There have always been Packs throughout the world: wolves who have the ability to take on the form of a human and who become even more wild during the Iron Moon. However, it's always been a constant challenge to stay safe from humans and Shifters - beings who can change, but do not have to - and in the late 1600s, a wolf made her way to the New World with her pack.
Now, over 300 years later, the Great North Pack is the last great Pack in the world. Although they have adapted to the human world, the shrinking wilderness means that it's harder than ever to keep their existence secret and safe. As lives are started and lost, and relationships and hierarchies shift, the Pack must make decisions that may shape its future.
There are five books in the series so far:
- The Last Wolf, which focuses on the runt Silver as she decides to bind her destiny to a newcomer, the half-Shifter Tiberius
- A Wolf Apart, from the point of view of the lawyer Elijah as he struggles to live in the human world for the good of the Pack
- Forever Wolf, in which Varya, the sole survivor of her birth pack, tries to prevent history from repeating itself with her new Pack
- Season of the Wolf, which follows the Pack's new Alpha, as well as an imprisoned Shifter
- Wolf in the Shadows, which is from the point of view from the young Shifter Julia
There is also one novella:
- Wonderland (found in a novella collection called Shifters and Mistletoe), which takes place after the fifth book. Leonora, the pack's expert on humans, tries to teach the others about holidays while also coming to terms with her feelings for an old friend
This series contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: August Leveraux hated Tiberius changing or even grinning (due to showing his canine teeth), so August trained (tortured) him until Ti learned to never change or smile.
- Action Girl: All of the female wolves fight and hunt along with the males, and they find it unusual that many human women do not.
- Affectionate Nickname: Sigegeat and Constantine, who become friends quickly, nickname each other "Connie" and "Ziggy".
- The Alcoholic: Ronan. The first chapter from Silver's POV in the first book mentions that wolves smell like Bailey's and kibble after drinking, and she encounters a drunken Ronan.
- Alternative Calendar: Wolves measure time in moons: when asked one's age, they respond with "270 moons" rather than "22 years".
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The Pack rankings are determined by fighting ability. Formal challenges can determine whether an Alpha keeps their rank or loses it.
- Babies Ever After: The first book ends after Silver learns that she's pregnant.
- Badass in Distress: In Forever Wolf, Varya gets captured by Shifters, along with some of the pups. Although initially trapped and defenseless, with the help of one of the Shifters, she fights her way out.
- Bear Trap: Some of these get set in the Homelands in Forever Wolf. Eyulf got caught in one, and a coyote got caught in another.
- Big Bad: August Leveraux, leader of the Shifters, is the main antagonist.
- Big Good: John and Evie, the Alphas of the Great North Pack.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Pack pregnancies are dangerous and even successful births often result in the death of pups, the mother, or both.
- Bittersweet Ending:
- The Last Wolf: The battle is won and Silver is pregnant, but several wolves - including the Alpha, John - have died.
- Forever Wolf: The Pack is safe and Varya and Eyulf are together, but the two have become forever-wolves and will never again be able to change, speak to packmates, or perhaps even have any memories of their past.
- Blood from the Mouth: Happens occasionally, either as a result of injury or simply having recently eaten fresh prey.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: Or in the case of August's in Forever Wolf, in wolf urine...
- Bodyguard Betrayal: In the opening of the first book, the Wessex pack has hired humans to guard them during the Iron Moon, but instead they turn on them. This is the reason that the Great North Pack is so leery about trusting outsiders.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: A genderbent version in Varya's relationships. Varya "the Indurate" is dark-haired, cold, and serious, while her loves Mitya and later Eyulf are white-haired and gentle, and she views them as her "light".
- Brutal Honesty: Wolves tend to say what they're thinking and have no use for weakness.
- Buffy Speak: Silver does this in the first book, such as referring to something delicious as "nummy".
