Lycanthrope

Weres or lycanthropes are humans who can shapeshift between human and animal form. Some have a tertiary form of a humanoid creature as well. They are traditionally night hunters and will consume the flesh of humans by preference. They are grouped with vampire legends as some lore cites vampires as the progenitors of lycans and grant lycanthropes special awareness of vampires.

Werewolves have a secondary form of a wolf and usually hunt in organized familial packs. They are vulnerable to silver and the only known way to kill a werewolf is a silver bullet to the head or heart. Repeated injury with silver weapons causes intense pain and often slows their reactions, allowing hunters to get close enough for the fatal shot.

Werewolves are born, not created. Most werewolves born are female and will take human lovers to increase their pack size. Bites from werewolves, even in human form, are easily infected and often become gangrenous even with advanced medical care, sometimes resulting in the loss of limbs or death.

There are tales of other lycanthropic forms including were-bears, were-cats and were-coyotes, but very few of these have enough substantial proof or lore record to merit consideration. Most sightings are found to be exceptionally large werewolves or another form of shape changer altogether.

Rougarou or loup-garou are the French Catholic, French Canadian and Cajun werewolves which frequent the Louisiana area and parts of Quebec. Very similar in behavior and patterns as the European werewolves, rougarou are humans who transform into humanoid wolves. French Catholic tradition says to ignore Lent for seven years will turn one into a rougarou, but there’s little evidence to support this.

Hunters have learned that rougarou tend to surface for 101 days, then vanish again regardless of the lunar cycles. Lore states that on the last day of the curse, it passes from human to human via a bite and then the rougarou returns to human form in a weakened state. It can live dormant in a human for decades before surfacing again, often in conjunction with the eating of raw meat or tasting human blood. As a result, the curse can also be passed from mother to child during childbirth and it runs in families in this way.

Note: There is a related condition article here which sets down the information we have gathered from some of the friendly familial packs.
Notable packs:

• Houghton Werewolf Pack, Joseph and Benni Katz
• Poughkeepsie Werewolf Pack, Benni Katz
• Cooper Family, central VA, Charles Cooper
• Denver Werewolf Pack, Dom Blum

• Atlanta Werewolf Pack
• Denver Werewolf Pack
• Houghton Werewolf Pack
• Poughkeepsie Werewolf Pack
• Rochester Werewolf Pack