Novels by Dera's ink

I couldn’t breathe.Daniel was here. Daniel—my Daniel—with rain dripping from his jacket and desperation etched into every line of his face. “I’m sorry - who are you?” Daniel asked again and Cade grinned although his smile didn’t reach his eyes.“I’m Ayla’s mate.” He whispered and my heart dropped.Bastard.Daniel frowned and looked at me, “your mate?”I swallowed hard. “It’s not what it sounds like.”“I think it’s exactly what it sounds like,” he said, trying to smile but failing miserably.Cade stepped forward, slow and calm, but the tension in his body was barely leashed. “She is my mate. That bond snapped into place the second I saw her.”“Don’t,” I said, glaring at him. “Dont you dare try to sabotage my life more than you’ve already done you ass wipe.”“You want me to pretend that it doesn’t matter?” Cade’s tone stayed quiet, but there was steel beneath every word. “I’ve let you run once, Ayla. I won’t let you go again.”“You don’t own me,” I snapped, loud enough to cut through

“No. No. No—this isn’t happening.”I walked fast. Too fast. The pine needles blurred under my feet, the scent of moss and packland stinging my nose like poison. My lungs heaved, my vision tunneled, and my body burned from the inside out.Mate.Mate?I nearly shifted from the sheer force of panic crawling under my skin.My mate bond was supposed to be a blessing.Not a punishment.Not him.“Ayla wait!” Cade’s voice called behind me but I kept walking.“Don’t follow me you badtard!!”I really shouldn’t be cursing out my Alpha but Cade wasn’t my Alpha and I’d be damned if I accept him as my mate too.My skin crawled just thinking about it.I found the edge of the burial clearing and collapsed against a tree, pressing my forehead to the bark. The cold bite of the wind did nothing to numb the chaos in my chest.The pull between us still vibrated under my skin and I could feel him. I hated it but I could feel him - his presence there with me like a thread tied tight between our souls.A th

(CADE’s POV)The smell of blood hit me before I stepped into the clearing.Two bodies. Ripped open. Limbs twisted at unnatural angles. The third was barely clinging to life, breathing in ragged wheezes as the medic tried to keep pressure on the wound.“Rogues again?” I asked.Riven nodded, jaw clenched. “Same claw patterns. Same north ridge. No scent trail, though. Like they’re masking themselves.”I knelt beside the younger wolf. Jonas. Eighteen. Barely out of training.His eyes found mine. “Alpha…”“Save your strength,” I said quietly.He smiled. Smiled, gods damn him. “You should’ve seen the way I blocked that first hit…”His chest shuddered, then stilled.I stood, blood soaking into my boots, and something inside me twisted. Not with shock. Not even anger.With exhaustion.How many more young wolves do I have to lose for this to be over?Later, I sat in my office with a glass of whiskey I wasn’t even drinking and a map littered with red pins.The pack was fraying. We were losing

CHAPTER ONE“Did you just put chili oil on strawberries?”Daniel looked at me like I’d committed a culinary crime.I grinned, balancing the bowl in one hand as I hopped onto the kitchen counter. “It’s a thing. Sweet, spicy, tangy. Try it before you judge.”He raised a skeptical brow, the sleeves of his white shirt rolled to his elbows as he reached for a berry. “If I die, I’m haunting you.”“Don’t be dramatic.”He bit into it and paused. Then his eyes widened. “Okay, that’s… weirdly good.”I nudged his side with my knee. “Told you.”Our little apartment smelled like roasted coffee and spring rain, windows cracked open to let in the breeze. The city hummed outside—car horns, laughter, a distant siren or two. But in here? It was peace. Warm, humming, real.Daniel walked over to his laptop, pushing aside a mess of blueprints and client sketches. “Remind me again why you’re not bottling your chaos genius into a restaurant?”“Because chaos genius doesn’t pay the bills,” I said, hopping dow

“Get up, deadweight.”Cade’s voice cracked like a whip across the training field, and every head turned toward me.I blinked through the blood trickling from my eyebrow, and pushed myself up. Slowly, shakily.Dirt caked my hands. My knees throbbed. I should’ve stayed down. But his tone— the way it sounded so arrogant and cold made something twist inside me. “Oh, come on.” He huffed like I was wasting his time. “Even pups shift better than that.”Laughter rippled through the circle of trainees. No one stepped forward. No one offered a hand. Not like they ever did.I scoffed as I tried to even out my breathing.Pack unity - they say. But for an orphaned omega like me, unity never stretched far enough.“Maybe if you focused less on hiding in the kitchens and more on training, you’d actually be useful,” Cade said, strolling toward me with lazy arrogance. He looked like every girl’s fantasy—tall, golden-haired, eyes like storm clouds, muscles coiled and confident. But even with his go