Panther Claw Marks

Aria was once a woman full of dreams. She didn’t know she was married to a nightmare. She wed Elliot—the struggling Alpha of the Crimson Claw, with no vows under the Moon Goddess or celebration. She brought a generous dowry and transformed their pack into the third-strongest in the Federation. But power breeds greed. And love… it was never truly hers. Discarded, framed, and betrayed by the very man she uplifted, Aria walks away from it all. She’s taking control, rewriting her story with every breath. This time, Aria isn’t just surviving. She’s reclaiming her destiny. Excerpt: “From the first moment I saw you, something inside me reacted," Mason muttered. He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. “But you already have a mate—Elliot. That should’ve been the end of it." He stepped forward again. “I don’t know what’s happening to me… or to my wolf. But being near you—it feels like you’re my mate… even if you're not.” His voice cracked slightly. “It just keeps getting stronger every damn day. It’s driving me insane, Aria.” “Mason—” Aria whispered, unsure if she would stop him or beg to keep going. “Your scent is like a drug… your touch, it short-circuits everything. Logic. Control. My own damn rules,” he murmured, leaning his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry, Aria. But I can’t hold it back anymore. If you run, I’ll let you—but make no mistake, I will chase you. Because right now… I have to do this or I'll go crazy!” “I’m not running.” Mason froze, stunned by her answer. “Do you want this? Do you want me?” he asked. “You don’t have to ask for permission…” she whispered. “I want you… all of you.”

I used to think I understood survival. By twenty-one, I’d figured out that my body was something I could trade, and honestly, I didn’t flinch at using it. Rain pounding outside, apparently, I barely noticed. I was too wrapped up with Bobby, his cock sliding against my lips while I tried to forget the outside world. “I need to fix supper,” I muttered, and then took him in my mouth. He groaned. His hands knotted up in my hair, pushed me lower, and I swallowed every part of him. A hundred bucks. That’s what it took to make all this feel like just another night, just another transaction. That’s my reality, balancing family, hiding secrets, hustling through college by day, doing whatever it takes at night. But then my dad’s promotion depends on one dinner party. Suddenly, I’m orbiting two men who don’t just spot weakness, they exploit it. What starts with forced politeness turns into something darker. Surveillance cameras watch as I give in again and again, my body traded in deals I never agreed to. The difference between “okay” and “forced” vanishes every time I obey. At some point, I realize what this compliance has actually cost me. Not just my body, my choices, my future, all of it chipped away until the only decision left is brutal: keep giving them what they want and disappear inside myself, or risk everything to fight back against the machine trapping me here. My family’s fate is always tied to me. My body isn’t mine to bargain with anymore. So I keep asking myself: after everything, can someone like me actually claw my way back from submission when it was forced from the start? Keep reading to find out.

Rufus chortled as Everleigh sat naked and examined herself in the mirror specifically designed for the ceremonial mating. She scowled when she saw no wounds, simply two bite marks on the flesh of her neck. "Why did you bit me?" "It was a spur of the moment, love.  You know I can't hurt you." He is overcome with emotion as he looks fondly at her. He wanted to grieve for the years they had wasted. Rufus can't wait to see what she's thinking. "Am I going to become a vampire?" She exclaimed, returning her sight to the mirror. "But I can see you in the mirror. You are not a vampire. What are you now?" He sat and held her from behind. "I am your mate, your guardian, your soulmate, your happiness and you are mine completely." He'd never desired a woman as much as he did Everleigh, nor had he ever been so satisfied with one. He was a tremendous fool to take her for granted. He shook his head and tried to forget the tragic moment before she disappeared. He wanted to bury himself inside her, so thoroughly that she could never think of another male like his brother. He never believed in love like humans did, but if this is love, he will embrace it simply to have her with him forever. He can no longer live without her. Those agonizing years without her were weakening him. He must complete the mating stage in order to protect her, since he will creep into her deepest thoughts. He will be able to read her mind soon.

