Cry Wolf

Overall score:

Three years ago Anna was savaged by a werewolf, and survived, only to change into a werewolf herself. Unfortunately, the leader of her Chicago pack, who had her Changed intentionally, has her abused and brutalized so that no one will know what she really is—an Omega.

Alphas are the natural leaders of werewolf packs, but Omegas are rare in a culture where even female werewolves are uncommon. They exist outside of the pack structure and so help soothe the werewolf beast. When Charles, the son of the North American Alpha of all the Alphas, the Marrok, discovers Anna, he claims her as his mate.

But the time they need to get to know each other to solidify their bonding is cut short. Rogue wolves have attacked rangers in the rugged mountains of Montana, and Charles is the only one the Marrok trusts to take care of the problem. Unfortunately, the problems are much more than a rogue—dark magic is targeting the pack and it’s up to Charles and Anna to stop it.

Set in Montana, the events of Cry Wolf happen directly after the first book in the Mercy Thompson series (Moon Called). The story is told from multiple third person perspectives, and while not as fluid as the Mercy Thompson first person, we get to know more about the entire cast than just one person. Which I was glad for, since these are interesting characters that Briggs draws. There are overlap of characters between the two series, but this time we get to focus on Charles, the fascinating hitman for his father—his role is to ‘handle’ wolves that have gone rogue or are too crazy to be safe among humans. At first, the fact of his role as assassin bothers Anna, whose psychological delicacy stems from wolves abusing her, but she discovers that despite Charles’ dominance and abilities, all he cares about is her well being.

This is a love story, above all. The Mercy Thompson books focus a lot of the preternatural and events in Mercy’s life, with a love story that stretches across the series . But here we get to watch Anna struggle with the facts of her abuse and Charles not only trying to get her to trust him, but also deal with other problems at the same time. The conclusion is satisfying, and hints that in the future of the series it will be about the mysteries they solve instead of an unresolved romance.

Unlike in the Mercy Thompson series, where the heroine is an outsider looking in, Anna is a were herself who not only lives in the wolf culture, but eventually discovers that she can influence it herself. This is what makes this book so fascinating. We get to look deeper into Briggs’ werewolf society, its rules, pack hierarchy and magic, the role of the Marrok (who we get to see a lot more of than in the Mercy series, and we learn interesting background information about) and Omegas, and more. Anna’s Omega abilities, of course, turn out to be important to the story, but Briggs makes it more than a plot device. 

I can’t wait for the next book.

(Warning: Contains mild sexuality and a mildly graphic sex scene.)

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Written by Nessa on August 18th, 2008