Bias Werewolf Short Stories & Countdown Novels

During our graduation trip, we got trapped in a snowstorm and were forced to spend the night in a cave. There were five of us. My boyfriend, Marcus, the future Alpha heir, took the blankets out of his backpack. Without hesitation, he shook out two and draped them over Lily. Lily was an Omega wolf who had recently been found and brought back to our pack. There were two blankets left. I had just reached for one when Victor and Henry, my other two childhood friends, snatched them up and covered Lily with them as well. When they noticed me staring, they merely smiled nonchalantly. "We only brought four. You're usually pretty tough. You can manage one night without a blanket." At midnight, Lily complained that she was hungry. Marcus immediately handed her the last piece of chocolate. Victor took out a thermos of hot water, while Henry hurried to open a packet of crackers for her. I sat on the freezing ground, watching the three of them fuss over Lily. The gnawing hunger in my stomach suddenly disappeared. I remembered how they'd forgotten only my plane ticket for this trip, forcing me to buy a seat on the next red-eye flight. I remembered how, whenever we went out to eat, they somehow always managed to forget to order anything for me. There were always five of us, yet Lily was always the only one who received all three people's affection. By dawn, the blizzard had finally stopped, and the rescue team found us. The four of them walked toward the helicopter together, laughing and chatting. Not one of them looked back at me, sitting alone in the corner. I said nothing. I simply took out my phone and checked the admission offer from an overseas academy specializing in werewolf genetics. If their world only had room for four people, then I'd leave with my dignity intact.

Three days before our bonding ceremony, my mate—Adrian Carson, the Alpha of the Nightfall Pack—placed two velvet boxes on the table. The first box was deep blue. Inside was a set of moonstone jewelry he'd paid a fortune for at an auction. The other contained nothing more than a black leather bracelet that had come free with his auction purchase. It didn't match my dress at all. For the first time, I pointed to the jewelry before anyone else could. "Can I choose first this time?" Adrian gently stroked my cheek. His voice was cool as he spoke beside my ear, "Your sister has always had to be first in everything. If she's not the first choice, she doesn't want it. And you don't care about these things anyway. You'll be fine with whatever's left." I looked at Adrian's matter-of-fact expression and said nothing. I simply felt something inside me disappear. Ever since I was little, I'd always been the shadow behind my sister, Nora Rose—quiet, unnoticed, never fighting for anything. I even had to wait for Nora to blow out the candles on the birthday cake first. Even our bonding ceremony three days from now had been postponed several times for Nora's sake. I pushed the leather bracelet back across the table. "Give both of them to Nora." For the first time, I didn't want to be the one who was left with the leftovers.

After learning the silver poison had sunk deep into my heart with no cure left, I secretly returned to the pack I'd left five years ago. I just wanted to see Leon Frost one last time. The one who was now their Alpha. Instead, I walked right into news that he was about to mate with his new chosen, Shelly Davis. Worse—they caught me. My mother had me in a wheelchair. Leon's eyes flickered with something unreadable when he saw me. He didn't speak. But Shelly sure did. "Well. Look who finally crawled back. Five years and you look like hell. Can't even walk anymore?" Her voice dripped with mockery. I held back the tears and tugged at my sleeve, hiding the decay spreading across my arms. "It's nothing. Just tripped and hurt my leg." Shelly's laugh cut through the air again. "Since Leon and I are holding our bonding ceremony, you should come witness it. Ten days from now. Full moon night." I kept my face calm and forced a smile. "Can't make it. I'm heading somewhere far away." Then I glanced at Leon—his face still empty, still silent—and signaled my mother to wheel me home. The further he got, the harder the tears fell. Leon, I wasn't lying. I have less than ten days. Before your ceremony even starts, I'll be gone.

At my mating ceremony, my fated mate left me at the altar. Alpha Caleb Thorne. In front of the whole pack. All because his childhood friend, Jenna Bell, had another one of her panic attacks. "Jenna needs me," he said, his voice tense. "She's terrified. Only my Alpha scent can calm her. The ceremony is off. We'll wait for the next full moon." Whenever Jenna called, my Alpha dropped everything and ran to her. I used to cry. I used to beg him to stay. But this time, he rushed off before I could even say a word. Good. I was done begging. When I got back to our penthouse alone, a notification popped up. A Live Photo from Jenna on the pack's social feed. My Alpha, holding her in his arms under the moonlight. A gentle savior. The caption read: "C, thank you for always being there for me, for spending the full moon with me." I pressed down on the image. The Live Photo played, and their voices came through. "Caleb, Evelyn must be furious you left her at the ceremony. Maybe you should go back…" "Don't worry about it. She's an orphan. She can't leave me. Where else would she even go? I'll let her cool off, then go smooth things over." A cold smile touched my lips. Then I unclasped the moonstone necklace—the symbol of my Luna status. And I called my father. The Lycan King. "Dad, I lost the bet. The ceremony is off. I'm coming home." Caleb thought he had all the time in the world. He thought there would be a "next time" to make it up to me. He didn't know about the five-year bet I made with my father. And he didn't know my time was up.

