Maria Vale | Dear Reader:

To anyone who has read, would like to read, or has never heard of THE LAST WOLF, I will make this fast.

Promise.

My debut, THE LAST WOLF, introduced a pack of what would typically be called werewolves, though they would never say that about themselves. Pack, yes. Wolves, yes. Werewolves, no. These are not men who fight to keep their beast subdued. Their truest form is wolf. Their human form is used to protect this sacred wild. Silver Nilsdottir, the heroine and narrator of THE LAST WOLF is utterly untamed and unabashedly inhuman. She makes no secret of the fact that she is completely baffled by the world away from Homelands, the Great North's territory in the Adirondacks. Or that she failed Introduction to Human Behaviors four times. Elijah Sorensson, the hero and narrator of A WOLF APART, is Silver's opposite in most ways. Where she is at the bottom of the pack hierarchy, he is at the top. He is the Alpha of his age group but he is also an Offlander, a wolf who spends most of his time away from Homelands.

He is a partner in the successful law firm established with money from the Great
North to protect their interests and has spent decades learning to manipulate
human hierarchies. He wears the right clothes, lives at the right address, eats
at the right restaurants, seduces the right women.

And unlike Silver, Elijah is a jerk. After 30 years Offland, the line between
his human act and his wild reality is dangerously blurred. The tie to his pack
has become increasingly tenuous and he is haunted by the fear that if he doesn't
get back home soon, his ailing wild will wither away to nothing.

Unfortunately, the Great North's Alpha insists that with the Pack more
vulnerable than ever, they need him to stay put. "No one," she says, "knows
better than you how to protect us from the human world." She agrees that his
echelon needs an Alpha, but doesn't agree that it has to be him. It is time, she
says, for him to let go.

Letting go is not an option and the desperate Elijah lashes out, blind to the
consequences to everything and everyone he loves most.

Then a human comes to his office looking for legal help. Thea Villalobos, the
Goddess of the City of Wolves, is unlike anyone Elijah has met before. Older
than his usual 20-something dalliances, she is determinedly self-sufficient. She
knows who she is, having learned the painful consequences of pretending to be
something else.

And because Thea knows herself, she sees through Elijah's posturing top dog act,
to the passionate, heartbroken wolf inside. With her help, Elijah begins to
realize that it is not the alienation from his land that's killing him. It is
the alienation from something much closer and more essential. It is the
alienation from his true self.

As Elijah opens up to her, Thea learns to love the man, but there is still one
last secret that is too dangerous to share, even with her.

Life at the Great North is never easy. For three days out of every thirty, the
pack must be wild and in this world, wild means vulnerable. It doesn't help that
ancient enemies are drawing closer and internal divisions threaten to
destabilize the already anxious wolves.

Silver's life hangs in the balance and the usually unflappable Tiberius is
terrified.

I hope you will love Thea as much as I do; she is in her own quiet way as fierce
a heroine as any. And I hope you will stick with Elijah, because I believe the
distance he has strayed is what makes his journey back to the brave, loyal,
caring wolf worth telling.

Stay wild,

Maria