Familial Bond Werewolf Short Stories & Novels

During the Spring Hunt, my Alpha mate's adopted sister, Susie Blackwood, used the bow I'd designed for him to shoot two werewolves in the forest. The wounded were rushed to the healing center. Susie was so terrified she broke down in tears. Charles Blackwood immediately paid someone to take the fall for her, then booked two flights heading north. He didn't call to let me know until after he'd landed. "Susie's not in a good place right now. I'm taking her somewhere to clear her head. Stay home while we're gone, and don't bother me unless it's important! "She needs peace and quiet." I was standing outside the emergency room, so frantic that tears streamed down my face. "You need to come to the healing center right now. Your—" Before I could finish, Charles cut me off sharply. "Is this really the time for this? You're still pulling these jealous stunts! I'm not even in the pack right now. "Don't call me unless it's important." Then he ended the call. What Charles didn't know was that the ones lying on the operating table, the ones Susie had shot, were his parents.

I drifted from pack to pack, surviving on whatever I could scavenge from the trash along the borders. One day, a patrol of Betas stopped me to check my ID. After looking it over, they exchanged confused glances. "Lisa, it says here your wolf awakened when you were 16, and you were registered as an Alpha female. "But you don't look anything like the wolf in your ID photo." Uneasy, I studied the photo more closely. "That's Elizabeth, my adopted sister," I told them. I had to find out whether I was right. So in the middle of the night, I snuck back into my old pack. There, I overheard my mate, Lucio Hale, and my parents comforting Elizabeth. My mother said, "Don't worry, sweetheart." Then my father added, "Even if Lisa finds out the truth, you'll still be the Alpha female. "We just have to trust the witch's potion. Your bloodlines were swapped a long time ago." Lucio reassured her in a gentle voice. "I'll help you keep Lisa out of the way." I listened, unable to believe what I was hearing. Furious over how unfair it was, I stormed out and confronted them. "Then what was the point of all those years I spent wandering? "If this is how you're going to treat me, I'm going to expose what you did!" But I didn't get far. Lucio caught up with me and drove a silver dagger straight through my chest. He stared down at me. "I'm sorry, Lisa. This is all for Elizabeth's future." When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the wolf academy on the day of our fitness test. My wolf wouldn't awaken for another six months. I swore to take back everything that belonged to me and make them pay.

After Vanessa moved into the estate, Mommy stopped fighting with Daddy. Her wolf was getting weaker. I think Mommy was going to the moon. Grandma had left me that way too. Daddy saw us in the hall, his face dark. His voice came out flat. “Fiona, you don't want Serena growing up in a broken home, do you?” Mommy didn't cry and shout at him the way she used to. She just held me, her voice soft. “Wire me a hundred million and I'll stay out of your way.” Daddy froze for a second. Then he transferred the money. After that, Daddy slept in Vanessa's room most nights, and Mommy kept asking him for more. She got so thin, and she wouldn't eat. She took my hand and brought me to a dozen different offices and made me sign papers. She said she was leaving everything to me. I buried my face in her chest. “Mommy, if you're tired, go find Grandma. I'll be good.”

