It was a time of happiness, but it was also a time of fear as the white wolf cubs are born into the Wilds. Animals of all sorts begin streaming into the Wilds; fleeing the violence of the black wolves. Tor and his army have been gone for months checking to see if the rumors of the refugees were true. Were there still black wolves out there? Somewhere in the distance were the Blackstone Mountains. Is that what the wind was telling him, warning him about? Yes, it was speaking to him about things that no animal, wolf, or otherwise could stop. Tor and his army are captured by Warrior and Snuffer, who lived through the avalanche brought on by the oryx during the Blackstone War. Tor is to be executed for stealing the land called the Wilds and killing Deuce and Staver. Khoa sets out to find Tor. While he is gone, his son, Tristian, and Tor’s son, Challenger, are taken hostage along with other animals. Saved from drowning in their cages by a young raccoon, the two pups set out to make it back to the Wilds. Everyone, from Pieces and his ‘wild bunch,’ to the black wolves are in on the search for the stolen cubs. Tristian and Challenger meet friends and foes along their trek across the Black Lake Road. Just as it seems they will make it back to the Wilds, Knox, the beaver, betrays them. As all seems lost, the cubs find an unlikely ally. In an ironic twist, Warrior learns that the white wolves hold his two sons as captives. An arrangement for a trade is made, but the dark wolves bring no white wolf cubs to the exchange; claiming they were taken by a lone black wolf in their camp. By the slip of a slingshot and a single stone, the war begins anew.

From the Battle of Hastings to the Battle of Bosworth Field, Nicholas Vincent tells the story of how Britain was born. When William, Duke of Normandy, killed King Harold and seized the throne of England, England's language, culture, politics and law were transformed. Over the next four hundred years, under royal dynasties that looked principally to France for inspiration and ideas, an English identity was born, based in part upon struggle for control over the other parts of the British Isles (Scotland, Wales and Ireland), in part upon rivalry with the kings of France. From these struggles emerged English law and an English Parliament, the English language, English humour and England's first overseas empires. In this thrilling and accessible account, Nicholas Vincent not only tells the story of the rise and fall of dynasties, but investigates the lives and obsessions of a host of lesser men and women, from archbishops to peasants, and from soldiers to scholars, upon whose enterprise the social and intellectual foundations of Englishness now rest. This the first book in the four volume Brief History of Britain which brings together some of the leading historians to tell our nation's story from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the present-day. Combining the latest research with accessible and entertaining story telling, it is the ideal introduction for students and general readers.