On the night of my anniversary with Lawson, I found transfers on his phone that I did not recognize. The recipient of the money was his old flame. For a decade, he had sent her more than a hundred thousand dollars on the fifteenth of every month. I showed him the records and demanded an explanation. He was signing documents and nonchalantly said, "She was once pregnant with my pup, but she lost it because of a pack conflict. I owe her that much. Don't worry. Other than this, I won't give her any resources from the pack as compensation." I cried, argued, and went to my friends to vent. They tried to talk me down. "It's only a few hundred thousand dollars. Lawson is the Alpha of the largest pack. Even if he gave you that amount, you would think it was too little." "You'll be his Luna. The most important thing is to protect your status. Are you really going to lose your composure over an ex?" I thought about the bonding ceremony we were supposed to hold at the Full Moon Festival next month, and about the decade Lawson and I had spent together. So, I gave in. Then I discovered that every noon, the housekeeper would prepare a pup's meal and send it to Lawson's office. I stopped her with a frown and asked what was going on. The housekeeper was stunned. "Miss Monica, wasn't this prepared for your pup? That pup is already six. Every time he sees the Alpha, he calls him Dad."

After losing my pup, I submitted an application to the Werewolf Council to sever my mate bond. In six days, the bond would be severed at midnight. I would take my pup's memorial box, drive through the highway checkpoint north of Silverpine Pack's territory, and never return. Lucien still had no idea any of this would happen. He was holding my adopted sister's newborn pup while asking me to wait a little longer. "Kayla lost her mate. She needs someone to take care of her right now. Once she's feeling better, I'll spend more time with you." My parents said I still had Lucien, while Kayla had lost almost everything. I shouldn't compete with her for a few days of Lucien's attention. Even my best friend told me to move on from the night I lost my pup. So I stopped asking why no one had answered my calls for help that night. I packed away my medical records, returned the house keys, and deleted every name from my emergency contacts. Lucien thought I had finally learned to let go. What he didn't know was that I had deleted his name too.

In my third year after joining the werewolf guard, I single-handedly cut off the rogues' supply line during a raid. For my actions, the chairman of the werewolf council awarded me a Silver Moon Insignia and granted me the right to live in a four-bedroom penthouse apartment at Moonshadow Estate. Mom once told me that if we ever moved into a bigger home, she would give me a bedroom that belonged to me alone. On the night all the furniture was moved in, I searched every one of the four bedrooms, but there wasn't the slightest trace of me in any of them. The master bedroom belonged to my parents. My older sister, Kalista, had taken the sunniest south-facing suite. My younger brother, Keane, had a room filled with newly purchased combat manuals and an entire wall of cabinets for his hunting boots. The remaining bedroom had been turned into Kalista's walk-in closet, and all my luggage had been piled outside the bathroom. I asked Mom, "Where am I supposed to sleep?" She froze for a moment before pointing at the brand-new sofa in the living room. "You're usually out on night patrol and hardly ever come home. If you occasionally stay the night, isn't the sofa good enough?" Dad frowned as well. "Family members should be considerate of one another. Although the pack rewarded you with this apartment, it belongs to the whole family too. Be generous. Don't start fighting over rooms the moment we move in." I lowered my head and looked at the insignia in my hand. Suddenly, I laughed. So the large home I had risked my life to earn had room for Kalista's clothes, Keane's equipment, and my parents' pride. But somehow, there was no room for me. That night, I received an encrypted message from the captain of the guard. [Outpost 3 on the northern frontier urgently needs a werewolf guard willing to serve there long-term. The assignment involves three years of closed rotation under harsh conditions, but each guard will be provided with private quarters.] I looked up at the four closed doors and quietly typed two words in reply. [I'm going.] If there was no place for me here, then I would go somewhere that had reserved a place for me.

