Zander

“	The Original Pack is descended from the very first werewolves, the ones that were cavemen except during the full moon.	”
	— Zander to Bonnie in The Hunters: Destiny Rising.

Zander is a character of The Vampire Diaries novel series and benevolent werewolf who has moonlight-coloured hair, blue eyes, and was very naive. He is a member of the Original Pack and Bonnie McCullough's "admirer".

Appearance

Zander is tall, gorgeous, with clear, true blue eyes, and slim torso with well-muscled arms. His features were sharply cut, the eyebrows arched, the cheekbones high, but his mouth was soft and sensual. He has pure white-blond hair.

Personality

Zander has a noble personality, kind, gentle, compassionate and mature. He is literally Tyler's opposition or another werewolf infected, since they can not control the savagery and anger due to their wolfish nature.

Name

Zander is a masculine name of Slavic and Greek origin. The meaning is "man's defender". It is a short form or variation of Alexander.

Powers & Abilities

Sharpened Senses - They have heightened, animalistic senses which allows them to hear, see, and smell better than humans.
Shapeshifting - Werewolves are able to shape shift from their human forms, to a half human, half wolf beast form at will. It is implied that werewolves are able to transform into "real" wolves.
Animalistic Speed - Werewolves are very fast and move with animal-like quickness and speed in human or wolf form.
Abnormal Strength - Werewolves are insanely strong in terms of abnormal strength; they can easily tear human and animals to pieces.
Alpha Werewolf Voice - The voice of an Alpha Werewolf have the ability to force the transformation of other werewolves against their will.

Weaknesses

Decapitation - The act of dismembering or removing the head of a werewolf will result in death.
Fire - Fire can and will most likely kill a werewolf if the flames are not doused quickly.
Heart Extraction - The act of removing a werewolf's heart will result in a quick, instantly fast death.
Silver - If a werewolf is wounded by silver it will cause the werewolf to become weak and wounded. However, if a silver knife or bullet penetrates a werewolf's heart, it will result in instant death.

The Hunters Series

Zander reveals himself as an Original Werewolf. At first, Bonnie believes this to mean that he is really old. However, Zander reveals this just means that he is directly descended from the cavemen who naturally possessed the werewolf gene and did not inherit it from a bite or from being passed down from a family member who had been bitten. He also says that this gives him the power to stop turning on full moons and if he is skilled enough to turn when not on a full moon. He also says that the High Wolf Council sent him to college to investigate as the college was on ley lines making it a supernatural hotspot and that he and his friends have been trying to stop the Vitale Society. Bonnie reveals she knows it's on ley lines and that he need not worry as they had taken down most of the members and her friends were on their way to finish the rest off. Zander is very surprised and asks for an explanation off Bonnie. She reveals mostly everything, but leaves out about the Guardians and Dark Dimension, so as not to confuse him.

TBA

The Evensong Series

Zander doesn't appear in the continuation of L.J. Smith, however Matt's shy new roommate, Bastian, is his equivalent. Some physical features of Bastian are similar to Zander.

Quotes

(Bonnie) : “So...you’re really old, then?”

(Zander) : “No! I just turned twenty last month! Werewolves aren’t like that—we’re alive. We live, we die. We’re like everybody else, we just...”

(Bonnie) : “Turn into superstrong, superfast wolves.”

(Zander) : “Yeah, fine. Point taken. Anyway, the Original pack is like, the original family of werewolves. Most werewolves are infected by some kind of mystical virus. It can be passed down, but it’s dormant. The Original pack is descended from the very first werewolves, the ones that were cavemen except during the full moon. It’s in our genes. We’re different from regular werewolves. We can stop ourselves from changing if we need to. We can learn to change when the moon’s not full, too, although it’s difficult.”

(Bonnie) : “If you can stop yourself from changing, do some of you stop being werewolves?"

(Zander) : “We would never stop being werewolves, even if we never changed at all. It’s who we are. And it hurts to not change when the moon is full. It’s like it sings to us and the song gets louder and clearer the closer it gets to being full. We’re aching to change by the time it happens."

Trivia

Zander is related to the first werewolves.
Unlike werewolves infected wounds, or bite by other infected, Zander mentions have more control in the transformation, as well as in his actions during his wolf form.
At times, Zander's name is misspell to Xander in the books.
Chronologically, it is unknown if Zander is going to appear on the TV series, like Ethan.
Zander makes reference to the original werewolves are alive and can die, compared with the vampires are undead and cannot die naturally.
Zander is an Original Werewolf, and counterpart of Klaus, an Original Vampire.