Nat had ventured into the town a few times since their arrival in Temple Gurney, and although he could appreciate it was very old and undeniably pretty, he had not been very impressed by it. On Fridays the market square was transformed by the traveling farmers’ market, but like many rural towns and villages, there wasn’t much to do in Temple Gurney apart from outdoor stuff. Nat had spent most of his time at the beach with Jude, and Granddad had taken them out in his boat, the Diamond Lil, a few times.

The library was a prefabricated building at the end of Main Street, flanked by some large trees, which at least promised shade for Woody.

“I’ll just get whatever information I can on werewolves and Wolven, so we can figure out what to do next,” Nat told Woody, tying his leash to one of the smaller trees. An old man walked by and smiled at Nat, tickled by his assumption that the boy was explaining his book-borrowing plans to his dog.

Inside, the library took on surprisingly large proportions and was blessedly cool after the heat of the pavement. Nat was also surprised to see an impressive rank of computers, almost as many as he had been used to at the library at home in London. He approached the librarian, a cheerful-looking man dressed in brown cords and a shirt and tie topped with a short-sleeved pullover. Nat explained he was new in Temple Gurney and would like to join the library. Coins were exchanged for an hour’s use of the Internet.

He typed “Wolven” into the search engine. Disappointingly, nothing related to a species called Wolven came up, only people and places. He replaced it with “Werewolf.” He wasn’t surprised when it informed him he was at page 1 of 630,000 results. He tried being more specific and typed “Reverse” in front of “Werewolf.” It took forever to load, and he was sure it would come up with nothing.

Then up it popped: Score! Nat scanned the page.

Nat started to read, but it was written in a very dry, academic style, and didn’t once mention Wolven. He caught the eye of the librarian.

“Would it be OK if I printed this for my summer project, please?” he asked.

The librarian peered over his shoulder. “What have we here? Ah … ten pages about lycanthropes?”

Nat felt his cheeks redden. “Er, no. Werewolves, actually.”

“Lycanthropes, theriomorphs, shape-shifters, whatever term you prefer.” The man nodded. “The werewolf is the best known example of lycanthropic behavior, but there are plenty of other forms.”

While Nat waited for the pages to be printed, something caught his eye on the desk.