The Blood Moon Pack had one inviolable iron law: the Alpha’s mate must also be a werewolf. I was the human girl the pack had adopted. Even so, Alpha Wilson chose to form a mate bond with me. To stay with me, he openly defied the Elders’ orders. They locked him in a stone cell and gave him ninety-nine lashes. Even when blood soaked through his shirt, he still smiled at me, bowed his head, and kissed away my tears: “Lily, you will always be the only mate I have ever claimed.” In the end the Elders agreed to let me become Luna, on the condition that I quickly give Wilson an heir. It was not until the third year of our marriage that I finally became pregnant. Just as I was filled with joy and about to tell Wilson, his childhood sweetheart, missing for years, returned. She was a werewolf, and the ideal Luna in the Elders’ eyes. The Elders demanded that Wilson marry her at once and produce a legitimate heir for the pack. According to pack law, as long as I lived I would occupy the position of Luna, and he could not take a second mate. This time, Wilson chose to compromise. He pressed a bottle of fake-death potion into my hand, eyes red, and begged me. “Lily, please help me this once. Once she gives birth to the heir, I’ll bring you back.” I never had the chance to tell him that I was already pregnant. My adoptive Beta brother and Delta brother also urged me to take the medicine and leave. They said it was only a temporary measure; everyone was doing it for the good of the Pack. They all believed I would obediently fake my death, hide in some corner, and wait for Wilson to keep his promise. What they did not know was that from the moment I agreed to take the medicine, I had already begun arranging my own way out. This time, I would stage my own funeral with my own hands.

I was a mermaid fostered within the Silverwood Pack. By the laws of my kin, on the day I came of age, I had to swallow a Tide Pearl fed to me by a male. Only then could I fully shed my tail and truly join the wolf pack, remaining on land. And whoever fed me the pearl would become my mate. Miss that window, and my legs would turn back into a tail, forcing me to return to the deep sea. Before my mother died, she left behind three Tide Pearls, entrusting them to the three wolf boys I grew up with—each desperate to become my mate. But just as I was about to come of age, a lone wolf mother named Chloe arrived at the pack with her young pup, Leo. Alpha Lucas, Beta Kane, and Gamma Aiden became convinced that Chloe was the widow of the wolf who had saved their lives, and they showered mother and son with care. They knew full well what the Tide Pearls meant to me—yet choice after choice, they handed those pearls over to Chloe and her child, one by one. Their protection of Chloe was built on my sacrifice. With every pearl gone, I had no reason left to stay in the pack. At midnight on my coming-of-age day, the tide surged over the cliffs. I returned to the sea.

After my partner, Kael Arden, and I decided to hold our mating ceremony, his childhood sweetheart, Mira Frost, suddenly left on her own, heading to the dangerous border overrun with rogue wolves. On the very day our mating ceremony was to take place, news came that she had died in an accident. Kael showed no reaction. He still followed the steps of the ceremony and completed the mutual marking with me. However, on the day I was heavily pregnant and about to give birth, he forced an entire bottle of silver water down my throat and locked me in the basement. As I died in agony, I still heard his cold voice beside my ear. "Mira’s death was all because of you! You couldn’t stand her, so you deliberately forced her to the border! You have to pay the price!" When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to seven days before the mating ceremony... Since he loved Mira that much, I would choose to make them whole in this life.

For seven years straight, Alpha Callum stood me up at our betrothal ceremony during the Moonlight Festival. The pack mocked me as a delusional she-wolf. “Since when did an Omega think she stood a chance with an Alpha? She must be delusional.” But it wasn't some fantasy I'd invented. Callum was the one who had promised me, time and again, that he would propose to me in a grand ceremony. At the eighth Moonlight Festival, Callum stood me up once again, leaving me alone beneath the Moon Goddess Tree. Meanwhile, he took his childhood sweetheart Isabella, the Beta’s daughter and the pack’s Saintess, to see the aurora. Later, he sent me an apologetic message. “Isabella was upset. I only went with her to take her mind off things. Don’t read too much into it.” “The elders still won’t allow me to take an Omega as my Luna, but they’re close to giving in. Give me one more year, and I promise I’ll make you my Luna.” At the ninth Moonlight Festival, he finally approached me in formal black attire. Right in front of him, I set fire to the dress I had worn for him eight times—and to the diagnosis of terminal Wolf-Soul Decay Syndrome hidden inside it. “Callum, there won’t be a ninth chance.” Because in a few days, I would be dead.

