Shiver

At first, Sam does not stop his pack members from biting Grace, because he understands their hunger. It has been a long, bitter winter with little prey in the woods. However, when Grace looks him in the eye, Sam thinks she is the most beautiful person he has ever seen. He remembers his humanity and rears up against the other wolves, signaling they back off. Since Sam is a powerful member of their pack, the wolves relent.

Although Grace had not expected to see the wolf who rescued her again, he begins to turn up at the edge of the woods bordering her home, as if keeping a watch over Grace. The wolf stays at the perimeter, never venturing close to her, which makes Grace think he is wary of her. Grace wishes she could tell the wolf she is not a threat to him. Over the years Grace picks up a pattern in the wolf’s appearances: He disappears over spring and summer and begins to visit her again in late autumn.

It is summer, and Sam, the golden-eyed wolf, is in his human form, working at a bookstore called the Crooked Shelf, when Grace walks in with her friends Rachel and Olivia. When Sam is human—during spring and summer—he often takes up part-time jobs. Sam instantly recognizes Grace and turns away, fearing Grace may recognize him back from his eyes (Sam’s wolfish golden eyes are not the result of his werewolf transformation; he was born with them). Even as he turns away, part of him wishes Grace would buy a book so he could talk to her. Olivia walks up to the check-out counter with a book and asks Sam if she can photograph him—she likes his unusual eye color. Sam politely declines, saying he believes in the Indigenous American philosophy that photos steal one’s soul. Meanwhile, Grace walks out of the store, oblivious to Sam.

It is only after her schoolmate Jack Culpeper is killed in a wolf attack that Grace begins to suspect that the wolves in the forest are werewolves. In September, the town believes Jack is mauled to death at the edge of Boundary Wood (a part of the forest that surrounds Mercy Falls), but his body is never found. The terrified townspeople insist the wolves need to be driven away or eliminated, which makes Grace anxious as she fears the golden-eyed wolf—whom she thinks of as “[her] wolf”—may become collateral damage.

Grace reflects on the other wolves she has seen in the forest over the years. Since her attack, Grace has been very interested in the pack, an interest she shares with her photographer friend, Olivia, who spends hours in and around the woods, documenting the forest and the wolves. Most of the Mercy Falls wolves are peaceful, but two scare Grace: a white, beautiful she-wolf, and a brindle wolf with a sparse coat—the animal who attacked her the most savagely. Meanwhile, Rachel calls to plan a Christmas trip, but Grace is reluctant as her wolf is always around during Christmas, and she doesn’t want to leave him alone. After Grace’s mother—an artist—retires to her studio, Grace goes to the backyard to leave out some beef for her wolf. She can see him at the edge of the woods, blood around his muzzle. For the first time since her attack, she goes up to the wolf and asks him if he killed Jack Culpeper. As if to express his sadness, the wolf closes his eyes and bows his head in a manner that looks human to Grace. She nuzzles his ruff in sympathy. Just then the white wolf springs on them, ready to attack Grace. Grace’s wolf snarls at her and herds Grace back to her house before bounding away. Grace slides the glass doors shut. Grabbing the beef steak, the white wolf stares at Grace through the glass.

Grace’s father returns from work to announce he’ll be getting Grace a new car to celebrate his promotion. Grace is glad because her current car—a dilapidated Bronco—stalls often. Since her father is so happy, Grace is tempted to share her excitement about meeting the wolf who saved her. However, given the current panic over Jack’s disappearance, Grace knows her father will not understand. Grace’s parents have provided well for her but are always too distracted to pay her real attention. Grace recalls how she got the flu a month after the wolf attack. Her father took her along to run errands and forgot her in the locked car after he returned home. By the time he remembered her, her high fever had turned to hyperthermia. Grace had to be rushed to the hospital. The doctor later told her that the heat should’ve killed her; Grace’s survival was a miracle.

Later that night, Grace hears a tapping sound at her bedroom window. When Grace goes closer to investigate, the white, blue-eyed she-wolf appears on the other side. Instinctively, Grace snarls at the wolf and the animal backs away, though she urinates on the deck to mark her territory. Grace is surprised that she growled at the wolf.

Sam is elated Grace nuzzled him in his wolf-form. He cannot stay away from Grace any longer, even though he fears he might bring danger to her.

In school, a police officer named William Koening is a guest during Life Skills class. Instead of asking him about his profession, Grace’s classmates want to know about Jack Culpeper. The rumor is that Jack’s body has been stolen, which officer Koening reluctantly confirms. When the students suggest the police act against the wolves, Koening says the cops must take a measured approach, since the animal attack was random and unpremeditated. One of Grace’s classmates replies that the attack is not a standalone as Grace, too, was bitten six years ago, but survived. However, Grace and a few other students defend the wolves.

