Legend & Lore, Volume One — T.T. Kove

Desperate for the approval he hopes it will gain him, Mihai accepts a challenge from his brother: Venture into Fenris Forest, and retrieve a leaf from a rare tree to prove he did it. Though he has been warned to avoid the forest and the monsters that fill it all his life, Mihai's longing for approval trumps his fear. Mihai soon realizes, however, that it is his fear he should have heeded. Just as victory seems within his grasp, he is attacked by warg, the most dangerous beasts in the forest. Alone and helpless, Mihai resigns himself to being just one more person who went into the woods and never came out- ...until he is saved in the most unexpected of ways. ----- Brand is a man adrift: he is wolf shifter and fire mage, a traitor to his people for saving a friend on whom he turned his back long ago, a friend who no longer has need of him. He has no place to call home, no one to call family or friend, and no idea where he belongs. With nothing better to do, he decides to seek out the infamous dragons in the firelands, curious to see if their fires will be hot enough to burn a fire witch, to see if perhaps a place that welcomes fire might have a place for him...