At the full-moon celebration for Leah Rosen, the family's adopted daughter, my three brothers chained me to the judgment pillar in the pack square. My fiancé, Kyle Mercer, drew a silver blade and plunged it into my chest himself, collecting a smal l cup of heart's blood to feed the moon moth larva Leah had bought on the black market. The larva, which had been stiff and lifeless, drank its fill of blood, and its translucent wings began to flutter. "It's alive. You win again, Leah." Leah threw herself into his arms, "You lost, Kyle. "I'll take Leah into town first. I've already sent someone to brew a clotting draught. I'll be right back." I tried to call out to him, but my eldest brother Darian stepped on my ankle. Darian was the war chief of Silver Ridge Pack, second in strength only to our father. He pressed down just slightly, and I heard a dull pop as the bones shifted out of place. "We didn't bring you back to Silver Ridge so you could compete with Leah." He looked down at me. "Know your place." My second brother, Victor, stood before the elders' dais, still draped in the black ceremonial robe of the pack council. "Wipe that pitiful look off your face. If you embarrass us in front of tonight's guests one more time, I'll strip your clan marks myself and dump you on the northern slope with the rogues." My third brother Ryan toyed with the silver claws at his waist, "You should be grateful Leah finds you entertaining. Stay put, or I'll cripple your other foot too." Kyle was the youngest healer in Moon Valley and one of the few in the North who could repair injuries to a wolf spirit. But this time, Kyle was in such a hurry to accompany Leah to Redstone that he didn't even double-check the prescription. When the attendant brought in the medicine, the System's cold voice echoed in my mind. [Warning: Ingesting this medicine will cause irreversible wolf core failure. Upon the host's death, return to the original world will be initiated. Proceed?] "Give it to me."

On the seventh anniversary of the day I mated with Alpha Rowan, I discovered I was pregnant again. I rushed to tell him the good news, only to find him and my adopted sister, Isolde, locked in the heat of passion in his car, deep within the Forbidden Forest. "In another month, we will have no more use for Willow." "I used the blood of her first three unborn pups to heal you, and now you carry my child. This is a true blessing from the Moon Goddess." Hearing that familiar voice, I bit my lip so hard it bled just to keep myself from screaming. My three children were not lost to natural miscarriage. They were murdered, sacrificed by their own father for another woman. Even when my birth parents, the pack's Head Elder and his mate, brought me back home at twelve, I knew they did not love me. But I never imagined that in our seven years as mates, Rowan had never loved me either. He had even killed the one person in this world who ever truly loved me. With nothing left to lose, I used my Elder bloodline as leverage and sought out Rowan's greatest rival. The man on the other end of the line sounded intrigued. "I can help you. But when this is over, I want you as my Luna." I swore I would make them pay in blood. Without hesitation, I replied, "Deal."

From birth, I was the unwanted pup. At three, Mom left me for another pack. At five, my eldest brother forced chili water down my throat and made me say it tasted good. My second brother would deliberately ditch me at the pack nursery entrance, leaving me to find my way back through the dark woods alone. My third brother would gang up with other pups to humiliate me. The worst came when both the neighbor cub and I fell sick with moon-fever. Dad didn't hesitate for a second to carry her to the hospital, but he brushed me off like I was faking it. Until—I'd shake uncontrollably and throw up whenever I saw them... That's when they finally started freaking out. Dad broke down crying and begged me: "Sweetie, can you please just call me 'Daddy' one more time?"

I had just hidden the pack's old, weak, and sick in a cave when I learned that my mate, Alpha Magnus Hale, had lost the battle. In an instant, the relief of having made it out alive turned into despair. Colt Mercer, the only warrior who made it back, was soaked in blood and barely breathing. "The Alpha's been taken prisoner. Both your sons are dead. Even your grandson... there's nothing left of him." At the same moment, the werewolves hunting us picked up our trail. They were right outside the cave, jeering. "It's just a bunch of she-wolves. When they come out, they're our sex slaves!" The cheering outside was deafening. Inside, every she-wolf around me had already made up her mind to die. "Luna, we'd rather die than bow to them." "Our men already gave their lives for this pack. We'll honor them by doing the same," another said. I looked at their steady faces and made my decision. I took out the wolfsbane I always carried and gave some to each of them. I watched each of them take her last breath. Only then did I pull out the silver dagger Magnus had given me for protection and drive it into my chest. My wolf howled inside me as I collapsed. Then, all at once, everything around me became sharp and clear. "The Alpha spoils his adopted sister Susie rotten. He got every warrior in the pack to join her prank on the Luna." "What can you do? He's spoiled her since they were kids. If she wants to play a game, he'll play along," another voice answered. Outside, the wolves burst out laughing. "When the Alpha and the others show up tomorrow morning, the Luna's going to be so happy she could die!" "Yeah. It's just a little scare. What could go wrong?" someone else said. With shaking hands, I reached for the she-wolves beside me, desperate for any sign of life. But the bodies beside me kept growing colder as the last of their warmth faded. Their prank of pretending they had lost the battle could end. But the she-wolves who had already died would never wake up again.

