In the days before metal weapons, when spears and arrows were being tipped with pieces of sharpened stone, the world was divided into Sun People and Moon People. The Sun people domesticate animals, the Moon people hunt them. And the Sun people fear and hate the Moon people, because they can turn into wolves.

Main character Netya lives in a Sun People village. She sneaks out one night to see her boyfriend and they interrupt a raiding party intent on stealing some of the village sheep. There is a scuffle and the Moon People take Netya prisoner.

Khelt is the alpha of the title – the leader of his particular village. He is handsome, single, and all the village women want a hunk of that good boy. His second in command and best friend Caspian is also hot, single, and has a big cupid target on his back. They both want Netya, but which one should she choose.

There is a lot of sex in this book – the Moon People have pretty open ideas about sex. They also are entirely accepting of gay sex, which Netya appears to have never heard of in the Sun People village. (I have to admit I find that pretty unlikely, unless she is especially sheltered.)

Netya making an enemy of Vaya ends up driving a lot of the plot – the choices Vaya makes are what leads to Netya choosing the role of Seer over hunter, and also eventually lead to alerting the Sun People to the existence of the shifter village. One of the things I find interesting about the character of Vaya is that she is very much a woman inhabiting a male role – not only does she have to do all the things the men do, but she has to do them the way that the men do. I think that has a lot to do with how posturing and combative she is. Adel talks about how Khelt prides himself on how free his people are, but she correctly points out that there are still certain expectations put on women that limit their lives.

One of the very first things I want to know when I read anything about shape-shifters is what happens to the clothes? When Dracula turns into a cloud of bats, do all of the bats have itty bitty capes and monocles? Well King answers that question directly, they consciously draw their clothes into their fur. Personally I think that’s cheating. Give me people waking up naked except for the shredded remnants of a t-shirt around their neck because they forgot to disrobe before swapping bodies.

I also kinda feel like having werewolves be a separate species and an infection is cheating. But I guess I’ve already read one series recently where humans were changed into fae, so why the heck not.