Hayil Rufus Rose has reached thirty with a problem that threatens far more than her standing within her family: she is a werewolf who has never shifted, and her pack does not make comfortable allowances for anomalies. That private crisis sends her into the wilderness of Glacier National Park, where Secrets of the Cryptids begins widening its world in unexpected directions.
Sharon Buchbinder brings together a cybersecurity expert facing possible exile, federal agent Will Penn and his missing brother, violence threatening the Blackfeet Nation, and a Bigfoot family whose role challenges the usual monster mythology. Underneath those elements is a question already troubling Hayil before the real danger begins—what happens when belonging depends upon becoming someone you have not yet been able to become?
Secrets of the Cryptids
Series: Cowboys and Cryptids Book 1
Author: Sharon Buchbinder
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Romantasy
Publication Date: August 3, 2026
Publisher: Sharon Buchbinder
EAN: 9798996088812
She never belonged to the pack—until fate led her to him.
Cybersecurity expert Hayil Rufus Rose has spent her life hiding one impossible truth: she’s a werewolf who has never shifted, a failure by her pack’s rules and a woman on the brink of exile. A solo hike in Glacier National Park is meant to clear her head—but instead, a chance meeting with Will Penn, a guarded federal agent with powerful instincts and secrets of his own, changes everything.
As Hayil becomes entangled in a missing persons case involving Will’s brother, she uncovers corruption, cartel money laundering, and violence threatening the Blackfeet Nation. She forms an unexpected bond with a Bigfoot family, who are not monsters, but an ancient people who recognize her latent power. Through trauma, loyalty, and near-fatal danger, Hayil finally undergoes her full transformation, claiming her identity at last.
Secrets of the Cryptids launches a thrilling paranormal romance series about found family, fierce hearts, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be.
Hayil’s inability to shift gives the paranormal premise an unusually personal consequence. Her pack measures belonging by an ability she cannot summon, and with banishment looming, transformation is tied to family, identity, and acceptance long before it becomes part of the external adventure. Her scientific instinct adds another dimension: even while frightened about her future, she tries to reduce the mystery of her delayed transformation to facts, hormones, and inherited patterns.
The story then reaches beyond werewolf mythology. A missing-person investigation connects Hayil and Will to corruption and cartel money laundering, while the Bigfoot family she encounters is presented as an ancient people rather than a convenient monster lurking in the wilderness. That combination of cryptid lore, romantic tension, crime, and Hayil’s struggle to claim a place in her own pack gives this series opener several mysteries to uncover at once.
Hayil had the advantage of excellent night vision—super vision compared to other humans. Plus, she possessed an almost uncanny ability to connect with most wild and domestic animals. Hayil mentally grimaced. She could also thank her grandmother for her long overdue ability to shift. What would it take to trigger her body into the lupine version of herself? Was it like a growth spurt that hadn’t hit her body yet? Or was Hayil destined to remain the one person in her pack who wasn’t able to wolf out?
Once again, her mother’s constant refrain came back to her: “You’re a late bloomer, like your grandmother. She was older than you when she shifted. All in good time. You’ll see.”
Sure, Mom.
Hayil knew her mother wanted the best for her, but found her cheerfulness a bit forced. Beneath her mother’s optimism, Hayil sensed an undercurrent of concern about her thirty-year-old daughter’s ability to integrate into the red wolf clan. This missing piece of Hayil’s identity called to her like a siren’s song, demanding she complete herself. Would she ever be a true part of the pack? Or would she forever be the unmated one? What then? She was an anomaly, something the pack didn’t tolerate well. Tradition dictated that if a pack member didn’t shift by the end of their third decade, they were banished.
A chilling thought struck Hayil mid-stride.
If I don’t shift this year, will they force me out of the pack?
They were the only family she’d ever known. Her mother would fight for her to stay and would probably win. But at what cost?
Hayil would be an outcast. She’d never be invited to pack meetings, deliberations or celebrations. Those were reserved for shifters. If she married a non-shifter, the pack would drive her out, of that she was sure. What if her offspring were able to shift? Would that make things better? Would the pack let her stay then? It wasn’t as if she could go to a genetic counselor and ask for a DNA test for werewolves.
