Hard Mated

Hard Mated is a short novel in Jennifer Ashley's Shifters Unbound series. Spike is a wildcat Shifter known for his prowess in the ring in Shiftertown, so he is thrown when Myka, a friend of a woman close to death, tells him he is the father of her baby. The mother wants Spike to take the boy and raise him. Myka grew up with a cruel stepfather, and she doubts that a brawler like Spike can give a small jaguar cub a safe home. She travels to Shiftertown to judge him for herself and discovers a man who has lost most of his family and who protects the few relatives he has left with great devotion.

Spike is pulled between caring for the cub and the work he has promised to do as the tracker for the Shiftertown leader. Since Myka is the only person who grasps his situation, he asks her for help. Myka is a horse trainer who is comfortable around animals, including ones that can change into people, and her spirit wins Spike over. As his duties begin to threaten the child and Myka, Spike must decide between the loyalty he has sworn to his community and his determination to shield the woman and cub he has come to love.