Hello all! My name is Gabriel Del Lobo. I’m a college Junior at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The past three years have been difficult as hell pursuing three majors and two minors. I know you’d like to know a bit more about me, but I’m not really the one you should be paying attention to in this series of stories. In fact, I’m just going to be your guide through the many mistakes that people like me have made through the last several years after coming out of the shadows into the public light. Let me tell you what I’m talking about: Werewolves, Lycans, and Direwolves. Or those are the three key terms that are thrown around in folklore. However we must understand the difference between what we call ourselves compared to the world’s folklore.

Let’s start ourselves off with Lycans. The term we Lycans actually prefer is…well just that: Lycan. It is actually a noun that comes from the adjectival adaptation of the greek word for wolf, lykos. So the name by which we refer to ourselves actually means almost literally “of the wolf”. This is extremely important to the packs and families of lycans. We both love and fear what we’ve become. Let’s give you readers a good broad definition of the word Lycan. A Lycan is a zoothrope which may change at will and is always a wolf-human hybrid of sorts whose breed and coat color are directly related to the geographical heritage and hair color of the person. This may make more sense: Lycans are werewolves who are able to change “at will.” Our breed is related to our human’s heritage and the color of his hair. For example I am from Mexico and my hair is pitch-black. My wolf is closest in appearance to a Mexican Wolf (C. lupus baileyi) except for the majority of my coat is colored black. Another thing about us Lycans is that we are able to be born this way. As long as both mother and father are lycans, then they will always have a lycan child. It is the one luxury purebred parents have, not having to worry if their child will be “one of them”. Another difference between us and the Dires is that we are able to maintain full awareness of ourselves while we are in our wolf state. That is pretty much all there is to say about us, I think.

Now let’s move on to the Werewolves. They are the ones who are the worst off of the three different species of lycanthropes. They can only change during the full moon and have little control over their wolves. They only come to be from a bite or a fluid exchange between another wolf and a human. This is one of the biggest problems we have. They are known as the bastard wolves or the Forbitten. They are looked down upon by the other two for not being able to change outside of the full moon. Also their human form is extremely tied to the state of the Moon. When the Moon is new they are at their most vulnerable. When the moon is full they are in the same situation as the rest of us. They can change at their will. Well, let me explain what I mean by change at will. When I say that I mean that we can change at any time and it is often related to our state of mind. If we are angry or aroused or extremely excited or scared we will change. This is part of the reason I’m writing this book. I’m trying to help my kind figure out when it’s actually okay to be who we are. I mean when it’s actually okay to show what we are. Anyways, these are the type of lycanthrope that humans are most familiar with they are the ones who are already in the minds of every single person. This is why the Lycans did not associate with them; we were trying to keep ourselves out of the light as much as possible, try to not attract the Hunters.

And finally we have the direwolves. They are simply Lycans who have lost control over their wolves. This usually happens when a lycan allows himself to lose control over his emotions and in the heat of passion commits an atrocious act. There has always been at least one group of direwolves in every era of history. They are the lycanthropes of nightmare and have completely been up to us and the Hunters to handle for the last fifteen thousand years. Ever since Lycaon, the Dires have prowled through the shadows of history and have given us such a bad name.

I must speak of one more group that must be spoken of because they play an important role in our history and to the modern day relations between humans and wolves. The Hunters have existed since Zeus turned Lycaon’s children. They are an organized group of werewolf Hunters that operate in just as much secrecy as the lycans try to. They’ve hunted us for such a long time that it’s been difficult for them to transition into their new role as a Werewolf police force. Slowly they’ve adapted and as such whenever we have any issues it has actually become commonplace to call the Hunters. They have knowledge about werewolf biology and psychology that makes them an invaluable resource when we are tracking a Dire who has made itself overly obvious. This has become work that is tiring.