- The Chains of Commanding: It's noted that being an Alpha is stressful, since the Alpha must be expected to provide leadership and comfort for their packmates and not show weakness, without having any sort of support system themselves.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Each book in the series tends to give a brief spotlight on the next book's protagonist. In The Last Wolf, the 9th Echelon's alpha Elijah is mentioned briefly in regard to living in the human world; in Elijah's book A Wolf Apart they discuss Varya and why she's called "The Indurate"; in Varya's book Forever Wolf, Constantine is one of the Shifters, a minor character who ends up helping her, and he's a protagonist in Season of the Wolf.
- Chick Magnet: Tiberius. He's so fed up with all of the females' advances that he immediately goes to John to declare himself and Silver bedfellows, with the request that no one can challenge Silver for her place.
- Child of Two Worlds: Tiberius is half Pack and half Shifter. As he grew, his wolf side felt right and "holy", until his Shifter father tortured him into no longer desiring to change. After the Pack allowed him to stay, he grew to love his wolf nature again.
- The Clan: The Great North Pack.
- Code of Honor: Wolves believe in honor, so Varya scolds one of the pack members for badmouthing Thea, and challenges him to a fight to defend his honor.
- Covered with Scars: Pack members in general. It's mentioned that their stories are told on their bodies.
- Danger — Thin Ice: Clear Pond is named to warn pups to stay clear of it in winter, because the ice is more dangerous than other areas in their territory.
- Dead Guy Junior:
- One of Evie and John's pups is named Nils after their previous Alpha (Silver's father).
- Silver and Ti name three of their pups after deceased pack members: John (the Alpha who recently died), Solveig (the Alpha of Silver's echelon who was killed the same night), and Sigeburg (John's mother, who was an elder of the pack and who named Silver.)
- Death by Childbirth: Childbirth is a dangerous process with wolves, since during the last month or so, the pups start to change on their own, and the mother has to start changing with them or else they'll all die. Even then - and with ultrasounds to know when it's happening - it's still a risky prospect.
- Death Glare: Common among the Pack, especially from angry Alphas.
- Death of a Child: John and Evie's pup Hannah is stillborn.
- Defiant to the End: Wolves always prefer to die fighting.
- Disability Superpower: Silver is a runt and the physically weakest member of the pack, not to mention that when she's wild, one of her hind legs always dislocates during the transformation, so she's learned how to live with it. When Tiberius helps to put the leg in its proper place, Silver finds that she is one of the fastest and most agile wolves in the pack.
- Dishonored Dead: Due to his role in Forever Wolf, Victor's corpse has his nose torn off.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Mitya let out a howl for some reason. Even though no humans came and nothing happened, the Alpha killed him for endangering his Pack anyway.
- Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Wolves view Shifters with distrust.
- The Dog Bites Back: In Forever Wolf, Arthur is a nidling, one of the lowest-ranking wolves in the pack. At one point, Victor says that due to his role, Arthur doesn't count as a Pack member in their vote for the Pack's future. By the end of the book, Arthur grows more of a spine, and even though it's death to kill a packmate without judgement by the Alpha, he kills Victor for endangering the Pack.
- Dogs Are Dumb:
- The pack considers the word "dog" to be an insult since they’re nothing like dogs.
- Eyulf describes how he grew up as a companion to a human family, alongside a dog. He first grew to realize that she wasn't particularly smart when he noticed that she never learned to read. It led to tragic results later: the humans warned their pets away from the antifreeze under the tractor, which Eyulf felt was a pretty unambiguous warning, but the dog ate it anyway and was badly poisoned, resulting in the father having to shoot her since they couldn't afford to bring her to a vet.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Wolves hate being pitied, as it makes them feel weak.
- Driven to Suicide: Nidlings have a pretty poor lot in life, living as a constantly-submissive servant to the Alphas, and Varya mentions this:They are peculiarly prone to outrageous accidents: a fatal hoof to the chest, a careless leap across a gorge, running in a straight line away from a gun when every wolf knows you need to zigzag.
