Seventeen-year-old Caleb O'Connor is a werewolf, but he doesn't really believe in magic. He breaks out of his reclusive magical community in Maine to go to MIT, hoping he will fit in in a technological world where no one believes in monsters. He's drawn back to Maine when, one fateful weekend, his three best friends break into an abandoned mansion. One of them, Rene, dies there. A second, Toby, is put on trial for his life by the magical community. His crime? Caleb never finds out for sure... except that somehow his friends have let loose something much worse than any of them could have imagined.

When Toby is executed, Caleb vows revenge: on the wizards, but also on whatever it is that escaped from the abandoned mansion. The problem is, he's not even sure exactly what that is. He has rejected magic his whole life--but now, in order to avenge his friends, he will have to become a better student of magic than he ever was of science.

His opportunity comes in the form of one of his own professors, who admits that for many years he has worked for an "agency" that rids academia of vampires. He invites Caleb to castle in Romania for the summer, where the local proprietor will teach him magic in exchange for help driving the Undead from his family home.

Caleb's summer vacation ends up lasting nine years. Along with learning how to harvest the magical powers of the elements, stars, and planets, he also leads a pack of Romanian werewolves and raises a "cub" as his own son. Along the way he learns about loyalty and betrayal, and about the complexities of the balance between man, beast and monster. When his old mentors from Maine come to ask for his help, he is no longer sure who is on his side.

The first book, Only the Moon Howls, follows Caleb's adventures in Romania. In the second book, we find out what has been happening in Maine all these years, and whether anyone will be able to stop what was let loose so long ago. Caleb's adopted werewolf son, now a teenager, demonstrates the magic he has learned when he joins the battle. In the final volume of the trilogy, we learn of the ties between the vampires in Romania and Maine, and the history that led to the danger in the abandoned mansion.

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