Sangay Glass's Blog - Posts Tagged "wolves"

Jessie devoted her life to studying wolves, advocating for their protection, and understanding their place in the wild.

But somewhere along the way, she made a choice—one that blurred the lines between conservation and control, which she justified as a necessary evil.

Now she’s dead by the hands of her research partner, Noah—murdered over something she can’t even remember.

But death is not the end. It’s just the beginning.

As Jessie haunts Noah while he makes his way back to civilization, her presence lingers like a shadow, her memories fragmented, her truth unraveling one agonizing step at a time.

What was once a fight for wildlife has become a battle for redemption, and as the wilderness closes in, she begins to change—mentally, spiritually… and perhaps even physically.

Is she merely a ghost clinging to the man who ended her life, or is she something more? Something primal, something ancient—something that was always waiting inside her, just beneath the surface?

We Were Meant to be Wolves - is a psychological thriller that explores morality, obsession, and the thin, fragile line between protector and predator. If you love eerie, atmospheric stories like The Snow Child, where reality bends under the weight of something greater, this is for you.

The wild doesn’t forgive. And neither does she.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, check out my wilderness psycho-thriller Ledge Pond

We Were Meant to Be Wolves
Wolves don’t second-guess.
They don’t beg the forest to love them.
They live as they are—rough, graceful, necessary.
They carry no shame for the hunt,
no guilt for the kill.
And yet, they love fiercely,
mourn their dead,
and move like ghosts stitched into the land.
When I watch them, I remember:
The world doesn’t need us to be perfect.
It needs us to belong.
To find our place in the rhythm of things—
not above it, not apart from it,
but within it.
We were meant to be wild,
to feel the wind and not apologize,
to run toward what matters,
and let the rest fall away.
—Jess Taylor

Coming This Summer:

Jess Taylor's body lies rotting in the woods.

The man who killed her is still alive—and she’s still standing right beside him.

Ten years after surviving a wolf encounter that claimed her sister’s life, wildlife ecologist Jess returns to the field to study a newly discovered breeding pair in the Adirondacks.

But when she crosses the line between conservation and control, she pays for it—with her body and soul.
Now back from the dead—she’s disoriented, untethered, and not entirely human.

To uncover what happened, Jess must confront the research, the bribes, the betrayals… and the man who couldn’t save her—or stop her.

The Adirondack wilderness may not offer redemption.

But it just might spark an evolution.

This theme runs deep in We Were Meant to Be Wolves, a story rooted in real-world conservation, identity, and the blurry lines between what we love and what we fear.

If you’ve ever worked in rescue or fallen in love with something untamable—you’ll feel this one in your bones.

by Wildlife Ecologist, Jess Taylor, FMC of We Were Meant to Be Wolves

Not all women want drama. The bruises masked as passion. Storms disguised as love.

Some of us just want a safe place to pitch a tent before the weather turns.

If you've read some of Sangay's wilderness thrillers and have a sudden desire to go camping in rough country while the sky’s turning, here’s what I’ve learned (usually the hard way):

Avoid low ground. It might feel sheltered, but water will pool there when the rain hits. Flash floods don’t care about your sleeping bag.

Don’t camp under dead limbs. “Widowmakers,” we call them. They look solid—until the wind picks up. Look up before you lie down.

Watch the tree line. That open view might be pretty, but it also means exposure. Wind rips harder across clearings. Find a break in the trees.

Stake low, tight, and angled. Your tent should hug the earth, not fight the storm. Stakes at 45 degrees, rain fly taut, guy lines anchored.

Trust your gut. If the spot feels wrong, even if it checks the boxes—move. Animals trust instinct. We should, too.

In the end I didn’t need much. Just a dry place. Warmth.
No more lies. No more danger. Just enough trust to close my eyes.

And I definitely didn’t want a man to hurt me.

I wanted someone who checks for widowmakers before me sits down beside me, like Tucker.

Wait. No. I remember now. Don't trust Tucker.

Coming the Summer

We Were Meant to Be Wolves is an eco-thriller with a supernatural twist, rooted in real-world conservation, identity, and the blurry lines between what we love and what we fear.

If you’ve ever worked in rescue or fallen in love with something untamable—you’ll feel this one in your bones.

