Marie

Marie, usually called Mai by her oldest friends, is a founding member of the Howlers and the daughter of Kiki Degrace. She begins as a quiet schoolgirl drawn into the gang world through family coercion, but repeatedly refuses the safer position other people choose for her. She trains to fight, asks Olivia to turn her into a werewolf despite the risk, develops from a Protector into a Titan Vanguard, and later leaves Gary Dem's pack by choice so that Kai will not face Alpha instinct alone. As Kai's Luna, she becomes both his supernatural safeguard and one of the Howlers' principal leaders, carrying the organization through the Alphas' disappearance and helping end Unzoku's war.

Biography

A coerced family and the first Howlers

Marie is already beside Kai when the group that becomes the Howlers begins to form. At first she is so reserved that Innu wonders whether she can speak, yet she understands the local gang structure, attends underground fights with Kai, and accepts Gary as the nominal leader while the others are still testing him. Her early place in the group is not an attempt to imitate hardened gangsters. She and her mother are tied to the Underdogs through Simon, Kiki's abusive partner and Marie's father, while Kai—then still known within the family as Kyle—is Simon's much younger half-brother. The later account of their childhood reveals that Marie's proximity to Kai and the gang is rooted in a family trying to survive a coercive organization, not in adolescent thrill-seeking. (Chapters 11, 29–36, and 335–344)

Simon repeatedly forces Kiki back into the relationship by threatening what the Underdogs can do if she leaves. When he finally strikes Marie as well as her mother, Marie is left bruised, frightened, and privately convinced that Kiki might be able to escape if Marie were no longer present. Kai responds by planning to sabotage Simon's work. Marie is afraid of what Simon will do if Kai is caught and initially warns him against treating the danger like a film, but she gives him the apartment address when he insists that he must protect her. That information leads Kai to evidence of Simon's betrayal and then to the catastrophe that kills both Simon and Kai's mother. Damion suppresses the truth, makes Kai the replacement Underdogs heir, and keeps Kiki and Marie within the same coercive family structure. Marie stays beside Kai out of love, dependence, and shared guilt while he turns revenge into the longer project that eventually becomes the Howlers. (Chapters 336–344)

Within the new gang, Marie chooses to become useful rather than remain the person everyone moves out of danger. She trains secretly with Kai, Innu, and Austin, using paired knives to compensate for her smaller body and learning to evade grabs and counter an attack while the opponent is committed. Real violence exposes the gap between drills and killing: against an experienced Cheetah Squad knife fighter, her hands shake and she hesitates until Blake saves her. That failure does not drive her out. She helps the Howlers seize Slough, supports their core operations, and joins the others in asking Gary to pursue the AFA opportunity instead of sacrificing every ordinary ambition to protect them. The Howlers' rise frees Marie and Kiki from the Underdogs' direct control, but it also leaves Marie determined to earn her founding place through more than history. (Chapters 184–246, 301–305, and 354–355)

Choosing the bite and becoming a protector

The Notsburg campaign makes Marie's insecurity acute. Other fighters with Altered bodies can survive threats that nearly kill her, and even an ordinary confrontation on a bus leaves her dependent on an Anti-Altered baton after a boy knocks her down. Kiki reminds her that an organization also needs noncombat work, but Marie does not want a safe supporting job while Gary and Kai take the mortal risks. She therefore goes to Olivia without telling either Alpha. Marie knows they care for her, yet believes that their protectiveness means they will refuse before hearing why she wants the change. Her request is not made in ignorance: Olivia warns that a Beta's bite may not work, cannot be reversed, and would bring hunger, killing impulses, and the full moon into her life. Marie accepts all of those conditions and holds out her arm. (Chapters 469–551 and 581–582)

