The Official WOLF FAQ:


1.) Are there other shifter beings, like tigers, bears, lions, etc?

In the real world, legends and stories of shape shifter and magical beings who take the form of many different types of animals inundate every culture.  There is even a story from Africa of a Were-hippo. However, in the universe of WOLF, the only shape changers and shifters are the werewolves.

2.) What are your werewolves able to eat?

They eat Purina Kibble and bits. No, seriously the Werewolves of WOLF are able to eat anything a base-line human can. Like base-line humans, there are food allergies, likes and dislikes. Chocolate does not affect them any more than it would a human. In fact, some inside info, Brian’s favorite dish is spaghetti parmesan with flavored meat and Romano cheese sauce. Funny thing is that is my favorite food too. Is anyone else hungry all of sudden?

3.) What is a full generation Werewolf?

This has been the subject of some consternation so this will help clear up the matter. A Full Generation Werewolf is a Werewolf that is born in wolf form, and can never take human form…ever. They will live their entire lives in wolf form. This is the result of a faulty shifter gene inherited on the X-Chromosome, in the mother’s genetic code. It occurs as a mutation from the ancestry of some families that reach back hundreds of thousands of years. The mother may even be a baseline human or have her werewolf genetics be dormant.

The mutated gene then combines with the father’s Y-chromosome gene for shifting that shares this rare twin mutation. This creates a full generation Werewolf without the ability to shift back and forth. Full generations are not common as the mutation is quite rare, normally being passed down only in direct family lineages.

Naturally, these Werewolves have a hard time growing up, because they can never blend in. Many are teased and bullied brutally while in school while others are killed by extremist groups, targeted for hate crimes and still others attempt suicide (often pointlessly due a werewolf’s immune system and hyper-accelerated healing factor) to escape the depression that results from the way society treats them.

Some examples of Full Generation Werewolves are Max, Rakinos, Draco, Brutus and Ash.

4.) What is a shifter? What is a PD Were?

A shifter is a Werewolf that is born in human form with healthy active shifter genes passed on from their mother to the child. This type of child results from a normal healthy gene on the X-chromosome combined with a normal human father, a father with a active, healthy shifter gene or a father with a dormant shifter gene. In other words, both the X and Y -chromosomes carry shifter genes and the combinations have to be correct before a shifter or full generation can be born.

These Werewolves grow up with a normal childhood, for the most part and at first, without genetic testing, it may be difficult to tell they are different from their peers. However, they will always exhibit some type of difference, be it their eye color, superior senses that seem almost supernatural or even physical affects like strange hair pigments. The fact that some families have no warning or outward sigh of difference acts as a social buffer at least until the child gets older. As the child ages and hits puberty, their shifter genes lay in wait from their dormant state, only awaiting an event to trigger the gene’s purpose. At this stage in their lives, most shifters, around age sixteen to seventeen exhibit markedly different characteristics from their peers. Some differences include glowing eyes when scared or angry, marked strength and agility improvement far beyond human norms and often they will be far moodier than normal due to the hormonal imbalance caused by their body going through normal adolescent changes plus the biochemical alterations that are preparing their bodies for the first shift.

When the young adult is placed into a situation where their flight or fight response is genuinely triggered, either by a physical threat or an extreme emotional trauma, the shifter gene goes fully active, triggering the first change. The first change for a shifter is often excruciatingly painful as bones break, set and heal, organs shift position, new teeth grow and their senses become far stronger than they used to be, resulting in temporary information overload.

A shifter, like a Full Generation Werewolf, is not a raging monster and retains their full human mind, emotions and personality. They are really just a human being with a different morphological make up.

After the first change, the sheer shock of the transformation can be deeply traumatizing for the young Werewolf and may prevent them from making the change back to human form until their body has settled down. Once they change back to human form, the shift from human to wolf form will not occur involuntarily unless the Werewolf is placed into a situation that threatens them in such a way as to trigger a flight/fight response or they experience extremes of emotion, such as passion, hate or rage. These types of changes are not voluntary.  Otherwise, the ability to shift back and forth is a voluntary action triggered through practice, concentration and experience usually taking less than a minute to occur. The fastest shifters have been clocked at just over ten seconds to complete the change.

Once the initial shock is over, and if a Werewolf decides to embrace their natural selves, they will instinctively learn how to control their shifting and with time, learn to master their new abilities. The older Weres have taken shape changing to an art form, being able to change parts of their body separately or activate or deactivate advanced senses at will but very few reach this state without dedicated practice daily.

A P.D. or partial dormant Werewolf is a werewolf that is born with both faulty shifter and faulty full generation genes that are in active conflict with each other.  When this occurs, the child will be born with and retain Werewolf traits while having a human form and be unable to shift. Traits retained are senses, strength, immune systems etc.

