Elena Antonov Michaels, the only known female werewolf and lover to the Werewolf Packs bodyguard. Clayton Danvers is her partner/husband/mate, with whom she has two children (twins) Logan and Katherine. Elena currently lives in Bear Valley, New York, and is the current North American Werewolf Pack Alpha. She is described as "slender, tall, with a 'werewolves typically athletic build.' She is about 5 feet 10 inches in height with blue eyes and white-blonde hair that is mid-back length."
Katherine Danvers (Daughter)
Logan Danvers (Son)
Natalya Antonov (Mother) ✝
Jeremy Danvers (Father-in-Law)
Characterization
Appearance
"There stood the world's only female werewolf, a title that sounds more like it should describe a circus freak show than the blond woman in the doorway. Tall and lean, Elena Michaels had a werewolf's typically athletic build and the kind of wholesome good looks that cause men to say things like 'wow, if she dolled herself up, she could be a knockout'. Those who dared say such things, though, were more likely to find themselves knocked out. 'Today Elena wore a T-shirt, cutoff jean shorts and sneakers, with her long silver-blond hair tied back in an elastic band and maybe, just maybe, lip gloss ... and looked a helluva lot better than I did after hours of grooming."
- Paige, from Industrial Magic
"She tilted her head, nose scrunching just barely. A smattering of freckles dotted that nose, invisible to anyone more than a few feet away. I don't know why I noticed that, like I don't know why, in that moment as she tried to figure out what I meant, I noticed everything else about her—that she was tall, only an inch or two shorter than me with a lean, athletic build, that she wore little or no makeup and smelled only of soap, a clean tang that I found myself committing to memory."
- Clay, from Beginnings:
Personality
Elena is a very tough woman with a high temper. She does not let guys believe they can outrun her. She knows her place and protects it with very high dignity. She is very protective of her mate Clay.
Otherworld Series
Elena's parents died when she was five years of age, in a car accident which Elena survived. After spending some time in a children's home she was taken in by the first couple who had seen her, who quickly returned her. As a young child, the couples who picked her assumed she was a well behaved, pretty child, only to find that she would sit silent and still during the day, and then throw tantrums until dawn.
So she went from one foster home to the next. As she grew, it was no longer the wives who picked Elena but the husbands. She became the "favored choice for male predators", apparently because of her vulnerability. Rather than escaping, she stayed and survived. Studying hard, Elena made the honors list, which the way "out" of her situation, in her mind.
Eventually Elena ended up at the University of Toronto, where she was studying to become a journalist. It was there that she met Clayton Danvers, who was a professor in Anthropology. After she worked for him and moved onto dating him for some time, Clayton proposed to Elena and she accepted. When he took her back to his home to meet his adoptive father, Clayton bit Elena, thus revealing to her that he was a werewolf.
Jeremy Danvers, previous Alpha of the Werewolf Pack, cared for Elena while she went through the changes to become a werewolf. He banished Clayton from the Pack. A year later Jeremy allowed Clay to return, at Elena's request. For years Elena and Clay had an unstable relationship, as she fought for security with herself and him.
Beginnings
Here we are shown how Elena and Clay meet, fall in love, and when he bites her.
Elena is a student at the University of Toronto with Clayton there as a professor. After hiring Elena as s teacher's aid, the two grow closer and closer together, which leads to them falling in love. While Clay takes her to meet his family after they become engaged, he does not tell her that he is a werewolf.
While at Stonehaven, while Elena is talking with Jeremy, Clay comes into the room as a wolf, and gently nips her hand. After Jeremy banishes Clayton for infecting Elena, he begins taking care of her.
Becoming
A free online graphic novella, which tells the story of Elena's "becoming" a werewolf—the period from the time Clay bites her through her escape to Toronto.
Truth and Consequences
The events which led to Elena leaving the Pack, and moving to Toronto. Jose Carter had been going around trying to give out information on werewolves existence. Elena kills him to protect the pack without a thought, and then feels guilt rush upon her. Unable to face what she did, she runs away and returns to her home town, Toronto.
Truth and Consequences was published in the February 1996 edition of Lost Worlds, a sci-fi and fantasy magazine out of North Carolina.
Bitten
In Bitten Elena is living in Toronto, Ontario in the human world, and claiming to no longer be with the Pack. She lives in an apartment with her human boyfriend, Philip and works as a journalist. However when the Pack summons her back to Stonehaven, Elena reluctantly travels to New York to see what they want.
