The Wolves of Mercy Falls 3
Maggie Stiefvater
Shelby finds a human girl in the woods that smells like a wolf. She smells other humans approaching and as the girl starts to get up from the ground, she starts smelling more like a human. She kills the girl.
Grace wakes up naked and lost in the woods near some houses. She had taken some trash from one of them while she was a wolf. Her human memories start to return and she thinks of Sam. She steals a dress off of a clothes line and shoes from a porch and starts heading for Mercy Falls.
Isabel is expecting a fight at her parents’ house, but is surprised to find them in a good mood. Her father tells her that Congressman Marshall Landy, one of his old school buddies, is coming over to try to figure out how to get rid of the wolves. Isabel calls Beck’s house to warn Sam but gets Cole instead. He hangs up on her.
Grace goes into a bait shop to use the phone. While waiting she overhears the owner and the guy whose trash she ripped open talking Tom Culpeper taking care of the wolves. She calls Sam to come pick her up and decides to wait outside. By the time Sam arrives, she has already shifted back into a wolf, and her instincts won’t allow her to show herself to Sam as she hides in the bushes.
Cole is working on catching a wolf to work on his theories about shifting. He is constantly calling Isabel and leaving long winded voicemails.
Sam goes home to find something to drug and trap Grace with. However, what he finds is that the house is a mess and Cole is in wolf form having a seizure. He calls Isabel for help and when she arrives, she is already on the phone with her vet, who helps end the seizure. Cole shifts back and Isabel, looking at the needle beside him, is pissed that he tried to kill himself. Cole tries to explain that he is trying to find a cure, but Isabel doesn’t believe him and leaves. She starts driving and it takes a while for her to notice the cop behind her. After seeing her name, he lets her off with a warning.
Isabel tells Sam about her father’s plan to have sharpshooters in a helicopter kill the wolves. Sam warns Isabel that Cole isn’t good for anyone until he gets himself sorted out. Cole starts journaling his experiments.
The pack is helping Grace learn how to be a wolf while the shun Shelby from the group. Eventually, she shifts back in Isabel’s back yard and goes inside. Isabel calls to inform Sam. Grace starts to shift back just as Isabel’s parents arrive, and Isabel is forced to lock her friend in a room so that her parents won’t see. Her parents are furious with her for not picking up her phone, which is typical behavior for her. They tell her that a girl was killed in the woods and they were worried that it was her. Isabel asks her dad to look at her car to give Grace a chance to escape, but Grace already left out the window.
Sam remembers Beck comforting him as a child. He told him to take all of his unhappy memories and put them in little boxes in his head and forget about them. Same and Cole bond over music until Isabel call to tell them that there is a story about the wolves on the news. Sam starts longing for a normal life with Grace, remembering their time together.
Grace shift again during a thunderstorm. Shelby starts to approach her and Grace runs. She sees the shed in the distance and starts heading that way but falls into what she thinks must be a lake. She tries to get out, but is unable to before she shifts, becoming completely helpless.
Sam takes Cole to work with him on the day he sees Amy, Grace’s mom, outside of the store. He follows her to her studio to tell her that Grace is alive, which she already knew because of Isabel. Amy admits that what Sam and Grace have is real and that Grace is nothing like her. She invites Sam into the studio. She explains that she thought that she was being a good parent by giving Grace freedom because hers were too strict. Amy also tells him that Lewis, Grace’s dad, thinks that Sam killed her. Last, she asks Sam to tell Grace that she loves her. Sam doesn’t believe it and thinks that she would stop loving Grace if she knew the truth.
Isabel comes into the book store while Sam is away. Cole is angry that Isabel didn’t return any of his calls. Isabel explains that she is angry because Cole is toxic and could drag her down with him. Cole, once again, explains that he is trying to find a cure, not kill himself. They are still arguing when Tom calls Isabel and tells her how their hunt got approved because of the girl’s recent death. Sam walks in and they update him. He wants to get the wolves out of the woods and Cole says that he can help with that.
Sam and Cole go to check the traps that Cole has set up for the wolves. Sam has a memory of Shelby in human form torturing a bird. They find Grace in a sinkhole, barely hanging onto life. Sam jumps in to keep her head above water and to hand her up to Cole. By the time Sam gets settled, Cole is already off to the shed to find something to help get Grace out of the hole. He ends up settling on two plastic tubs and a towel. Cole ends up jumping into the sink hole to stack the tubs on top of each other. They all end up getting out before Cole can shift.
Isabel agrees to dinner with her parents at a cheesy Italian restaurant they used to frequent. They are meeting people there that are responsible for getting the wolf hunt approved. She gets a text from Sam letting her know that they found Grace. Isabel sneaks off to the bathroom and starts crying, realizing that her life is falling apart. The whole thing reminds her of Jack and she realizes that she will never have what Sam and Grace have. Her mom comes in and takes her home, abandoning the rest of the party. On the way home, they stop to see if a car on the side of the road needs medical help. Officer Heifort is there with a man who shot a coyote thinking it was a wolf (people aren’t supposed to do anything before the ariel assult). Isabel’s mom tells her that they are thinking of moving back to California.