- Exact Words: At the end of Forever Wolf, Arthur kills Victor for endangering the Pack. The law states that "The murder of one Pack by another Pack is punished by death..." however, since Victor previously said that as a nidling, Arthur did not have a place in the Pack, the new deemer Silver decides that this law doesn't apply to him so he won't get a death sentence.
- The Exile: Ronan in the first book is exiled for being lazy and not contributing to the Pack, and then to top it off he shows up drunk at his own Dœling.
- Eye Scream: When Elijah and Tiberius fight for the right to challenge Evie as Alpha, Elijah submits because Tiberius has a grip right over his eye and could blind him.
- Fantastic Rank System: The pack has an Alpha and Beta, and then has a series of echelons (groupings of roughly every 5 years of age) which have their own Alpha and Beta and other pairs listed by other Greek letters. (It's worth noting that "Alpha" was once a term used for real-life wolves before the social structure of wolf packs were fully understood, but is no longer scientifically accurate.)
- First Love: Mitya was this for Varya, as was John for Evie.
- Their First Time: Silver's first time is with Tiberius.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: Varya and Eyulf fall for each other after Varya finds Eyulf badly injured and nurses him back to health.
- Gender Is No Object: The only difference between males and females in the pack is that females can get pregnant.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: The Shifters are prejudiced against Tiberius for being half-Pack, while the Pack is prejudiced against him for being half-Shifter.
- Humans Are Smelly: To the Pack, humans and Shifters often smell of steel and/or "carrion" (i.e. packaged meat), and also wolves aren't fond of perfume or scented soap.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: The Pack when guns are involved. Part of their ritual at the start of the Iron Moon is to respond to the Alpha's "happy hunting" declaration with "And may you not be hunted yourself."
- I'm a Humanitarian: Pack law is that anything killed must be eaten, so as not to waste it. This includes humans... and potentially, such as in Varya's case, other wolves.
- Insistent Terminology: They are not werewolves, they are simply "wolves" or "Pack". They are not in human form, they are "in skin". Note how even though they spend most of the book with hands and the ability to speak, they're still called "wolves" here, as they are in the book.
- Insult Backfire: As the Shifters discover, calling a female wolf "bitch" doesn't work as an insult, since that merely describes what they are.
- Insult of Endearment: Infant wolves that have changed into skin are affectionately referred to as maggots, since they're soft and squishy.
- Interspecies Romance: The wolf Elijah falls in love with the human Thea.
- Intimate Hair Brushing: Varya refuses to lick other wolves or have them do the same to her, as it feels too intimate to her.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: During the Iron Moon, wolves become more wild - meaning if they're in skin, they are forced to change to wild, even if it's not a convenient moment.
- Ironic Name: Silver's full first name is Quicksilver, and it was specifically chosen as a joke because due to her disabled leg when wild, she's anything but quick.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Sigegeat tells Constantine, "That deer really bucked up my eye." The room is filled with groans and growls from his packmates.
- Last of His Kind: Varya is the only survivor of the Vrangelya Pack.
- Lazy Bum: Ronan. It's why he's exiled from the Pack.
- Lonely at the Top: The Alpha needs to be the strength of the whole pack and cannot show vulnerability to anyone.
- The Lost Lenore: Mitya is this for Varya.
- Non Human Lover Reveal: Thea learns that Elijah is a "werewolf" when the Iron Moon arrives before he can get back to the Homelands, and the change comes upon him in her car.
- The Nose Knows: The wolves understand their world through scent. They do not use scented shampoo because it would mask their own personal scent.
- No Sense of Humor: It's often joked that wolves have none.
- Number Two: Tara is the Beta of the Pack.
