It started as a random thought- if shifters were a real thing, and passed on through family lines, could there be shifters with the genes of extinct species? I couldn't shake the thought. (Admittedly, there are limits to this- a Barbary lion shifter is hot AF, a T Rex shifter is just, well... disturbing.) This led to my researching lions and that led me to learn that there were Barbary lions in the Tower of London. Presto! Ignatius Sands the first, Yeoman Warder of the Guard sauntered into my imagination, followed closely by his descendant Nate, Mr. Tall, dark and enigmatic.
Clementine was the perfect foil- she's brilliant, possibly neurodivergent, guarded and fiercely loyal to her presumed to be a crackpot dad- the other Dr. Jasper.
Lots of shifter romances are broody. This one isn't. Shifting Sands is a sort of, munch popcorn and laugh-out-loud rom-com. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.