The day after I awakened my wolf spirit, my parents took us into the mountains for an outing. We were suddenly attacked by a pack of rogues. Tommy, my older brother, whose wolf spirit was weak, came bursting out of the bushes and hid behind Dad. Ella, my little sister, who hadn't awakened her wolf spirit yet, trembled uncontrollably in Mom's arms. My family pushed me into a cave and left me behind. I looked at them through the thorny bushes. Mom glanced back at the cave entrance before grabbing my siblings' hands. "There are too many rogues. Alice, stay hidden. We'll get the two of them to safety and come back for you." Dad urged anxiously, "Alice is agile. She'll be fine. We need to hurry. We can't let the rogues find Ella!" With that, he led the three of them down a narrow trail through the woods while keeping himself between them and the danger. The howls grew closer and closer. Although I'd awakened my wolf spirit, there was no way I could take on such an enormous pack of rogues alone. All I could do was hug myself and pray that Dad and Mom would come back soon. Suddenly, thunder rumbled outside the cave, and heavy raindrops pelted my face. I was reminded of the time I'd been hunted by hunters as a pup. The scene had been exactly the same. Mom and Dad had each scooped up one of my siblings and told me to run behind them on my own. I'd been caught by the hunters. When I'd finally managed to escape and return home, battered and exhausted, all they had said was, "You ran too slowly. You need more training." The thought alone made my wolf whimper in distress. The next second, a message from my mentor, Vera Lambert, popped up on my phone. [Royal City's Moonlight Academy has an extra exchange student slot. Would you like to take it?] I replied instantly. [I'll take it.]

My daughter Lyra believed the Moon Goddess had given our kind one virtue above all others: honesty. So she never told a single lie. I put on a newly bought lipstick and turned in front of the mirror. "Sweetheart, does Mommy look pretty today?" She glanced up at me. "Honestly, Mommy, you were ugly to start with, and that color only makes it worse." One evening I was scrambling around the kitchen while my mother-in-law scolded me for not being able to cook a decent meal. I asked Lyra, "Grandma says Mommy's useless. Does that upset you?" She kept stacking her blocks. "Honestly, I'm actually glad you're getting scolded." That night, while my husband read her a bedtime story, he asked whether she would take care of me when I was old and could no longer walk. She thought it over seriously, then rolled onto her other side. "No way. A useless wolf should just go off and die on its own." Something in me went cold. She only grinned. "But I'm just telling the truth." Later, when a caseworker from the Pup Welfare Council came to register us for the census and asked Lyra a few routine questions, she insisted on telling nothing but the truth. This time, though, it was a truth she would regret for the rest of her life.

Word had it that the roses my mother-in-law Nancy and I planted on the back hill were in full bloom, so we decided on a whim to go see them. We never expected to be stopped at the entrance by a she-wolf caked in heavy makeup. "Do you even know where you are? This is no place for two low-ranking Omegas." "Look at you two — dressed like beggars. That's probably exactly what you are." Our good mood evaporated instantly. I shot her a look. "As far as I know, the back hill is public territory. Every member of the Silver Moon Pack is welcome here." "You have no right to block us." The she-wolf's eyes turned bloodshot with rage. "You pathetic little Omega — how dare you disrespect me!" "This mountain belongs to the Silver Moon Pack, and the Silver Moon Pack belongs to my mate." "If you know what's good for you, get on your knees and apologize. Then crawl out of my sight before I lose my patience." I glanced at Nancy. Her eyes burned with the same fury I felt. As the one and only Luna of the Silver Moon Pack's Alpha, I had no idea there was supposedly another Luna running around.

