The TV powers that be would be fools not to tap into the works of George R.R. Martin, the creative mind behind the ratings bonanza Game of Thrones. And fools they’re not! Martin announced Saturday night that the HBO-owned Cinemax has optioned the rights to his 1989 novella Skin Trade. While this series lacks dragons and white walkers, it does have wolves. Werewolves that is.

The story, which was originally part of an anthology that included tales from horror masters Stephen King and Dan Simmons, follows a female private investigator named Randi Wade and her friend Willie Flambeaux who just happens to be, you guessed it, a werewolf. When mutilated, skinned bodies start showing up, Wade is on the case. So think of this as Jessica Jones meets True Blood meets, oh, that flaying scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6.

Martin won’t be writing or running the show himself if the pilot gets picked up to series. Instead, he and Cinemax have hired Prison Break and Once Upon a Time alum Kalinda Vasquez who Martin says “seems to get Willie and Randi, and her pitch to Cinemax was one of the most polished and professional I’ve ever heard.”

Martin joked that he would have “loved” to write the pilot and run the show himself but that he’s a little too busy these days. “I have this book to finish,” he wrote. “You know the one.” The use of the word “finish” was enough to send Game of Thrones fans into a tailspin of anticipation that Martin may be close to done with the hotly-anticipated Book 6 in his “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. But as some observant readers pointed out, Martin has been using similar language since 2007.

Other readers are actually a little disappointed that Martin used the word “finish,” because some signs had indicated that Book 6 was already done and well into the editing process. That may still be the case! But for now all we know is that werewolves, like winter, are coming.