Characters / How to be a Werewolf

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Malaya

^{Click to see Mal's newest trick}

A human turned werewolf at the young age of 5, who tries to not cause trouble to her family and anyone else.

• Broken Bird: Ever since she scratched her brother in a brief fit of rage when they were kids, Malaya regretted that ever since, developing the fear of her wolfy side harming others, to the point of bottling up her werewolf side when her family is near her (when it's not the full moon). She gets better.
• Character Development: Malaya goes from fearing her werewolf side, only staying at home or her family's cafe to work to a de-facto alpha, willing help others outside of her family and pack as she embraces her werewolf side.
• Foil: To Marin, while Marin believes becoming a werewolf is one of the best things that happened to her life, saving her from a brain tumor, Malaya fears her werewolf side, believing it was the worst thing that has happened to her.
  • To Ginger. Compared to Ginger, where she is just not thrilled over learning things that she didn't have control over, Malaya freaks out over the worry of if she'll rip people in half.
• In a Single Bound: Malaya's unique werewolf trait is her being able to jump large distances. In other words, she can jump good better than the others.

Elias

• Distressed Dude: Gets captured after attempting to save a kidnapped Vincent and gets coated in wolfsbane by Lucas.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Elias usually tends to leap into situations before he thinks. Often times it bites him in the ass as you can see.
• Nice Guy: Elias is very kind and helps out Malaya with her werewolf troubles.
• OOC Is Serious Business: In Chapter 12, Elias reacts strongly to someone coming into the Red Moon Cafe and the following page reveals that it's his father.
• Stalker with a Crush: Lampshaded and Defied. Elias has a obvious crush in Vincent first time he saw him and a few days later when Vincent later sees him in the library in his university, Elias claims it's "Reverse Stalking" by coincidentally being in places he didn't know Vincent would be. As he was actually there doing some research.
• Super-Speed: Elias's unique werewolf trait is being pretty swift on his feet.

Vincent

• Academic Athlete: Studies biology, and plays baseball.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: When he was younger, Malaya found him to be this. Granted she was jealous and he didn't know any better when he threw a block at her when he was 3 years old. Nowadays, they're on better terms but he does like to tease her a bit.
• Big Little Brother: He's taller than his older sister, Malaya. This got Elias confused and to briefly doubt Malaya's word that he's the younger sibling. Aside from the height difference, Vincent also took on a protective and emotionally supportive role for Malaya from childhood on, and while he's proud that she's growing into some confidence and self-reliance now that she has a better grip on her werewolf side, he also admits it's somewhat disorienting to be needed less.
• Big Brother Instinct: Inverted. He's Malaya's younger brother but he is very protective over her.
• Deadpan Snarker: Vincent often delivers these.
  Elias: "...Do you know why your sister is still freaked out about learning to be a werewolf?"
  Vincent: "Well..." (pulls up his shirt a bit to show the scratch scars) "Probably because of these scars."
• Distressed Dude: Gets kidnapped by Connie's werewolves in a attempt to get Malaya to join her pack.
• Not So Stoic: Usually doesn't emote much. However... there are certain points where Vincent visibly reacts. Whenever he does, the creator tends to snark about it.
  Alt Text: "Vincent has added another emotion to his collection."

Marin

A lawyer who was bitten at the age of 25.

