-Having once suffered from all the physical imperfections an ex-fighter might, he's looking better these days after being turned.
-Dark hair that he tries to keep groomed, greying on the sides and in his beard
-A smattering of tattooing on his arms and across his chest, mostly meaningless words or depictions of imagery that once meant more to him.
-His style is notably dark, and you'll notice some of the nicer name brand things he wears have some wear to them, as they're older and not properly dry cleaned.
-There is a thick band of stretched scarring around his right forearm, a few inches below his elbow. It is varying shades of dark pink and purple. The skin of his arm from there to his hand is slightly less sunkissed.

-There's only a few redeeming qualities you can find in Mateo. Often his loyalty stems from a place of self-preservation, but once he's decided someone is truly who he's loyal to, its an unwavering force.
-He’s honest in the sense that he will let you know what he thinks about you. He's making an effort on learning how to be sincere.
-He’s hard-working, but struggles with interpersonal skills. Better at jobs that require him to be scary.
-While he privately hates taking them, he won’t refuse a handout, and tries to make good on what he owes in return.
-Never really means harm, but often is heavy handed and unaware of his tone. It's often hard to like him from the get go.

-Born in 1977 in Monterrey, Mexico.
-Father was an architect, and made enough money to support his seven children in a decent house.
-That didn’t mean a good work ethic wasn’t ingrained in his and his siblings’ heads from day one.
-Being the third child behind two girls, and the oldest boy, he saw himself as the guardians of his siblings. Unfortunately, his methods of tough love and strong-arming them out of trouble usually ended up framing him as the bully.
-At a young age, his parents put him and his two brothers into wrestling. It was there that Mateo became obsessed with Lucha libre, decorating his room in all kinds of posters of different luchadors.
-His brothers weren’t as interested, and both dropped it after a year or so, but Mateo was determined to make it his livelihood. As he grew older, his interests shifted more to boxing, then MMA. He worked his own jobs and saved his allowance to afford his own coach, and by the time he graduated high school he was entering himself into small local matches.
-There was something special about Mateo, and everyone that watched his fights could see it. The hardest of blows couldn’t shake him easily, even against opponents twice his size and weight class. Mateo couldn’t explain it, either. He just knew he was hard to take down, and he used it to his advantage.
-Instead of pursuing college like many of his siblings, Mateo focused in on his fighting. He trained, earned money from his winnings, and eventually earned enough money to strike out on his own. Soon enough he was signed and endorsed, and he made a name for himself and grew a following.
-With that, he fell into a life of luxury. He admitted it one night while drunk to some friends that he wanted to double anything his father had ever made. His plan was to never have children, and only date women long enough for him to spoil them and show them a good time, but not for them to get ideas about marriage.
-A plan that afforded him all the money he had in excess to spend on booze, drugs, and expensive shit he didn’t need. A mansion in San Pedro Garza García, cars, designer clothing.
-At thirty seven, he was at the peak of his career, and at the height of his drug addiction. He began to gamble, overspend, and eventually have violent outbursts when he drank due to financial stress.
-Eventually, he ran himself into the ground. He lost his cars, home, friends, and eventually his manager and endorsers when word got around about his plummeting wealth. His popularity faded, and with what he did save, he moved back home.
-His father, having been so proud and supportive of his son, was not happy. He made him get a job to work for his money, but he couldn’t keep one with his drug habits.
-Eventually, he was told to leave. Fed up with Monterrey and Mexico in general, he decided to move into the states, picking Phoenix as a place to start. He spent some time there, tried to kick his addiction, made friends in people that tried to help.
-Got a job at a gym, and met a woman there that he knew was tens of thousands of times out of his league. But she let him in, and he really did try, but he just was not cut out for a relationship that went beyond showering someone in gifts and hoping they don’t get more serious.
-Eventually, she kicked him to the curb, and he relapsed for a bit. His friends stopped talking to him, and he lost his job again.
-Feeling lost and helpless, he made the choice to track down one of his brothers, who he knew was in Georgia for a while. And after questioning his siblings for any word of Iago, he managed to track him to Ridgefield County. No clue on where exactly he is, he figured he’d at least move out there and start somewhere.
---- In Ridgefield ----
-Lived out of his car for a while, and searched around for a job to start trying to make more money.
-Met a woman, Ingrid, while job hunting. She got him a job at Modoc gym as a janitor. It eventually came to light that she knew his brother, and she gave him his contact.
-Mateo reached out, and while their reunion was rocky to say the least, Iago agreed to let Mateo stay with him for a while to get back on his feet.
-Mateo meets Lorena when she rear-ends up, cue the start of an unexpected friends with benefits relationship.
-On New Years Eve 2019, Mateo and Lorena go out to Camp Baron to light fireworks. Things get heated, but Mateo's silver necklace burns Lorena, whom was recently infected by a hyena. She proceeds to shift and attack Mateo, leaving him bloody in a tree.
-Mateo calls for Iago to come rescue him. Upon arriving, Iago explains what shifters are, and that he is one as well, and that Mateo could possibly be infected. The brothers fall into an argument, which results in a fist fight, which results in Iago shifting and tearing Mateo's arm off.
-Mateo heals, regrows the arm, and in a week's time, Ingrid (unexpectedly) takes him out for his first shift to discover what species he is. Congrats, it's a lion!
-Mateo struggles through a rocky relationship with Iago, and the feelings between himself and Lorena all while trying to find balance with the cat and maintaining some semblance of the human life he'd just begun to get the hang of.
-After a year of trial and error and being iced out by the formed Pride, Mateo attempts to confront Iago for the sake of finding a better balance with himself within a group. It goes poorly. In February of 2021, Mateo and Lorena are forced to move out of Cheyenne Point and into Lauderhill.

• Lorena Sousa — Mateo's long term girlfriend. They met in 2019, and on New Years Eve, Lorena attacked Mateo. They split for a few months, but eventually Mateo reached back out to her after his brother turned him. They have been heavily co-dependent ever since. They moved in together in 2021.
• Iago Mora-Padron — Mateo's estanged younger brother, the one he came to Ridgefield to find. Hoped that he could help him get on his feet. Ended up being turned by him the morning after he was attacked by Lorena. Things did not go well between them.
• Ingrid Thompson — The woman that Iago dumped all of the responsibility of siring Mateo onto. Former coworker, tentative friend. She helped him, but didn't coddle him. Eventually delivered the news that Mateo was banned from interacting with the lions.
• Sokol Pestruska — King of the Lions. Hates Mateo inexplicably. Has banned him from interacting with Iago, and will not allow him and Lorena to live within Cheyenne Point.
• Jimmy Balfour — Former co-worker at Beast Mode. He got unturned, so Mateo hasn't seen him a while. He didn't ever really like him.
• Katya Orlovskaya — Former manager from Beast Mode. Annoying neice vibes. She recently left, and handed over ownership of Beast Mode to Mateo.

-English is his second language. Very significant accent, though he tries to make himself understood.
-House he shares with Lorena Sousa