Cora Zane: Dominant Territory

Cora Zane ~ Dominant Territory (Werekind 3)
From: Cobblestone Press

I should really pick on Cobblestone Press more often. They do have some interesting books in their catalog. As you know I love Werewolf Romances so today let’s check out Cora Zane. I really liked this last short story she wrote.

Libby French is divorced and out celebrating the anniversary of the event with a drunken night out with the girls. They all decide to check out a little bar on the edge of town called the Moonlight Run which turns out to be a Werewolf hangout. Libby runs right into the arms of Drake Logan, Werewolf and local auto mechanic.

Cheryl shut the restroom door behind her and leaned against it like a person bent on holding back a hoard of invading marauders. Oh my god, she mouthed, then rasped out loud, “Did you see those guys? Holy shit, we’re in a werewolf bar.”
“Shout it, why don’t you?” Libby snapped as she leaned against the lavatory and shoved her hair out of her face. She turned to check herself in the mirror and caught the disgusted, narrow‐eyed look Angie shot at Robin as she slipped off into one of the toilet stalls.
“How the hell did you even hear about this place?”
“I looked in the phone book,” Robin snapped defensively. “You told me to find something different—it’s Silver, for Pete’s sake. It’s not like I had a ton of fucking options.”
“Listen.” Libby took a deep breath and gathered her wits about her. “We shouldn’t sweat this. Not yet. For one thing, we’ve been in worse places than this, haven’t we? Cheryl? Robin? Like that time at Mardi Gras? Yeah. Remember that? Now, that was a freaking disaster. This…this is only a mix‐up. We didn’t know. This kind of thing happens.”
“True,” Cheryl said skeptically.
Robin huffed. “Yeah, well, out of all the times combined, we’ve never had to worry about anyone wolfing out on us.”
“That’s also true.” Cheryl licked her lips. “Then again, we made it all the way across the bar and nobody messed with us, so maybe it’ll be okay.”
“Hardly anyone stirred when we came in,” said Libby.
“So what?” Robin rested her hands on her hips. “That could mean anything.”
“I say we should go back in there and give it the fifteen minute walk.”
Angie peeked around the stall door. “Are you crazy?”
“Shh.” Robin and Cheryl blasted her in unison.
Cheryl whispered, “Keep your voice down!”
“Look, everyone needs to get a grip,” Libby said. “No matter the clientele, it’s still a bar. We should handle this situation the same as always—go in, have a drink, smile a little, then walk out. No big. Fifteen minutes. For all they know, we’re just four chicks cruising a few clubs on a Friday night.”
“What a load of shit,” chuffed Robin. “You really think they’ll believe that? They’ll probably think we’re here…spying on them.”
Cheryl chortled. “They’re werewolves, not secret agents.”
Libby threw her hands in the air. “If you’ve got a better idea on how to get out of here without raising any eyebrows, Robin, I’d really love to hear it.”

I have read the other books in the Werekind series but I think Dominant Territory is the first time I saw Cora Zane really building her world into a unique place. Werewolves are not secreted away from humans but live right next door. So it is more of a racial type fear happening here not “OMG! Werewolves are real!” type fear. The subsequent relationship between Libby and Drake receives a type of interracial scorn by her friends.

The big thing I liked most was the whole weaving of ordinary with the extraordinary besides the small town community or the Werewolves and Humans living together was the fact that the only thing special about Drake is he is a Werewolf. Otherwise he is simply an auto mechanic. He is not whisking Libby away to his mansion or taking her away from her day to day life in a fly over state or promising her anymore than himself and his love out of it all.

All this makes me wish Cora Zane spent more time making this short story longer and fleshing all this interesting world building. I liked her characters and found that I could relate to them. There are your typical Werewolf cliches running rampant but there are also some solid unique ideas here.

This world works more for me than Twilight did. I mean come on, why would an undead Vampire be hanging out in some small town High school for Christs sake?! Now College sure, why not? Even I have run into professional College students wasting their parents money working on their next degree. That makes more sense to me for a Vampire than High school. High school was never a favorite place for me or anyone I have known. No wonder everyone likes the Werewolf. He at least has a reason to be in High school because Werewolves age like we do and Werewolves have reasons to be in a small town on the edge of some wilderness trying to stay unnoticed.

Now if I could only get Lauren Dane to liberally mix her Cascadia Wolves series with her Chase Brothers I would be in heaven.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on so. I give Cora Zane a Grade B on Dominant Territory because she is really building an interesting and highly readable world with every new story in my opinion. Now let’s hope her stories get a little bit longer and give us some room to really enjoy her characters that we find there.

If you want to try out one of her earlier stories from the Werekind series Under A Midnight Moon is free just click the cover below. The other two stories I liked but I think Cora Zane is really growing as a writer and it was her latest book in the series that started my interest in reading the next.

Tags: Cora Zane, Grade B, Straight Romance, Werekind, Werewolf