Am I the only person who loves the trend where authors create a wolf shifter and have them called a werewolf because real werewolves are a myth but shifters are real? 

I know I can’t be. In my opinion, that opens up so many more options. However, I still do love me some straight up naturally evil werewolves! So today, let’s talk about this.

The werewolf from legend/mythology is that one who changes at the full moon and can’t control that shift, and is pretty much a normal human being the rest of the time. Legend says they can be killed by a silver bullet, and that being bitten by a werewolf is all that it takes to start turning into one every full moon. They’re usually depicted as a wolf who stands more like a human on their hind legs than an actual wolf on all four, though they are versatile when chasing their prey.

Meanwhile, wolf shifters keep their true wolf form for the most part, and can secondarily in some cases choose to stand straight like a human. I’ve read where some are also prone to being killed by silver, and others were any means that would kill a regular wolf would kill them. However, in these cases they can withstand far more than a regular wolf and heal more quickly in wolf form.

A lot of these similarities and differences can be found in movies as well as books (and obviously this is the case in a book to movie adaption.) It’s always fun to see what the artists in both mediums do to portray these creatures.

When I was working on First Blood, I knew I wanted to incorporate both versions of the Werewolf, what I call the true version and shifter version. While Jackson is only a shifter, and is referred to as such, many wolf shifters use the name werewolf loosely. I guess that makes Jackson a werewolf in some circles. That left me with the real werewolves. Creating rules around their species, specifically the laws they have to abide by, was so fun. And when the werewolves got out…well that was bound to happen, lol.

Off the top of my head, some books with one of the other version that I would recommend are:

Karen Lynch: Relentless Series

Melissa Haag: Judgement of the Six Series

Melanie Gilbert: Alpha King

Julie Trettel: Westin Pack Series

Heather Hildenbrand: Dirty Blood Series

Quinn Loftis: Grey Wolf Series

Addison Carmichael: Sons of the Alpha Series

Rachel Jonas: The Lost Royals Saga

Others I have in my TBR Pile:

Bethany Wicker: Unexpected Alpha

Karina Espinosa: Shift

Olivia Wildenstein: A Pack of Blood and Lies

Leia Stone: Matefinder

I’m probably forgetting several, but off the top of my head, this is what you get! Hopefully you found this fun. More creatures to come!