Trust your heart. Follow your dreams.
Shaina Williams’ grandmother bequeathed her that wisdom, along with an old pendant from the Islands, carved from an ocelot’s tooth. When instinct tells Shaina to visit the feral cat trap she’s set in Central Park, she listens to that inner voice. She discovers she’s caged a magnificent black tom, but the cat inexplicably vanishes after she tends to his wounds. Seeking the errant feline, Shaina encounters instead a handsome stranger whose slightest touch sets her body on fire. As the day dawns after a night of ferocious passion, her mysterious lover is forced back into his true shape—the tomcat she rescued.
Born a cat, Tom was transformed into an unwilling shape shifter by a sorceress who craved a human plaything to satisfy her perverse lusts. Centuries old and irresistibly powerful, Delphine Montserrat will stop at nothing to find her runaway familiar. Shaina vows to do whatever is necessary to defeat the vicious but seductive witch and save the man she believes is her soul mate—even though it might mean losing him forever.
Publisher's Note: This book was previously published elsewhere. It has been revised and re-edited for release with Totally Bound.
General Release Date: 24th April 2015
Something made me check my traps that night. Usually I’ll swing by in the morning, at the end of my regular early morning walk. That way I can drop off any new ferals at the Centre Street shelter on the way downtown to work. It means taking a cab, but I figure I can afford that much of a contribution.
It was past seven on a Friday evening and the subway car was so packed I could hardly breathe. My high heels tortured my feet. My head ached from a long day of Mr. Alpert’s demanding whine. I clung to the strap, eyes closed, imagining the bliss of sinking into a hot bath with a glass of chardonnay. Still, the thought of the traps nagged me.
I’d visited them that morning and found both of them empty, the bait untouched. Tomorrow would be soon enough, I told myself, but my sense of unease did not go away. Always trust your intuitions, my gramma used to say. So I switched from the Q train to the B at Herald Square and got off at West eighty-sixth.
Night was settling on the city. I dug my penlight and my mace out of my purse. One in each hand, I made my way along the familiar path, the blisters on my little toes complaining with every step.
As I approached the hundred-year-old elm where I usually set the traps, a low growl reached my ears. I’d been right to listen to my inner voice. Clearly, I’d caught something, though the shadows made it difficult to see what. I shone my light into the first cage. A pair of brilliant green-gold eyes glared back at me.
“Hey there, kitty.” I crouched down on the grass beside the steel-mesh cage, my straight skirt riding up my thighs. “Are you all right?”
The massive black tom in the cage bared his teeth and hissed. I felt his rage and frustration. I wanted to reach into the trap, scratch behind those huge ears and comfort him, but I knew better.
“Shh! I won’t hurt you, kitty. It’s going to be okay. Tomorrow I’ll take you to a nice, warm place where you can have plenty of food.” I played my light over his body, which was lean but not emaciated. Although his fur bristled, overall he looked clean and healthy. Then I noticed a wound on his left flank. It gleamed, wet and oozing, in the beam from my torch.
“Oh, dear! What happened to you? That’s a nasty gash.” I stuck the light into my jacket pocket. I only had two hands, and the mace was more critical. The cat’s menacing growl turned into a whimper as I picked up the trap, jostling him against the mesh. “Sorry, kitty. We have to get you home and dress that. That will make you feel better.”
The combination of the cage and my quarry must have weighed at least twenty-five pounds. “You’re a big guy,” I commented as I picked my way along the tree-hung path back to the street. Once my eyes adjusted to the dark, it wasn’t too difficult. I glanced into the cage a few times. The tom’s eyes glowed as though lit from within.
Getting him up five flights of stairs was another story. I paused to catch my breath on the fourth story landing, resolving yet again to find a better paying job.
Finally, I wrestled the cage into my studio apartment and set it on the floor near the window. My feline guest huddled in a corner of the trap, watching me with wary eyes as I stripped off my work clothes, donned an old sweatsuit, and went to fetch antiseptic, antibiotic ointment, cotton balls, gauze, tape and a towel from the bathroom. I sat cross-legged on the worn carpet next to the cage. Now came the hard part.
“Pussycat, I need to take you out now. I know you’re scared and upset, but please, don’t fight me. This is for your own good.”
The cat’s solemn expression suggested that he understood me. Slowly, trying not to alarm him, I unlatched the door of the trap. I wrapped the towel around both my hands and reached in to grab him. I expected him to yowl, hiss or scratch. However, he didn’t resist at all. I pulled him out, cradling him in my lap. Normally, I’d swathe a feral’s body in the towel to immobilize him. This guy seemed so calm and quiet, though, I wasn’t sure it was necessary.
I became addicted to words at an early age. I began reading when I was four. I wrote my first story at five years old and my first poem at seven. Since then, I've written plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and of course, lots of erotica and erotic romance.
In addition to writing, I also edit erotica and erotic romance. My editing credits include the ground breaking anthology Sacred Exchange, which explores the spiritual aspects of BDSM relationships, the massive collection Cream: The Best of the Erotica Readers and Writers Association, the charity anthology Coming Together: In Vein, a collection of vampire tales that benefits Doctors Without Borders, and six volumes of the Coming Together: Presents series of single author charitable erotica books. You'll also find me writing the newsletter and occasional articles for the Erotica Readers and Writers Association (www.erotica-readers.com) and monthly reviews for Erotica Revealed (www.eroticarevealed.com).
My lifelong interests in sex and the written word became serenditipitously entwined more than a decade ago when I read my first Black Lace book by Portia da Costa. Her work inspired me to take my fantasies out of the closet (and the private email files) and expose them to the world. The rest, as they say, is history (although granted, no more than a minor footnote!)
I've always loved traveling; my husband seduced me in a Burmese restaurant by telling me tales of his foreign adventures. Since then I have visited every continent except Australia, although I still have a long travel wish list. Currently I live with him and our two exceptional felines in Southeast Asia, where I pursue an alternative career that is completely unrelated to my creative writing.
Lisabet Sarai - Exclusive author for The Eyes of Bast
Why did you choose a cat shifter?
I’m a huge ailurophile. (That’s a fancy word for a cat lover LOL.) Felines are so exquisite, so elegant, so intuitive—they’re almost unearthly in their beauty and grace.
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Lisabet Sarai - ARe Cafe Q&A
Your hero is born a cat and becomes human. How did you come to write his story?
I’m always looking for a new twist in my tales, something to surprise the reader. In all the romance I’ve read, I’ve never encountered a shifter who started life in animal form.
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