Need a wilderness hit. Read the TWs and check out a different kind of Adirondack thriller:Ledge Pond

Coexistence has teeth—but it doesn’t have to bite.

It means facing the mess, not romanticizing the wolf or villainizing the rancher.

It means tools, not slogans. Compensation that comes with proof. Deterrents that work, not just look good on paper.

If you love wolves, fight for a world where they’re not just surviving in safe zones, but living in working landscapes.

That takes more than passion—it takes patience.

And compromise. Showing up when it’s inconvenient.

That’s the kind of love that keeps wolves on the ground, not just in our dreams.

Jess Taylor, We Were Meant to Be Wolves coming this summer.

Not that long ago—just over a century—these woods were stripped bare. The trees here built cities like New York, Albany, and Buffalo. What’s wilderness now was once cleared to the stone. Only the least accessible places stayed untouched. The rest? Clearcut, churned, and eroded to bedrock.

When the country began waking up to the value of wild spaces—when science and health movements pushed for cleaner air, protected land, and something like ecological harmony—the Adirondacks were a wreck. But people came anyway, drawn by the scars and the silence.

Early hikers followed rock. Trails formed not by design but by necessity—stone ridgelines, logging scars, deer paths. Over time, dirt settled. Trees returned. But with bedrock so close to the surface, their roots had no choice but to grow outward—across trails, over rock, twisted like veins.

That’s why Adirondack trails are brutal. No switchbacks. No smoothing for comfort. Just roots, stone, and mud that shift beneath your boots. Hiking here isn’t easy. But it’s honest.

This place rebuilt itself with time and breath. And if you pay attention, the trails will show you exactly what that kind of recovery looks like.

You're not walking a trail. You're walking through recovery.

- Jess Taylor We Were Meant to be Wolves, an Adirondack eco-thriller coming this summer.

That tree growing out of stone? The fox shivering through a snowstorm?

They don’t need our sympathy.

They’re not suffering. They’re adapting. Thriving, even.

Life out here isn’t a guarantee. It’s a negotiation. A battle. A gift you earn with every breath.

No one out here expects to be saved.

But if you’re lucky, you learn to respect the will it takes to keep going.

The struggle. The silence. The glory of staying alive.
That’s not weakness. That’s the wild.

Jess Taylor, We Were Meant to Be Wolves, an eco-thriller coming this summer.

For over a century, wolves were absent from the Adirondacks, driven out by bullets and bounties, forgotten by the forests, and replaced by silence. But in We Weren’t Meant to Be Wolves, they return quietly, defiantly, as if they never left.

This isn’t just a story about conservation. It’s about the places inside us that go wild when we’re pushed too far. About the myths we inherit and the ones we become.

Jess Taylor thought she was going back into the field to observe a breeding pair of wolves. What she didn’t expect was a reckoning, with nature, memory, and the consequences of control disguised as care.

This book is for readers who love psychological thrillers laced with folklore, dark humor, and the ache of becoming something new. The wolves are back. But they’re not the only ones.

Follow me read all about it July 25th!

We love wolves when they’re printed on T-shirts or howling at the moon in pixel-perfect documentaries. But real conservation is messy. It’s blood in the snow and lawsuits in the courts. It’s science colliding with politics, tradition, and fear.

Wolves aren’t just apex predators. They’re flashpoints. Talk about bringing them back, and you’ll hear cheers, threats, and sighs of exhaustion, all from people who love the land.

In the U.S., wolf conservation isn’t about saving a species. It’s about deciding who gets to define balance: ranchers trying to protect their livelihood, activists chasing rewilding dreams, scientists crunching data, and Indigenous communities whose voices often get pushed aside despite sometimes having ancestral knowledge of ecosystem balance.

We Weren’t Meant to Be Wolves lives in that discomfort. The wolves in the novel aren’t just animals, they’re symbols of everything we want to control, fix, or pretend we understand. And Jess Taylor, like many in the real world, is caught between love, guilt, and the need to do something.

Because that’s the truth no one wants to admit about conservation. Sometimes you do the right thing, and it still feels wrong.

Set in the remote Adirondacks, where wolves have returned after a century-long absence, We Weren’t Meant to Be Wolves is a chilling and darkly humorous story rooted in real-world conservation, identity, and the blurry lines between what we love and what we fear.