"I don't think my brother is someone you need. He's not the kind of alpha who could ever satisfy a woman like you.” I raised my chin and met Alexander's eyes. "And who do you think I need? What do you think will satisfy me?” He closed the gap between us and ran his heated eyes to my lips, to my throat, down to my body as if he was marking me and making love to me with those blue intense eyes. I looked away but Alexander tilted my head to meet my gaze. One touch and the hunger and the burn inside me intensified. His piercing eyes returned to my lips.“You don't need soft kisses. That's for little girls. You need fervent, explosive kisses. The ones that will try to suck the air within you, leaving you breathless but eager for more.” His hands dropped down to my waist, pulling me closer to his big and hard frame. “You need to be marked not with an alpha scent. That’s for men with an inferiority complex. You need to be claimed with kisses and bite marks that will make everyone jealous of how you spent your night. Because you are not just any woman, Katriona. You are a queen, a hot and wild queen.” I pushed Alexander away. I could hear my heart banging inside my chest. Logic screamed louder this time, desperately enumerating all the reasons why I shouldn’t be with this man. But as he stood there while waiting for my decision, I became aware of one thing. Whoever I choose, in the end, I’m still going to burn. It'll be a sin. And I'm going to hell for this.

“You are broken. You are wolf-less. You are weak. You thought Landon O’Connor was a monster? Baby, you’ve not met us. The Kincaid brothers will rip you apart like flesh, we’ll sink our teeth on this graceful little neck so everyone sees our marks on you and afterwards? We’ll fill your womb with our pups so everyone gets the message who you belong to” -Connor Kincaid “Don’t bother arguing with me, it makes me hard. I know that waste of space you thought was your mate didn’t treasure you. But I do. I love these lips, these big hazel eyes of yours, your scent and most of all, I worship the ground you walk on. We all do” -Neo Kincaid “You were never meant to exist for men like us. You know why, River? Because once men like us find their mates, it’s hard to let go. We are possessive, we are jealous and more importantly we will never accept your rejection. You are ours for eternity” -Shane Kincaid xx When my mate, Landon O’Connor, alpha of the Silver Bullet Pack, cheated on me with my sister and later rejected me, I thought the Moon Goddess hated me. Turns out, I’m favored by the Moon Goddess because she gifted me not one but three mates. They are triplets. They are rogue Alphas who don’t follow the rules. They are ruthless and cold to everyone except me. The one problem is the triplets are rumored to be cursed and that should make me run away but I don’t. I fall for all three.

On the day of my marking ceremony, my mate, Alex Burke, and my sister, Rose Roth, are caught mating in the dressing room. This renders me the laughingstock of the entire pack. While I'm drowning in humiliation, the Alpha, Nate Hyland, steps forward and marks me in front of everyone! After we get married, Nate treats me exceptionally well. However, we're never able to conceive a pup. Eventually, I turn to IVF and finally get pregnant. Nate becomes even more attentive to me. He even calls me "Darling" in his sleep. I think this is a blessing from the Moon Goddess. This continues until I hear the conversation between Nate and his Beta one day. "How could you, Nate? Luna Diana adores you and cares for you so much. But just because Rose is scared of pain and doesn't want to go through pregnancy, you secretly switched their eggs and made Luna Diana carry her child? The pup is due in two months! What are you going to do about this?" Nate goes silent for a moment. Then, he sighs softly and replies, "When the pup is born, I'll hand him to Rose and let her live out her dream of being a mother. I'll tell Diana the pup was stillborn. She's just an abandoned Omega. Staying with her for life is compensation enough." So all the love and tenderness he showed me is fake. I immediately schedule an abortion, as I don't want this filthy pup. And I am certainly not holding on to this sham of a marriage either. I may be an Omega, but I am no one's pawn.

Sage was a disgraced omega servant at an elite werewolf academy, marked by her father's treason against the pack. When she discovered her three fated mates—Kael Ashford, Vex Thorne, and Cass Rivera—during a heat-induced bonding in the forest, she believed the moon goddess had finally blessed her. But the next morning, they were gone. By noon, intimate pictures of her naked body had spread throughout the school. SHe discovered three distinct mating marks on her neck—proof to the entire world that she'd been claimed by three different wolves. The humiliation was complete and devastating. Kael called her worthless and stripped her of her servant position. Vex accused her of sleeping with multiple men and abandoned her in the forest with a broken shock collar, leaving her to die at the hands of a mindless rogue wolf. Cass, the cruelest of all, had orchestrated the entire exposure—he'd taken the photographs himself and sold them to other students, destroying her reputation to keep her isolated and dependent on him alone. With nowhere to go and no one to turn to, Sage fled the territory pregnant. Seven years passed as she raised her daughter, Milo, in the human territories in complete isolation. When a devastating virus broke out across both territories, scientists discovered that Milo's blood held the cure. Suddenly, hunters came for them. The three men—now on a mission to find the cure—rescued them from the river, not knowing they were after their own daughter. Forced to return to the territory that had destroyed her to investigate the virus's origin, Sage maintained a lie: Milo was her friend's daughter, nothing more. But as the truth about the virus unravel, Sage must decide if redemption is possible.