• Dark and Troubled Past: Marin was raised in an extremely conservative Christian household, and when she goes to her university's counselor over her having feelings for other girls on campus (she doesn't know what a lesbian is), he reports her to her parents, who promptly disown her and prevent her from speaking to them or her siblings (that she practically raised) ever again. Despite this, she manages to get a full-ride scholarship to a state school to study law and graduates with honors, but is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at the age of 25. Luckily for her, Marisa (who was her caretaker at the time) vouches for her to Sara Ross (the alpha of the Ross pack) to turn Marin into a werewolf to save her life, as even Marisa's magic isn't powerful enough to heal cancer.
• Dumb Blonde: Thoroughly inverted. Marin won a full-ride scholarship to a state school on one semester of education at a Christian university, and graduates with honors. She is a practicing lawyer by the time that the story takes place, and is one of the smarter characters in the main cast.
• Family Theme Naming: The author confirmed that her siblings all have names that start with an M, though Marin has too many siblings for the author to actually name all of them.
• Foil: To Malaya. While Malaya is terrified and believes being bitten was the worst thing that has happened to her in her life, compared to Marin, getting bitten saved her life from a brain tumor and sees it as one of the best things that happened in her life.
• I Have No Daughter!: Marin's parents disowned her shortly after she went to her conservative college counselor about her feelings seeing girls on the campus because she didn't know what a lesbian was. As such, she's not allowed to talk to them or her siblings who she helped raised anymore.
• I Owe You My Life: She owes her alpha, Sara Ross, her life due to saving her life from a brain tumor, which is why she's extremely loyal to the pack. This is also why she's super against Maggie's plan of her leaving the Ross pack and joining Malaya's.
• Lipstick Lesbian: A beautiful, feminine woman with long blonde curls who often wears dresses and skirts. Downplayed in that she's extremely strong and cannot cook.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: She had at least 8 siblings, to the point where the author comments that "[she] has too many siblings for me to give them all names" though she does confirm that all of Marin's siblings names all start with an M. Justified, Marin's family is part of one of the sects of Christianity that encourage having as many children as the woman can physically bear.
• Official Couple: Her and Marisa are engaged.
• Statuesque Stunner: Even when not in werewolf form, Marin is a tall, beautiful lawyer. She's the tallest or second tallest of the main characters, with Elias as her only competition.
• Super-Strength: Marin's unique werewolf trait is added strength.

Marisa

• Casual Danger Dialogue: She freaks out over physical threats about as much as her girlfriend does, despite having far more reason to do so.
• Healing Hands: Her strength in terms of magic is repairing both things and people.
• Official Couple: Her and Marin are engaged.
• Open-Minded Parent: She notes that when she started dating women, her parents just shrugged.
• Rescue Romance: Played with. Marisa asked Sara Ross to change Marin so werewolf healing would rescue her from her brain tumor, but after that, she kept her distance for a while, not wanting Marin to feel indebted to her. Marin didn't care, so they did start dating eventually.

Maria and Elliot

Malaya and Vincent's Parents.

• Good Parents: Oh definitely. When Malaya got bitten they wasted no time heading to the hospital, when her werewolf side first manifested on the following full moon they still remained by Malaya's side by helping her calm her werewolf side near them, they home schooled her, on full moons stay on her side having board game nights and when Malaya accidentally scratched Vincent when they were younger, they didn't yell at Malaya for it since they knew she didn't mean to. Overall, they are very supportive parents who do whatever they can to help their children.

Charlene

• Backup Bluff: Uses base Werewolf 101 knowledge to come up with a impressive bluff to make Aubrey's crew leave, believing they were severally outnumbered and were going to endure consequences if they stayed. And then she pulls this off a second time, when saving Mal and Ginger from Tom's pack.
• Big Damn Heroes: Arrives to Malaya's side with a impressive bluff as she's outnumbered and was about to duke it out with Aubrey and her pack. And then she does it again.
• Familiar: Charlene has a crow familiar named Alphonse.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Downplayed. When she saw the state of Connie's house when started growing foreboding vines, she was one step away from leaving out right. Who can blame her though?
  Charlene: "Nope, nuh-uh. Not today Satan."
• Seers: Claims to have come to Michigan because of visions, also says she can do some Psychometry.

Aubrey

• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Averted. Thomas, after failing to convince Flora to have his pack help with the magic needed for Aubrey's growth in the womb, attacked Flora (look, she was draining him of his magic like a battery) and gave her grave injuries. He then left her for dead; Flora and Tom would never see each other ever again. Tom didn't even think Flora (and the unborn baby) survived.
• Oh, Crap!: Her reaction when she realized that growling at Malaya's face caused her to werewolf out.

Harvey

• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is abrasive but she loves her pack mates very much and is very protective of them.
• Only One Name: Like the other children Connie abducted she has no family name and states that she only remembers an impression of her parents, nothing concrete, though she is certain Harvey was her name from the get go which is more than Ginger has.

Marcus

• Cool Big Bro: Is this to Ginger, as he personally sees her as a younger sister who he only opens up to.
• Only One Name: Like the other children Connie abducted he has no family name and is implied not to remember his family well enough to have any hope of recalling it.

Ginger

• Foil: To Malaya. Compared to Malaya freaking out over accidentally ripping people in half, Ginger is just not thrilled over learning things that she didn't have control over.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Dreams of having a normal life one day as she resents being taken away from the one she doesn't remember.
• Meaningful Name: Ginger is in fact a redhead. Justified, as she doesn't remember her original name before her abduction by Connie as a toddler; this is a replacement name/nickname.
• Only One Name: Ginger doesn't remember her family or name prior to her abduction as a toddler and uses "Ginger" as a name of sorts.
• Take a Third Option: When faced with a dilemma of either picking up only Elias (who's covered in wolfsbane) or only Vincent (which will leave Elias behind), she holds up Vincent (who was holding Elias) can carries him that way.