The conversion is far worse than Marie imagines. Pain continues long enough that Olivia fears she has killed her, and Marie has to remain conscious while her body changes. Once Gary's pack interface confirms that she survived, Marie takes responsibility when Kai arrives furious at Olivia. She physically stands between them and explains that Olivia acted at her request; being protected, she argues, is not the same as being allowed to stand beside the people she loves. Kai finally recognizes that his fear of losing her has kept him from considering her own fear of helplessness. Gary then promotes her and selects the Protector Class, favoring its endurance and healing because it gives Marie the best chance of surviving the danger she has chosen. (Chapters 583–586)

Marie develops the class through the Howlers' expanding wars. She and Olivia train together, with Marie absorbing pressure and creating openings for the faster Hunter. During the Phoenix assault, Marie helps evacuate civilians and later participates in converting volunteers so they can defend Slough. Seeing a failed conversion kill someone makes her freeze when it is her turn to bite Kevin, but Olivia reminds her that the volunteer has accepted the same agency Marie demanded for herself. Marie completes the bite, keeps her eyes open through the risk, and Kevin survives. The episode leaves her more conscious that becoming stronger also means taking responsibility for what her power can do to others. (Chapters 640–681, 745–845, and 875)

Gary's next promotion evolves her Protector Class into Titan Vanguard. Against Raven's Hydra form, she grows to roughly ten metres, catches several heads, withstands bites that barely draw blood, and temporarily shares her reinforced hide, recovery, and strength with nearby werewolves. She organizes those fighters around her so Olivia can attack Raven's central body rather than waste effort on the regenerating heads. Raven's infected power and corrosive blood still overwhelm the pair, establishing that Marie's defence can delay catastrophe and enable allies but cannot make her or the people she supports invulnerable. She survives the collapse, recovers with Olivia, and remains one of the Howlers trusted to fight without Gary present. (Chapters 845–879 and 928–935)

A painful Luna choice and a different kind of pack

When the Howlers learn that Gary needs a Luna, Marie is the most obvious available candidate: she is already a high-grade female werewolf, has been loyal from the beginning, and her Protector progression suits a role built around supporting an Alpha. Gary chooses her after Xin Clove initially asks for time, and Marie accepts while recognizing that the Luna is understood as the Alpha's partner. Xin then states that she does want the role and the life with Gary that it represents. Marie does not obstruct her. She congratulates them, leaves when her composure breaks, and admits to Kai that knowing Gary loves Xin does not make her own feelings stop hurting. Kai gives her a place to grieve without asking her to minimize either her happiness for them or her loss. (Chapters 1148–1155)

Marie removes herself from later choices that might repeat that hurt, but she does not withdraw from the Howlers. She helps monitor Xin's dangerous two-bite conversion, trains with Olivia, and continues acting as a Protector while the group confronts the old pack. The decisive change comes when Unzoku forcibly makes Kai an Alpha. Kai believes that leaving is the only way to keep a full-moon frenzy from turning him against Gary. Marie rejects the idea that separation from Gary's supernatural pack means separation from the family they chose first. She asks Gary to release her, insists that Kai accept her even if he would rather face the danger alone, and defines the Howlers by voluntary loyalty rather than eye colour or Alpha ownership. (Chapters 1170–1202 and 1376–1380)

Gary consents because Marie's presence gives Kai his best chance of returning safely. He removes her from his pack, briefly leaving her an Omega, and Kai accepts her into his own through deliberate touch, will, and words. Kai promises not to recruit anyone else and continues to acknowledge Gary as his Alpha in the personal rather than formal sense. Marie later agrees to become Kai's Luna after he explains that the bond could help both of them survive the full moon and aid the Howlers. They discover that a kiss is not required: holding hands while sharing the intent and words can activate their True Alpha and Luna forms. Marie tests the link with him, brings him back from the first frenzy, and helps devise a deliberately delayed full-moon activation so that Kai's Alpha instinct will carry him toward the battle only when the Howlers need him. (Chapters 1381 and 1446)

