Chapter 8

For werewolves, the full moon is a sacred occasion. A werewolf pack congregates for their own rites in the same manner that humans might dress nicely and convene at a place of worship. The location where we meet for the Trialblazer pack is roughly an hour and a half northwest of Toronto. Two hundred acres of pristine territory where we can securely wander as the monsters we become every full moon were once home to a pack long before Canada was known as New France, at the time when our ancestors fled northern Europe in longboats.

The ceremony of metamorphosis is held in a standing stone circle that was constructed more than five centuries ago, long before Columbus could falsely claim to have set foot on the continent of North America. The three stones pay homage to the three gods of our pack: Lupa, the mother of Romulus and Remus; the harsh Lycaon; and Fenrir, the wolf who will devour Odin at Ragnarök. The circle used to be in a clearing in a forest. It is now safe inside a towering, c