Paige Tyler | Building the World of X-OPS

My upcoming military/paranormal/romantic-suspense-thriller from Sourcebooks, HER PERFECT MATE (Book One of the X-OPS Series) is set within our own world in the current time.

In this series, the fictional Department of Covert Operations (DCO for short) is an ultra-secret government agency that pairs the very best soldiers, law enforcement officers, and spies together with shifters—humans that possess special animal attributes, like claws, fangs, fast reflexes, speed, endurance, and heightened senses.

Humans and even animals as different from us a mice share a tremendous amount of DNA (something like an 80% match). Each have about the same number of genes, and it’s only a relative small number of genes that make us unique. For example, both humans and mice have a gene for a tail. In mice, it’s turned on. In humans, it’s turned off. This is how shifters exist in the world I created. They simply have certain animal-specific traits that are turned on—like claws, fangs, muscular strength, etc.). These shifters hide themselves in our world, rarely even knowing that others of their kind exist, and doing everything they can to keep their secret from the rest of society.

The DCO stumbled over a shifter early in its history and has been looking for those who might have useful traits ever since. But even though the shifters, working with their "norm" partners, do amazing work on impossible missions, they aren't trusted by everyone at the DCO. They’re labeled as Extremely Valuable Assets to make sure they know they’re viewed as nothing more than tools, weapons, and a means to an end. Even their own partners are trained to carry out the DCO's prime directive—eliminate your shifter partner if it appears he or she is about to be captured or compromised.

The DCO started with the best of intentions—to create a fast, small, covert organization that isn't entangled in the bureaucracy and petty in-fighting that keeps other covert organizations from doing what needs to be done. But the power to run this kind of organization rests in the hands of a very elite few. As the series progresses, the operatives who risk their lives fighting enemies that few even know exist soon learn that the worst enemy they may have to face is one of their own.

About HER PERFECT MATE

He's a High-Octane Special Ops Pro

When Special Forces Captain Landon Donovan is chosen for an assignment with the Department of Covert Operations, he's stunned to find his new partner is a beautiful woman who looks like she couldn't hurt a fly, never mind take down a terrorist.

She's No Kitten

Ivy Halliwell isn't your average covert op. She's a feline shifter, and more dangerous than she looks. Her feline DNA means she can literally bring out the claws when things get dicey. She's worked with a string of hotheaded military guys who've underestimated her special skills in the past. But when she's partnered with special agent Donovan, a man sexy enough to make any girl purr, things begin to heat up. He doesn't think she's a freak-and he's smokin' hot. Soon they're facing a threat even greater than anyone imagines...and an animal magnetism impossible to ignore.

Excerpt:

The four newcomers sat down, the pro-wrestler lookalike sitting across from Landon.

“Was Foley filling your head with lies about Ivy?” asked the dark-haired one with blue eyes and a neatly trimmed beard and mustache.

“He tried to,” Landon said. “I didn’t buy what he was selling.”

The bearded man nodded. “Good. Because he’s full of shit. Ivy’s one of the best operatives at the DCO, and if Foley wasn’t such an asshole, he’d realize that. I’m Tate Evers, by the way.” He nodded at the two men sitting next to Landon on each side. “That’s Brent Wilkins and Gavin Barlow. And this big guy”—he jerked his thumb at the pro wrestler—“is Declan MacBride. He’s the EVA part of our team.”

Landon looked at the big blond man. He couldn’t imagine him growing claws and scaling a wall. “EVA?”

“No one told you what that stands for yet? I’m not surprised.” Tate snorted. “The DCO always does a lousy job of explaining stuff. EVA is short for extremely valuable asset.”

Asset. As if the DCO didn’t think of Ivy and Declan as people. Landon swung his gaze back to Declan. “You can do what Ivy does?”

Declan laughed. “Not on a good day.”

Tate grinned. “Declan’s skills are different than Ivy’s. You two didn’t have the talk yet, huh?”

The talk? That sounded ominous. “Apparently not.”

“Then I won’t be the one to steal her thunder. After this morning’s training, I’m sure you’ve already figured out she’s special, right?”

“Very.”

All four men regarded him thoughtfully, but once again, it was Tate who spoke.

“Look, you’re going to run into people like Foley who’ll tell you people like Declan and Ivy are freaks. That’s bullshit. She and Declan and people like them aren’t any different than you, me, Brent, and Gavin. They just have special skills that make them unique. Regardless of what Foley told you, you can trust Ivy to have your back. And she needs to know she can trust you in return.”

“She can,” Landon said without hesitation. That was a given, regardless of what happened with her previous partners.

“Good,” Tate said. “Because in this job, both your lives depend on it.”

Reviews:

"An absolutely perfect story-one I honestly couldn't put down. One of the best books I've read in years. I hope this is the beginning of a very long series, because I definitely want more of Paige Tyler's shifters." - Kate Douglas, author of the bestselling Wolf Tales and Spirit Wild series

"A wild, hot, and sexy ride from beginning to end! I loved it!" - Terry Spear, USA Today bestselling author of A SEAL in Wolf's Clothing

"Once I began, the outside world ceased to exist. It's exciting and fast paced." - Paranormal Kiss

"I love a good paranormal romance and this series has started off with a bang!" - Hopeless in Literature Reviews

Comment to win your own copy of HER PERFECT MATE.