Having reading the short story introduction to Anna's story, I have to say that even my love for Mercy's books did not have me convinced. Far from it. 
 After reading it, I had no intention on reading on, but after going through Mercy's last adventures, I was in serious need of Briggs's werewolves story and Cry Wolf was already on my shelf so I decided go pick it up after all. 
 One thing you can't deny about Patricia Briggs' work is the care in building her supernatural world. It's well crafted and compelling. And I'd totally see as real if you had to sell me one supernatural world. Anyway, I started Cry Wolf mostly to go back to the world I just left, but I was going with huge apprehension about Anna and Charles. 
 The Omega wolf concept is, once again, bringing yet another layer to the world but I was put off by Anna's introduction and behavior (Charles' too) in the short story. What happened to her character is totally horrible and I thought it to be both over dramatic and worrying about who Anna was going to be as a character. 
 And yet, I quite enjoyed Cry Wolf. I though the development of what it meant to be an Omega wolf was shown to us pretty well and Anna will definitely thrive more in an adequate environment. 
 That the story's happening in the Marrok's pack doesn't hurt. 
 We get to see upclose some of the already known character, it's such a pleasure, but we also meet new ones. You'd think Pack is Pack but I think Brigg is doing a great job differiencing the different packs. The dynamics are not the same, even if posed on the same model so you don't get exactly the same. 
 It feels obvious when you think pack in comparison to us humans family. Everybody has (some kind, if not biological) a family and we all have a general idea of what a family is, but obviously not two families are identical, even if they are based on the same structure. 
 Anyway, what I want to say is that you see the difference thanks to the well crafted characters Briggs gives us. 
 The one part I was not really sold to was Charles and Anna's relationship. I'd say it is pretty much insta love, which is not something I like. Sure I understand that with werevolves it is a little bit different, and to be fair, there is indeed some kind of "magical" explanation to it and the subject is treated in the novel. I guess with the situation they started with, both Charles and Anna are trying to deal with this "insta love" in a way that is not so bad somehow, even if when I think about it, it still makes me feel a little bit unseasy. 
 But I guess if you're reading a book about werewolves that included lots of dominant and submissive tropes and you've assimilated what it includes to be a werewolf, well... You can't really complain if it's done well. Just a little bit too quick for me though... 
 And I think Patricia Briggs does it well. The lines of right and wrongs are very clearly drown in her writing, and I think with the kind of horrible events that happens in her world it is necessary to draw them. After all, our protagonists are the good guys, or at least we can say they try very hard to be. 
 So I will continue this series I thought I would not even read. I'm not squimish but I would recommend in this case to NOT start with the short story, and thus to do start with Cry Wolf, which after all is the first novel (so it sets up and sums up all you need to know) and then maybe if you enjoy it, to later go back to dig into Anna's past.