Rejecting The Pack: I Need One Mate
In our beast world, females are treated as nothing more than precious breeding stock to keep the pack strong. As the pack's best Mender, I spent all my time focusing on my healing herbs, completely ignoring my maturity ritual.
But tonight, the blind pack elder grabbed my wrist and delivered a chilling ultimatum.
If I don't choose my mates by the next Full Moon, the Council of Elders will force a match and assign them to me.
The threat is already suffocating. Arrogant, elite warriors like Caleb Quinn are pacing outside my door like starving wolves, stalking my porch and using pack business to corner me. At home, the reality of multiple mates is even worse. My mother has two mates—my father, the strongest Alpha, and my cold, intellectual step-father. Their toxic, murderous jealousy turns our house into a daily war zone. They literally unleash suffocating killing intent on innocent cubs just for hugging my mother.
I am disgusted by this sick, possessive obsession. I refuse to let my life become a battlefield of jealous males fighting over who gets to guard my door, and I absolutely refuse to be forced into a harem by the Elders.
So, I made a declaration that shocked my entire family and broke every pack tradition.
"I will only ever take one mate."
And to make sure none of those predatory warriors can touch me, I set an impossible trap.
"Whoever wants me must defeat my father first."
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Chapter 4
The noise of the hunting party faded behind them as they walked down the main path. Armond's hard features finally relaxed, the tension leaving his jaw.
Evan was still fuming. He kicked a stone hard, sending it skittering into the bushes. "I hate him," Evan muttered. "He always acts like he owns you."
Kala chuckled. She reached out and ruffled Evan's messy hair, messing it up even more. "You were very brave just now," she praised. "Like a real warrior."
Evan's pout vanished instantly. He puffed out his chest, and a fluffy tail popped out from under his shirt, wagging proudly behind him.
A booming voice echoed from up ahead. "Armond! Little Kala!"
Ridge Mason was walking toward them. He was a towering warrior who had just finished his patrol shift. He had a broad, easy smile on his face.
Ridge's eyes swept over Kala, pausing for a moment of obvious appreciation. "Looking more beautiful every day, Kala!" he laughed, his voice carrying no malice, only cheerful boldness. "No wonder the males are lining up to be your mates!"
He turned his grin on Armond. "Hey, Armond! When are you going to pick a few strong ones for her? You can't keep her locked up forever!"
The air stopped moving.
Armond stopped walking. The warmth that had just returned to his face vanished, replaced by a mask of absolute, chilling fury. His eyes became blades of ice, pinning Ridge to the spot.
A suffocating wave of pure, heavy Alpha pressure erupted from Armond, pressing down like an invisible boulder. He didn't unleash his killing intent this time, but the sheer weight of his aura was enough to choke the air out of the surrounding space.
Ridge's smile froze. Sweat poured down his temples, soaking his collar in seconds. His legs began to shake, his knees threatening to buckle. He had touched the most sensitive nerve of the Padilla family. Everyone in the pack knew Armond was intensely protective of his daughter, but no one realized that even a harmless, well-meaning joke could ignite such a terrifying reaction from the lion.
Armond took a step forward. His voice was a low, deadly rumble that sounded like it came from the depths of a grave. "Shut your mouth."
"My daughter," Armond growled, "does not need any filthy male stink on her."
Armond's fist rose. A faint red glow began to pulse around his knuckles-the sign of his spatial ability charging up. He was about to lose control.
Kala moved. She didn't try to grab his arm; she jumped onto his back. She wrapped her arms tightly around his thick neck, pressing her cheek against his ear.
"I'm hungry," Kala whined, her voice dripping with honeyed sweetness. "I want the roasted meat only you can make. Please, Father? I'm starving."
The red glow around Armond's fist flickered and died. The scent of his daughter-mint and safety-and the feeling of her soft arms around him acted like a bucket of water on the fire of his rage.
He slowly lowered his fist. He threw one last, murderous glare at Ridge. It was a look that promised a slow death if they ever crossed paths again.
Ridge scrambled away, nearly tripping over his own feet in his rush to escape.
Armond turned his head, his face transforming instantly. He smiled warmly at Kala, patting her hands where they clasped his shoulder. "Of course, my little Mender. Let's go home right now."
Evan stared at his father, his jaw hanging open. He couldn't believe the speed of the change. One second a monster, the next a doting father.
They walked the rest of the way in peace. Armond was already mentally executing every male who had ever looked at Kala.
They rounded the final bend. Their large, two-story cabin came into view. Warm light glowed from the windows.
Kala's smile vanished.
Armond let out a low, dangerous growl from his throat. Beside him, Evan didn't hesitate this time. He yanked the bone knife from his belt, the blade glinting in the moonlight.
Standing in the shadows of their front porch was a tall figure.
Caleb Quinn stood there, holding a bouquet of rare, glowing medicinal herbs. He was waiting for them, silent and uninvited, like a ghost that refused to be exorcised.
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8.1
She thought patience would earn her love.
She was wrong.
After years of waiting for her best friend to finally see her, she meets the one man she should never want-his older brother. Dark, forbidden, and dangerously perceptive, he sees through every excuse she's ever made for being overlooked.
Now she must choose between a safe fantasy that keeps breaking her heart and a dangerous truth that offers no escape once it begins.
Because the brother who looks at her like that?
He doesn't believe in halfway love.