- Only a Flesh Wound: According to the Pack, it doesn't matter if you have a big chunk of flesh missing; if it's not a broken bone or internal organ damage, it's only a flesh wound and doesn't need treating by the pack doctor. And if you do go to see him about a flesh wound, he'll offer you a tic-tac so that everyone can smell it and knows you went to see him about a boo-boo.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: They are a separate species than human (not capable of producing children with humans), and prefer to be called "wolves" or "Pack" rather than "werewolves". For the most part they can shift at will, but the Iron (full) Moon makes them more wild: if they are "in skin" (human form) they change to "wild" (wolf), and if they're wild then they become an æcewulf - a real wolf that can no longer change.
- The Outside World: Most wolves don't have reason to go "Offland", and those who do must take specific lessons with the Pack's human expert Leonora so they can pass as human in their interactions with them.
- The Promised Land: The Great North Pack was considered this by Varya's pack, to the point that they believed it to be fictional.
- Ruler Protagonist: One of the protagonists of the fourth book, Season of the Wolf, is the Alpha of the Pack.
- Scars Are Forever: As Varya puts it, each Pack member's story is written on their body. All of them are scarred from fights, hunting, etc. A few have some notable scars:
- By the end of the first book, both Silver and Ti have chosen to be branded with a rune to atone for their actions. Tiberius also has a scar on his palm from when his father hammered a stake through it.
- Varya has scars across her belly from when she was branded as an outcast. Arthur later gets marked similarly.
- Scatterbrained Senior: It's mentioned that Gran Sigeburg gradually forgot who Silver was as she aged.
- Second Love: Eyulf to Varya, Constantine to Evie.
- Secret Underground Passage: Silver knows of a tunnel in the Homelands that leads out into the forest. She didn't realize it was secret until she mentioned it to the Alpha, John, and saw that he didn't know about it.
- Shape Shifter Mode Lock: If a Pack member is in their wolf form when the Iron Moon arrives, they become an æcewulf - a real wolf that can no longer change. In Forever Wolf, Varya and Eyulf become forever wolves. When we see this from Varya's POV, her thoughts are simplified; she no longer remembers Eyulf's name for instance but she knows he's the most important thing to her.
- Shout-Out: There's a couple references here and there. John likes literature, so he makes sure that the Pack learns quotes from Walt Whitman, Shakespeare, etc. Silver and Varya overhear the juveniles hearing books like The Jungle Book and Harry Potter read to them. Sigegeat is a huge fan of Wolf Cop.
- Slashed Throat: Silver takes First Blood on Ronan this way, to spare him from suffering.
- The Social Darwinist: The Pack. Members will only be allowed to stay if they can contribute.
- Super-Senses: Shifters' senses are abnormally sharp even when in human form.
- Surprise Pregnancy: It's usually rare for the Pack to become pregnant, so it's a surprise when Silver learns that she's expecting, especially so soon after being mated with Ti.
- Switching P.O.V.: Season of the Wolf switches between Evie and Constantine.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: The Pack has strict laws about killing: a Pack member cannot kill another Pack member, and Pack cannot kill animals/humans unless in immediate danger, and/or it's necessary for food.
- Tuft of Head Fur: Apparently if Lorcan forgets to take out his ponytail before the change, it remains as "an undignified sprout of tawny fur at the top of his head."
- Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: John and Evie's two surviving pups are a male and female, named Nils and Nyala.
- Villainous Badland, Heroic Arcadia: The Shifters' base is stark and metallic, decorated with stones, while the Pack's Homelands is a lovely forest full of life, and the main buildings are homey and well lived-in. This also comes down to their philosophy: while the Pack is one with nature, Shifters see it as their duty to tame the wild.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Aside from during the Iron Moon, the Pack can change from wild to skin at will. Shifters can also do so at will, without the Iron Moon forcing them to, but most choose not to.
- Watching Troy Burn: The Great Hall is burned down by the Shifters at the end of The Last Wolf. It gets redesigned and rebuilt afterward.
- The X of Y: Season of the Wolf.