Tim

Aubrey's pack mate who is the last to be turned werewolf, that only relies on his instincts, where he may not understand any orders he's told. Although only seems to listen to Harvey as he's practically glued to her.

• Furry Reminder: Chases after Marisa's fox illusion and pounces on it.
• Little Bit Beastly: Out of everyone in his pack, he's partially transformed more than the others all the time, due to the transformation juice started to be lacking when he got bit. When he's free from Connie's control, he starts to get better with being less furry.
• Only One Name: Like the other children Connie abducted he has no family name and is implied not to remember his family well enough to have any hope of recalling it.
• When He Smiles: Tim expresses a genuine one on the celebratory page 10 Chapters page. As well as a few in Chapter 11.

Sara

• Badass in Distress: On the same day that Elias got showered in wolfsbane, turns out Sara suffered the same thing. Difference being that while Elias got immediate attention to clean it off and could at least get up and move around after sleeping, Sara's condition went unnoticed for hours, due to living on her own (as her dog Pumpkin was trapped in the backyard) and she slept until the full moon. If Maggie didn't show up to check on her, it's implied she could've died.
• Secret-Keeper: Had to keep some info about the pack away from Elias since he can't lie to save his life. Doubly so since werewolves can sniff out a liar really easily if their facade falters.
• Tough Love: Is pretty hard on Elias at times, especially with him being her right hand man ever since her other children left but she does show that she loves him dearly.

Ziva

^{Click here to see Werewolf Form}

^{Click here to see Full Wolf Form}

Founder and the original alpha of the Ross Pack.

• And I Must Scream: Having someone else control your mind, aka Connie.
• Connected All Along: While under the mind control of Connie, Ziva as it turns out was the werewolf who attacked and turned Malaya.
• Defiant to the End: Charlene explains that Ziva remained with Connie only because she was actually there for Aubrey’s sake, her maternal instincts remaining even in her wolf form and made her want to protect Connie’s daughter. Once she knew she was safe from Connie's hands, she takes advantage of Connie’s weakened state preventing her from brainwashing her again and leaves when Connie lost her grip on them for once and all.
• Suddenly Speaking: As Ziva was walking away after ripping herself free from Connie, Connie called out to her for help, Ziva turns, gives Connie a epic "No." before finally running off to her freedom.

Maggie

• The Plan: Maggie comes up with a plan to make it seem like Sara is losing control of the Ross Pack, where Marisa and Marin break off to join Malaya's Pack. Not everyone likes this plan and she knows it.

Ezra

• The Ghost: Aside from a photo and flashbacks, we haven't seen Ezra in the modern day proper. Justifed, as he moved out to live with their family. He finally makes an (unvoiced) on screen appearance during the Werewolf Council meeting in Chapter 12.

Pattie

• The Ghost: Aside from a photo and flashbacks, we haven't seen Pattie in the modern day proper. Justifed, as she's moved out to study in college.
• Muggle Born of Mages: More so "Human born of Werewolves" as she was born as a human, not a werewolf like her fellow siblings.

• Disappeared Dad: Seems to have left his children's lives after a certain point in time.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Implied, from how he acted around Elias, Malaya and Vincent. In this case, it'd be the "Packmate that Nobody Likes".
• The Ghost: Has sent letters to his family, often times late but has never made a physical appearance. He appears in a brief flashback in a page of Chapter 11. Also appears in the flesh in Chapter 12.
• What Does She See in Him?: Elias outright asks his mother how she can still love him, considering how much of a annoying oblivious asshole his dad acts like.