After I found out my Alpha mate, Bruce, couldn't let go of his ex-mate, Fiona, and her pup, I started teaching our son to call him "Alpha Bruce." When our son had a fever, Fiona called my mate away in the middle of the night. I touched my son’s burning forehead and had him say, "Goodbye, Alpha." When he bailed on the birthday party he’d promised our son because Fiona called, crying that her own son didn't have a father, I didn't even look up. I just had our son explain to the guests, "The Alpha has something important to do." Our son always hesitated for a long time. Until Bruce finally realized how much he’d failed us. He suggested we take a family portrait. But at the studio, Fiona called again, sobbing. “Bruce, can you please come and pretend to be Tony’s dad? The kids at daycare are making fun of him for not having one…” A flicker of guilt crossed Bruce’s face. He was about to kneel and explain it to our son. But this time, our son didn't need my cue. He just waved. “It’s okay, Alpha Bruce. Go be with your other pup. Mom and I are enough for the family photo.”

I had become the Luna of the pack. Mom called it a blessing. She said I'd married up, and that I should bring my sister, Ruby, into the same circles. Ruby was already scheming for a noble match. That was the whole point of her come-of-age celebration. I hated all the schemes. And the lilies on the table made it hard to breathe. My throat began to swell. My chest tightened. I realized I was allergic But I couldn't rest. "Bring Ruby around. Say hello to the wealthy families. You're the Luna. They'll treat you with respect," Mom said. I stayed. The wine she handed me made things worse. And my pampered sister, out of jealousy, forced an handful of allergy medicine down my throat. It was the kind forbidden for pregnant women. And I was six months carrying a wolf pup. In tearing, gut-wrenching pain, my pup left me. Mom cried again and again, begging for forgiveness. I pulled my hand away. Whatever love I had for her was gone.

On the night of the Moonlight Festival, my sister Bella called me in tears. “Mom’s been poisoned with wolfsbane! The healer says she might not make it through the night!” Still bleeding from a rogue wolf attack, I drove halfway across town to the clinic without even stopping to clean my wounds. Then I spotted my family raising their glasses in the tavern next door. Bella was doubled over laughing. “Thirty-six minutes! I won! Pay up!” Mom waved me over with a fond little sigh. “Come here, honey. You look scared to death. You really will believe anything Bella tells you, won’t you?” Dad laughed and tossed Bella a hundred-dollar bill. “Should’ve known better. She always comes running.” I stood frozen, staring at my Alpha mate, Declan. He was pouring Bella a glass of wine. “I picked a clinic that far away and bet you’d take over forty minutes. Still lost.” They clinked glasses to celebrate. I tipped my head back and blinked away the tears. For once, I didn’t ask why. Last year, they’d told me a rogue had attacked Dad. I missed my qualifying exam to become a certified potion maker. Last month, they’d claimed Grandma’s wolf was fading. I gave up a place in an advanced training program in the north. Every time I came running, someone won a bet. And I lost another chance to build a life of my own. I opened the job offer from the Silver Moon Pack and accepted the ten-year post as their resident potion maker. I was done calling these people my family.

On my way home from picking wild berries in the woods, I see my mate, Ethan Volkov, feeding our pups roast chicken. His childhood sweetheart, Zoe Hathaway, is snuggling next to them. While chatting with Ethan about her experiences studying on the northern grasslands, she entertains the children. My five-year-old daughter is happily swinging her legs as she holds out a piece of roast chicken to Zoe, while My son carefully wipes the grease off Zoe's hands. Ethan never once looks away from Zoe. It is as if he only has eyes for her. Seeing my beloved mate and the pups I've tirelessly raised so attached to another she-wolf leaves me devastated. I draft a Bond Breaking Agreement, give up custody of the children, and leave. Pursue the herbal research career that I gave up for my family Yet later, the always calm and composed Ethan loses his composure. My daughter Katrina and my son James search everywhere for me, openly expressing their love and begging me to come home.