Later, Grace and Olivia notice Jack’s sister, Isabel, looking at them. Isabel and Jack are from one of the wealthiest families in town. While people are upset about Jack, it is also well-known that Jack was a bully. Jack’s father is said to be an unpleasant man who hunts for pleasure and displays animal heads as trophies at his home, so people speculate that Jack is bullied by his father.

Olivia and Grace hang out at Grace’s house after school, where Olivia shows Grace the latest photos she has taken. Grace appears interested in only one picture—Olivia has captured Grace’s wolf. Olivia seems frustrated by Grace’s lack of interest in her work, while Grace feels she cannot connect with Olivia in the absence of Rachel, the glue of their group. Olivia’s handsome older brother John picks her up, flirting with Grace. After they leave, Grace hears a terrible scream from the forest.

Grace thinks the screams sound like Jack Culpeper and follows them into the woods. In the forest, she lets her senses take over and guide her to a spot where she can see three wolves: the white wolf and the pack leader pouncing on a younger male wolf with a bluish-gray coat. Grace can instinctively sense the young male is Jack and calls out to him. The white wolf leaves the male and stares at Grace. Grace looks down to find the pocketknife in her jeans, but by the time she looks up, the three wolves are gone. That night, Grace hears the wolves howl in the forest and cries, because she feels an affinity with them that she cannot express. She cannot sleep till the last wolf falls silent.

The next day Grace shares her suspicions about Jack becoming a werewolf with Olivia. Olivia dismisses Grace’s hypothesis, countering that Grace wants to believe in werewolves because of her years-long obsession with the golden-eyed wolf. Grace wishes the wolf was part-human so he would be in her life. Grace is hurt at Olivia’s dismissal and walks away. Jack’s sister Isabel seeks Grace out and accuses her of defending the wolves to Officer Koening. According to Isabel, it’s easy for Grace to be so objective about the attack since none of her loved ones suffered in it. In any case, she says, Grace’s defense of the wolves did not work, as the police and a group of armed volunteers are hunting the pack today to eliminate them.

Grace heads for the woods to stop the shooting. Spotting Koening by the side of the road, she tells him to call off the hunting party since one of her friends is in the forest. Before Koening can make the call, several shots ring out. Grace runs into the woods.

The hunters surround Sam and his pack, herding them toward the lake so they cannot escape. While the other wolves run off helter-skelter, Sam stays by the shore of the lake.

Grace races toward the men converging at the lake, Koening on her heels. They run into a hunter and ask him to tell the party to pause. Koening tells Grace to go home, offering her an escort. However, she says she can make it back by herself. As Grace approaches her house, she sees a bleeding teenage boy slumped against the back door. Grace knows this is her wolf. Grace drags the boy indoors. He has been shot in the neck. As she tries to staunch the bleeding, he tells her his name is Sam. Sam begs Grace to not let him change back to a wolf and passes out. Grace decides to take Sam to the hospital.

Sam drifts in and out of consciousness, feeling neither human nor wolf. The only thing tethering him to reality is the memory and awareness of Grace.

At the hospital, Grace tells the doctors Sam was accidentally shot by a hunter. The doctors tell Grace that the bullet thankfully only grazed Sam’s neck; he should be fine. Grace stays in Sam’s room, waiting for him to wake up from the sedatives. The attending nurse thinks Grace lied about Sam being shot by someone else. The deep knife-scars on Sam’s wrists suggest he has a history of self-harm. The nurse says he may have tried to hurt himself again. Though Grace is shocked to see the scars, she reiterates her story to the nurse.

Sam wakes up, disoriented. He tells Grace that he always experiences a period of forgetfulness when transforming. Grace wonders what triggered Sam’s change to a human state. Sam says it is easy to stay human when the weather is warm. He quickly shares his story with Grace. Sam cannot remember being bitten by a werewolf, but the painful transformations started when he was seven years old. His ultra-religious parents thought the transformations were the result of a demonic possession. One day, they tried to kill him in the bathtub, cutting his wrists. However, they didn’t know about his body’s ability to heal quickly. Sam survived and ran away, though he still cannot bear to look at a bathtub. His parents are serving life sentences. Grace feels sick Sam had to go through such trauma.

Sam shows Grace that the wound on his neck has healed under the bandage; he wants to make a quick getaway before the doctors see how quickly his body has repaired itself. Grace gets a pair of scrubs for Sam and helps him sneak out of the hospital. She takes him home, knowing her distracted parents will not notice Sam being around. Her parents, back from her mother’s gallery opening, have probably not even registered that she didn’t return from school.