Dawn Chronicles: Legacy - The Lobos Family

Every story needs an antagonist and every hero needs a villain to face.  When I wrote the short story, Twilight, there wasn't originally a dedicated villain.  The story was just about one woman's terrifying encounter with a werewolf and the unexpected ending to that event with the heavy implication that she was now to become one herself.

The Lobos family grew out of that event as the story and its universe expanded.  After I penned the short story sequel to Twilight, Dusk, I began formulating who the primary enemies would be.  Michael was the first since he is the owner of the company where Laurel works at the beginning.  Victor was the next one, whose debut is in Dusk.  Nicholas, Helena, and Luna came later to fill out the current incarnation of the Lobos family.

I had the numbers down.  It was time to figure out what their relationships with each other were.  Michael is the oldest followed by Victor, Nicholas, Helena, and then Luna.  Michael is generally considered the smartest, Victor the most conniving, Nicholas the loose cannon, Helena the smart and beautiful sister, and Luna the baby of the family and the one who needs protecting.  

Michael has a more annihilistic view of the world in that he believes mankind would seek to wipe out all werewolves were they to learn of their existence.  As a guard against that inevitability, he wants to merge the Lobos and Dawn bloodlines and create a potential generation of superwolves.  When Legacy begins, he thinks that Laurel is the last surviving Dawn woman and his last chance to realize his goal.  In early drafts Michael was a somewhat more cut-and-dried villain, but later edits would seek to humanize him a bit more and suggest that although he does a lot of bad things, he may not be all bad.

Whereas Michael has a somewhat "good" intention to his plans, Viktor only desires power and he's willing to do whatever it takes to get it.  He has no problems with undermining Michael or even killing his own siblings if he must.  The power struggle between the two isn't something explored much in Legacy, but it is something that I touched on somewhat in previous drafts.

Luna was an interesting character to write because she doesn't technically start the story as an antagonist.  At the beginning, she's just caught in the middle of the conflict between Michael and Laurel.  She puts her life at risk to save Laurel during a scene in the first half of the book.  However, her own feelings of jealousy and her inability to cope with them ultimately lead her down a dark path.

Dawn Chronicles: Legacy is available here in both printed and Kindle formats!