I saw a trending post on a werewolf forum: "How to get your mate to break the bond with you?" The poster said he was going to lie to his mate about going on a wilderness trial, but he was really planning to run off with his "true love." I silently scoffed. What a shameless scumbag. But the next day, my Alpha mate came home, smelling of another she-wolf. "For the future of our pack, I have to go on a lone wolf trial in the wilderness," he said. "We should temporarily break our mate bond." I looked at his phony face and nodded calmly. "Okay. Whatever you say. We'll break the bond tomorrow." Later, he took the family money and his lover and disappeared. But with his parents' support, I became an executive at the family company. He blew through all the money, ditched his lover, and came crawling back to the country, trying to win me over. But by then, I was already at my engagement party with another, far better Alpha. I said it from the beginning. He was the one who chose to abandon his family. Even if he wanted to come back, this place would be nothing but his personal hell.

I am the elder daughter of the Dawnlight pack Alpha. On the day I came of age, my father told my sister and me to choose our future mates from the two sons of the Brightvale pack Alpha. The older brother, Damian, was steady and self-possessed. The younger one, Kieran, counted for nothing in his own pack, and it showed in the sullen, beaten-down way he carried himself. In my last life I chose the younger brother without a moment of hesitation, because I wanted him to know what it felt like to be someone's favorite. But on the very day he became Alpha, he threw me out to the rogues. I was carrying his pup. They tortured me until I died. Right before the end, Kieran stood over me and looked down. "If it weren't for you, I'd have been with your sister Adeline a long time ago. You deserve this!" Only then did I learn that he had wanted my sister for years, and that he had never once meant for me to be the Luna of Brightvale. Then I opened my eyes again. Kieran and I had both come back to the day of the choosing. He knelt before my father, solemn as a vow. "Honored Alpha, the one I love has always been your younger daughter, Adeline. I want nothing to do with your elder daughter, Cassia." Every wolf from Brightvale watched me and enjoyed it. But I only smiled, faintly. Then I turned and chose the brother standing at Kieran's side. Damian. Kieran was still living inside the illusion of his last life, certain he had taken the Alpha title on his own strength. He had no idea that from the beginning to the end, only the mate I chose was ever fit to become Alpha.

The day a blizzard sealed the mountain roads, the entire pack lost power. My academy and my sister's were on opposite sides of the pack's territory. My father, Alpha Gerald Vale, set out with his warriors. My mother, Moira Vale, called me. "We're going to get your sister first. She hasn't awakened her wolf yet, so she won't survive this storm. Stay at the academy gate and wait for us." I stood outside in the freezing wind, waiting until nightfall. The school sirens eventually began to wail. Snow rose past my knees, and then an avalanche thundered down the mountain. Only then did my mother finally call. "The avalanche blocked the roads. Find your own way home." I clutched my coat tight and trudged through the blizzard for five hours. The avalanche buried me beneath the snow. My fingers were numb with cold, and I felt like the blood in my veins had turned to ice. When I finally crawled home, the manor lights glowed, warm and peaceful. My mother slid the last bowl of meat stew toward my younger sister, Susie Vale. My brother, Damon Vale, took one look at me, covered in snow, and snapped, "Why didn't you shake it off before coming in? You've ruined Susie's favorite rug." I stood in the doorway, saying nothing. Susie smiled and grumbled playfully, "I thought you'd found something good to eat out there and forgotten all about coming home." Outside, the blizzard had brought down whole slopes. Several rogues had frozen to death in it. And somehow, that was still what they believed. Not one of them seemed surprised that I'd made it back alive. Suddenly, none of it seemed to matter anymore. I finally realized it wasn't the blizzard keeping me from home. It was them.

