Novels by Denny Ink

SageI watched in pure disbelief at a sight I would never have imagined possible a week ago, a well-respected Chief of a noble werewolf clan, crawling aimlessly across the cold marble floor of the Hotel Elysian's top level, while an entire ballroom of guests watched and laughed.I felt sorry for him. I couldn't help it, even knowing what he'd done."Your pity is meaningless, Sage." Dominic's voice came low and harsh beside me, without even a glance my way. "Save it for those who actually need it.""Is this really necessary?" I asked, unable to tear my eyes from the old man dragging himself across the floor on his hands and knees.Low-ranking werewolves had started throwing things at him now, not stones, nothing that would draw blood, just mockery dressed as sport. Someone poured the dregs of a wine glass over his head as he passed, and the laughter that followed rippled through three tables at once. He didn't look up. He didn't fight it. He just kept crawling, following the path Auror

DominicI heard the walls go down the same moment everyone else at the gathering did, a crash loud enough to silence three tables of chatter at once. I didn't need to see it to know it had something to do with Sage. Some instinct older than reasoning told me, the same way I'd known something was wrong the moment the First Clan Chief abandoned his own table to come sit at mine.He and I had never seen eye to eye. I preferred it that way. Trust was a currency I didn't deal in with men like him.My nostrils flared, and underneath the noise of the hall I caught it, burnt Alpha flesh, sharp and chemical in a way ordinary fire didn't produce.Silver nitrate.A lethal little compound, favored by werewolves who wanted to make absolutely sure a death stayed quiet. Ingested, it roasted a body's organs from the inside out and burned away every biological trace that might otherwise identify the corpse. Convenient, if you needed someone gone and untraceable. I'd used it myself, once or twice, in y

Sage.He was arrogant the way his chief was arrogant, inherited, not earned. A Beta playing at a Gamma's caution and missing it by a wide margin.I pirouetted clean out of his strike, and the flash of surprise that crossed his face when my speed registered was almost funny. I didn't give him time to recover from it. I came back at him fast, a left hook aimed for his temple that he dodged by leaning back just far enough, and walked himself straight into the kick I'd already loaded behind it. My foot caught his jaw.He left his feet entirely. His body hit the wall hard enough to shatter through it, plaster and wood splitting around the shape of him. I hadn't used a single thread of magic, and I didn't need to check to know what I'd done, his jaw was shattered a

Sage"You are just an ordinary Omega, Sage Winters." The First Clan Chief's voice carried the particular boredom of a man who had said this kind of thing to a hundred people before me and watched all of them break the same way. He didn't know about me. Couldn't know. "So I implore you to make this easy on yourself."The room he'd chosen for this was too elegant for what he intended, gold accents, a low table, the kind of chair you'd offer a guest you respected. He hadn't offered me one.A young-looking werewolf entered behind him, and something in my chest pulled tight before my mind caught up to why. His enforcer. I could feel the aggression rolling off him in waves, the

Sage"So you're using me to secure your position here," I said, and the sadness in my voice surprised me. I hadn't expected it to hurt quite this much, hearing the truth laid out plainly."Among other things," Dominic replied, calm as ever, as though we were discussing the weather rather than the systematic dismantling of my autonomy.My appetite vanished entirely. I pushed my plate away. "Why else would you trap me here, then? Enlighten me.""To keep you away from the others." He didn't need to clarify who he meant. Asher. Kieran. The two men who had each, in their own complicated ways, wanted me and lost their chance to claim it."I didn't realize the three of you were enemies," I said, letting sarcasm bleed freely into my voice. "I assumed Alphas shared everything, thoughts, feelings, strategy sessions over tea.""We were never friends to begin with," he said, unbothered by the bite in my words. "I was counting on their pride to make them underestimate exactly what you're capable o

SageI wanted to ignore him out of pure spite, but he wasn't wrong. I was hungry, and whatever fight was coming would require more than righteous fury to sustain me through it. I was acutely conscious of every movement I made as I ate, aware that I had become, against my will, a person other people watched closely, cataloguing every small detail for reasons I didn't fully understand yet."You don't need to be so tense," Dominic said, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Try to enjoy yourself, Sage."I wiped my mouth with a napkin and reached for my water with more force than necessary. "I hate this attention, Dominic." The words came out sharp, unmistakable in their irritation.

