The Wolfen (1978), the debut novel by Whitley Strieber, tells the story of two police detectives in New York City who, while investigating the violent deaths of two policemen in a junk yard, discover that a pack of intelligent and savage wolf-like creatures are stalking the city. These predators are not werewolves, as they are a separate race of intelligent beings descended from wolves that live secretly alongside mankind. The Native American tribes of the northeast, having known of their existence for centuries, refer to the Wolfen as the true First Nation ("they might be gods"). The Wolfen turned the decaying ghettos into their new feeding grounds, hunting the abandoned of humanity; the homeless, drug abusers, outcasts; those that will not be missed. They quickly kill any who learn of their existence. What is unique about this novel is that some of the story is told from the point of view of the Wolfen-pack Alpha.
A film adaptation directed by Michael Wadleigh and starring Albert Finney, was released in 1981.
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