Ĝlay first got the idea to bite Elena in a dream. Ĝlay did an optional course in women’s studies in his final year of his undergraduate degree.

They are both in their third year of university but Logan goes to Northwestern. Logan was the first pack member to meet Elena and they are the same age. Ĝlay reads Anthropological Quarterly magazine. She later becomes employed as his TA ($8 per hour, 15 hours per week). Ĝlay and Elena meet when she attends his lectures as a student. His course is Anthropology 258: Ritual and Religion in the Americas. Ĝlay taught his lectures in Sidney Smith Hall at the University of Toronto. Ĝlay’s doctoral thesis was on half-animal, half-human gods in anthropology. We learn that Logan has now been with the pack for three years, meaning the previous story, Birthright was set in 1985.

ğrom the clues in the story, we can tell it is set from September 1988 (Clay goes to watch Die Hard, Crocodile Dundee II, and strangely, She’s Having A Baby at the cinema) to March 1989. The conflict between their growing love and trust in each other against the backdrop of the massive secret Clay can’t share with her, culminates in that visit to Stonehaven, where Elena’s life is changed forever. Elena, a former foster child, now in her third year of studying journalism, is wary – and it is easy to see, from her perspective that Clay shows more than a few ‘red flags’ in his behaviour. After only a few days, he bumps into Elena and is instantly smitten. Now an academic, Clay takes a two-month position at Toronto University to teach anthropology. This is the start of the Otherworld series proper, in my opinion.

I love the story of Clay and Elena’s meeting. Story #8 in my chronological re-read of the Women of the Otherworld series Re-read 1: June 2010 (in Tales of the Otherworld)

Beginnings by Kelley Armstrong