Margot Keys was one of many she-wolves who were publicly claimed by their mate. For years, she was mated to a man who thought that women should do as they were told and their only value was to create an heir. In her first mate bond, she suffered horrible abuse, unable to escape the horrors of her mate. However, she refused to give him a child. She never wanted any child of hers to be raised by a man who didn’t value her as a mate, a Luna, or a woman. Ezra Hart is an Alpha who publicly claimed his first mate, as was expected for all ranked members. His mate, unable to live with the embarrassment of the public claim, killed herself and their unborn child, leaving Ezra alone and destitute. When Margot recognizes Ezra as her second chance mate, she is ready to reject him, unwilling to subject herself to another mate bond. But Ezra lost one mate and he isn’t willing to lose another. Thanks to his previous brother-in-law, Hunter, Ezra has seen that the public claimings are detrimental to all she-wolves. Now, the Moon Goddess has given him a second chance to make things right and be the kind of mate that he’s always wanted to be. However, when Margot killed her previous mate, willing to give her life in the process, Ezra does the only thing he can to save her. He marks her without her consent. When she wakes, Margot is furious but also surprised to find that Ezra isn’t forcing her to immediately accept him. Can Ezra convince Margot that he is different than her first mate? Can Margot let go of her past and find true love again?

Rhea Thorn, daughter of the ruthless Alpha of Thornridge, has her life shattered when the Moon Goddess marks her with an unthinkable fate, her destined mate is Kael Blackthorn, the youngest and most feared Alpha of her pack’s sworn enemies. What should be a divine blessing feels like a curse, chaining her to a man her family and people would rather see dead. Drawn together by the bond they cannot sever, Rhea and Kael are forced into secret meetings, torn between duty to their packs and the magnetic pull that only grows stronger. But the world around them is far more dangerous than forbidden love. Rogue wolves begin appearing in unnatural numbers, branded with a mysterious mark and moving like soldiers under someone’s command. Their attacks threaten both Thornridge and Blackthorn lands, hinting at a darker force manipulating the feud to ignite all-out war As suspicion grows, Rhea struggles to hide her bond from her father and her loyal cousin Kade, while Kael risks everything to protect her from the shadows. Their secret is exposed in blood and fire when rogues descend on Thornridge and Kael himself fights beside her, revealing their connection before both packs. Betrayal, shifting loyalties, and whispers of war leave Rhea torn between her bloodline and the mate the Goddess chose for her. At the heart of the conflict lies a chilling truth: someone is orchestrating ruin, driving rogues like weapons and branding them with a new symbol of power. To survive, Rhea and Kael must decide whether to sever the bond and live painful, hollow lives or embrace it and defy their world. If they choose each other, they may save the packs or they may be the spark that burns them all to ash.

To help my sterile Alpha mate Marcus Blackwood conceive an heir, I had used many hormone injections. My belly was covered with purple bruise marks from all the needle punctures. But after our son Connor was born, he was very weak and even ran much slower than the other pups. Marcus looked at Conner coldly and snarled at me, "It's all your rotten bloodline! You've brought shame to the Blackwood pack!" Later, he held his mistress Scarlett's pup—a three-year-old pup who was strong enough to beat an eight-year-old pup—and publicly rewarded Scarlett with a new Porsche. But when my five-year-old Connor accidentally knocked over his milk, Marcus kicked him in the chest and called him worthless. He even locked my son, who was afraid of the dark, alone in the drafty woodshed at the countryside estate during winter. Every day, Connor got only one bowl of spoiled food, until he starved to death. When I found Connor, his small body was already ice-cold, still clutching the family portrait I had drawn for him in his little hands. After that, Marcus tortured me to death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at our engagement party. Marcus publicly took Scarlett's hand in front of everyone. "I’m breaking off my engagement with Hazel Whitmore! She is just a foolish she-wolf who can only birth idiots! Scarlett is the one I love!" I realized that he was also reborn. He wanted to humiliate me in front of everyone again. But he didn't know that without my exclusive genetic healing technology, he would remain childless for this entire lifetime.