When Evelyn Berkeley signed the contract, she thought she was one step away from happiness. She'd loved Liam Dudley for ten years. She'd given him her heart the moment she first saw him at 15, even though their marriage had been a "deal" from the start. For three years, she'd been his hidden Luna, the assistant he could summon at will, and the mate he slept with but refused to have a child with. She put up with his coldness, his neglect, and his betrayal, because she still held on to one naive hope. Maybe someday, he'd finally see her. Then her half sister, Lily Berkeley, came back. Evelyn was pushed down the stairs. Pregnant with twins, she lay in a pool of blood while her husband swept another woman into his arms and walked away. Only then did she understand. Some love can't be taken back once you've given it, and some people will never love you back. The day she signed the papers to dissolve their mate contract, the proud Alpha finally bowed his head. But some wounds can't be healed by a belated "I love you," and real love takes a lifetime to prove. This is a story about mistaken identity, missed chances, and choosing again. When love has burned to ash, can it ever be lit again?

He had lied to me sixty-six times, promising he would let go of his childhood sweetheart. But whenever she needed him, he still ran to her first. I lied to him only once. I slipped the Mate-Bond Dissolution Agreement into the ceremony documents and had him sign it. In my previous life, I stopped him from going to her one last time. Iris died under the claws of border rogues, and Damon hated me until his wolf soul shattered. This time, I chose to let him go. Today was the final day of the public notice period. With three hours left, I packed my bags and booked a private pack flight back to the border. With two hours left, I severed every moon-energy tie between us and burned our only photo. With one hour left, I left him a letter. “This is the tenth year I have loved you, and the first day I leave you.” Later, he chased me to the airport like a madman. But this time, I would not look back.

There was a legend in Mist Pack that whoever possessed the Moonstone Pendant, which was passed down through generations of the pack, would spend a lifetime with their fated mate. When my mate, Lucas, fastened the Moonstone Pendant around my neck, he promised he would never betray me. Later, on the day he publicly ordered me to take it off so he could place it around Layla's neck himself, every werewolf in the pack waited to see how I would react. After all, everyone knew how deeply I loved Lucas. Every time he led a hunting party, I would wait for him atop the pack's highest watchtower. It didn't matter how fiercely the snowstorm raged or if I had to stand there until dawn. Every werewolf wondered how I would tear Layla apart. But when Layla appeared before me while elegantly linking her arm through Lucas's, I simply removed the pendant and fastened it around her neck myself. While holding Layla in his arms, Lucas looked at me with contempt. "Diana, if you can stay as obedient as you are today, I might just let you remain by my side." I touched my bare neck with a blank expression on my face. What Lucas didn't know was that just before the ceremony, all of my memories had returned. I was the daughter of the Alpha King. I was also his only heiress. In three days, my dad would arrive at Mist Pack with his elite guards to bring me home.

Mia Price, the most beautiful Alpha in the werewolf training camp, said she'd never seen an Omega lose control. So my Alpha childhood friend, Knox Kelly, and a few of his Beta buddies decided to inject me with a rage-inducing serum. Now I was chained to a stone pillar in the middle of the camp square with silver links, the metal burning into my skin. Wolves passed by, jeering. Some threw punches. Others spat. They laughed, saying even an Omega in a frenzy was still weak. For two solid hours, I was humiliated in front of everyone. The silver chains drained every ounce of strength from my body. I could barely stand. Knox just grinned, shrugging it off. "Mia said she wanted to see what an Omega frenzy looks like. It was just a joke, right?" He tilted his head, all fake innocence. "You're not actually mad, are you? We've known each other for so long. You know me. It was just a joke." I stared at him—and the others—in silence. So this was what my dignity was worth to him. Something to be thrown away for a laugh, to impress someone else. After that day, I went back to my Pack. And I awakened a powerful healing ability. But Knox? He lost it. His voice shook through the phone, barely sounding like an Alpha at all. "We said we'd be together forever. So why—why did you leave?"

Every bonding anniversary, Shawn would bring home a new human girl from the outside—always under the lovely pretense of letting me mentor her on how to serve an Alpha. On our seventh anniversary, he brought back a nightclub girl dressed in a Princess Snow White outfit—cheap satin trembling under the chandelier's light. “She doesn’t have anything appropriate for an occasion like this,” he said casually. “Let her borrow your bonding dress. And the jewelry I gave you last time. As for shoes—what you're wearing now will do.” Then he added, with a trace of irony, “She’s just a young human girl, clueless. Teach her a few things about our world, will you? Especially the part about the bed.” Everyone was waiting for the spectacle—for me to break again, as I always had. And I didn’t disappoint them. I looked at Shawn, my voice steady, and said I wanted a bond-severance. He laughed—short and sharp—and leaned back like he was watching a comedy. “Clara, when are you going to stop with this bond-severance nonsense? I’ve heard it so many times. They’re just human girls, while you are my Luna. How could they ever compare to you?” Then, grinning as if doing me a favor, he added, “Fine. If you really want a bond-severance, I’ll gift you a territory in the south. Consider it a reward for doing your job as my Luna.” The room erupted in laughter. To them, I was ridiculous—greedy, jealous, hysterical. But what they didn’t know was that this was the 365th time I’d asked for a bond-severance. And the first time, I truly meant it. When he found out I wasn’t joking this time, he lost his composure. He searched for me across the world—only after he realized I was no longer where he thought I’d always be.

