Since she was a small child, Catherine had loved the arctic. There wasn't any reason to be an arctic researcher if you didn't. But humans would always be strangers in the arctic landscape. Ever since the problem of global warming had been solved a few years ago and the arctic returned to its frigidity, it was a hostile climate for humans. Experience was always mediated by thick layers of clothing, by heaters and shelter. Catherine had sometimes envied her sled dogs.
But the huge arctic wolf standing in the shreds of Catherine's clothing was exposed to the arctic cold on all sides, even the naked soles of his feet, and felt thoroughly at home in a way Catherine never had. Should he--he was already thinking of himself as a male--simply accept this gift and live the life of an arctic wolf? Or should he drag the sled, try and complete the original mission, and accept transformation back into Catherine, or at least into a female human? And was that even possible?