The Marked One Novels & Stories

The Marked One. ​As I reached them, Noah placed a hand on the small of my back. It was a gesture of protection, but my heart told me otherwise. ​"Tonight, you the neighbors," Cassian whispered, leaning in as I stood between them. "Try not to look so much like a rabbit, little wolf." ​"Why am I here?" I hissed, my hand instinctively going to the collar of my gown to hide the mark. ​"It’s a celebration of strength, Aria," Noah answered, his voice smooth as silk but hard as the marble beneath us. "The Blackthorne Gala". Our allies have traveled far to witness the stability of the Blackthorne territory. Don’t embarrass us."

I sat up abruptly, breath catching as I scanned the room. White walls. Dark wood. A single window set too high to reach. Not a cell. Not freedom either. My hand flew to my left shoulder. The bandage was gone. Bare skin greeted my fingers—and beneath it, the Mark. I didn’t need a mirror to know it was there. My body remembered. The symbol lived under my skin like a second pulse, faint but undeniable. A slow throb answered my touch. I pulled my hand away sharply. “No,” I whispered, more plea than command.

Clearer. The court was already buzzing. News of the mark, the dreams, the broken memory,the council knew. Somehow, word always spread faster than truth. Conan stood beside me as I faced the high table. Twelve leaders. Twelve judges. One of them, a woman named Cara, looked at me with more pity than I could bear. “She’s marked,” Cara said. “That’s not a bond we can ignore.” “I didn’t choose to be marked,” I replied. “But you chose him once,” another councilor added. “Whether you remember or not.”

The glint in his eye told me he’d come not to catch up… but to stir the pot. I didn’t move at first. My hands were clenched behind my back, fingers digging into the fabric of my sleeves. The hall was buzzing… students moving between classes, magical sigils dancing on the domed ceiling overhead, teachers whispering incantations as they walked. And yet, Mark’s voice sliced through it all like a blade. He stopped in front of me, eyes gleaming. “Did you hear?” he said with a smirk. “They were only supposed to take one from our region. But thanks to Zane, someone else didn’t make it. Poor bastard blocked the slot.”

“He’s also kinda my mate.” The water she just swallowed from the bottle is now choking her as she coughs and bangs on her chest like some female Tarzan. “Whaaat?!” she says while still coughing up a lung, her face red and her eyes bulging out. “You’re…what the heck do you mean by kinda?!” “Trust me, that’s still my reaction,” I say and pop a cherry tomato into my mouth. “It’s what the Marking was all about; he’s acting like some sort of Alpha beast warning the rest of the male population to stay away.”

he replied and everyone chuckled. The officials looked at each other and nodded before one of them stepped out and bowed a little... " Your Majesty, Now that you are awake. We've been waiting for you. What should we do with the Marked that we captured? Some of them are dying already but there are still some with great strength... ************

At that moment, Arianne only had one thought in her head. However, it was neither to leave Mark, nor be fearful of him. She only wanted to protect him! “Geralt… can you… not report these markings? Just turn a blind eye to this. After all… it’s just some very messy markings that somehow form an ‘M’. We will never know whether this was left here by accident or if it was deliberate. Plus, this won’t be concrete evidence to evict Mark… There are so many words that can be formed with an ‘M’, so how could you be sure that it’s directed at Mark?!”

"The human." Maya's stomach dropped. "I'm not—" "You are." Wilder cut her off flat. "Marked." He said it like a fact. Like weather. Like something he already owned and didn't need her to confirm. Marlowe laughed. One short, sharp sound with no humor in it. "Marked by you," he said. "Not kept by you. Yet." Then he turned the full weight of his attention on Maya, and his voice changed. Smoother. Almost kind. That was somehow worse.

He is at least 9 feet tall, his deep blue eyes surveyed the environment as we walked. I could not shake off the feeling of being watched, it was annoying but the weird presence was gone. I felt a sharp piercing gaze at my back, It was too annoying to ignore. I turned sharply, suddenly locking my gaze with Alpha Jason. I wanted to ask but he answered before the question left my mouth. "You're Marked" "What?" "Who marked you...?" "It's not a mating mark, It's don't even belong to a werewolf" "Why are you marked?"

He pressed the button on his phone and slid it into his pocket before stepping away from the door and settling down on a sectional on the opposite side of the room from where Dani was pacing, shaking his head all the while. "I knew it. I knew it. When I marked my mate the mark was maybe three quarters the size of the one on your neck. Maybe. Maybe just over half. And that was bigger than any mark I'd seen in this territory. When I saw the mark on your neck, all shiny and new I knew it had to fucking be his." Waylon laughed lightly as he said the last sentence, and Dani could tell that he was more than a little nervous.