I name many of my books after Elvis songs, songs that have stuck with me from the time I listened to my mother playing them when I was a child. I have books by the names of: T-R-O-U-B-L-E, Unchained Melody, Forget Me Never, Burning Love, I’ll Remember You, and A Brown Eyed Handsome Man with Always on My Mind and Spanish Eyes in the wings – all Elvis music. But one song, which was not really a song, but a ‘guy-thing’, a chant, was called WOLF CALL. It was really about a man coming on to a girl that really turns him on, that throwing the head back and giving a primal yell of lust. Gave me shivers, I tell you. So, it wasn’t about wolves at all, but about attraction.
I’ve always written contemporary romance about cowboys and Cajuns and Texas good ole boys but I’ve always had that song haunting me. Wolf Call. And I thought…wow, I could do something with that – coupling the attraction with the shifting. So, I have. WOLF CALL will be in a collection for Halloween. It’s not real short, but its short for me and I plan on spinning it off, and making something more out of it for a series. This shifter, this wolf, will be as close to a cowboy shifter as I could make him.
I don’t read a lot of books about vampires and werewolves, I’m too busy writing. But I have published some for others. However, I haven’t studied them enough for the mythology that everyone uses to contaminate my thinking. Maybe. We’ll see – anyway I enjoyed this story, I think it’s different.
If you’ll tell me what characteristics a good shifter novel should have…I’ll enter you for a copy of HOW TO ROPE A MCCOY or any of my backlist if you have it.
This is what its about, not really a blurb – but you’ll get the idea.

Rafe Kenyon is Texas born and bred. He wears boots, a cowboy hat and owns a horse. He’s lived his whole life in the piney woods of East Texas, operating a hunting lodge and running a game preserve where he keeps exotic deer. His parents raised their son the best way they knew how, they were just average working people. But Rafe wasn’t – average, I mean. They had no real explanation for it, other than their paternal grandfather was also one. And then there were those strange family legends…
But Rafe Kenyon, Texas good ole boy is a wolf, at least part of the time.
A beautiful wolf. A huge grey timber wolf. Never does he feel more alive than when he discards the shackles of his humanity and runs the hills and valleys wild and free. Unfortunately there’s a problem; there are no more wolves in Texas, they’re extinct – decimated by the spread of civilization which grew faster than the mentality of its inhabitants.
Over the years, shifting has become more dangerous for Rafe. Game cameras and cell phones have complicated his life. And one day, as was bound to happen, someone sees his wolf and things go haywire – fast. Soon, a photo is on Facebook and everybody and their brother is out to find the monster wolf that’s running loose in their woods.
Rafe has lived his life fitting in, but it’s hard to mix the upstanding community man/volunteer firefighter/good-buddy persona with his wolf, especially when his own friends are the ones who are trying to tack his hide to a wall. And yes, it’s illegal to kill wolves in Texas, they’re protected, but something being against the law isn’t a huge deterrent to the average hunter who resides behind the ‘pine tree curtain’.
Dating is another matter for Rafe, although he loves women and sex, he has to be careful. Most women he knows won’t allow a big dog in their house, much less in their bed…which has led to him hooking up with girls at the local bar, who are out for a good time, just like he is.
Until he meets Karoline Durand, who has come for the same reason the hunters have come, except not to harm the wolf – to study him. They meet in a crowded bar and are instantly, overwhelming drawn to one another – guess you could call it animal attraction…until all hell breaks loose.
And lots of sex, of course. – Ha!

EXCERPT –
Rafe started to ask what the game warden had said about the wolf, but before he could there was a commotion on the dance floor and Doug elbowed him and pointed. He swiveled his stool to see what was happening. And when he did, his whole body reacted – Rafe stood up, letting out a long, low growl. A woman stood a few feet away. She had her back to him, but oh, what a sight it was. Her heart-shaped rear was cupped almost as lovingly by the tight blue jeans as he would’ve done with his own two hands. And her scent! Usually he could block most of the smells he came into contact with, if he couldn’t they would drive him mad. But tonight, his keen sense of smell picked up pheromones that called to the most basic part of him. His lips lifted in the predatory snarl of a pure male animal.
“Face me,” he whispered under his breath. As if she could hear him, the beautiful woman obeyed. When Rafe saw her face, it was as if he recognized her. His heart rate sped-up and an immediate violent hard-on filled his jeans. She was exquisite, high cheekbones, wide-set brown eyes and a long swath of dark hair with auburn highlights. Her ass was to die for, but he was a breast man and the pair of tits she was sporting made his fingers itch to cup and caress the full, round globes. The shirt she wore did little to hide their shape, their size or the fact that they were natural because the beat of the music was infectious and she was moving ever so slightly and the wave action underneath that lucky fabric was mesmerizing.