These Weres are hard to spot because they can appear so close to a baseline human that many who do not study the genetics and biology of Werewolves cannot tell them apart from their human cousins. This makes this type of Werewolf an excellent spy for defense work and enemy penetration work. In fact, there are rumors that Werewolves of this type served alongside their full generation and shifting cousins in the Dog Solider Defense Initiative back in World War 2.



5.) Are your Werewolves immortal?

My Werewolves have a hyperactive immune system that, after a certain amount of time that varies from individual to individual--the average is about 42-45 years-- prevents further aging or decay of the body or organs. Werewolves in WOLF can be killed by extreme damage to the body that the immune system cannot repair (i.e., being shot in the head so that the bullet damages the brain, the heart is damaged beyond repair, immolation—being burned alive--decapitation, broken neck (severs the spinal cord) or extreme immune shock.

These injuries can kill a Werewolf by simply overloading their healing response and the Werewolf will slip into a coma and die within days if this happens. Of the two hundred reported cases of lycanthropic bio-shock in the medical journals, the victims have survived zero times.

Some researchers, such as Dr. Madison, believe that if a werewolf lives a normal healthy life, they could easily be immortal. Sadly, most Weres do not live past their primes due the violent life style that has been forced upon them by society and no reported and confirmed cases by medical science has ever recorded a werewolf living beyond 101 years of age. There are rumors however, of much older Werewolves who simply do not reveal themselves.



6.) Do your werewolves imprint like the ones in the Twilight Saga?

In world of the Twilight created by the Stephanie Myer, her Werewolves (in reality shape changers who merely take the form of wolves) will imprint upon the one person of the opposite sex that is most likely to pass on the genetic trait that allows the shape shift to occur.

This behavior is instinctive and not controlled by the Werewolf.

This process of mate choosing is very interesting but I wanted to represent a more real world scenario with my Werewolves, allowing a more diverse set of romances to bloom and take their course naturally.

My Werewolves choose their mates the same way the rest of us do: dating, trial and error and they do NOT have to be of the opposite sex.

Just like in real life, there are many lesbian, bi-sexual and gay werewolves just as there are many straight ones as well.

7.) Why make two gay characters that are werewolves?

Some people have asked me why I created and included Charley and Ryan, a gay werewolf couple as main characters. I have to answer that carefully because I do not want to get on a soapbox of sorts.

Simply put, not everyone in the real world is heterosexual and the inclusion of different lifestyles and perspectives allows the reader, you, to place yourself in the shoes of those individuals, to see through their eyes and experience their joys and tribulations as well as the pain and suffering that they experience as well.

In addition, I made these two characters because there is not a good representation of the gay community in modern media. The gay community often portrayed as very feminine, with extremely flamboyant personalities, often self-absorbed, and concerned with matters of fashion and glamour, is the predominate view of gay life that we in the United States have. Gay men and women have conversely been shown as hyper-masculine or extremes on either end of the spectrum.

While there are some people who are like that, it is not a true representation of real gay people and I wanted to present the real view of what most gay men are like, which is a subtle blend of male and female aspects. In the case of Charley and Ryan, both are members of their local bear community (as am I) and support various local gay and lesbian/transgender equality groups and charities.

While both of them do have their softer sides, neither one of them has the slightest interest in fashion or drama nor do they care about such trivial matters. While they do have their arguments and disagreements, their love is a deep and spiritual one as well as physical. Entirely devoted to each other, each would gladly lay down his life for the other or his friends.

In the end, I wanted to break down barriers, stereotypes and misconceptions about people and show those who have never seen such a lifestyle, how deep and loving it can truly be.

8.) How does a shifter/full generation pass on the ability to change to a non-shifter?

Ah. This is a good one. As you saw in the opening prologue, Max turned Brian to save his life by a simple bite. While it appeared simple, in reality it was nothing of the sort. All Werewolves, shifters and full generations alike, with the exception of PD Weres, contain a gland in their mouths just above the primary canine teeth. When triggered by sufficient bite force pressure, this gland releases a potent bio-chemical enzyme called lycanoxazine. This enzyme then mixes into the saliva and will attach itself at the molecular level, to the DNA in every cell of the one bitten, aggressively re-writing their DNA structure, turning them into a Werewolf as well within a matter of days, provided that they have healthy dormant werewolf genes on at least one chromosome, X or Y.

The only danger  comes from a rare situation in which a human--as in a pure human without Werewolf genetic material already present-- is turned that does not have an active gene on either chromosome.

