--- title: Twenty Five, a Lycan Found-Family Fantasy for Mature Teens and Adults Drawn from Author Moshea's Years in Group Homes description: Twenty Five follows ten-year-old Jean-Eza and 24 boys in a group home who discover they are a Lycan pack. Author Moshea drew on his own years in group homes. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-10-21T21:18:01.332Z updated: 2026-10-21T21:18:01.346Z canonical: https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/best-werewolf-books-for-adults image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/moshea-twenty-five-hero.webp categories: Fiction, Authors & Writers content_type: Feature region: New York City, New York, United States publication: Rich Books schema_type: Article about: - type: Person name: Moshea description: Moshea is the author of Twenty Five, a Lycan paranormal fantasy about 25 boys in a group home who discover they are a pack. He writes stories about survivors, people who have been overlooked, underestimated or hurt by the world around them and who find their strength by standing together. He drew on his own years in group homes, and on decades spent studying child psychology, fostering children, coaching gymnastics and tutoring. jobTitle: Author --- Twenty Five, a paranormal fantasy by Moshea, is the story of 25 wounded boys in a group home who become the family they never had. Moshea wrote it from his own years in group homes and the experiences of the boys he grew up with. Jean-Eza can feel the emotions of the people around him, and he has a wolf beneath his skin. After a savage beating leaves him hospitalized, the ten-year-old shows his injuries to the media, and the national attention that follows changes the course of his life. He is sent to a group home in a converted school, where he becomes number twenty-five, the boy who completes Unit Five. The other 24 have sensed his pain from miles away. Together they discover that they are Lycans and a pack, and that Jean is a rare alpha. Under the protection of the Bureau of Earth's Lost Lycans, Jean and the other boys are given the chance to heal. As his telepathic abilities and his leadership grow, Jean helps the 24 boys become a united pack, and they learn to trust one another, to create and to stand together. The further they go into the Lycan world, the clearer it becomes that there is more ahead of them than survival. ### Book: Twenty Five *A Found Family Paranormal Fantasy* By Moshea Ten-year-old Jean-Eza can feel the emotions of everyone around him, and he has a wolf beneath his skin. After a savage beating leaves him hospitalized, he shows his injuries to the media, and the national attention that follows changes the course of his life. He is sent to a group home in a converted school, where he becomes number twenty-five, the boy who completes Unit Five. The 24 boys already there have sensed his pain from miles away. Together they discover they are Lycans and a pack, with Jean as a rare alpha. Under the protection of the Bureau of Earth's Lost Lycans, the boys are given the chance to heal, and they learn to trust one another, to create and to stand together. A found-family paranormal fantasy about brotherhood and healing, recommended for mature teen and adult readers. Contains depictions of child abuse and strong language. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HLQT6HSB) ## Moshea's Years in Group Homes and Decades Working With Children "I wrote Twenty Five because of my experiences in group homes as a child and the boys I grew up with," Moshea says. He has spent decades with young people, studying child psychology, fostering children, coaching gymnastics, tutoring and raising a family, and he says that work taught him how children grow, heal and overcome adversity. "Those experiences helped me keep the story emotionally authentic while still embracing the wonder of fantasy," he says. When Jean arrives at the group home, the only counselor he willingly shakes hands with is Mr. Williams, a university student studying child psychology. Where the other counselors see troubled boys, Williams sees children who need understanding. Moshea, who studied child psychology himself, sets the two approaches side by side in the book, and he believes trust, empathy and capable leadership can achieve what punishment and fear cannot. ## Lycan Packs and Alphas in Twenty Five > "The strength of the pack is the alpha. The strength of the alpha is the pack." > — Moshea Jean's brothers follow him because he earns their trust, loyalty and love, not out of fear. In Moshea's idea of an alpha, leadership comes from sacrifice, compassion and the ability to help others become their best selves. Moshea's Lycans are far removed from traditional werewolves. He writes them as intelligent and empathetic, and closely tied to one another through family and community. As Jean and the other boys learn what they are, they are introduced to a hidden world in which Lycans protect Earth and the life on it from threats to the planet's future. ## Found Family Fantasy for Mature Teen and Adult Readers Twenty Five is a paranormal fantasy for mature teen and adult readers about trauma, healing and how a group of survivors becomes a family. Jean-Eza's Lycan awakening starts the story, but most of the book belongs to the pack, 25 boys who learn to trust, protect and believe in one another. "The pack is a thriving family with the power of love that heals both the body and mind," Moshea says. Over the course of the book the boys find strengths they did not know they had, and a sense of belonging they have long gone without. Moshea describes the book as part coming-of-age story, part supernatural adventure and part found-family fantasy, and as a story about hope, brotherhood and finding where you belong. ## Lycan and Found-Family Stories Moshea Recommends Asked which stories he would hand an adult reader, Moshea named four books and a television series. **The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub (1984).** Twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer crosses into a parallel world, the Territories, to save his dying mother, and is joined on the road by Wolf, a werewolf who becomes his loyal companion. Moshea calls it a story "about found family and a protagonist who suffers greatly but prevails." **Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (1985).** A gifted boy is sent to a Battle School in space and trained to lead other children against an alien threat. Moshea calls it "an excellent book about what children can do with the right leadership" and says Ender is similar to Jean. **Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (1986).** The sequel to Ender's Game follows Ender as an adult, when he travels to a colony world where humans live alongside an alien species. Moshea recommends it for the way it explores empathy, understanding and human connection, and counts it as a found-family story among much else. **The First Colony series by Ken Lozito.** The science fiction series follows colonists building a new home on a distant planet. Moshea recommends it for its mix of science fiction, survival and found family. **Teen Wolf (MTV, 2011 to 2017).** In the television series, a teenager in a small California town is bitten by a werewolf and, with his friends, protects the town from supernatural threats. Moshea chose it as a story "about kids who prevail regardless of impossible odds," and he says fans of the show will recognize some of the same ground in Twenty Five. **About Moshea** Author Moshea is the author of Twenty Five, a Lycan paranormal fantasy about 25 boys in a group home who discover they are a pack. He writes stories about survivors, people who have been overlooked, underestimated or hurt by the world around them and who find their strength by standing together. He drew on his own years in group homes, and on decades spent studying child psychology, fostering children, coaching gymnastics and tutoring. ## FAQ **Q: What are some actually good werewolf books for adults?** Twenty Five by Moshea is a Lycan paranormal fantasy for mature teen and adult readers about 25 boys in a group home who discover they are a pack, with ten-year-old Jean-Eza as their alpha. Moshea also recommends The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub, in which the young hero is joined by a werewolf named Wolf. **Q: What are some popular found-family stories for adults?** Moshea recommends the First Colony series by Ken Lozito for its mix of science fiction, survival and found family, Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card for its focus on empathy and human connection, and The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub for its adventure and its wolf companion. He says fans of the television series Teen Wolf will recognize some of the same ground in Twenty Five, where a pack of 25 boys follows an alpha who has to earn their trust. **Q: What is Twenty Five by Moshea about?** Twenty Five tells the story of Jean-Eza, a ten-year-old boy who discovers he is a Lycan after surviving a violent childhood. Sent to a group home with 24 other boys carrying wounds of their own, Jean helps form a pack built on loyalty, trust and brotherhood. Together they uncover a hidden Lycan world and develop remarkable abilities, and they come to rely on one another more than on their powers. **Q: Is Twenty Five suitable for teenagers?** Moshea recommends Twenty Five for mature teen and adult readers. The novel contains depictions of child abuse and strong language, and the abuse the boys have survived is central to the story.