There the pack fights for survival when attacked by a group of Mutts, who are being led by an angry former member of the Pack, Daniel.
In the end Elena realizes that Stonehaven is her home, and that she loves Clayton. Which she had been fighting for several years. After the death of two pack members, as well as the deaths of the attacking Mutts, Elena decides to stay with her pack, and with Clay.
Stolen
The story begins with Elena travelling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to follow up a lead the Pack have come across on believe.com which purports to be able to prove the existence of werewolves. However, when she meets her contact, a young witch named Paige Winterbourne, she has information that Elena finds extremely disturbing. Not only does she claim to know about werewolves, but more specifically about her. It is clear that the posting on the website was a lure designed to bring Elena to Pittsburgh because of problems other supernaturals have been having with a group headed by Ty Winsloe. Elena is skeptical, having given no credence up to this point that other supernatural beings such as witches and vampires could exist. The claims of Paige and her mother, Ruth, sound like conspiracy theories that Elena finds hard to believe.
Unable to sleep, she goes out that night for a run, but is followed by a stalker with military training. Elena evades him only to discover that he has colleagues and that they are trying to capture not only herself, but also the Winterbournes. In the fight, Elena kills one of the men, Mark, and the three women find themselves confronting a half-demon able to teleport whom Elena nicknames 'Houdini', who works for Tyrone Winsloe. Ruth casts a spell which traps him temporarily and the three women make their escape.
Elena calls Jeremy and, the next morning, the two of them attend a meeting of the Inter-racial Council. There they are told about a shaman who had been kidnapped and taken away from his home in Virginia to a compound run by Tyrone Winsloe and Lawrence Matasumi. With his abilities of Astral projection, the shaman is able to not only determine that he is not the only captive, but also to contact the shaman on the Inter-racial Council, Kenneth.
Following the discussion about how to handle matters, Jeremy declines to return to the meeting after dinner. His priority is first and foremost to the Pack and its safety. Whilst he is prepared to join forces with the Council if necessary, it is only a temporary measure as the Pack has always fought its own battles.
That night Clay arrives. The three werewolves are attacked by men working for Winsloe, but they are all killed. The Pack are suspicious because the only people who knew they were in the area where the members of the Council. So, the following day, when they arrive at the meeting, they do so with the head of one of the men in a bag. They decline any offer to align themselves with the Council and leave.
On the way back, Elena is kidnapped and taken to the compound. There she becomes involved with many of the other residents, being 'befriended' by Leah and Sondra, as well as helping Doctor Carmichael in the infirmary. She discovers Ruth has also been kidnapped. The witch is particularly interested in another prisoner, Savannah Levine. However, 'poltergeist activity', that many of those in the compound associate with Savannah, plays a role in the death of Ruth.
Sondra Bauer becomes obsessed with turning herself into a werewolf and injects herself with some of Elena's saliva. Her body reacts as if she has been bitten, and she is taken to the infirmary. While there, Bauer kills Carmichael and Elena is forced to sedate her. Bauer is transferred to the cell beside Elena's.
Tyrone Winsloe takes an interest in Elena, wanting her to wear skimpy clothing as well as watch, and participate in, his 'hunts'. Prisoners such as Patrick Lake and Armen Haig are killed during these and it becomes clear that Elena is next. Winsloe brings her photographs that he claims are of Clay and that Clay is now dead.
An apparent system malfunction provides the opportunity for Elena, Sondra, Leah and Savannah to attempt escape. Bauer loses control and is killed by the guards. Leah and Savannah get left behind when an elevator door closes on Elena. She makes a run for it, Changing into a wolf, and is chased by dogs. Clay finds her and takes her back to Jeremy and the others who are in New Bruswick, Canada.
After telling her story, the group devise a plan to free the others from the compound and to put a stop to Ty Winsloe and his associates. Clay, Paige, Adam and Elena enter the compound first. They kill the dogs and disable the vehicles before entering the building itself. Tucker and the guards are killed or disabled before they enter the cell block. There they find Savannah. Curtis Zaid is revealed to be Isaac Katzen when he attacks Paige and the others. Katzen is killed. Leah is shown to be the one really responsible for the poltergeist activity. She attempts to snatch Savannah, but is prevented and escapes. Clay and Elena track Winsloe and kill him.
Dime Store Magic
Elena is only briefly seen in Dime Store Magic, when she calls on Paige after seeing the news.