The full moon and responsibility without the Alphas

On the full moon, Marie's unrestricted Lunar Sentinel form reveals what Gary's pact prevents Xin from using. Moonlight turns Marie into a towering black-furred Luna protected by ethereal armor; her calm persists where ordinary werewolves lose reason. She kills the Ironfang Ghost, relieves the group he had nearly destroyed, and becomes living evidence that the Luna is meant to counterbalance rather than mirror an Alpha's frenzy. When Kai reaches the main battle, Marie repeatedly tries to intercept or restrain him. His instinct still fixes on rival Alphas, and even her presence cannot simply issue a command that restores his mind, but her armor lets her survive blows meant for more vulnerable allies and remain close enough to act when an opening appears. (Chapters 1440–1441 and 1473–1474)

After Lupus consumes Don, Marie joins the effort to keep the old Alpha away from the exhausted Howlers. Her Luna barriers and reinforced body cannot defeat Lupus, and the conflict becomes a three-way True Alpha battle once Gary and Kai reach their apex forms. Marie and Xin choose to protect the wider battlefield rather than throw themselves between forces that would kill them before they could perform their irreplaceable calming role. When the medallion removes all three Alphas, Marie is left without Kai's scent or presence but does not collapse into searching blindly. She helps Xin subdue the last uncontrolled Ironfang and confronts the surviving old pack from the position of temporary leadership. (Chapters 1506–1514)

The surrendered wolves offer to join the Howlers under a Luna so that neither side has to trust words alone. Marie could perform the transfer, but Kai made her promise not to add members to their two-person pack. She keeps that promise and asks Xin to accept them instead; the ritual requires the target's willingness and therefore cannot simply steal a conscious member from another pack. Marie then arranges accommodation for the former enemy, supports the public claim that the Howlers won decisively, and helps conceal Gary, Kai, and Lupus's disappearance from vampires and Unzoku. What begins as emergency authority becomes a real change in her position: when a decision is needed, the surviving core looks to Marie rather than treating her as the youngest person in the room. (Chapters 1514–1518)

Leading the Howlers through the absence

The Alphas remain missing for two months. Marie helps govern from the Wolf's Pool Club, searches for the medallion through Tom's remaining NIRV contacts, and weighs each promise against the danger of dividing the Howlers' reduced force. When Central City asks them to honor Kai's agreement with Don, she does not simply refuse or empty Slough's defences. She redirects the werewolves previously stationed at AJ Entertainment to hold Central as Howler territory, fulfilling the obligation while keeping support close enough to return. The core accepts the plan without challenge, showing that Marie has grown into the analytical role once associated almost entirely with Kai. (Chapters 1517–1518 and 1582)

After the vampires destroy the Dark Guild and Marcus reports an unfamiliar wolf, Marie helps assess whether the warning is genuine rather than responding from fear. Xin divides the investigation: Marie leads Innu, Austin, and Slit in tracing the new werewolf, while Xin examines a Dark Guild base. Marie keeps Slit and Innu's hostility from breaking the team, accepts information from a former enemy, and uses the Howlers' public authority to force cooperation from local police. Her leadership remains protective rather than passive; she will use the gang's intimidating reputation when needed, but the purpose is to find Unzoku's threat before civilians or the weakened pack pay for it. (Chapters 1722–1733)

Gary, Kai, and Lupus eventually return with the strength and knowledge gained in the other world. Marie does not treat their return as permission to step back into helplessness. She remains Kai's Luna, joins the reunited core in the campaign against the Glutton wolves, and supports Gary's decision to divert part of the force to civilians even when their vampire allies threaten to continue without them. The family she helped hold together is no longer dependent on a single leader being present, which is precisely what lets it survive long enough to face Unzoku as a united group. (Chapters 1735–1740 and 1783–1787)

