Tera West

Tera West was a lupine theriomorph. She first appears in Fool Moon.

Description
Tera West was the fiancée of Harley MacFinn. She can change forms between human and wolf.

Dresden is unable of Soulgazing her. He concludes that she is not human, and therefore she is not a werewolf. Tera advises the Alphas, whom she met via the Northwest Passage Project, and agreed to teach them how to change into a wolf and of the ways of being a wolf.

Tera is a striking woman with shaggy, dark brown hair with flecks of grey. When in her human form, Terra West is described as having, "brilliant, feral, amber eyes" and her skin is "a uniform shade of brown". In wolf form, Tera is a gaunt, dark wolf, as large as Denton's wolf form. She had clean proportions and narrow muzzle. She kept the exact same shade of eye color in both forms. Dresden describes her: "'Where the other wolves were fast, Tera was fast and graceful. Where the others were quick, she was quick and elegant. She made them look like amateurs.'" She is a great timber wolf.

Biography
At the end of Fool Moon, she left civilization for the wilderness. She was implied to be a wolf who could transform into a human, the opposite of a werewolf..

In Summer Knight, Joseph Listens-to-Wind informed Dresden that Tera West sent him her respects.

Fool Moon
In Fool Moon, Tera follows Karrin Murphy and Harry Dresden in a car. Dresden uses her blood to track her to the Alphas in an abandoned department store. He watches as she joins the Alphas, breaking up a tiff between Georgia and Billy. She scents Dresden's presence and gets the kids out. She knocks Harry down in the dark but doesn't hurt him.

Tera "rescued" Dresden from police custody so that he can help Harley MacFinn, trap his beast with a circle. They escaped under fire from Phillip Denton and Deborah Benn, Dresden took a bullet. After Harry got rest and the bullet out Tera took Harry to Wolf Lake Park where they found McFinn and he answered some questions. Murphy and her team closed in on them and McFinn, Tera and Harry split up.

They didn't show up at the meeting place. After Harry called Susan Rodriguez to pick him up, Tera arrived. She told Harry that the cops took McFinn into custody. Susan picked them up and took them to Harry Dresden's apartment. Tera created a distraction for the cops watching Harry's apartment so that the can get in to get some necessary items to break into the police station to stop McFinn.

Susan and Tera pick up Harry from the police station after McFinn in Loup-garou form went on a murderous rage killing several people. While unconscious, Harry's inner-self, his "double", asked why he's trusting Tera—she's not human, she was at the scene of the crime where Spike was torn up, she has a hold on a group of young people, and she is not telling Harry the whole truth. Harry's double thinks that Tera did some of the killings.

Tera and the Alphas help Harry to escape the Streetwolves and Marcone at the Full Moon Garage. Tera told Harry how her blood got at Marcone's restaurant—she was there to stop the pack that harassed her fiancé. Most of those who turn into wolves don't know very much about being a wolf. The children have strong hearts She also said that animals only kill to eat or to protect their territory, not for the joy or lust of it—only humans do that. She brought Harry to the van where Susan was waiting. They drove to Georgia's parent's home as a safe place.

Tera and the Alphas go with Marcone's estate to stop McFinn, Marcone and the FBI Hexenwolves. At the end, Harry finally figures out what Tera West is.

Trivia

 * "Terra" is latin for "land". Her name could be a pun; since MacFinn was developing land in the western United States, and her name might simply come from the fact that she was a wolf in this territory.