The thought of losing her extended family through no fault of her own made her gulp back tears. Angry at herself for allowing her thoughts to go down that dark rabbit hole, Hayil reminded herself she was a scientist. Review the facts, not the fears.
Fact one: Grandma had been in labor with Hayil’s mother when she’d shifted for the first time.
Fact two: The majority of the pack members had shifted when they’d hit puberty.
Fact three: Hormones! It had to be related to hormones! The rush of hormones at puberty and the flood of pregnancy hormones had to be related somehow.
Hayil was long past puberty and the associated mood swings and acne, thank you very much. She was not ready to be pregnant. For starters, she would need a romantic partner in her life. She’d had zero luck on that score so far.
“I still have time. It’s not too late. I won’t give up hope.”
Shaking her head to clear her mind, Hayil double-checked her wild animal deterrents. All in place. Then she tugged her knit cap down over her ears and pulled her hands-free headlamp into place. She zipped her fleece jacket against the breeze and adjusted her twenty-five-pound backpack. With an altitude gain of almost nineteen hundred feet, she planned to take her time, pacing herself for the strenuous four-hour hike. She grasped her lightweight hiking poles and took a last look up at the stars. Time to see that spectacular view at the top.
As promised by the trail blog, the dirt path was well maintained. The morning air was cold and crisp, layered with the woodsy scent of damp earth and pine needles. An owl hooted, and Hayil spotted movement in the brush between the thick pines beside the trail. Her headlamp reflected in the eyes of small critters, all of whom skittered deeper into the woods.
For three hours, all she heard was the crunch of her hiking boots on dirt and gravel, the rasp of her own breaths, the glug of water when she drank and the jingle of her bear bells. She looked at yet another incline on the trail and decided she needed a hiking song for inspiration.
“Country roads, take me home,” she sang, belting out “Mountain Mama”—and something crashed through the bushes ahead on the trail. Something large.
She froze.
An enormous black bear stood on its hind legs at the top of the hill.
The animal had its back to her, but if it got her scent, it could turn and charge at her in a flash.
Heart pounding like a jackhammer, she placed her hand on the bear spray.
A breeze sprang up, making her eyes water with its intensity. The good news was that it meant she was downwind of the bear. The bad news was that the air smelled like a wet dog had rolled in a dead animal. The worst news was that the bear turned and looked right at her.
Omigod. It’s not a bear. What the heck is it?
This is a natural fit for paranormal-romance readers who want their supernatural world to extend beyond a single kind of creature. Werewolf pack traditions provide Hayil’s immediate conflict, but Bigfoot mythology, a missing-person case, and Will’s work as a federal agent broaden the story into romantic suspense. Hayil may particularly appeal to readers who like heroines whose power has been present all along but does not arrive according to anyone else’s timetable. Her problem is not learning that she is extraordinary; she already knows exactly what she is supposed to be. The challenge is discovering what her delayed transformation means for the life and family she is afraid of losing.
Sharon Buchbinder is an award-winning author who has been writing stories since she could hold a pen. The paranormal romance genre is her writing home, a place where the impossible is simply the beginning, where women find their power in the most extraordinary circumstances, and where love is always worth the danger of seeking it.
A Maryland-based author with a background in healthcare and higher education that has informed her vivid, grounded storytelling, Sharon is drawn to heroines who have been underestimated — women who carry something extraordinary inside them and spend the whole book learning to trust it. Sharon believes passionately that readers deserve stories where the heroine doesn’t just survive — she transforms. When she’s not writing, Sharon can usually be found unplugging in her garden, obsessing over cryptid mythology, and convincing her pets they are not, in fact, supernatural.
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Hayil enters Secrets of the Cryptids believing that one missing transformation may cost her the only family she has known. What waits beyond that fear is considerably larger: Will, his brother’s disappearance, a criminal investigation, and cryptids who complicate her understanding of who the real outsiders and monsters are. Her eventual transformation therefore carries more weight than gaining a supernatural ability. It answers a question about identity that has followed her for years while opening the door to the broader cryptid world promised by the Cowboys and Cryptids series. That mix of pack belonging, wilderness mystery, romance, and unconventional cryptid lore gives this first installment a distinctive foundation for what comes next.
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