My mate and my own brother both fell for a low-born Omega. My mate, Kael, kept delaying our Mating Ceremony. “Elara, you were born to be the perfect Luna. She… she has nothing. Just give it time, okay?” My brother, Liam, broke the vow he made to our dying mother. “Dahlia is so helpless, Elara. My duty to protect you extends to her. She needs it more.” On our birthday, Kael chose to comfort a hysterical Dahlia. On the anniversary of my mother's death, Liam was with Dahlia, getting her newly adopted pet treated at the vet. And when they stood on stage with her at the Wolf Summit, accepting the strategic planning award that was mine… I severed my link to the pack and left for good. But when they finally realized they could no longer feel my presence… The two men who cast me aside for a lowborn Omega tore the world apart, desperate for just one trace of me.

When my pup's life begins to fade, there's only one thing that can save him—Moondew. But my Alpha husband, Leo Hartwood, takes it to treat his childhood sweetheart's minor fever. I call him 99 times, begging him to bring it back. When he finally answers, his voice is ice-cold. "Stop using our pup to manipulate me. There's no way my heir is in danger." That night, our pup dies. Even then, Leo refuses to believe me. He insists the death certificate is fake and accuses me of staging a funeral just to get his attention. So I file to have our mate bond dissolved and prepare to return home to the Frosthaven Pack. On the day of the funeral, Leo shows up with his childhood sweetheart, Lilian Garner, and stands in front of our pup's grave, calling me cruel and selfish. Then he comes closer. For the first time, he realizes he can no longer sense our pup. All the color drains from his face. "Aurora… Where's our pup?"

The night Chloe, the adopted daughter, turned eighteen and completed her first shift, my mother, Grace, stripped me of my family identity right in front of the entire pack. My brother, Caleb, slapped me across the face so hard that my vision went blurry. “Listen to me loud and clear. From today on, this family only has one daughter, and I only have one sister.” I stared at Chloe standing in the very center of the crowd. Mom held her tightly in her arms while Chloe sobbed like a fragile porcelain doll, but her eyes landed on me with chilling precision. The wolf inside me went quiet. It wasn’t a whimper, but something much deeper. I felt the string—the pack bond—that once tied me to this family snap and vanish. I finally understood one thing: to this werewolf family, I had never been part of them. So, I left. Captain Vance had been inviting me to join the Vanguard Legion’s closed training camp for months anyway, and that very night, I signed my name on the agreement. Mom and Caleb thought I was just throwing a temper tantrum. They waited for me to come crawling back, tail between my legs, begging for forgiveness. However, a month later, when a thick layer of dust had settled in my bedroom, they finally went looking for me at the Werewolf Preparatory Academy. The academy told them that my file had been sealed and destroyed by the Werewolf Council. It was classified, and there was no way to access it. Sitting in the backseat of Captain Vance’s bulletproof car, I was in agonizing pain as I severed that final bond with my own hands. At that exact moment, panic finally set in for them.

Everyone in the pack thought I was a gold digger. I was an outsider wolf with no family, yet Alpha Adrian had chosen me as his mate. His parents, friends, and even the elders insisted I wanted only his fortune and the title of Luna. Adrian alone believed me. Then, on the night of our mating ceremony, I asked him to lend me three hundred thousand dollars. From that night on, he was convinced I was vain and greedy, that the only thing I loved about him was the wealth he possessed as Alpha. When I begged him to attend my father's funeral, he sent me money. Six months ago, when I was diagnosed with wolfsoul degeneration, he believed I was just looking for an excuse to get money. The last time he transferred money to me, he was away on vacation with his childhood sweetheart, Selene. He did not know the healer had just told me my wolf soul was in the final stage of degeneration. I had seven days left. He had no idea that I borrowed money on our wedding night because Selena had poisoned me with silver, and I needed the money to save my life. My body is now beyond cure, ravaged by illness. He never chose to trust me. After my death, he went mad with regret.