My twin Alpha brothers believed that I have deliberately hidden the vast inheritance left by our Alpha parents so that our adoptive sister Sophia couldn’t by the medical equipment to treat her silver poisoning. For the sake of our adoptive sister, my twin Alpha brothers dragged me before the Council's tribunal. They accused me of stealing pack assets and deliberately harming pack members. If the charges stuck, the Alpha Council would strip away my Alpha power to treat Sophia. My brothers had no idea that years ago, I'd nearly died protecting them. If I lost my Alpha bloodline strength, I would die. In my own brothers' eyes, I was already a criminal beyond redemption. But when the Council used ancient magic to extract my memories for judgment, everyone wept for me. And when my brothers learned the truth, they fell to their knees, begging my forgiveness.

I was the werewolf princess, yet my mother, Diana Thorne, never saw me as her daughter. To her, I was nothing but a living warning sign. I was 18, and I still hadn't awakened my wolf. To my family, my only purpose was to make my older brother, Leo Thorne, shine brighter. He was the one destined to become the next Alpha. When Leo lost 50 gold coins in the black-market fighting pits, my mother starved me and threw me into the arena cages. I was forced to clean up the blood just to repay his debt. She said it was to teach him "the price of power." When Leo was caught stealing the Elder Council's sacred silver staff, my mother broke my ribs in front of everyone and forced me to apologize to the Elders for his crime. She said it was to teach him that an Alpha's honor must never be stained. Leo had barely started at the academy when he began hiding banned potions. To straighten him out, my mother left a bottle of pure wolfsbane extract on the stone table in my room, right where no one could miss it. I drank it by mistake. I had no wolf to protect me. The second the poison took hold, I was convulsing on the floor like a dying stray. My father, Alpha Gareth Thorne, drove the carriage at full speed, rushing me to the Healers' Temple deep inside our territory. But right at the edge of our lands, we were stopped by a checkpoint set up for the blood moon lockdown. The checkpoint was under strict lockdown. The patrol unit stationed there took orders directly from the Elder Council. They stopped us for a routine inspection. My father showed no signs of anything wrong. But my mother suddenly flung open the carriage curtain, laughed, and shouted at the patrol, "Your inspection is nothing but a joke! Your Alpha secretly swallowed an entire bottle of forbidden frenzy potion, the kind that drives a wolf completely feral! And now you're breaking your rules and letting him pass just because he's the Alpha?!" The poison kept eating away at my insides, and blood spilled from my mouth. But

A week before my coming-of-age ceremony, Mom does something she rarely does. She asks me what I want as a gift. "The coming-of-age ceremony is a big deal for all werewolves. Your dad and I want to make it a special experience for you and Claire." My sister, Claire Ashford, and I are twins. But from the moment we were born, our parents have only had eyes for her. When we were four, I pointed at the lollipop Claire was holding and said, "I want one too!" Just like that, my parents refused to let me have dinner. They scolded me, "You took more than your share before you were even born, and you grew so much bigger than Claire. And now you want to take her candy, too? Absolutely not!" From then on, I never dared ask for anything again. But this time, I finally bring myself to ask, "Why don't we go to Northmere together to see the northern lights? We could all be there together, side by side, taking in the snow. It would be so romantic." Mom looks down, thinks it over for a moment, then nods. "Sure. Get everything you'll need ready and look up the best places to see the northern lights. Let me know when you're done." I spend the next several days working late, researching the trip and putting together the perfect itinerary. Dad takes a week off, and Mom finishes up her work early. For once, I believe my parents have actually taken what I said seriously, and I can hardly contain my excitement. The day before we're supposed to leave, Claire posts on social media. Her caption reads, "The best coming-of-age gift ever! The Northern Lights are so beautiful! Mom and Dad love me so much!" The post includes a photo of the three of them watching the Northern Lights, their backs turned to the camera. The comments pour in. "What a happy family of three!" My parents don't explain themselves. Only now do I see the truth. I've always been the daughter my parents could leave behind. If Claire is the only daughter they want, then I'll disappear from their lives for good.