Reverend Blake Hardesty has lived the life of Job. His parents were killed in a fire when he was seven. The aunt who raised him died just before he graduated from the seminary. His wife was killed during a bank robbery only a year ago. And a diagnosis of brain cancer is only the latest in a long line of hardships he’s had to endure. Yet he continues to preach faith in God to a dwindling congregation, sharing his life with his teenage daughter, Bethany, who seems to blame him for her mother’s death. If it weren’t for the angel who protects him from the beast who fills his dreams, he would be completely alone. But when trying to help a disturbed congregant makes him the victim of a vicious attack, he realizes that the angel may not be able to protect him any longer from the beast—the wolf—that is now growing inside him.

Scott Draven has been looking for a higher power all his life. He thought he’d found a path to the Almighty via Bluejay and his followers, and his message of power through cannibalism. With each meal, Draven’s powers grow, changing him into a new being and, he’s convinced, bringing him even closer to God. One more home invasion, one more family on whom to feed, then it will be time for him to move on from Bluejay. But when Scott learns about the man who can change into a beast, he knows he must find him. He is convinced that communion with him will be the final step he needs to find God and gain ultimate power.

When the two finally meet, tragedy pushes Blake over the edge and into the arms of the beast. The werewolf—the lycanthrope—has been in existence for thousands of years, as much a child of God as any human, or any of His creatures. And now, while Blake, in his new form, is intent on using the time he has left to be God’s ultimate warrior against those who prey on the weak and innocent, Scott Draven is more determined than ever to track Blake down, this time to devour him, and make the creature’s power his own. No matter what it takes.