Moon Called By Patricia Briggs
Lupine Unaware
Mercedes Thompson could smell the visitor before she lain eyes on him, both in the sense the young man had come in grubby clothing and unwashed, secondly with her coyote nose triggering that he was no ordinary young man in Patricia Briggs' Moon Called.
The young man who addressed himself as Mac said that he was in need of work and was willing to learn anything to earn a meal in the mechanic shop that Mercy owned. Against her better instincts she took pity on the boy and allowed for temporary work and pay in cash and didn't report him to the Alpha of the werewolf pack nearby. Although she was not a member, as she was a skin walker rather than a werewolf, she had ties to the pack and other area supernaturals due to her upbringing and well respected.
Sent to live with a pack by her mother for fostering after finding a coyote pup in the crib instead of her infant, it was figured out quickly that Mercy's Native American father whom her mother had only a brief affair with had passed along his power to his daughter. Life with the wolves had't always been easy for Mercy but it taught her to control the coyote inside and forced the nearby packs to leave her alone as she fell under the protection of several leaders.
She should have told her nearest neighbor, Adam, the Alpha of his pack about the strange boy but she was afraid that they might kill him. For several days, Mercy fostered the boy until an attack on the grounds of her auto shop ended in a death and a reveal of exactly who Mac was running from.
A native of Chicago, Mac had been running from the werewolves that had created unlicensed fledglings for the purpose of conducting experimentation on them. All he remembers he says, is that he and his girlfriend had been attacked after a school dance and the next he knew he woke up in a cage and his girlfriend was dead. Passing along the news to the wolves, Adam thinks he knows who might be behind the crime but the sudden attack on Adam and his daughter, proves someone is hiding the truth.
Mac Attacked
Leaving her home at night was never a good idea in her human form.
Using her nose, Mercy finds the remains of Mac on her doorstep and then finds that Adam is badly injured and his teen human daughter, Jesse missing.
With no choice but to use her alliance with the pack that raised her rather than risk finding a traitor in Adam's pack that might be trying to kill him after finding out about the rouge wolves in Chicago creating illegal fledglings; Mercy packs up an old VW bus she was working on for a vampire ally and brings Mac's remains and the injured Adam to the others for help.
Explaining the situation once again the its local Alpha, Mercy is suddenly uncomfortable being back as she realized the wolf that wanted to make her his mate back as a teenager is still in the area.
Adam is healed and the wolves continue the hunt for Jesse.
With knowledge of her father's pack status, Jesse whom is a human has always lived among the wolves and knows of their power. Under their protection, the kidnapping of the Alpha's daughter is a great crime and whoever is behind this will pay greatly.
The Truth About Samuel
All this time, Mercy has been blaming herself for the night she had left the pack that raised her once and for all.
Shortly after the death of her foster parents- a human mother that failed to ever make the Change and her husband that had killed himself in a nearby river unable to live after the passing of his beloved mate and wife, one of the sons of Bran, the Alpha of this pack was beginning to take interest in Mercy.
Young and foolish, Mercy believed that maybe Samuel was the one and they two planned to run off together after the Alpha refused to recognize their relationship. Telling her that Samuel only planned to use her and that he never loved her, Bran contacted Mercy's mother to take her back and the trip was to take place that week.
As an adult, Mercy never thought about if her first heartbreak was true.
Finding that Samuel was a much older wolf than what he presented and was at least sixty or seventy years old made everything she thought she knew about the wolf in jeopardy. Samuel's father had explained that he had three wives before but none of the children had been able to make the change, but finding Mercy a skin walker, and knowing that her coyote could easily interbreed with his wolf...
Mercy was disgusted at the thought he only wanted her as his mate to keep contributing offspring to the tribe.
Being back in the territory with Samuel working on the disappearance of Adams's daughter, it was uncomfortable to be that close to him again knowing the truth.
Getting aide from the fae and vampires, Mercy tried to use her connections to get help finding the location of Jesse. They only hoped that whatever had befallen Mac was not the same fate as the girl if indeed the rouge wolves from Chicago had taken her. But there had to be someone in Adam's pack that wasn't who they claimed to be.
Have Mercy
Being back so close to Mercy was troubling for Samuel as well.
Knowing she had heard one version of the truth from his father, the Alpha, he knew that inside it wasn't the whole truth.
Yes, everything that was said was true about his past failures to create viable offspring to the pack with his other wives. But he had lived a long life and had loved before her.
There was just something about Mercy and all the men saw it.
He was filled with jealousy as she was unaware of all the male suitors lining up from the young woman. Other wolves and supernaturals all vying for her attentions.
It was different though, he had known Mercy from a child and even though he was so much older, it wasn't just her coyote that he was after and somehow he would be able to show her that his aim was her heart.
If she would still have him after all of this.
Moon Called
In a race against time to save Jesse, and catch the rouge wolves before they experimented on anymore human subjects, turning them against their will to be studied, Mercedes Thompson and her allies embark on an adventure through several states.
Fast paced and brilliantly written, Moon Called the first novel in the Mercy Thompson series went on to spawn many more novels in the collection including spin offs and short stories between the main novels.
Like that of the Sookie Stackhouse novels and other such books about the interactions between the supernatural communities, Mercy is a strong female protagonist gifted with both a spiritual ability and the brains to back it up. Her quick wit and the ability to draw supernatural men to her calling, sounds a lot like Sookie.
Patricia Briggs creates a brilliant world for her creatures, and these novels are extremely fun reads filled with adventure and a bit of supernatural romance.