The last howl and a life beyond the gang

In the final battle, Marie and Xin preserve their strength at the edge of the Alpha clash because only the Lunas can safely recover Kai and Gary from their apex states. Marie wants to intervene when Kai takes the worst punishment, but accepts that acting too early would leave no answer to the later frenzy. When Unzoku exposes both Alphas at once, the Lunas synchronize Aegis Howl so part of his own force reflects back at him. They then combine Silver Eclipse Barriers against Gary's retaliation; the barrier breaks as designed into blinding light, allowing Marie to reach Kai while Xin reaches Gary. Their physical contact drains away the apex energy and restores both men to human form. The choice costs the Howlers their strongest transformations while Unzoku is still standing, but prevents the Alphas from killing one another and makes the final coordinated victory possible. (Chapters 1831–1837)

Unzoku's death ends the compulsory full-moon curse and the old Pack Rules. Marie remains part of Kai's pack and continues training through the peace, but the corpus does not show another postwar Luna transformation. Over the following two years, state power replaces gang rule and Gary and Kai formally disband the Howlers as a gang while preserving its people as a family. Marie and Kai combine their analytical skills in a specialized law firm, exchanging wartime command for work in the new legal order. She later leads Xin's bridesmaids at Gary and Xin's wedding, described as a fellow Luna and constant support—the quiet girl once treated as someone to protect now standing at the front of the family she helped keep alive. (Chapters 1840–1848)

Appearance and personality

Marie is a small young woman whose early size and reserved manner cause strangers to underestimate her. She initially wears the Howlers' black-and-gold clothing, including a skirt, and uses paired weapons to compensate for the reach and raw power of larger opponents. As a baseline werewolf she can transform individual limbs or assume a larger furred form. Titan Vanguard can enlarge that body to roughly ten metres, while Lunar Sentinel gives her black fur, glowing eyes, a tranquil moonlit aura, and thick translucent armor shaped from light rather than metal. (Chapters 29–36, 184–225, 582–585, 876, and 1440–1441)

Her gentleness is genuine but never the same as passivity. Marie is empathetic toward frightened civilians and surrendered enemies, emotionally open with the people she trusts, and more willing than Olivia to question the human cost of a decision. She can also be insecure, jealous, and frightened; her growth comes from acknowledging those emotions and acting deliberately despite them. The same need for agency drives her most dangerous choices—taking Olivia's bite, accepting responsibility for turning volunteers, leaving Gary's pack, and becoming Kai's Luna. (Chapters 581–585, 745, 845, 1148–1155, and 1380–1381)

Marie matures into a calm, practical leader. She listens before dividing limited forces, looks for solutions that satisfy more than one obligation, and is willing to use the Howlers' authority without adopting the cruelty of the people who once controlled her family. Her protective instinct can still make her want to intervene too early when Kai is in danger, but her final discipline lies in waiting for the moment when her support will actually save him. (Chapters 1514–1518, 1582, 1722–1733, and 1831–1834)

Powers and abilities

Marie progresses from an ordinary trained fighter into a Beta werewolf, Protector, Titan Vanguard, and finally Kai's Luna with the Lunar Sentinel form. Gary's system selects and advances her early classes, but Marie herself has no visible system interface; many techniques arrive as instincts rather than written instructions. Her Luna powers depend on her bond with Kai and must be distinguished from her ordinary werewolf and Titan Vanguard capabilities.

Human combat and weapons training

Before becoming a werewolf, Marie trains with paired knives because speed, distance, and cutting power help offset her smaller body. She learns to evade grabs, counter committed attacks, and fight alongside the Howlers, later using spears and Anti-Altered equipment when the situation demands it. Her early hesitation against an experienced knife fighter shows the limit of technical drills without combat confidence, and even after gaining supernatural power she remains most effective as part of a coordinated group rather than as an execution-focused duelist. (Chapters 184–225, 301, 469, and 551–597)

Beta werewolf physiology and pack bond

Olivia creates Marie with a transformed Beta bite. The process is irreversible, carries a risk of failure or death, and gives her the hunger, full-moon pressures, heightened senses, strength, speed, durability, healing, claws, and partial or full transformations associated with a werewolf. Marie survives an unusually long and painful conversion. She can later turn other willing humans through her own bite, although conversion remains dangerous and at least two volunteers die during the Phoenix crisis. Her senses also let her track Alpha presence and recognize when Kai vanishes. (Chapters 582–585, 845, and 1513)

