Friend or Food?

By Pat Cunningham

It shouldn't come as much of a shock that the shifter species getting all the face time in novels are predators -- alpha wolves, powerful cats big and little, the occasional coyote or bear. As the genre continues to expand I'm sure we can expect to see herbivorous species (ahem) horn in on the preds' literary territory. Horses are already out there, and deer have been mentioned. There's no reason a werestag can't be as tough and sexy as a wolf or a tiger, vegan or not. And when he goes into rut -- whoa baby.

So what do werepredators think about herbivorous encroachment on their turf? Would a werewolf treat a werehorse the way he would a human, with grudging tolerance or avoidance? Or do the predator/prey instintcts still apply?

I'm not sure if this matter's been addressed yet in print since there aren't that many herbie shifters out there. I doubt if grass-eaters fully trust meat-eaters. Or maybe the prevalence of predator shifters and lack of prey shifters answers that question right there.

Which brings up the obvious: what happens when a predator shifter and a prey-species shifter find themselves attracted to each other in their human forms? Like I said, those werestags are built, and horny as all get out. Their behavior would be alpha enough to catch a she-wolf's attention. Bet it get loud in the bedroom. But -- what happens when he changes form, and his scent goes from hot male to hot meat? Could the wolf restrain herself? This scenario holds for most combos, though an elephant would have a definite survival advantage.

Seems there's plenty of life left in the shifter genre and plenty of new avenues for exploration. Happy writing!

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Good news -- Siren/BookStrand's accepted my novella "Bad Boys." It's a M/M comedy about an angel and a demon who develop the hots for each other. I'm pretty sure I'm going to hell for this. Anybody want me to save them a seat?