Werevixen

[osprey_archer]

One of my purposes in writing The Threefold Tie (aside from taking a break from Honeytrap and immersing myself in excessive strawberry descriptions) was to send up a trial balloon to test the m/m/f triad market. There’s an idea I’ve been kicking around for a while, but it’s going to be a full length novel, and I didn’t want to sink a year of my life into it and then discover that my audience Does Not Care for triads.

The Threefold Tie had my best first month ever, so I think it is fair to say that the trial balloon floated. So I’ve moved Werevixen... well, not all the way up to the front burner, but it’s definitely on the stove now, instead of languishing away in a corner.

Werevixen features:

- Morgan, a veteran now living in a cabin in the woods (have not yet definitely hammered out a time period for this story, so I’m not sure if he fought in Vietnam or the first Gulf War);

- Sam, Morgan’s werewolves best-friend-with-benefits from high school (they were totally in love but it was either 1970 or 1990 so they didn’t know how to deal with it), who joined a shifter cult after high school (“It’s not a cult, Morgan!”) and mostly fell out of touch with Morgan because the alpha doesn’t like his shifters to have too much contact with non-shifters. (It’s totally a cult.)

- and Flip, the titular werevixen, who infiltrated the shifter cult because one of her friends joined a few months back and then just… fell off the face of the earth. Sam and Flip start to fall for each other; the alpha blows his stack, because cross-shifter romances are DEVIANT. Punishments occur, possibly whippings?, Flip definitely gets locked up somewhere, but she turns into a fox and ESCAPES (the shifter cult is really set up to contain larger shifters), only to get her paw caught in a trap set just beyond Morgan’s property boundaries by an asshole neighbor, which is how Morgan finds her… and that’s when the story starts.

I can neither confirm nor deny that this started life as a Steve/Bucky/Natasha AU.

The main question I want to answer now: “Just how evil is the shifter cult?” Are we dealing with a Maximally Evil Shifter Cult, which killed Flip’s friend and dumped her in a grave in the woods? And if so, does Sam know where the bodies are buried, both literally and figuratively?

Not that he was involved in the murder itself (that would destroy the whole triad and probably cause jail time), but obviously he would have noticed when the girl went missing, and although of course the alpha - can I just have the leader call himself Alpha? - Alpha comes up with a story about how she left, nonetheless Sam gets a real bad feeling… which he tries to push away, because the cult is his family and his whole life, but as he gets closer to Flip and Morgan it becomes possible (and then inescapable) to admit that, yeah, something bad happened to that girl, and he doesn’t know exactly where she’s buried, but he’s got a good idea where to look.

Comments

[missroserose]

I am only one data point, I admit, but I am definitely pleased that I don't appear to be alone in being very interested in well-written poly romances. :) I have The Threefold Tie sitting on my Kindle; I fully intend to devour it as soon as it's warm enough to set up the hammock for reading out on our deck.

[osprey_archer]

I hope you enjoy it! But based on the weather today, it may be some time before hammock weather arrives.

[minutia_r]

Okay so first of all, YES PLEASE

Second of all, as far as I can tell your heart wants the maximally evil shifter cult, in which case, go for it

[osprey_archer]

I mean honestly, once you've raised the possibility of Maximally Evil Shifter Cult, won't everyone be disappointed if there isn't a dead body and also possibly a whipping post in the basement? Isn't everyone just living for the moment when Alpha tilts the heroine's chin back and wraps a hand gently around her throat, gazing into her eyes as he murmurs, "Foxes don't usually have much pack sense. I wonder what brought you here?"

[minutia_r]

yes?????????? clearly

[missroserose]

UH YES PLEASE

[skygiants]

sjd;kfljdsaI'm so glad we all encouraged you to follow your heart on m/m/f

[osprey_archer]

It's kind of the best of all possible worlds! It's queer, and there are girls (well, one girl), and people will buy it!

[littlerhymes]

"It's not a cult, Morgan!" is my absolute favourite thing.

[osprey_archer]

Sam has been repeating variations on this for YEARS and he just doesn't understand why Morgan insists that the whole thing is maybe kind of creepy. Is it bitterness that Sam has found new friends? Is it anti-shifter prejudice? It's so weird that he thinks something is off just because Sam showed up that one time with a black eye and/or a bite mark because Alpha had to correct him.

[asakiyume]

Oh man, and here I thought it was inspired by the Eagle of the Ninth fic where Cottia was a fox! I loved that.

[osprey_archer]

I mean, there is also certainly a similarity there! Maybe I just have a thing for triads with red-haired girls?? Maybe what drew me to Steve/Bucky/Natasha in the first place was the similarity to Marcus/Esca/Cottia.