Grace wakes up in the bathroom at Sam’s house and finds clothes, food, and a note waiting for her. She finds Cole first, who is using Beck’s notes to try to figure out how to cure the wolves. Eventually, she finds Sam. They decide to go for a drive to see the Northern Lights. Grace wants assurance from Sam that they will get married and stop living in sin. Later that night while Grace is sleeping, Sam starts playing his guitar and works up the courage to stand in the bathtub while playing.
Cole, Sam, and Grace wake up in the middle of the night to find raccoons in the garage. Cole explains that the wolves moved from Wyoming to Minnesota, lead by a woman named Hannah, who was able to retain more human thoughts while in wolf form. Cole continues to tell them what he has learned from Beck’s journal, which upsets Sam because he realizes that he didn’t know too much. Cole tells Sam that he might be able to make Beck human for a small amount of time. Sam agrees to let him try. Isabel calls to tell Grace the dead girl they found in the woods was Olivia.
Cole calls Isabel to ask for her credit card to buy traps. Isabel asks if she’s lovable and Cole kisses her. She gives him the credit card. When alone again, he starts thinking about his band mates. He ends up calling Jeremy, who already knows that he’s not coming home.
Before work, Sam buys a dress for Grace. When he gets into the store, his boss, Karyn, offers him a raise and a full time position. Officer Keonig comes in to take him into the station for questioning. At the station, Heifort accusing him (without saying it) of putting Olivia in a place to be killed by the wolves. Keonig doesn’t seem to think that Sam is guilty. Tom is in the lobby and outright accuses Beck and Sam. On the ride back to the store, Keonig has confirmed what he already suspected about the wolves and offers them a good piece of land that he inherited.
Grace calls Isabel to see what needs to be done for her to graduate from high school. When Sam comes home, he tells her about Koenig’s plan. She agrees to check out the land and talk to her parents. They have sex.
Cole finds the right combination to make himself shift and tries to keep his human thoughts while he is a wolf. He ends up getting into a fight with Shelby, who refuses to back down until the rest of the pack comes to drag her away from Cole.
Isabel drops off the items that she ordered for Cole. He shows her his “lab” in the kitchen and asks her to help him get better equipment. She agrees to take him to the clinic. They start dancing and she realizes that they are addicted to each other. Later, at the clinic, Cole looks at his blood under a microscope and sees that the wolf is like malaria, not curable, but treatable. Isabel’s mom comes in and finds them hiding under the desk. They laugh as Cole runs his toy mustang up and down Isabel’s arm.
Sam and Grace convince Rachel that Grace is alive and well and tell her the entire truth.
Isabel is waiting in line to talk to a teacher about Grace graduating. Rachel is in line behind her, which worries Isabel that Rachel will spill the beans on the wolf secret. After a few jabs back and forth, they start to like each other.
While Sam and Cole are out getting milk for Grace, they run into John. He makes a big scene about Sam killing his sister and Grace. Sam dodges a punch before Cole defuses the situation. Back in the car, Cole tells Sam that he is the one that needs to lead the wolves.
Sam and Grace go with Keonig to check out his peninsula. When they arrive, Grace receives a call from Jeremy, telling her to have Cole listen to the radio because he just gave him the best present. Grace, not admitting that she knows Cole, passes on the message. Cole listens and finds out that Jeremy told the radio station that he is back from overseas rehab, but wants to be left alone for now. Sam and Grace agree that the land is perfect for the wolves.
Cole calls Sam to let him know that he caught Beck. Sam goes through his memory of Chinese Day (an invented holiday to get the kids out of the house while Beck mourned his wife). Sam changes his mind about Beck being human again, but Cole injects him anyway. Sam is torn between relief and anger when Beck becomes human. Beck apologies and tries to give Sam his last bit of fatherly advice. They make up and Beck agrees to try a cure if they find one before he shifts back.
Grace takes Rachel with her to see her parents. Lewis immediately starts yelling and Grace gives him two options. He doesn’t accept either, but Amy comes up with a decent compromise that Grace agrees to think about. On her way back to Sam’s, she shifts. Rachel calls Sam to let him know what happened.
Sam wakes up to a call from Keonig informing him that the hunt has been moved up to that morning at dawn. Cole calls Isabel to tell her to have her father stop it, but she knows that it is pointless to try to convince him. By the time she realizes that she has to try something, her father is already gone.
Sam and Cole come up with a plan: turn Sam into a wolf, have him find Grace and the others, and meet Cole back at the lake. They accomplish this, but have some trouble and have to leave the car behind. Cole runs along the side of the road, shooting images to Sam, who leads the wolves while Grace herds the pack. They make it to a clearing and that is when the helicopter finds them. Shelby starts picking a fight with Beck. Sam goes back to help, but it is too late and Beck is shot and killed. Sam continues to fight with Shelby while Grace takes the lead. Cole injects himself to become a wolf and saves Sam and both he and Shelby are shot. Isabel arrives and drives into the clearing to stop the shooting. This allows them to get the rest of the wolves to safety.
Sam and Grace go back to look for the wolf bodies, but find that Cole is missing. He hid in the bushes until he was healed. He calls Isabel and they make up. She tells him that she is moving to California and not to loose her number.
After Grace turns 18, she tells her parents that she is going to Norway with Rachel, though she is really staying in at the Lodge on the peninsula with Same. She decides to try the cure when the winter rolls around again.