Rafe’s nostrils flared – he wanted, desired, craved. He didn’t believe in the idea of a mate, but something about this vision before him was fast changing his mind. Never before could he remember aching for a woman so fast. From deep within him, it rose. Throwing back his head, he gave voice to the primal urge overwhelming him – the wolf call.
For a moment everything stopped, the world tilted on its axis. The music, the dancing, the drinking – the whole kit and caboodle came to a halt as all eyes were on him and the woman who would be going home with him tonight, if he had his way. When they saw it was just a case of animal attraction, they went back to their business, this was fairly normal behavior for country boys after they’d had a few drinks.
Rafe took one step toward her, she held her ground. Brave woman. The corner of his lip lifted in a crooked, wicked smile. Another step. The music playing in the background had a seductive beat, it was like a soundtrack of lust. Her eyes were glued to his, Rafe could hear her breathing from where she stood. His hearing was acute and selective. He sniffed the air, she was aroused. Good. The urge to shift almost overwhelmed him, never had he been tempted in a public place. His mind warred with his instinct and he tamped it down. One more step and he held out his hand. “Dance?”
Karoline’s whole body tingled. Who was this guy? Sex on a stick, definitely. She’d seen good-looking men before, but her body had never lit up like it was doing now. Her breasts were throbbing, her sex was aching and she found herself moving toward him. When their fingers touched, she shook, it was like connecting two sources of high voltage. And when he pulled her body next to his, she trembled in his arms. “You come on strong.”
Rafe rubbed his nose in her hair. He was fully aroused and she couldn’t miss it, he was rubbing his cock against her belly with every step. “I know what I want.”
“And what would that be?”
“You.”
Karoline swallowed. Had she lost her mind? Maybe too much time alone in the wilderness had robbed her of civilized behavior, but she found herself responding to this self-assured beast with the hard, buff body. “Don’t I get a drink first?”
“I’ll get a bottle of champagne to go. My place or yours?” Rafe was on fire. If he didn’t get inside this woman soon, he’d explode.
Okay, at least she could be a tad wise. “Mine. You’re not married or otherwise committed, are you? I don’t do that.” She didn’t do anything, really. Karoline Durand was a loner. Her occupation necessitated it.
“Footloose and fancy free,” Rafe mumbled. “And you?”
“Same.” She laid her head on his shoulder and groaned at how good her breasts felt mashed up against his hard chest. “Bring protection, I don’t know you.”
“No problem, you soon will,” he whispered in her ear with a low growl. “Cause I’m about to be all over you, in you and around you as soon as I get you to myself.”
A whimper escaped her throat and she felt moisture pool between her legs. “What’s your name?” She was trying for some semblance of decorum, but losing ground fast.
“Rafe. Your’s?”
“Karo, like the syrup.”
“And just as sweet, I bet.” He kissed her neck, biting gently. “I can’t wait to lap you up.”
Letting nature take its course, Karoline grabbed his hand and headed for the door, pulling him along. “Let’s go. I’m ready.”
Rafe followed where she led. He lifted a hand toward Calvin and Doug as he passed who gave him a thumbs up. “Should I follow you?”
“Yea, I’m at the LakeInn about two miles down the road.” She stopped at a silver Land Rover and sealed the deal. Stepping up to him, she grabbed his shoulder with one hand, clasped him around the neck with the other and pulled him down for a kiss. There was no preliminaries, as soon as their lips touched, she wrapped her tongue around his and began to suck on it. He responded by clasping her hips, hauling her closer and lifting Karo over his thigh so she could rub her pussy on the hard muscle.
Karo thought it was a fine idea. She rode his leg, rubbing herself up and down. “Oh, my God,” she whispered. “What am I doing?” With a jolt, she flew apart, climaxing almost immediately.
Rafe held her against him while she quivered, her small body convulsing in his arms. “Damn, I almost came in my jeans. You are a little bundle of dynamite, aren’t you?”
“Not usually,” she panted against his neck. “You do something to me, that’s all.”
“I want to do more.” Rafe was shaking with pure need. “Give me your key, I’ll drive. You can bring me back for my truck later. Or I’ll walk, it’s not that far.”
She dug her key out of her pocket and turned it over to him. He took control, opening the door, getting her in and fastening her seat belt. Before he shut the door, he kissed her hard and cupped her breast, kneading the soft mound. “I’m going to suck on these till you scream my name, begging me to fuck you.” Suckling on a woman’s tits was his weakness, he could do it for hours.
“I want that in writing.”
Rafe chuckled. He’d hit the jack-pot tonight. In seconds, he was out of the parking lot and on the road. “Get your key out, the first time is going to be fast. You’ve set off the launch sequence.”
Karoline smiled. She’d lost her mind, but at the moment she didn’t care. “As long as you make it up to me the second and third time.”
“My kind of woman.”
Thanks for sharing your time with me.
Sable