When the lycanoxazine enzyme attaches to the DNA of a base-line human without the Werewolf genes, the DNA is disintegrated at the cellular level. This leads to insanity and a very painful, quick death shortly thereafter. This has only happened rarely in modern times. Most Werewolves, for that reason, hold it to be immoral to bite any other person in fear of causing such a case and look down on those that do. The downside of this view is that a Werewolf bite given to someone with the proper dormant genetic code could in fact save their life from life threatening injuries by jump-starting their immune response.

There are rumors among the more eclectic Werewolves who believe in the old fables that there was once a powerful line of wolfen warriors who gave civilization to man. They sometimes say that once every few hundred years, a special werewolf is born. This special and rare Werewolf, with the powerful genetic blend of the ancient ones, will have a third type of shift in addition to their primary wolf form. With superior senses, strength and shifting abilities to other Werewolves, they will also have the rare ability to turn both humans with existing genetic codes and those without with no negative effects into shape-shifters. Such a Werewolf, if it existed, could create entire legions of super-werewolves…luckily…that’s just a story....Hmm. *tosses out an old book* Nah, we don’t need to read that now do we?

9.) Why is it against most werewolves morals to turn a human into a Were?

See question number eight for that answer.

10.) What are scent memories?

Ok, it’s time for some werewolf anatomy!

In humans, memories are primarily controlled by the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex, the sections of the brain most devoted to the processing and storage of long-term memory. In dogs and many other animals, wolves included, there is an organ called the vomeronasal or Jacobson’s Organ, located in dogs and wolves in the muzzle, just above the roof of the mouth and nasal cavity.

This organ in Werewolves, like in other canines, serves as a chemoreceptor organ. It is separated from the nasal cavity the majority of the time, being sealed in a separate bony or cartilaginous capsule, which opens into the base of the nasal cavity. It is where scents first enter the nose and as such, serves as the first in a longer process of olfactory processing, connecting to the amygdala (involved in the modulation of memory consolidation and emotional memory) and the hypothalamus, which also aids in the decoding of scent based pheromones, which yes, humans and werewolves use.

The pheromones used can include ones for fear, anger, hatred, lying, sexual arousal or even the memory of one’s own life-mate.

All of this connects via neural pathways into the cerebral cortex, the heart of memory in the brain. It is here that memories are made and stored for a life-time. In a werewolf, a scent enters the nose and mouth, passes through the Jacobson’s Organ, goes through the nasal passages, through the amygdala, the hypothalamus and finally rests in the cerebral cortex.

For a Werewolf, who’s sense of smell is far stronger than any human, this is a unique experience, as scents and smells are bio-chemical recording devices, storing emotional states, lifestyle, poisons, thought-forms and more. These all form lasting memories in the Werewolf who encounters them, creating a mental library of scents, images, thoughts, histories and emotions that can be pulled back up at will for recollection, tracking or even not to forget a lost loved one.

Considering that every living being has a unique scent, this can be quite a feat.

For Werewolves living in urban environments, this can result in sensory overload, producing nasty migraines at times and must be learned to be dealt with over time. For newly turned werewolves, this presents a unique challenge, as they inherit the scent memories of the werewolf that bit them.

At first, the foreign memories can appear as hallucinations or even supremely powerful memories that the bitten cannot recall ever happening, creating a strong sense of déjà vu. Over time and with practice, the Werewolf who was turned can gain control over the memories but at first, it is very difficult, as they can be triggered by a number of external stimuli.

The scents a Werewolf stores can stir extremely potent emotional reactions, which vary naturally based upon the memory being recalled. Scent is often said to be the strongest and most primal sense connected to memory, like smelling a deceased relatives perfume or cigar. For us, that’s all it is. For a werewolf, it would be like seeing them walk again for a brief moment, which in its own way, can be beautiful and tragically, bittersweet.

11.) Is it possible for a Full Generation Werewolf or a Shifter werewolf in shifted form to reproduce with a normal human?

Boy. People have asked this one a lot in emails and chat rooms. What are you all thinking about anyways? Hmmm. Ok, well since you asked. I will try to answer this as tactfully as possible.

Suffice it to say that male and female reproductive anatomy in both shifters who are shifted and full generation werewolves does not change much, aside from a few minor physical changes (please don’t ask unless you want to be told) and is similar enough to allow reproduction to occur. The process for this is the same as with normal humans: sex. Wow. Who would have thought, eh? For example, when Brian first took a shower after shifting for the first time, he did not react to anything being wrong because things were similar enough for him to not notice any major differences from how he was before.

When it comes to the situation of Full Generation or Shifters, male werewolves must be very careful in the act or they may injure their female (or male) partners. Females must be cautious all the same.

Now that your minds have been saturated with Werewolf knowledge, if you have any other questions that I have not addressed or would like more information or clarification, please don’t hesitate to email me at amilhorn2011@gmail.com

Happy reading!