The Night of the Pack is the novel's central turning point, the moment when Nightbitch's suspicion that she is becoming a dog — a suspicion she had voiced to her husband only to be met with laughter — is violently confirmed. The event unfolds in the small hours after she has sent her very first note to Wanda White, the shadowy academic whose work on magical women has consumed her thoughts. So profound is her relief at having unburdened herself that she falls into the deepest, most restful sleep she has experienced in years, only to be dragged back to consciousness by something scratching and snarling outside her bedroom window. She wakes to the sound of wet snouts huffing, bodies gurgling and tonguing, a frenzy of movement among and over one another — impatient, anxious, on edge, and waiting. Her first thought is a haze of profanity; her second is protective. She touches the boy's chest as he snores softly beside her, then rises and throws on sweats.