Gary initially controls Marie's formal pack rank and class promotions through pawn points. At Knight Grade he selects Protector; during the Phoenix battle he raises her to Bishop Grade and evolves the class. She later leaves Gary's pack only through Gary's deliberate release, becomes an Omega for a short interval, and enters Kai's pack when he places a hand on her head and sincerely accepts her. These bonds affect instinct and access to Alpha/Luna roles but do not erase choice: Marie changes packs voluntarily, and both Kai and Gary continue to treat the larger Howlers family as more important than the formal division. (Chapters 585, 876, and 1380–1381)

The vow attached to Gary's pack prevents transformation and ordinary werewolf power during the full moon. Moving to Kai's pack frees Marie from that specific restriction but exposes her to the older compulsory transformation and bloodlust that the vow had suppressed. Her Luna state provides an unusual calm under the full moon, yet ordinary Alpha frenzy remains a danger for Kai. After Unzoku's death, the compulsory curse and Pack Rules end. Marie remains Kai's Luna and continues training, although the corpus does not demonstrate her postwar maximum. (Chapters 1334, 1378–1381, 1440–1446, and 1840–1846)

Protector and Titan Vanguard

Protector gives Marie a sturdier body, greater endurance, and faster healing, designed to let her shield pack members with her own body. Gary chooses it because its survival advantages complement rather than replace the weapon skills she already has. Her later Titan Vanguard evolution multiplies those traits: she can expand into a werewolf roughly ten metres tall, stop several of Raven's Hydra heads with minimal displacement, withstand bites that barely pierce her hide, and answer with strength sufficient to throw or smash the heads into the ground. The size and durability are transformational effects, not permanent features of her human body. (Chapters 585, 876–877)

Titan Vanguard also lets Marie temporarily pass aspects of its reinforcement to nearby werewolves. She activates the effect by briefly driving her claws into an ally's back; the target's hide thickens, wounds begin healing, and strength rises. Marie uses the discovery first to save one wolf and then calls the larger group around her so they can survive Raven's concentrated assault and create Olivia's opening. The buff is temporary and does not make its recipients equal to Marie: Raven still injures the gathered wolves, and his later infected form overwhelms both Marie's defence and Olivia's attack. The class is therefore strongest when she can organize people around a defensive objective, not when isolated or forced to absorb unlimited damage. (Chapters 877–879)

Luna bond and Lunar Sentinel

Marie becomes Kai's Luna through their shared will, touch, and spoken intent. Luna form and Lunar Sentinel activate only alongside Kai's True Alpha transformation; holding hands and focusing together proves sufficient, so the bond does not require the kiss Gary and Xin first use. Activation greatly increases both partners' power but pushes Kai toward a feral state. Marie is the intended counterweight: her presence can calm the Alpha, and physical contact can drain the apex energy and return him to human form. This is not instant control. Kai can ignore her and attack rivals during a frenzy, she must get close enough to make contact, and both timing and her own remaining energy matter. True forms also consume finite energy and eventually end if the user is no longer replenishing it through combat. (Chapters 1381, 1441, 1446, 1474, 1518, and 1831–1834)

Lunar Sentinel overlays Marie's Titan Vanguard foundation with moon-derived armor and support magic. Moonforged Body increases durability, regeneration, and resistance under direct moonlight, with damage reduction growing as the full moon approaches. At the full moon, Ghost's claws glance off Marie's ethereal armor, and she defeats him with a blinding, forceful clap followed by a crushing strike. The armor is powerful rather than absolute: Kai's horn can drive into it, Lupus can break through her barriers, and an apex-level opponent can still harm or exhaust her. (Chapters 1337, 1440–1441, 1474, and 1506–1510)