Thomas

^{Spoiler Thomas 25 years later}

• Ambiguous Situation: What exactly is the deal with Tom’s mental state? It’s all but confirmed that his advanced human age means he’s near the end of his life as a human and thus his wolf side is bleeding into his actions, hence why he keeps showing a lack of patience for the current human based bureaucracy of werewolf pack dynamics and a staunch refusal to accept human social conventions period and live as a wolf full time. At first it even seems that he’s refusing to fully shift because he’s worried he’ll lose control over himself, which even his own pack agree with him on. Yet later on, it’s revealed during a fight with Mayala and Natalie that Tom actually DOES have some level of control over his werewolf form as he can speak in his wolf form and even tries to actively fight everyone around him when he doesn’t get his way. Natalie is rightfully pissed because by revealing this crucial information, he has single-handedly rendered all her efforts to make him and his pack look good moot as he’s proven to be a bad alpha and a bad werewolf.
• Bad Boss: He somehow manages to find the most impractical, aggressive solution to every problem imaginable. He threatens the nearby pack instead of just talking to work territory things out and even sends one of his pack members to attack two other werewolves of the other pack with wolfsbane for plausible deniability. Oh, and he even ignores his pack's inputs and suggestions, including those of his liaison to the werewolf council.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Thomas gets angry when Lucas gets too close to his daughter while she's changing her clothes.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Tom clearly doesn’t like Lucas for a variety of reasons, mainly his past damage with his own ex Flora and just generally not liking that Lucas is dating his daughter Ella, but he still needs Lucas’ magic to keep his pack strong despite these reasons. However, his growing impatience with the bureaucracy of the werewolf council has him lash out at Lucas more and more to the point that he has come close to killing him, something he has vocally admitted that he would like to do. As with many things, this only makes things worse for Tom as this eventually spurs Lucas and Ella to run away back home to Ohio, which of course inevitably causes problems for Tom and his case for getting Cresent Lake back as his territory.
• Domestic Abuse: Since he had the upper hand physically and was easily overpowering Flora's magic, he could've left Flora when she tried to force him to stay due to the pregnancy but instead, he let his anger control him by getting more physical until he caved into his instinct, harming Flora and by extension his unborn baby and leaving both to die. His relationship with Flora was a all-around abusive relationship. Basically, as badly as the breakup went, it's a good thing they broke up for good and all.
• Dirty Coward: Implied. Marisa spitballs that Thomas sent Lucas to do the dirty leg work of starting a territory war by harming Sara and Elias so his pack appears to look clean to get their paperwork approved.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: While his brothers love him, for the most part, Tom isn’t actually liked or respected as the Alpha of his pack, due to his hardcore refusal to listen to others or even accept certain human norms, wanting instead to adopt a full on beast only lifestyle. This brings him more conflict unfortunately as the bureaucracy of current werewolf pack dynamics requires certain human like lifestyles to be adopted to keep the packs safe, and Tom’s total refusal of them means that he would endanger his pack and threat to expose the existence of werewolves to those who shouldn’t know.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Thomas in the past has shown that he let his anger get the better of them when he dealt with Connie for the last time and it still lingers in his old age.
• Meaningful Name: Yardley can mean stick, wood and clearing. Which ties his connection to Cressent Lake being his original territory along with not wanting to get into technology as well as wanting Malaya out of his birthright land when he comes back to reclaim it.
• Never My Fault: Whenever things go wrong as a result of his own actions, Tom never takes responsibility for his part. He instead chooses to lash out and chide everyone else for trying to stick to human conventions, something he seems to deeply despise due to his pride as a werewolf.
• Your Days Are Numbered: It's strongly implied Tom is reaching the end of his human lifespan, appearing visibly older and showing a repeated lack of patience for human convention. This also means that his constant outbursts are a result of his wolf side beginning to overpower what’s left of his humanity and make critical mistakes that do nothing but make Mayala’s case stronger. This however then gets muddled when during his confrontation with Casey where she renounces him as her Alpha, he very clearly tells her to move out of his way, which makes it abundantly clear that he DOES have some control over himself, he just chooses when to utilize it. Natalie even calls him out on this, and his continued display of contradictory behavior fully makes her give up on him and side with Mayala, especially after the later reveals her full wolf form for all to see.

Lucas

• Beware the Silly Ones: Played with. Lucas is introduced as a foreboding silhouette that was following Elias, Vincent and Ginger but when noticed, he seems to be a chill, cool dude but then he pulls out some wolfsbane. And that's not to mention how hours earlier in the same day he somehow got the upper hand on Sara.
• Blow You Away: Lucas's main power seems to be air manipulation. As he can stick onto trees no problem as well as ripping, inhaling and spraying pieces of wolfsbane onto Elias and Sara.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Implied. He claims that he left his family for Ella's pack because his folks were against their relationship.
• Forgetful Jones: Possibly, as when delivering a message from Thomas to Elias, Vincent and Ginger, he forgets a lot of what Thomas said to him but while the tone and the wolfsbane he pulled out was foreboding, Lucas claims the speech had a good ending.
• That Man Is Dead: Downplayed. Lucas's real name is Liam. When confronted by his cousin over the trouble he's caused, Lucas pointedly notes that his name is "Lucas" now, and calls the Yardley Pack his family.

