Fangs don't make a monster, but they sure do help.
Long ago, the title of pack alpha was won by tooth and claw, a contest of strength and violence. But Haley Fern is a modern werewolf, and she was voted alpha in a fair election after her mother retired from the position. Her small, rural Montana pack trusts her to keep them safe—from the wilds every full moon, from territory disputes with their vampire neighbors, and from outsides who might discover that the town's werewolf folktales have their basis in reality—and she takes her job seriously.
So it's a bad day when a well-meaning outsider takes the job as her town's law enforcement liaison, and a worse one when he shows up to introduce himself with a wounded teenager in tow. Deputy Leland Sommers doesn't know the bite wounds are turning the boy into a werewolf, but Haley does, and that means she has lawbreakers on her land. And when a dead body turns up on the pack's nature preserve shortly thereafter, Deputy Sommers gets involved. Working together to find the criminals would be a lot easier if Leland knew the truth, but if Haley tells him without the approval of the higher-ups, it puts not only her job but also her pack and Leland's life at risk.
She can't let the interlopers' crimes go unanswered, but can she protect a brand-new werewolf, keep the pack's secrets, and mete out justice by herself? Is it an alpha's burden to rule alone?

Second Edition published 2025