I spent the entire walk back staring at my hands not because there was anything unusual about them but because they knew something I didn’t.There was a life growing inside me.My steps slowed as my hand moved slowly to my stomach.The healer’s words repeated in my mind.You’re having a child, I still couldn’t understand it.How could something so small exist inside me when my entire world had already fallen apart?My hand drifted to my stomach again. I hadn't meant to do that but it kept happeningI reached my room and closed the door behind me, the small space felt different not because anything had changed but because I had.I sat on the bed and stared at the wall and the thought of having a child scared me.I didn’t know how to be a mother.I didn’t know how to raise someone when I had spent my entire life wondering why my own parents couldn’t love me.A bitter laugh escaped me.What kind of person was I?Rejected by my mate, abandoned by my family and now carrying a child into th

A week after leaving the Beta House, I was walking back from the market carrying a small bag of supplies when I heard footsteps behind me.At first, I ignored them.I had learned that reacting to every stare and every whisper would destroy me but the footsteps continued.My grip tightened around the bag."Are you following me?"Laughter answered.My stomach sank."I heard Alpha Remus got tired of you after one night."I turned.Three wolves stood behind me, I recognized two of them immediately, they had laughed when I passed them before.The third was taller than the others, broad-shouldered with a cruel smile.His gaze swept over me."What do you want?""Nothing."His smile widened. “We were just talking."I stared at him."Well I don’t have that time" I said as I turned to leave."Come back here.” He said as he grabbed my arm.My body reacted before my mind did.I jerked away."Don't touch me."The wolf's expression darkened, for a second, nobody moved then he laughed."You still t

The omega district sat at the far edge of the pack territory.I had passed through it before but not as someone who belonged there.The difference felt enormous; the houses were smaller than the ones near the center of the pack. The roads were uneven. Paint peeled from walls. Roofs sagged under years of neglect.Nobody smiled as I dragged my suitcase down the narrow dirt road.A few people glanced at me, then glanced away and others didn’t bother hiding their curiosity.I kept my eyes forward. If I looked at them, I might see pity or worse.The room I rented was barely large enough to fit a bed, a chair, and a small dresser. I stood in the doorway for several seconds.This was it, this was what remained of my life.Yesterday, I had lived in the Beta House and today, I lived here.The thought should have made me cry but instead, I felt strangely numb.I set my suitcase on the bed, the mattress creaked beneath its weight. The sound echoed through the tiny room, for the first time since

The room emptied slowly. Selene was the first to leave, she never looked at me again.One moment she stood in the doorway, tears streaming down her face. The next, she turned and disappeared into the hallway.My mother followed immediately, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as though Selene was the victim here as though I was the one who had done something unforgivable.My father lingered only long enough to look at me, the disgust in his eyes hurt more than the slap, then he left too.The door closed, silence settled over the room and for a moment, I simply sat there.The blanket clenched in my fists, my cheek still burning and my heart still trying to convince itself this wasn’t real that I would wake up and that none of this had happened.But Remus was still there, standing beside the window, a living reminder that it had.Neither of us spoke, the silence stretched until it became unbearable. Finally, he said,“You should pack.”I laughed.It wasn’t because anything was funny bu

I woke up to the breathing of someone beside me and for a few seconds, I didn’t move, I was caught somewhere between sleep and consciousness.The awareness hit me almost immediately as my eyes snapped open.My eyes caught the sunlight spilled through the curtains. The blanket tangled around my waist wasn't mine neither was the dark gray sheet beneath me or the arm draped across my stomach.My pulse stopped as I slowly, almost mechanically, turned my head.Remus Lyall was asleep beside me and for one impossible second, my brain refused to process if it was him.Remus.Alpha of the Lyall Pack, the man everyone already called Selene’s future mate.My sister’s future Alpha, the one my father welcomed into our home with pride, the man my mother treated like he was already family.The man who sat beside Selene at every pack gathering while I remained quietly at the corner, unnoticed because that was how it had always been.Selene was the daughter everyone saw, the daughter, my mother loved