Blood and Chocolate (1997)

Blood and Chocolate is a 1997 paranormal romance novel for young adult readers by Annette Curtis Klause. It is set in the contemporary United States.

The Loups-garoux

In Klause's novel, the loup-garoux are a separate species from humans and wolves, but with elements of both in behavior and anatomy - referring to themselves as Homo lupus. There are two differing accounts of their origins alluded to in the book; some believe they are descended from a prehistoric breed of canine which absorbed protean matter from a meteorite which enabled them to shape-shift into humans, others that they were a tribe of ancient human hunters blessed by the moon goddess Selene. Most loup-garoux follow the latter account and thus worship Selene as their patron and mother.

Loups-garoux are portrayed as glorious beasts who revel in their dual nature, but do not reveal this truth to humans at the risk of violent backlash. In keeping with the traditional werewolf lore, silver is poisonous when introduced into the bloodstream, often proving fatal, and death is a real danger in that "anything that will sever the spine will do".

Loup-garou is the French word for "werewolf". Its plural form is loups-garous. A faux-French plural could be loups-garoux.

Synopsis

Vivian is a sixteen-year-old loup-garoux who has just started high school in a new town, she explains the circumstances that brought her there; formerly, she and her pack lived in another town, the teenage pack members started to become more feral, using their wolf forms to scare humans, one day, a loup-garoux named Axel lost control, killed a human girl and was witnessed changing back from wolf to human form. While Axel was in prison, the other teenage loups-garoux killed another human to make it look like the "real" killer was still on the loose and Axel was released. Vivian's father, the pack leader, killed Axel for endangering the pack, but Vivian pleaded with him to spare the lives of the other teenagers. Not long after, suspicious neighbors set fire to the pack's house. Vivian's father and a few others were killed, and the pack had to relocate.

In the new town,, Vivian has no friends because of her reserved and secretive nature; many girls she attends school with find her intimidating and are jealous of her beauty. However, she is intrigued by a boy named Aiden who has written a poem about werewolves that is surprisingly accurate with regards to their transformation. She at first suspects Aiden might be a werewolf himself, but soon figures out that he is a pure-blooded human. She is still attracted to him and pursues a relationship with him, despite her mother, Esmé's disapproval. Esmé doesn't want Vivian to date a human and fears that Vivian might reveal the secret of the pack.

Meanwhile, the pack is restless in their new location, and the pack's five teenage males - Rafe, Finn, Willem, Ulf and Gregory - are getting out of control. Rafe's father, Lucien, has a drinking problem. To Vivian's embarrassment, her mother and Ulf's mother, Astrid are constantly fighting over a 24-year-old man named Gabriel, even though both women are in their 40s with teenage children. Vivian dislikes Gabriel because he seems the most likely candidate to take over her father's position as alpha male; furthermore, Gabriel is attracted to Vivian and doesn't listen to her rejections. He often visits Esmé's house, but really it is with the intention of seeing Vivian. This seems to drive Vivian closer to Aiden.

When Astrid, Lucien and a few other pack members run around near the suburbs in their wolf skins, it becomes evident that the pack badly needs a leader. Since there is no agreement over who it should be, they decide to elect the leader via Ordeal; a free-for-all brawl where any male who is of age can participate, anyone who has blood drawn is disqualified, and the last two can fight to the death or if one surrenders to the other. Afterwards, the pack females will participate in the Bitch's Dance, a fight to determine who will be the new leader's mate.

Gabriel wins the Ordeal and Astrid instantly attacks Esmé, seemingly with the intent to kill. Without realizing what she's doing, Vivian leaps in to save her mother's life. She seriously wounds Astrid, taking out one of her eyes. After defeating Astrid, Vivian is declared the alpha female and Gabriel's mate; horrified, Vivian runs back to her home, terrified of being both the alpha female and Gabriel's mate. The next day, Gabriel declares that he'll wait as long as Vivian needs, but eventually she'll come around to him. The rest of the pack agrees with Gabriel's assessment.

However, Vivian is stubborn and continues to reject Gabriel while pursuing Aiden with even more effort. Vivian and Aiden are close to the point where they might have sex and she decides she wants him to know the truth about her before they get intimate. She reveals her beast form to Aiden; he crouches in a corner in fear and starts to throw things at her to chase her away. Hurt and afraid of losing her self-control, she jumps out of his window and into the night.

Vivian wakes up in her own bed the next morning, with human blood on her nails and no memory of what happened after revealing herself to Aiden. Later on, she sees a TV news story about a man who has been killed by a "wild animal." Vivian starts experimenting with alcohol and in the following days she tries to get Aiden alone to explain what she is and ease his fears, but he avoids her and uses his human friends as buffers. In an attempt to get Aiden back, she attends a concert that they had planned to attend together, but his friends confront her with the lies that Aiden told them were the reason he broke up with her. Shocked and hurt that he would say such awful things about her, Vivian breaks down, whereupon Gabriel suddenly appears and takes Vivian home. Gabriel tries to comfort her, hinting that he once revealed himself to a human and like her, came to regret it.