The Marked One Novels & Stories

The sacred light of the Moon Goddess altar bathed me in silver as I stood there, the pack's recognized Luna. My gown shimmered with moonstones, and I waited for Alpha Joshua Ford to complete the marking. "Joshua, do you swear to take Nicole as your mate, to stand by her side for all your days?" The priest's voice was solemn and reverent. Joshua opened his mouth to answer, but then his gaze snapped to his phone. His face went pale in an instant.

I had been able to see the labels above people's heads ever since I was little. When I was three, my grandpa held a family dinner at his house. Dad showed up with his secretary, Vivian Clarke. The moment she walked through the door, she went straight to Mom's seat. She rubbed her lower back and smiled sweetly. "Mrs. Lincoln, I hope you don't mind. Mr. Lincoln and I have been working on a project all day, and we're exhausted." I looked around the room. Above Eric's head was a glaring label. "Cheater." Above Mom's head was a dull gray label. "Loser." And above Vivian's head was a brightly shining label. "Ultimate gold digger." I immediately tugged on Eric's sleeve and asked loudly, "Dad, what

“Emma is yours. All three of them. Forever.” Mark smiled, slow and certain, his hand sliding down to rub the glowing mark gently. “Every single day. The marathon never ends.”

"Ryan." "I already had someone put on her door." "That's not what I'm saying." His voice had changed. Just enough to leave me worried. "I'm saying whoever planned this planned all of it, including where you'd be standing right now." The cold came fast and I let it, because cold was useful, cold kept me thinking when everything in me wanted to stop thinking and start moving. "Marisol," I said. "Those markings. Get her down here." "Already called her." Dominic straightened up behind us. "She's on her way."

Both of us were soaked. Seeing that I had also been splashed, the villager hurried forward, intending to apologize. However, the moment he looked at me, he fell silent as he stared in shock. I paused for a moment before realizing something was wrong. My heart sank. Sure enough, Aldric’s gaze shifted back and forth between Rosalind and me. “The Princess’s mark on her forehead washed away with the water, but Lady Leanora’s makeup faded… and revealed a real birthmark! Lady Leanora… She is the true Chosen One!”

A faint frown ghosts across his brows. “What?” I ask, voice soft. “That looks fresh.” His fingers lifts, barely grazing the healed-but-still-new bite mark just below my ear. The one from Shawn. “Mmmhmm.” I say, reaching for the silk scarf on the table, and wrapping it loosely around my throat to hide the mark. His eyes meet mine in the mirror, steady and searching. “Is it Shawn?” I hold his gaze but say nothing. He exhales through his nose. “I’ll take your silence as a yes.” he pauses, then quieter, “You’re mated now.”

For one stupid second, my mind goes straight to Zahra. I take in the girl. She's pretty enough, in a manufactured, plastic kind of way. Fake tits. Hair extensions in platinum blonde. She leers at me, showing off her mark. I look at it. Instead of the beautiful, extravagant filigree of most marks I've seen, like the ones my friends all wear, unique to each mated couple and incorporating elements of both of them, this one is small, with little detail. It's not much more than a black circle with a few dots on it.

I declare. "Suit yourself," he says. He runs a hand through his hair and is about to leave when something on my neck catches his gaze. His eyes widen, and he grabs my arm and pulls me closer. His eyes change from blue to bloodshot, "What the fuck is this?" he growls, grip tightening. I wince in pain. "What?" "You're marked!" he roars.

Samuel raised his hands, and the murmur died down. “What’s more,” Caleb continued, “this woman here,” he said, nodding towards me, “she is The One.” Woman. I had never been called that before. I liked it. But I didn’t understand. The One? He had put a funny emphasis on the phrase, as if he were talking about the Messiah or something. I wondered if they were all crazy. Another murmur arose, and all heads turned to stare at me. “I need to see the Council,” Caleb said, “And I must bring her with me.”

I asked, growing increasingly more concerned. "We don't know what happened, but Chase found them. Agent Marks was found dead at the scene." "WHAT?!" I unknowingly shouted, altering Jessica and waking Maverick from his sleep. Maverick began to cry, and Jessica picked him up, holding him in a tight hug. She looked over at me, but I didn't miss the concerned expression on her face. I could tell that she knew that something was wrong, and was desperate to find out what had happened. I switched the phone over to speaker phone, knowing that Jessica desperately wanted to know what had happened. Thankfully, Maverick was too young to understand what was going on.