Out of the cage: Events we wish we could forget still shape our lives. Crypto Zoologist Drake Whitton works as a genetics professor at Colin City College while he figures out how to remove the eccentric label from his name, given to him by his peer's response to his last paper on the existence of the chupacabra. He thinks he's found the opportunity he needs when a private firm asks him to dissect and analyze a new DNA strand, and he discovers it contains both human and reptilian characteristics. His plans are derailed when his car gets hijacked by a detective on the run, his home gets broken into by people from the corporation he's been doing research for, and he gets seduced by the doctor assigned to care for the hijacker. Doctor Ailean Carmichael never expects to find a mate, let alone a human one, but he's willing to take what Fate gives him. After all, not all humans are like his late foster parents, right? And an orphaned, exiled black jaguar living in a wolf shifter's territory doesn't have too many options. He decides seducing the naïve professor will be delicious fun for both of them, until Ailean realizes he needs to protect his little mate from those bent on experimenting on and eradicating shifters. But when Ailean discovers Drake actually works for the scientists trying to destroy him and his friends, will he take the time to listen to Drake's explanation? Or will he decide all humans really are the same?