Wildling, a contemporary mountain lion shifter romantasy: Content warning and reader advisory

Exclusive early access is available to Patrons at any paid level. All tiers include access to Wildling, Price of Bone, Dark Mettle, Shadow Status, and everything else I plan to record for you in my body of work. I appreciate your loving support and sustaining membership.

Note: I recorded this completed work-in-progress as I wrote it. The book is 131,000 words long, and about 16.25 hrs of listening time.

When Aella stumbles on a dead man in the snow, her hunt for justice hurls her into a hidden shifter world. Caught between two dangerous and sexy alphas and her own awakening magic, she must decide who to trust before she becomes the weapon everyone is fighting to control.

Spicy with yearning, Wildling is a mountain lion romantasy set in today’s Tucson, AZ, River K. Scott’s hometown.

📝This book is appropriate only for some audiences.

Discretion is advised owing to the following potentially triggering or sensitive content:

⚠️Suicide and self-harm; grief, depression, and on-page mental health representation; bullying, harassment, and marginalization; queerphobia and bigotry (direct and coded); violence and gore; medicalized abuse and non-consensual experimentation; weapons, policing, and state violence themes; systemic oppression and coercive power dynamics; sexual content and boundary issues/violation; body image and appearance-based judgment; crowd violence, riots, and hate speech; dehumanizing language; alcohol use and references to drug culture; coarse language and obscenities, including profanity and slurs.

To assist in deciding if this book is for you, I’ve provided as complete a list as I could by breaking the above topics down further. This list may contain spoilers, although I’ve done my best to reference elements as obliquely as possible without sugar-coating.

If you read this book and find a trigger not listed, please message me directly so I can include it here for others in the future ❤️

Suicide and self-harm
– Past suicide of a close family member (off-page)
– Ongoing self-blame, survivor’s guilt, and intrusive thoughts

Grief, depression, and mental health
– Intense grief and numbness
– Moments of despair, emotional dysregulation, and rumination

Bullying, harassment, and marginalization
– Workplace bullying and power abuse
– Verbal intimidation, belittling, and public humiliation
– Misgendering and casual disrespect toward a nonbinary character

Queerphobia and bigotry (direct and coded)
– Misgendering / incorrect pronouns and calculated disrespect
– Anxiety about “coming out,” hiding identity, and personal safety
– Species-based hate that echoes real-world queerphobia and other bigotry (slurs, dehumanizing language, calls for exclusion/violence)

Violence and gore
– On-page physical violence, injury, and blood
– Kidnapping/abduction and physical restraint
– Occasional graphic descriptions of wounds and aftermath
– Body-horror elements
– Mind control and memory manipulation

Medicalized abuse and non-consensual experimentation
– Non-consensual drugging, injections, and invasive procedures
– Imprisonment and experimentation on sentient beings

Weapons, policing, and state violence themes
– Use of guns and other weapons
– Murder and executions
– Fear and distrust of police, especially from marginalized characters
– Scenes of civil unrest with visible but often ineffective law enforcement

Systemic oppression and coercive power dynamics
– Coercive control by powerful individuals and institutions, including with regard to pregnancy and mating (off-screen)
– Ritualized oaths with severe personal consequences
– Forced or heavily pressured social/biological roles within a magical society
– References to gender-based violence, women’s predation and safety issues in public and private spaces
– Family dynamics of domestic violence, trauma and child abuse

Sexual content and boundary issues/violation
– Explicit consensual sex scenes, sometimes featuring power-imbalanced dynamics and biting/blood-adjacent elements
– Threats of sexual violence and situations where consent is complicated by power and gender, and/or magic
– Characters wrestling with sexual guilt after trauma

Body image and appearance-based judgment
– Fatphobic/appearance-based comments and industry pressures (modeling/dance/influencer spaces)
– Anxiety about not having the “right” body or face for performance work (judgment around eating and fitting in clothes)

Crowd violence, riots, and hate speech
– On-page protests, riots, curfews, and armed civilians
– Hate slogans and rhetoric targeting a marginalized magical group

Additional elements
– Alcohol use and bar culture (including impaired judgment)
– Parental over-protectiveness and conflict around safety and independence
– Animal predation and fear of being hunted
– Dehumanizing language
– Coarse language and obscenities, including profanity and slurs

If you’re sensitive to any of the above, you may wish to use discretion, skim certain scenes, or reach out for more detail before reading.

When Aella stumbles on a dead man in the snow, her hunt for justice hurls her into a hidden shifter world. Caught between two dangerous and sexy alphas and her own awakening magic, she must decide who to trust before she becomes the weapon everyone is fighting to control.