Zhuikov is an award-winning writer and poet in Duluth, Minn. specializing in environmental and medical topics. In her eco-mystic romance novel Eye of the Wolf, she explores the population issues facing the wolves on Isle Royale National Park, a remote island in Lake Superior. Due to isolation and inbreeding, the wolves are dying out. The alpha wolves of the island’s largest pack know what will save their pack — they must escape from the island, mix their blood with other wolves — and the only way to do this is by boat. Of course, wolves can’t run boats, but people can. How can the wolves communicate this to the humans? The alphas know a way, and lure key humans into supernatural bondage as werewolves. But these aren’t just any old werewolves. Zhuikov bases their actions on documented wolf behavior and biology. Will the wolves escape? Will they survive? Zhuikov found out about the plight of the real wolves in Isle Royale National Park while working there two summers during college in the mid-1980s. “Unfortunately, the wolves are currently in trouble on the island again,” she said. “Their population is down to one pack with only one breeding female, so even though it took me awhile to write the book, the topic is very timely.”