Ella

• Dating What Daddy Hates: Implied, that they're dating and her father seems to dislike Lucas possibly due to his own past abusive relationship with a witch.
• No-Sell: The moment she rejects her father as her alpha, he can no longer enthrall her and she's free to leave the pack.
• The Smart Girl: By virtue of being the only member of the pack with a phone or laptop, she serves as their link to the Council and as a go-between for Natalie Strong and her father. When he decided to throw Lucas out of the pack, she leaves with him to go back to Ohio, causing them to miss an important teleconference.

Isaac

• Mellow Fellow: In stark contrast to his brothers Isaac seems perpetually chill outside of the territorial fights his brother gets him in, doing such things and relaxing and floating on his back in the lake rather than participate in his pack's constant bickering. His reaction to Thomas chasing off Ella and thus ensuring their pack will miss an important meeting with the council is a mild "play stupid games win stupid prizes" instead of the worry and panic the others display.

Irena

• Lethal Chef: Implied. It's a running gag that she brings a potato salad that nobody eats to the Michigan Werewolf potluck every year.
• Never Mess with Granny: An elderly woman who's powerful and respected enough to be the unofficial leader of an entire state's werewolf population.

Natalie

• Expository Hairstyle: Natalie's short haircut with asymmetrical bangs is often associated with 'Karens', stereotypically middle aged white woman whose sense of entitlement leads to them harassing people (often service workers) for things out of their control. Natalie is a middle aged white woman constantly causing bureaucratic problems for Malaya, who works as a coffee shop barista, in order to advance her own political agenda.
• Everyone Has Standards: As much as she wants to spike the Ross pack's influence, she is not impressed by how Tom handles (or rather, fails to handle) the full moon. So not impressed that she officially calls off the alliance and decides to support Malaya instead, because at least Malaya has proper control of her temper and form.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Arguably, the entire Council counts as this, but Natalie is a particularly prominent example, pulling out all sorts of legal shenanigans to make sure the Yardleys get the territory of Crescent Lake. Unfortunately for her, Tom isn't really cooperating.

Connie

• Abusive Parents: Emotionally abuses Aubrey and rest of the kids she turned and kidnapped by using them as Living Batteries.
• Domestic Abuse: Does this to her daughter, the kids she turned and kidnapped and even did this to her ex-boyfriend Thomas, threatening to kill herself (and Aubrey since she was pregnant with her) if Thomas left her, not to mention using him as a magical battery without asking for their entire relationship. Which, considering that she was already making him sick and wanted him to leave his pack and be the sole source of energy for their baby (magically impossible), could have killed him. It was a all-around abusive relationship on both ends.
• Eaten Alive: Mother Nature does this to Connie once she lost control on all of her werewolves.
• I Reject Your Reality: When she gets a read on Connie, Charlene explains that Connie consistently rewrites reality so that things will always work out for her and she's always doing the right thing, and that ironclad laws of magic simply do not apply to her. This has her drowning in magical debt, all because she refused to believe that yes, she really did need a whole pack of werewolves to support her werewolf fetus's need for magic, and no, there was not another good way she would find because she was just so special. (There was another way, but a really really bad way.)
• Narcissist: Word of God mentions how Connie isn't really "evil" being more so self-serving, short-sighted and narcissistic.
• Laser-Guided Karma: She finally gets this once she loses all the werewolves she controlled and meets her end when Mother Nature swallows her whole.
• Meaningful Name: A witch with the last name Greensmith and the original first name Flora has plant-themed magic.
• Parental Favoritism: Connie treats Ginger way better than the other kids, including her biological daughter Aubrey, and gives her the best room in the house.
• Skewed Priorities: Believed that getting pregnant with a werewolf baby was a good idea to keep Thomas around to continue to using him as a battery since she still wanted to be one of the best witches around even though the pregnancy could kill her. Yeah.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: Between Thomas's anger when he lashed out at her, and her own eternally climbing magical debt, the wounds from his claws reopen whenever she runs too low on magic.

• Shipper on Deck: She's very supportive of Vincent and Elli getting together, helps get them alone time together and asks questions that help Vincent understand his budding feelings.