Guest Post | Panther’s Luck by Holly Day

Hiya! 

I’m here as Holly today 😁 Did you know that there is a sale over at JMS Books? No? Well, there is. All ebooks are 50% off through the 31st. And do you know what else? Yesterday, Panther’s Luck was released 🥳 which means you can grab it for half price if you act quickly! 

JMS Books is celebrating thirteen years in business, and to make the birthday month extra special, there was an in-house call for Lucky 13 stories. We could write any pairing, any subgenre, and were asked to keep the stories below 70k. What all stories had to have was some form of the word luck in the title, though. 

So if you hop on over to JMS Books and check the new releases, keep an eye out for books with any form of luck in the title.  

My contribution is a 187-page-long paranormal story about a human man named Romeo and a panther shifter named Ciar. The world it takes place in is pretty grim. The supernatural population grew tired of humans and their ways and wiped out the majority of them. What’s left are small settlements where the humans do their best to survive. 

Romeo is no longer able to stay in his settlement and sets out to move to an old wilderness resort that has been uninhabited for thirty years. He and his siblings inherited it from his uncle, but it’s outside the settlements, which means Romeo is fair game. 

In this world, shifters can be of any animal and there are crows and eagle-owls, panthers and wolves, bears and ravens. But some of them can’t turn into a fully human shape. And there are vampires. 

Romeo befriends a bear boy who isn’t human-passing. It’s his first interaction with the supernatural world, but he soon realises there are supes around every corner and some want to keep him, and some want to eat him. 

What works in Romeo’s favour is that he can read. The supes haven’t gone to school, and while some of them know how to read, the majority do not. Romeo is lucky, because he finds thirteen boxes of paperback books (Lucky 13 😆).  

Books are banned, but for once being outside the borders of the settlements is a good thing since the supes are more interested in hearing the stories than reporting him to the authorities. The books become a sort of currency. In order to hear the stories, the supes offer Romeo favours. 

And the more time Ciar spends in Romeo’s company, the more reluctant he is to leave his side. So when danger approaches, he stands with Romeo. 

This story took over my life, or I disappeared into it when I wrote. It’s heavy on survival and there is some found family, but most of all, I just love my characters. I’m pretty sure I want to revisit The Moonlight Ranch and Last Hope. Who doesn’t want to revisit a place named Last Hope?? 😆 

Panther’s Luck

Humans off the paved road are nothing but shifter food.

Romeo Gallo has to flee town. The problem is that the only place he can think of going is an old ranch he’s inherited from his uncle, and it’s off the paved road. Humans are fair game if they’re off the paved road, and being eaten by shifters has never been on the list of things Romeo wants to experience.

Ciar Moonlight is a panther shifter, perfectly happy living a laidback life on the ranch. He wants nothing to do with humans. But one night, one moves into the house, and Ciar finds it hard to stay away.

Romeo soon learns he isn’t the only one living on the ranch. Shifters and vampires keep popping up, and since no one has eaten him yet, he’d go as far as to call a few of them his friends. And there is a panther reluctant to leave his bedroom, so maybe one is even more than a friend. Ciar might not have wanted to get to know a human, but now when Romeo is living in his territory, he’s Ciar’s to keep, right? So if someone tries to get rid of Romeo, it’s Ciar’s right to defend him. Right?

Buy links:

Paranormal Gay Romance: 50,259 words

JMS Books :: Amazon :: books2read

Excerpt:

Romeo waited for some sort of response from Ciar. His heart was beating fast, and he feared he’d throw up any minute.

“Wonder why Armelle is here.” Ciar opened the door before Romeo stopped the car. In a blink of an eye, he was out of his seat, and Romeo watched as he approached the huge female. She looked like Humbert. There was no way she’d pass as human with her bear eyes and ears, and he wondered if she kept the same size in both her shapes because he’d never seen a person who was as big as she was.

He slowly got out of the car and almost dove back in again when her gaze focused on him.

“Hi.” He waved and walked closer. “I’m Romeo.”

She dipped her head. “I know. Humbert won’t stop talking about you.” She took a deep breath. “The crows caught him in your house, and I’m here to apologize and allow you to set the punishment.”

The world stopped. “What?”

She scrunched her nose. “The crows noticed Humbert inside your den when everyone knew you were in Last Hope with Ciar. You don’t enter anyone’s den without permission. You set the punishment.”

Humbert’s gaze was glued to the ground, but Romeo turned to him. “What were you doing in the house?”

He winced and shrunk. “When we were looking at the terrible-weather box, I saw the room next to it was filled with boxes. I wanted to see what was inside.”

Curiosity would be the death of this boy, or Romeo hoped it wouldn’t, but he got into trouble regularly. “And what was inside?”

“I didn’t have time to look before the crows informed Mom.”

Romeo chuckled, which earned him a glare from Armelle. “Sorry.”

“You’re not to say sorry, Humbert is, and you’ll give him a punishment so he’ll learn.”

Romeo wasn’t sure he believed in punishments. He didn’t want people running around in his house when he wasn’t there, but… “Right. I need you to build a chicken coop right away.”

“A what?” Humbert met his gaze for the first time, and confusion was written all over his face.

“House for chickens. There will need to be a couple of boxes where they can lay eggs, and they need something to sit on when they sleep, a stick that isn’t too thin and not too thick. You need to make sure no predators can get in during the night, and it has to be big enough for them to be able to move around.”

Humbert looked from Romeo to Armelle to Ciar. “Why?”

“I have chickens in the car, and I need to let them out before they die of heatstroke. They need a place to live, they need water, and eh… food.” He looked at Ciar. “What do chickens eat?”

Humbert made an excited sound, which had Armelle growling.

“What do I use to build?” Humbert was moving around, trying to see into the car despite standing too far away.