Loyal Fang increases Marie's damage in proportion to the allies nearby, so the class becomes more dangerous when she has more people to protect and loses that scaling in isolation. Her two-person pack initially appears to limit the skill, but the full-moon battle demonstrates that allied Howlers in the area contribute to its practical value. The transformation also radiates a soothing calm felt by wolves outside Kai's pack. The corpus identifies that effect with the Luna's balancing function but does not give it a precise radius or prove that it can by itself end an Alpha's frenzy. (Chapters 1337 and 1440–1441)

Aegis Howl temporarily strengthens nearby allies' defences and reflects a portion of incoming damage at the moment of the howl. It reduces rather than negates the original blow and therefore depends on exact timing. In the final battle, Marie and Xin synchronize howls from different packs when Unzoku attacks both Alphas, creating a feedback effect that sends much of his own force back into him. Silver Eclipse Barrier absorbs physical and energy attacks, then explodes into blinding light when broken. The Lunas combine barriers against Gary's apex strike; they know the shield will fail, use the flash as the intended second effect, and reach their Alphas during the opening. (Chapters 1337 and 1832–1834)

Lunas can also accept willing werewolves into their Alpha's pack through focused touch. The power cannot overwrite a conscious target's refusal, although surrender or coercion can make willingness ethically ambiguous. Marie deliberately does not use it on Lupus's survivors because she promised Kai their pack would not expand; Xin performs the transfers instead. Standard Luna abilities also include Wolf's Song and limited moon-related foresight, but the corpus demonstrates those techniques through other Lunas rather than giving Marie a representative personal use, so her own mastery is not established. (Chapters 1336–1337 and 1514–1516)

Power progression

Relationships

• Kai: Kai grows up beside Marie as both near-contemporary and technically her uncle through their coercive family structure. His attempt to save her helps create the trauma behind the Howlers, while his later protectiveness sometimes denies her agency. Marie repeatedly forces him to listen, joins his pack so he will not face Alpha instinct alone, becomes his Luna, and ultimately co-runs a law firm with him.
• Gary Dem: Marie accepts Gary as the Howlers' leader and develops romantic feelings for him while fighting at his side. Being passed over as his Luna hurts her, but she respects his and Xin's choice. Gary later releases her from his pack because he trusts her judgment and believes she is the person most likely to bring Kai home.
• Olivia: Marie asks Olivia for the unauthorized bite that changes her life. Olivia warns her honestly, stays through the conversion, defends her autonomy, and becomes her principal werewolf mentor. Their Protector–Hunter teamwork grows into a durable friendship.
• Xin Clove: Xin's decision to become Gary's Luna initially wounds Marie, but neither treats the other as a permanent rival. As fellow Lunas they protect the battlefield, settle Lupus's surrender, share leadership during the Alphas' absence, and synchronize their powers against Unzoku. Marie later leads Xin's bridesmaids.
• Kiki Degrace: Marie's mother tries to shield her within an abusive relationship she cannot safely leave. Their shared escape becomes possible through the Howlers, and Kiki's insistence that every kind of work matters helps Marie clarify that what she wants is not status but the strength to stand beside her family.
• Innu and Austin: Both are founding Howlers who grow from training partners into subordinates willing to follow Marie during the leadership vacuum. She trusts their combat strengths while restraining their impulsiveness, and they in turn look to her for decisions when Gary and Kai are absent.
• Lupus: Lupus is initially the Alpha whose pack threatens everyone Marie protects. She cannot overpower him even as a Luna, but helps survive the war, accepts his surrendered people without executing them, and later welcomes his alliance with the reunited Howlers.

Items

• Howlers Crossbow: Marie is the principal named Howlers user of the captured communal crossbows, training for ranged support and deploying electrified bolts during factory and casino operations.
• Howlers wolf masks: Marie wears the black-and-gold wolf-themed mask and uniform used by the founding Howlers to conceal their identities during gang operations. It remains a symbol of the family after their individual identities become widely known.