In late summer/early fall 2022, I decided there needed to be a continuation of my Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat series. At the time, I was envisioning only writing about my werewolves, alternating releases between the male/male Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat series and the male/female Real Werewolves True Mates series, which paralleled Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat. I had recently re-released Salad on the Side, book 1 of Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat, and Alpha Receptor, book 1 of Real Werewolves True Mates, and I was gearing up for the release of Veggie Burgers to Go (RWDEM 2).
In revisiting my werewolf universe, I realized that the story of Kyle Slidell, the vegan werewolf, and Tobias Rogan, Kyle’s mate and a reluctant leader, didn’t end where it originally had, after book 5 of RWDEM. So I started planning a book 6. I decided, because my family is from Nova Scotia and, at the time, my kid was in school in Prince Edward Island, that the book should include Tobias and Kyle traveling to the Canadian Maritimes to meet with the Anax (ultimate werewolf ruler) of Canada, given that conflict between American and Canadian werewolves was established in the fourth and fifth books of RWDEM. And I decided that travel should be a road trip during which they rekindle the romance that has been suffering since Tobias started his rise from being Alpha of the smallest pack in the country.
The original version of Take Some Tahini (RWDEM 6) was basically just a road trip story, with little conflict beyond a couple of attempts on Tobias’s life (which, if you’ve read previous books of the series, you know aren’t exactly uncommon). And when I started looking at it for revisions a few months after writing it, I realized it wasn’t really a book people would want to read.
So I started over in summer 2023.
I’m not sure where the character of Quinn Boucher, a young wolf changed under violent circumstances that remind Tobias of his own change, came from, but I’m very glad the youngster showed up. The traumatic loss of nearly half of Quinn’s pack, and Quinn subsequently joining Tobias’s staff as one of his guards and accompanying him and Kyle to Nova Scotia, completely changed the book’s trajectory. This clocks in as the longest RWDEM book to date, well over 300 pages, and in the process gave rise to a spin-off featuring Quinn and his mate Malachi, Ebb and Flow, which will be releasing in October of this year.
I’m very pleased with how Take Some Tahini turned out, and I hope readers enjoy seeing Tobias and Kyle’s adventure continue as well. Take Some Tahini is now available for Kindle preorder, with the official release of Kindle and paperback versions coming July 11.
Tobias Rogan never wanted to be a leader. But here he is, the Anax of the United States, ruler of all werewolves in the country. Only two weeks after winning the rank, Tobias and his mate Kyle are still adjusting to their new reality when a frantic call alerts Tobias to the massacre of nearly half the wolves in a pack in North Dakota–including the pack’s Alpha and Beta.
An investigation reveals that the wolves responsible are from Canada. Tobias reaches out to Silas Creighton, Anax of Canada, and finds someone like-minded in wanting peace between the wolves of the two countries. At Silas’s invitation, Tobias and his mate Kyle, along with their new guard Quinn Boucher, sole survivor of the North Dakota massacre, travel to Nova Scotia to put an end to the conflict. But not all wolves are interested in peace–and not all want Tobias to survive the trip.
This book includes discussions of past sexual assault and physical child abuse, homophobia including a French Canadian homophobic slur, a child character living with cancer, and depictions of grief and mourning.