The first thing I like about werewolves is that, unlike vampires, they are alive. And they will eat you. All up.
Second, I like the fur. Who wouldn’t? Warm, furry werewolf to snuggle up to at night? And when they purr…oh, wait. That’s cats. Well, you get the idea. Can any romance heroine resist digging her fingers into her werewolf boyfriend’s plush pelage?
Third, I like that erotic wet dog smell…no, wait. The rich odor of raw meat…wait. Oh, yeah. That wonderful scent of pine forests and crisp mountain breezes.
Really, none of those things show up in Moonlight Mistress. What I like about werewolves are the same things I like about wolves. Wolves love their families. Wolves can be playful. Wolves put females in charge of many important duties, such as locating suitable dens with adequate nearby food supplies and controlling the pack’s matings and thus its future genetic health. For that reason, I’m rarely fond of werewolf heroes in romance who are overwhelmingly dominant.
Those are the traits I borrowed for my werewolves in Moonlight Mistress. The first werewolf character is female, and though so far her attempts to start a family have been disastrous, it’s an important goal for her; in their world, werewolves are rare, and must be born rather than made. The second werewolf character, male, is a bit of a rake but that behavior is related to his search for another werewolf with whom he can create a family. He’s playful, and willing to let her control him in certain things. Their shared goal leads to her accepting a marriage of convenience, so they can have children who are also werewolves. Someday, I’d like to write a novel about their marriage of convenience and how it progresses, which wasn’t within the scope of Moonlight Mistress.
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