When one of the local girls' first transformation doesn't go right. John thinks they are hiding Ruby, but later finds evidence that she is still around, when he discovers her twin sister's grave.

During what he thinks is a routine traffic stop, Sheriff Donner is shot three times and hangs on the brink of death as Sophia and Sherman try to convince him that he must become a wolf in order to save himself. In an effort to protect John, Ruby reluctantly marries Tyler. In the absence of her father, Willard Cates, whose death is still a mystery, Ruby is walked down the aisle by Sheriff Donner, who has recovered from his gunshot wounds without resorting to changing.