[1] The setting for The Gathering is a small medical-research town called Salmon Creek on Vancouver Island.

Serena, captain of Salmon Creek High swim team, drowned in the lake, and Maya is guiltridden for not being able to save her friend.

One day, when Maya was going over to his house for dinner with him and his childish older sister, Annie, she is attacked by someone looking for Rafe.

He says that Rafe, Maya, and Annie are skinwalkers and that they carry their animal traits with them even in human form.

This explains Maya's enhanced hearing and night vision as well as her amazing skill of rehabilitating injured and sick animals.

He says that their birth mothers were selected to be part of this experiment because of their Native American DNA, but they didn't realize what was going on.

Rafe knows that Annie often runs off after she shifts, but is worried for her safety, especially when the forest catches fire.

Maya, Daniel, and Rafe are in the forest during the fire, and start to run away when they see people.

Daniel's asks Rafe and Maya to lay low because his special danger sense is tingling.

The people would then break into the St. Clouds labs in order to steal the secrets housed there.

The book ends after Maya, Daniel, Nicole, and an unconscious Rafe escape in a helicopter and report what they overheard to town officials.

She attends Salmon Creek High with Daniel and her only pet is her German Shepherd, Kenjii who was given to Maya to protect her from wild predators.

She also meets her biological father, Calvin Antone, a Nast employee who tries to capture her and her friends.

She and Rafe end up breaking up in the book as she realizes she is truly in love with Daniel, as they finally kiss and start dating in the epilogue.

His facial features and his lack of Texan drawl makes her think that he is Native American.

His good looks, mysterious "bad-boy" reputation, and the fact he is the only new guy makes him popular with girls.

However, at the end, Maya realizes the real reason Rafe was hiding was to protect Annie from the town.

They are reunited in The Rising when Maya is captured, but managed to escape the Nasts facility and get out into the wilderness with Daniel, Corey, Hayley, and Ash.

However, after they go to the new Salmon Creek, Rafe decides to break off their relationship to give Maya time to figure out where her heart truly lies.

His two older brothers eventually went off to college and are not around to help defend Daniel against his alcoholic father's verbal abuses.

He was grief-stricken after Serena's death, but during the novel, Maya learns that he is ready to move on and maybe even start a new relationship.

As events start to unfold, we learn that Daniel gets certain feelings and can sense danger when it's not obvious.

Nicole is described to have a pixie face, blue eyes, blond hair, ad she's about 5'1".

She was the one who roofied Maya at her party the night she kissed Rafe, and she was the one who drowned Serena because she wanted Daniel.

The entire town thinks they died in a car crash, but they were actually murdered in home invasion during which Sam survived.

In The Rising, Maya meets Sam again after she is captured by the Nasts, and is happy to see her, but doesn't hug her (wisely).

This results in denials and more accusations, until Sam insinuates that Maya had sex with Daniel after the helicopter crash, provoking Nicole into attacking her.

She doesn't manage to escape, but moves into Badger Lake with the Tillson's after Maya, Kit, and Antone broker the deal with the Nasts.

Rafe tells Maya this is because she has caused Hayley to become an outcast from the other Salmon Creek kids because she stole her test when they were younger.

This relationship is repaired in 'The Calling' as she willingly is captured to save Corey, Sam, Daniel and Maya.