What Happens At The End Of Teethmarks On My Tongue?

Three days ago, Damon Ashford marked me. The night he became Alpha, he sank his fangs into my neck under the moonlight. When his wolf blood mixed with mine, my wolf soul trembled violently. I thought the bond was taking root. I was too excited, too happy to tell the difference between real blood transfer and the simple sting of broken skin. This morning I went to City Hall without telling him. I wanted to pick up our certificate and frame it for our bedroom wall. I wanted to surprise him. The clerk checked the system, then looked up at me. "Whitmore, the mark on your neck is fake. There is no trace of wolf blood exchange." "Also, Ashford completed a formal registration with a woman named Clara Wellick two weeks ago." Under wolf law, a mark must be registered within seven days or it becomes invalid. I came to register, only to find I was never registered at all. I took off the scarf covering my neck and dropped it into the trash can outside City Hall. Standing on the steps, I sent my brother a message. Marcus, I’ll go with you for the closed medical research.

Mara Quinn is used to walking into places she shouldn’t—because the truth never waits in well-lit rooms. One late-night meet behind a bar goes wrong, and she sees something no one is supposed to witness: a man’s eyes flashing gold, bones shifting, a wolf where a man stood. She runs. The pack’s Alpha doesn’t let her. Gage Blackwood catches her in the dark, tilts her chin up like she’s a problem he can’t ignore, and delivers a sentence that feels like a threat and a promise all at once: “You’re mine until I decide you’re safe.” Except “safe” doesn’t mean free. It means locked inside a packhouse full of wolves who watch her like prey… or leverage. It means rules she never agreed to and a rival who smiles too easily and whispers that Gage will cage her forever—unless she chooses the right side. Mara refuses to be bullied into silence. If they want to keep her contained, she’s going to make herself useful. She demands answers. She digs into the crime she witnessed, she discovers the ugly truth: the blood spilled that night wasn’t random—it was part of a pack purge that went wrong, and the traitor is still breathing. The worst part? Gage’s “protection” wasn’t supposed to bind them. But a single drop of his blood on her tongue snaps something ancient awake—something that shouldn’t exist. Something the council will kill for. Now the Alpha who tried to control her is fighting the bond he never wanted… and the hunger he can’t shut off. Because Mara isn’t just a witness. She’s a secret and the mark she carries might be the one thing that topples a pack—or crowns her in it.

The day my parents divorced, I turned my back on the mother who loved me and clung desperately to my cheating father. In my previous life, I chose my mother without hesitation. Because the family never accepted me, she spent the rest of her life suffering for my sake, enduring endless scorn and hardship. This time, as I looked into her heartbroken eyes, I walked away without a backward glance. Five years later, I was scraping by at a seafood market, spending my days gutting fish amid the stench of saltwater and blood. Just as I expertly sliced open a fish's belly, my mother appeared. Her heels clicked across the damp floor as she navigated around puddles left by melting ice and approached me. She covered her nose in disgust, looked me up and down in my stained, shabby clothes, and let out a cold laugh. "No matter how hard you wash, you still reek of fish. This is the life you chose when you picked him over me. “The Cooper family's notorious young heir is about to form an alliance with our family through marriage. “As long as you kneel and beg me, I'll give you a chance to live a better life. What do you think? “You know I always mean what I say.” The contempt in her voice was unmistakable. I swallowed the metallic taste rising in my throat, flashed a carefree grin, and stepped closer. “Not only am I not kneeling, but you’ll have to kiss me first if you want me to go.” Just one kiss would be enough to get me through the last month of my life.

Then without breaking the kiss his hand slid down, fingers brushing between my thighs with maddening control. He played with me lazily at first, teasing circles around my folds, making my hips jerk. I moaned into his mouth as one finger dipped lower, then retreated, just to torment me. “Azrik…” I gasped. He pulled back only to whisper, “Patience. Or I’ll tie you to this bed and take my time.” The way he said it raw, full of threat and promise, had me clenching around nothing. *** She was supposed to be Beta. She ended up betrayed, branded, and carrying the Lycan King’s mark. When Lunessa's mate-to-be betrays her with her best friend, she’s left humiliated and heartbroken, until a mysterious stranger steps in. One night with him changes everything. Now hunted, pregnant, and hiding in a world that’s forgotten her worth, Lunessa must uncover the truth behind the man who saved her, and the bond that could destroy or save them both. Betrayals run deep, secrets run deeper, and when old flames ignite a war, only one thing is certain, the moon never forgets her chosen.

Living as a human in werewolf territory means surviving by staying invisible. She has no wolf, no pack, and no protection—only a fragile agreement that keeps her alive on the outskirts of Alpha rule. That fragile peace shatters the night she is taken during a territorial conflict and forcibly marked by the most feared Alpha in the region. The mark binds her against her will, flooding her body with a bond she never asked for and tethering her to a man who sees the connection as a necessary claim, not a choice. To the pack, she becomes Alpha property overnight—watched, judged, and expected to submit. To him, she is a complication he cannot undo without risking his authority and the stability of his territory. She refuses to bend. As the bond tightens, her resistance brings consequences. Pain follows defiance. Distance becomes impossible. Every attempt to escape only strengthens the invisible chain between them. While the Alpha enforces control publicly, cracks begin to form in his certainty as her defiance challenges everything he believes about power, dominance, and loyalty. Enemies circle, drawn by rumors of a human mate and a bond formed under blood and coercion. Pack politics turn dangerous, and her existence becomes leverage in a larger war she never chose to be part of. Bound by force, surrounded by wolves who expect her obedience, she must decide whether survival means submission—or whether breaking the Alpha who claimed her is the only way to reclaim herself.

During the exchange of tokens in the Marking Ceremony, I presented the wolf tooth ring I had carved myself, as a witness to our marking. But my Alpha mate, Frendo, remained completely indifferent, not releasing any marking aura, as though he had entirely forgotten that today was the day of our spiritual bonding ceremony. At that moment, Lily updated her Instagram, saying she would be returning to the Sliver Lake Pack in an hour. The air immediately filled with the restless scent of wolves, and before I could react, my Beta brother, George, stepped onto the ceremony stage and emotionlessly announced, "The Marking Ceremony is canceled." Frendo and George, in perfect synchronization, turned and left the altar together, leaving me standing alone, under the watchful eyes of all the Pack members. They wanted to see how a one-person marking ceremony would proceed. It wasn’t until I held back my inner frustration and awkwardly finished the ceremony with some semblance of dignity that I opened Lily’s Instagram. In her latest photo, George and Frendo were both surrounding her, releasing intimate signals. One was holding a silver moon festival gift box, while the other offered her a moonlight rose, her favorite. I bitterly smiled and wiped away the tears from my eyes before calling the one family that truly mattered, my flesh and blood. "Dad, Mom. I want to go home."