8.6
Today was my father's grand second wedding, but for me, it was the anniversary of my mother's death.
My new stepmother, Marley, who was only four years older than me, cornered me. To establish her dominance as the new Luna, she ordered her servants to force me to my knees and violently ripped my late mother's necklace from my neck.
It was the only memento my mother had left me. Marley sneered, threw it to the ground, and shattered the gems. When I scrambled to pick up the broken pieces, she dug her high-heeled shoe into the back of my hand, mocking me as dirty trash. No one stepped in to help. My father was too busy celebrating his new marriage under the dazzling lights, completely erasing my mother's memory and leaving me to be abused in my own pack.
My heart was full of grievance and despair. Why did my mother's lifelong devotion end with her grave desolate and her daughter humiliated? I swore I would never become a weak, discarded she-wolf whose life depended on a man.
Desperate to escape the suffocating wedding, I ran outside and stumbled right into the chest of a terrifying stranger.
"No one should ever touch what is precious to you."
His golden eyes blazed with fury as sparks instantly shot through my veins. He was Kade Blackwood, the ruthless Alpha of the feared Blood Moon Pack—and my fated mate.
9.5
One night, I was a girl seeking vengeance in a velvet mask. He was the stranger who took me against a cold stone wall, his touch a silent, lethal promise.
Now, he is Caspian Blackwood-the most feared architecture professor at Aethelgard. When my "perfect" boyfriend, Dominic Calloway, cheats on me and sabotages my degree, Caspian offers a lifeline with a razor-thin edge: Be his silent, nude model for thirty days.
The rules are absolute. I must wear a silk mask and a weighted collar. I must never speak. I must hold the poses he demands until my muscles scream for mercy. In the lecture hall, he ignores me with arctic indifference. In the studio, his gaze is a physical weight, stripping me faster than his hands ever could. But as the charcoal scratches against the paper, I realize the "deal" isn't just for art. It's for the soul I accidentally gave him in the dark. Will the deal destroy his career, or consume me first?
7.5
I was Nyx, a top-tier covert operative. But when I opened my eyes, I was trapped in the unfamiliar, overweight body of a bullied girl named Eliza.
Before I could even process the body swap, the bedroom door splintered open. I was in bed with Julian Malone, a wealthy military heir, both of us heavily drugged. Cameras flashed wildly. It was a vicious setup to ruin his career, and I was the bait.
To save his family's reputation, Julian was forced to marry me. But the moment the wedding was over, he abandoned me. His elite family treated me like a disease. His mother froze my only bank account, trying to starve me into submission.
I even intercepted a private conversation between his parents.
"Once she's in a private facility, she loses all legal standing. We can sign anything we want on her behalf."
They planned to lock me up in a mental asylum and erase my existence entirely to get rid of the "trailer park trash."
To them, I was just a weak, pathetic pawn they could crush without a second thought. They thought they had backed a helpless girl into a corner.
They had no idea they had just declared war on a lethal weapon.
I didn't cry or beg. Instead, I bypassed their state-of-the-art security, cracked their safe, and stole the financial secrets that could destroy their entire empire.
"I want five hundred thousand dollars, or these files go to the IRS."
This time, I was playing by my own rules.
9.6
When a global anomaly awakens dormant powers within them, a neuroscientist, a physicist, and an artist discover they are connected by a force that defies time itself. Mert sees the memories of strangers. Elena witnesses the fabric of reality crack. Kai paints symbols from a past he never knew. Thrown together by fate, they are not alone. Across the globe, others are awakening too-gifted with extraordinary abilities. But they are not the only ones. A powerful cabal-a ruthless financier, a tech mogul, and a charismatic influencer-sees the anomaly not as a warning, but as a weapon. Their ambition shatters the timeline, scattering the group across history: from the smog-choked streets of Victorian London to a transhumanist future, and into a terrifying parallel present. Broken into three teams, the group must hunt their enemies through time itself. To survive, they must master their new powers and forge bonds of love and loyalty strong enough to bend the laws of physics. Their final battle will not be fought in any single era, but at the crossroads of all realities, where the key to existence-the very heart of time-is at stake.
7.5
After spending five grueling years securing the Madden Pack's empire, I thought my Alpha mate and I were finally building a perfect family.
But on my birthday, I returned home to find a thick, impenetrable wall of ice in our Mate bond.
Caden had completely shut me out to throw a lavish party for my half-sister, Adalynn.
He let Adalynn pollute our penthouse with her cheap perfume and brainwash my five-year-old daughter, Elara.
"Auntie Adalynn is a million times better than Mommy!"
Elara chirped happily to a camera, while Caden watched with a doting smile.
He publicly humiliated me, commanded the servants to ignore me, and deliberately fed Elara severe allergens just to spite my maternal rules.
When my pup ended up in the pack hospital gasping for air, Caden confiscated her tablet and roared at her to stop crying for the mother who "abandoned" her.
My heart shattered into a million irreparable pieces.
I couldn't understand how the man destined to protect my soul could twist my love into cruelty and use our helpless cub as a punching bag for his ego.
But the weeping, pathetic Luna died right there.
I calmly signed the divorce papers, surrendered all my assets, and walked out into the cold night.
Opening my encrypted laptop, I reclaimed my hidden identity as the global elite hacker "Ghost" and initiated a lethal protocol.
It was time to burn his entire world to the ground.