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In Cry Wolf and Hunting Ground, readers got to watch as Charles Cornick and Anna Latham developed their relationship and worked to help Anna become comfortable with her Omega wolf abilities. Both of these books hinted at what had happened to Anna in Chicago and how they had met. Alpha and Omega is the story of how Anna and Charles met and how his brother wolf decided this was his mate and then had to wait until Charles, his human half, agreed and did something about it. Not to mention the need to sort out the Chicago pack Anna belonged to.

More Patricia Briggs: Alpha and Omega: * Cry Wolf * Hunting Ground * Alpha and Omega Mercy Thompson: * Moon Called * Blood Bound * Iron Kissed * Bone Crossed

Anna had been a werewolf for four years. It was not something she asked for, she was hunted and turned against her will. Once turned, she was told she was a submissive and then beaten, raped, and bilked for money. Thinking that this was normal behavior for dominant wolves to submissive ones, she just tried to live without being noticed by the pack members. That was until she saw a newspaper article about a missing boy and his murdered and mauled girlfriend. She recognized the boy. While she wouldn't call the Marrok's number, the American leader of all the werewolves, to complain about her treatment by the pack leader, she had to tell the Marrok about the boy's forced change and disappearance. Naturally, the Marrok sent his enforcer, Charles, to look into the problem, and to keep Anna alive.

The points of view alternate between Anna and Charles. This technique allows the reader to glimpse the thoughts and feeling of each of these main characters while following the action, since they are both key to the uncovering of what's happening in this Chicago pack and bringing it to light.

Prior to Cry Wolf and Hunting Ground, Charles had been a minor character, more talked about than seen in the Mercy Thompson series. So, while this novella gives us some of the backstory of the initial meeting between Anna and Charles, it also gives us some insight into the motivations, beliefs, and character of these two people.

If you're a fan of the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha and Omega series of books, you're really going to want to pick up this novella in order to fill in the backstory of their meeting and to get a better handle on these two characters. This is probably especially important if the Alpha and Omega books continue to follow their storyline.