Romeo had no idea. “Maybe there is something in the cabins you can use?”

One second, there was a clear blue sky, the next a shadow fell over them. Romeo stumbled toward Ciar, but before he could make a fool out of himself by trying to hide behind him, a huge eagle-owl landed next to them, and soon a naked Draven stood there. “What are you doing?”

“We’re gonna build a chicken den.” Humbert was buzzing with excitement.

“You are.” Armelle glared at Humbert, and she didn’t sound pleased. “It’s punishment.”

Draven widened his eyes and looked between them. “Oh… maybe I should—” He gestured at the sky.

“No, wait!” Romeo reached for him without touching. “What do chickens eat?”

Draven tilted his head as an owl would. “They’re not birds of prey.”

“No, I know.”

He shrugged. “They eat grass and plants and bugs and worms and stuff. They scratch around.”

“So I can let them out?” There was plenty of ground they could peck on.

Draven stared at him, but before he could reply, Humbert grabbed his arm. “How big do I have to build, Draven?”

Draven looked at Romeo. “What’s going on?”

“I bought five chickens. They’re in the car. They need somewhere to live and nesting boxes.”

Draven moved toward the car, and Humbert and Ciar followed. Armelle stared at him. “Punishment isn’t supposed to be fun.”

Romeo nodded. “I’ll have him dig me a garden bed when he’s done.”

She gave a small nod. “He’s always sneaking out.”

Romeo lowered his voice, since he didn’t think she’d want Humbert to hear what he said. “It’s not a problem. I mean, I don’t want people running around in the house when I’m not there, but he’s a great kid.”

She narrowed her eyes, harrumphed, and lumbered off.

Romeo went to the car where the others were talking about how to build a chicken coop, and he almost didn’t notice Draven being naked. Almost. And since he didn’t want to be lynched, he did his best not to stare at his ass, even though it was a nice ass.

Grabbing the crate with the chickens, he lifted it onto the ground, then he reached for the groceries and carried them into the house, using the open kitchen door. He huffed. How had Humbert opened it? He was pretty sure he’d locked it before he left.

He placed the milk in the refrigerator and headed for the basement since the trapdoor was open. Walking into the cool air, he could see where Humbert had been. There were several boxes stacked on top of each other, and he’d put one on the floor, but it didn’t look like it had been opened. There was a thick layer of dust on the lid. Someone had written Horror on it with a black pen and Romeo’s hands shook as he reached for the lid. Horror. Who wrote horror on a box? It wasn’t a big box—square, cardboard, the perfect size for a human head. When he heard footsteps on the stairs, he snatched his hands back.

“Romeo?” Ciar came down the stairs. “What are you doing?”

“Who writes horror on a box? And more importantly, what do you find in a box marked as horror? You don’t think there’s a sawed-off head in there, do you?”

Ciar stared at him as if he was insane—he most likely was.

“There is nothing dead in here.”

“You think it’s something alive? Like a snake or a spider or something? A box full of bats.” Romeo was being ridiculous, but what could be in a box of horrors?

“There is nothing living either.” Ciar reached past him and opened the lid. Romeo stared. Books. There were paperback books, several of them.

“Shit!” He put the lid back on and stared at Ciar. “What do we do? We’ll go to jail if they find these.”

“Jail?”

Romeo shook his head as panic set in. Fuck. “They’ll kill us on the spot. There is no room in the jails. No one is allowed to have books.”

“No one is coming here.”

Romeo stared at him and then looked at the other boxes. Twelve other boxes. Mystery, sci-fi, young adult, romance, paranormal, children, and non-fiction. Mystery, paranormal, and romance had more than one box, as did non-fiction. “Holy shit. It’s a library. We’ll swing for this. I’ll swing for this.”

“Swing?”

“Hang. They’ll kill me.”

Ciar growled and sharp teeth peeked out from underneath his upper lip.

“Look.” Romeo got to his feet and tapped the paranormal box. “These have to be old, from before humans knew supes were real. I bet you’d find these hilarious.”

“Why?”

“They were written before we were aware you existed, so they’ll be making things up about how shifters and vampires were, making up their own rules and such.”

Ciar studied him. “And you can read them?”

Romeo pursed his lips. He believed he could. Grabbing the upmost paranormal box, he put it on the floor and opened the lid. There were a lot of huge bare-chested men holding on to petite women, but also a few with women dressed in battle gear, one with a woman with long red hair holding a sword, one with a woman in a pointy black hat and a cauldron with some glowing green liquid in.

Blowing out a breath, Romeo stared. Only looking at the cover was fantastic. Art wasn’t allowed. “This is amazing.”

There was one with a black panther stalking a barely dressed woman tied to a tree, and Romeo laughed. “Look.” He held it up for Ciar to see.

Ciar frowned. “Is he gonna eat her?”

“I doubt it. Not the way you mean it at least.” He chuckled.

“You can read these?”

Romeo opened the first page of the next book, one with a woman dressed in black leather on the cover and read the first sentence out loud.

Ciar stared at him and then made a motion for him to continue.

“Let’s get the chickens sorted, and I’ll read a chapter after.”

Ciar nodded. “Yeah, the others will want to hear, too.”

The others? Nervousness spread in Romeo’s chest. He could read, but he wasn’t the best at reading out loud, and the fewer who knew they had books, the better.

About Holly Day 

According to Holly Day, no day should go by uncelebrated and all of them deserve a story. If she’ll have the time to write them remains to be seen. She lives in rural Sweden with a husband, four children, more pets than most, and wouldn’t last a day without coffee.  

Holly gets up at the crack of dawn most days of the week to write gay romance stories. She believes in equality in fiction and in real life. Diversity matters. Representation matters. Visibility matters. We can change the world one story at the time.  

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