Tera West is a lupine theriomorph. She first appears in Fool Moon.
Description[]
And that’s when I saw the difference between Tera and the Alphas, Tera and Denton’s Hexenwulfen, even Tera and the loup-garou. Where they were fast, Tera was fast and graceful. Where they were quick, Tera was quick and elegant. She made them look like amateurs. She was something more primal, more in tune with the wild than they would ever be.— Harry Dresden on Tera West[1]
Tera West was the fiancée of Harley MacFinn. She can change forms between human and wolf.[2]
Harry Dresden is unable to Soulgaze her. He concludes that she is not human, and therefore she is not a werewolf.[3] Tera West 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.[4]
West is a striking woman with shaggy, dark brown hair with flecks of grey. When in her human form, West is described as having, "brilliant, feral, amber eyes" and her skin is "a uniform shade of brown". In wolf form, Tera West 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.[5] She is a great timber wolf.[Footnote 1][6]
Biography[]
Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don’t-even-blink wench.— Dresden grumbling to himself about Tera[4]
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..[6]
In Summer Knight, Joseph Listens-to-Wind informed Dresden that West sent him her respects.[7]
In the series[]
Fool Moon[]
- Main article: Fool Moon
In Fool Moon, Tera West follows Karrin Murphy and Harry Dresden in a car.[8] 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 Dresden down in the dark but doesn't hurt him.[9]
West "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.[2] After Dresden got rest and the bullet out West took Dresden to Wolf Lake Park where they found McFinn and he answered some questions. Murphy and her team closed in on them and McFinn, West and Dresden split up.[10]
They didn't show up at the meeting place. After Dresden called Susan Rodriguez to pick him up, West arrived. She told Dresden that the cops took McFinn into custody. Susan picked them up and took them to Harry Dresden's apartment. West created a distraction for the cops watching Dresden's apartment so that the can get in to get some necessary items to break into the police station to stop McFinn.[11]
Susan and West pick up Dresden from the police station after McFinn in Loup-garou form went on a murderous rage killing several people.[12] While unconscious, Dresden's inner-self, his "double", asked why he's trusting West—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 Dresden the whole truth. Dresden's double thinks that West did some of the killings.[13]
West and the Alphas help Dresden to escape the Streetwolves and Marcone at the Full Moon Garage. West told Dresden 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.[14] She brought Dresden to the van where Susan was waiting. They drove to Georgia's parent's home as a safe place.[4]
West and the Alphas go with John Marcone's estate to stop McFinn, Marcone and the FBI hexenwolves.[15] At the end, Dresden finally figures out what West is.[6]
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.[7]
Notes[]
References[]
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 32
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fool Moon, ch. 13
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 14
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Fool Moon, ch. 26
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 24
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Fool Moon, ch. 34
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Summer Knight, ch. 4
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 4
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 5
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 14-15
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 16
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 20-21
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 20
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 24-5
- ↑ Fool Moon, ch. 27-33