Industrial Magic
Concerned about Savannah, Paige and Lucas arrange for her to stay with the werewolves Clayton and Elena. While they investigate the murders of cabal children. At first Elena and Clay, along with Savannah, drive around. However they return to Miami when Paige fails to make her daily check in call.
Elena ends up finding Paige and Lucas, after they return to the living world, having fallen through a portal leading them into the after life. They end up staying and helping catch the vampire who had been killing the children.
Broken
In this story the half-demon Xavier calls in a favor - steal Jack the Ripper's From Hell letter away from a Toronto collector who had himself stolen it from the British police files. It seems simple, but in the process Elena accidentally triggers a spell placed on the letter which opens a portal into the nether regions of Victorian London. With thieving vampires, killer rats and unstoppable zombies on the loose, Elena and the Pack must find a way to close the portal before it is too late. To add to the confusion, Elena herself is pregnant with Clay's child (actually twins).
The story begins with Elena worrying about her current pregnancy. She has concerns about what effect her werewolf nature will have on the unborn child, something with no recorded precedent in Pack knowledge. Clay and Jeremy, also concerned, have imposed a number of restrictions on her actions too, which Elena accepts but is also frustrated by. She is, therefore, not entirely displeased to hear from Xavier Reese who offers her a deal: he will hand over information about a rogue mutt the Pack have been seeking in exchange for the Pack's help in stealing an artefact from a sorcerer - the From Hell letter.
The deal is agreed to and, after the mutt has been dealt with, Jeremy steals the letter. As they leave, however, Clay squashes a mosquito and smears Elena's blood on the document. This activates an inter-dimensional portal, which releases individuals previously entrapped there during the Victorian era. Now zombies, these track Elena, putting her and her unborn offspring at risk.
Attempting to rescue her, the Pack kill these zombies, but to their shock they keep returning. In addition, cholera has infected the Toronto water-supply and the city's rats have become diseased and aggressive. Modern individuals disappear through the portal by accident, whilst murders take place that lead them to suspect that they have released Jack the ripper himself upon an unsuspecting public.
During their fight with Jack the Ripper and his zombies, Clayton is scratched by said zombies, thus infecting his arm. While they did manage to removed the infected areas, Clay is left at a disadvantage with his injured arm.
In the end they defeated the zombies and killed Jack. With help from other pack members, Jaime Vegas, and a vampire named Zoe.
At the end of the novel Elena gives birth to twins, whom they named Kate (after Paige), and Logan, after a pack brother who had been murdered in Bitten. They are the first children to have been born to two werewolf parents. Making them the first known true werewolves.
No Humans Involved
Elena is only mentioned in No Humans Involved, when Jeremy informs Jaime that she had suggested they talk to True News reporter, Hope Adams.
Stalked
Stalked is a short story featured in the book titled My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon. While Jeremy watched over the twins, Elena and Clay go on a honeymoon, even though they are not officially married as of yet. Both notice a male werewolf stalking them. However, neither of them informs the other that they know they are being followed.
Personal Demon
Elena is mentioned twice in Personal Demon. Once when Lucas calls to ask Clayton a question, she is heard in the background. Then again when Karl mentions that Elena has the best sense of smell, no matter which form she is in.
Checkmate
While Jeremy watched over the twins, Clay and Elena go after a murderous mutt. This short story was featured in the magazine, SpectraPulse.
Frostbitten
When word comes of a series of humans apparently killed by wolves near Anchorage, Elena and Clay are sent to check things out. But they find more than they bargained for among the snow and trees of the savage Alaskan wilderness.
Appearances
Elena is the narrator for four of the novels in the Women of the Otherworld Series. She makes brief appearances in Dime Store Magic, Industrial Magic, No Humans Involved, and Personal Demon. She narrated Frostbitten, Broken, Stolen and Bitten.
Elena's Twitter
In preparation of Frostbitten, author Kelley Armstrong set up a twitter for Elena. You can find Elena's twitter [here].
Bitten (TV Series)
Laura Vandervoort is Elena Michaels.
In Bitten we see not only the pack having to defend itself in an attack from the mutts, but also watch Elena struggle with trying to have a normal life in Toronto with boyfriend Philip McAdams while trying to deny her life back at Stonehaven with former lover Clayton Danvers. Unlike the books, Elena is a photographer
Season One
Season 1 premiered on January 13, 2014 and ran through April 5, 2014. The first season consisted of 13 episodes. It appeared on the Canadian Space network and the American SyFy network. The series can now be viewed in full on Netfilx.
Season Two
The series was picked up for a second season.