We Weren’t Meant to Be Wolves coming July 25th Follow me for updates and giveaways.

This is a love story of remarkable transformation of fear turned to trust, and of a life made worthy of the respected title: ambassador. You can watch the YouTube video here

I worked in domestic-bred wolf and wolfdog rescue, socializing and training the animals to improve their chances of rehoming.

Maggie and her sister were found in a fenced-off crawlspace beneath a porch. The owner was hoarding exotic animals. The sisters were about a year old, intended for breeding. When authorities arrived, their initial solution was to euthanize everything. Fearing the animals, they believed the most efficient method was to shoot them.

Thanks to a quick-thinking team, the sisters were pulled to safety, but with nowhere to go. Eventually, they made their way to our rescue. They were terrified. For days, they did nothing but pace, searching for an escape.

Socializing wolfdogs is a slow, delicate process. Wolves are naturally wary of humans, and of anything new. And I mean anything. A fallen tree branch could send one cowering into a corner for hours. But eventually, one of the sisters came around. Maggie.

Once Maggie began to trust, her sister followed. They started making real progress. Unfortunately, Maggie developed a foot issue that required a cast. Since I had dry facilities at home for medical boarding, I took her in.

That’s where she bloomed. She even got bold enough to leap into my car for daily hikes.

But when she returned to the rescue, things took a turn. She and her sister could no longer share a space. Female wolfdogs are prone to same-sex aggression—and they tried to kill each other. Maggie returned to my home, this time to recover from what was nothing short of evisceration.

I already had three female dogs and couldn’t keep her long-term. So began the challenge of finding her a permanent home.

Adopting out a wolfdog is no small feat. First, not every state or county in the US permits them. Then, adopters need serious experience with independent breeds, like huskies. Dogs who only obey when they see the point.

An applicant came along with experience volunteering at a wolfdog sanctuary in California. I’ll admit I was wary. The woman he was a former Playboy model. But we spent hours talking. She built a proper enclosure. We went over every potential issue. I made handling videos, and after months of preparation, Maggie went to her new home.

And to my surprise, I came to genuinely like and respect the adopter. We became friends, bonded by our love for Maggie. As the video she later shared shows, it worked out beautifully.

But not forever.

After several years, Maggie was rehomed again. This time to a California wolfdog sanctuary. Her owner’s husband was called to serve in a state where wolfdogs weren’t legal. It wasn’t a failure. By then, Maggie was transformed. No longer afraid of people, she thrived until her passing a few years ago.

Wolfdogs have earned a bad reputation because people don’t understand them. We cling to the myth of the Big Bad Wolf and label wolfdogs as wild, dangerous creatures.

But Maggie,a high-content wolfdog, was anything but. She offered only trust, forgiveness, and respect. And she’s not alone.

True wolfdogs aren’t just wolves acting like dogs. They’re thoughtful, emotionally complex animals who give us chance after chance to prove we’re worthy of their love.

Let’s not let them down. Reject the myths. Learn the truth about both wolves and wolfdogs.

Coming July 25th

Set in the remote Adirondacks, where wolves have returned after a century-long absence, We Weren’t Meant to Be Wolves is a chilling and darkly humorous story rooted in real-world conservation, identity, and the blurry lines between what we love and what we fear.

Jess Taylor grew up wild running traplines with her dad, setting snares, handling “nuisance” animals, and selling parts and pelts, sometimes under the table, sometimes outright illegally. But somewhere along the line, something shifted.

She was done with killing.

So she took a different path. Jess became a wildlife biologist, chasing the holy grail she once believed impossible: coexistence in the wilderness she still called home.

Let’s talk about the uncomfortable truth behind predator control, cultural inheritance, and what it means to grow up in a world where killing animals is a way of life—and then choose to protect them instead. Jess’s story isn’t just fiction. It echoes countless real-world stories of trappers turned trackers, hunters turned healers. Can both be true? Can both be right?

Set in the remote Adirondacks, where wolves have returned after a century-long absence, We Weren’t Meant to Be Wolves is a chilling and darkly humorous story rooted in real-world conservation, identity, and the blurry lines between what we love and what we fear.