My Mother Runs With Wolves

Maddie Gallows is just trying to survive high school, but it's hard when you're caught between two worlds. Her mother is a Shifter, able to transform into a wolf, while her father is a Wolfstalker, trained to hunt them. Maddie herself is a unique blend, possessing acute senses and instincts, but lacking the full transformation. As a new student in the sleepy town of Brookfall, she craves normalcy and friendship, but her family's deep secrets, coupled with the unsettling presence of other Shifters and an unexpected, perceptive boy, threaten to unravel her carefully constructed facade. Can she navigate the treacherous waters of teenage life while guarding a truth that could expose everything?

My Mother Runs With Wolves

Maddie Gallows is just trying to survive high school, but it's hard when you're caught between two worlds. Her mother is a Shifter, able to transform into a wolf, while her father is a Wolfstalker, trained to hunt them. Maddie herself is a unique blend, possessing acute senses and instincts, but lacking the full transformation. As a new student in the sleepy town of Brookfall, she craves normalcy and friendship, but her family's deep secrets, coupled with the unsettling presence of other Shifters and an unexpected, perceptive boy, threaten to unravel her carefully constructed facade. Can she navigate the treacherous waters of teenage life while guarding a truth that could expose everything?

The acrid mix of sweat and that metallic, indefinable something that makes fear an almost palpable thing hung heavy in the air. I knew what it was long before I rounded the corner into the alley.

Any other girl would probably wrinkle her nose at it. Then again, any other girl wouldn't have picked up the smell at all. Two teenage boys, one much younger than the other, were locked in a tense standoff. The younger one, barely more than a kid, had a knife pointed at the older boy, who was flattened against the wall, hands raised in a placating gesture.

“I need your wallet!” the boy with the knife demanded, his voice shaky.

“Look, I already told you, I don’t have anything on me. I’m out for a run,” the older boy replied, his voice surprisingly calm despite the tremor of fear I could still detect.

Mom and Dad always reminded me to keep a low profile. The knife looked sharp, but the young boy was wavering, his hands shaking slightly, like it was his first time.

And then I smelled wolf on him. He was a Shifter. That changed everything.

I stepped into the alley. The movement startled him, and he pushed the knife harder against the other boy’s chest. “Don’t come any closer!”

I stopped where I was, pulled my hands from my pockets, and straightened to my full five-nine height. I fixed a long, penetrating stare at him. “This isn’t your territory.”

His eyes widened as he finally caught my scent, a flicker of recognition passing through them. “But I need to get the wallet.”

I blinked slowly and lifted my chin, just as I’d seen my father do countless times. “You won’t be getting it here.”