Bitten (II of IV)

Bitten (Women of the Otherworld, Book 1)

A wolf’s-eye view

I also wish the author had done a bit of research on both logic in particular, and wolf behavior in general. For example, Elena comments more than once about how any truly horrible acts performed by werewolves are emotionally due to their human parts — because wolves would never be such monsters. Yet the Pack’s enforcer, legendary for having tortured and dissected the last intruder on the Pack’s territory, is consistently described as being more wolf than human.

I can understand the author having werewolves be less worried about morality than humans. However, deliberate torture in order to terrify others is, both in real life and by the author’s definition, a horribly human trait. Wouldn’t it make more sense, both logically and wolf-behaviorally speaking, for the more human werewolves to be responsible for the more reprehensible acts the Pack feels it must perform?

And what about canid sexual behavior? True wolf behavior would have the Alpha making Elena his lover — since in a real wolf pack only the Alpha breeds. Yet it is the Alpha’s son, the Pack enforcer, who is Elena’s lover. How is the supposedly most wolfishly-behaving werewolf getting away with being the sole mate of the only female werewolf, and yet not fighting to become the Pack’s Alpha?

Further, there’s plenty of sexual behavior in the book, and Elena mentions several time she has no intention of ever having children. However, there’s no mention of her being sterile, nor of birth control. How is she managing this? For that matter, I find myself wondering — what’s the point of her being the only female werewolf in the world, aside from creating a bit more sexual tension? Why is this so important that it’s part of the story background? Unfortunately this is never satisfactorily explained.

Ultimately I suspect this confusing and nonsensical mish-mash of human and wolf behavior is just the author desperately trying to add romantic tension to the story. It is the wolfish enforcer, after all, who is Elena’s now-and-former lover. He’s also the one who decided without her knowledge or permission that she’d make a nifty werewolf, and so bit her against his Alpha’s direct orders; who insists on referring to her constantly as his “darling” and wife — because he bit her, therefore she’s ‘his’; and who has a wall of his bedroom plastered with photos of her, rather like some sickly obsessive shrine to a stalking victim.

Why she doesn’t permanently flee this emotionally damaged man is beyond me. This sort of obsessive behavior is well beyond “sexual-tension-inducing plot point” and unpleasantly probing into “deeply disturbed.”