Login to ManoBook
icon 0
icon TOP UP
rightIcon
icon Reading History
rightIcon
icon Sign out
rightIcon
icon Get the APP
rightIcon
Marked by Moon

Marked by Moon

Jaja Lolia

5.0
Comment(s)
View
5
Chapters

*"Two born beneath the blood moon. One to crown the world. One to break it."* --- They were born under the same blood moon. They share the same birthday. They wear the same mark- But only one can be chosen. In the heart of a wild and ancient kingdom, the Red Wolf prophecy is more than legend-it's law. It foretells the return of the Moon Goddess in flesh... or the rise of a curse that will shatter the werewolf bloodline forever. **Princess Seraphina**, firstborn of the Alpha, carries the full red wolf sigil on her thigh. Worshipped since birth, she is the kingdom's pride, trained to rule beside the future Lycan King. Her path has always been clear-until another girl is born that night. **Elara**, the Omega orphan, arrived in silence and sorrow. Her mother died bringing her into the world. Her wolf never came. And the crimson mark on her back-a fragmented wolf's head-is feared as an omen of ruin. Cast to the pack's outskirts, Elara grows up forgotten, scraping by with nothing but quiet strength and a heart too stubborn to break. But fate remembers what the world forgets. As their eighteenth birthday approaches, the Lycan King announces he will choose his fated mate during the Moon Binding-a sacred rite where soul bonds ignite beneath the blood moon. The kingdom expects Seraphina to ascend. Instead, **the bond chooses Elara**. The court erupts in disbelief. How can a cursed girl with no wolf be chosen over the blessed heir? As Seraphina spirals into envy and desperation, her light begins to fracture-revealing something far darker beneath. Now hunted, tested, and rising, Elara A spellbinding tale of fate, rivalry, and rebirth ---

Chapter 1 The Girl with the Mark

--- **Chapter One**

**The Girl with the Mark**

*"The blood moon gives, and the blood moon takes. The red wolf does not ask to be born. She is summoned."* > -From *The Chronicles of Luphera* ---

The night Elara was born, the moon bled over the sky like a wound. It hung low and swollen above the pines, casting a strange crimson light over the packlands. Wolves howled into the wind, not in celebration, but in something older. Wilder. Fear threaded the air, thick as smoke. They said her mother screamed the whole way through labor-screamed until her throat bled and her heart gave out. There were no midwives, no healing spells, no Alpha's blessing. Only one woman in a cabin deep on the edge of the territory, clutching her swollen belly beneath a cursed sky. When the child was pulled from her mother's dying body, she was not crying. Not breathing. Until the wind changed. A sudden gust blew through the trees like a whisper-like an ancient thing waking from slumber-and the child opened her eyes. And wailed. That was when the elder women saw the **mark**. Crimson red, shaped like the head of a wolf, curved across her shoulder blade like a brand. Faintly glowing beneath the moonlight. They gasped. Some stepped back. One whispered, *"She bears the Curse."* And the child, still nameless, was left to the cold arms of the midwinter wind. --- They didn't give her a name. Not for weeks. They waited, hoping the mark would fade. Hoping she wouldn't survive the cold. Hoping she wouldn't awaken a prophecy best left buried in the bones of time. But Elara lived. A quiet woman from the outer village took her in, fed her goat's milk, and named her after the moon's forgotten child in the old stories-Elara, the silent star. She grew up far from the Howling Hall, where the Alpha court resided, and where power ran like a river through bloodlines. In the outer woods, where ash trees bowed low and the wolves did not speak of fate, Elara learned not to ask questions. Not to cry. Not to look too long at the red stain that curled across her back like a brand. She was ten when she realized she had no wolf. No shifting. No spark of transformation. No whisper in the back of her mind that others called "the beast within." The other children noticed first. They laughed when she couldn't run as fast, mocked her for walking like a girl with one foot in the human world. And so she stayed silent, and still. --- But the forest never laughed at her. The pines bent toward her as she passed. The wind played in her hair when no one else was near. Sometimes, the birds would land beside her on the riverbank, tilt their heads, and sing as if telling secrets. And always, the moon watched. Sometimes, it looked silver. Other times, pearly white. But when it turned red-once a year, without fail-Elara would sit outside her small cabin, feel the warmth in her shoulder, and wonder. Was it a mistake? Was she cursed? Or chosen? She never asked aloud. Not even when her bones ached with questions. --- When Elara turned seventeen, her guardian fell ill. Mira had raised her like a daughter-taught her how to gather herbs, how to hide when the patrols came near, how to braid her hair in a warrior's weave even if she'd never be one. But now she lay in bed, her skin pale, her breaths shallow. "Go," Mira rasped one night. "You'll have to go to the pack village. Ask the healers for foxroot. Or... something stronger." Elara hesitated. "They won't help me." "Don't ask them to," Mira whispered. "Take what you need. And if you see the Moonstone Path-don't follow it. Not yet." "What's the Moonstone Path?" But Mira only smiled faintly. "The stars will know when you're ready." --- The village was worse than Elara remembered. Stone towers ringed the central clearing, and silver wards buzzed in the air to keep out intruders. Wolves in human skin walked with arrogance, heads high, scents of pride thick in the wind. She slipped through alleyways, eyes down, cloak tight. She didn't need them to look at her. She didn't want them to remember. But someone did. "Isn't that the girl?" a voice whispered near the herb stalls. "The cursed one?" "No, she left. Thought she died." "Her mark. It glowed during the last blood moon." Elara kept walking. In the healer's hut, she moved like a shadow, quick and quiet. She found the foxroot and a pouch of wolfsbane-just in case. And just as she turned to leave, a low growl froze her in place. "You smell like smoke and silence," came a voice behind her. Male. Cold. She turned. A tall boy stood in the doorway, golden-eyed, with a hunting knife strapped to his side. Not a man, not yet. But strong enough to be dangerous. "I don't want trouble," Elara said quietly. "Too bad," he murmured. "Trouble follows the cursed." She stared back. Didn't flinch. And for the first time, something flickered in his eyes. "Go," he said finally. "Before the others see you." --- She ran until her lungs burned. But as she neared the forest's edge, she saw it. The Moonstone Path. It shimmered faintly across the ground-a trail of silver embedded in the soil, like the stars had fallen and bled into the earth. She remembered Mira's warning. *Don't follow it. Not yet.* But something pulled her forward. One step. Then another. And then- **A howl. Deep. Commanding. And ancient.** It rolled over the trees like thunder. Every hair on Elara's arms stood on end. From the edge of the woods, a figure appeared. Not a wolf. Not a man. A **Lycan**. His eyes were silver fire. His presence rippled with power. And when his gaze met hers, something inside her chest sparked-so violently, she staggered. "You..." he murmured. "Your scent..." Elara took a step back. Then his eyes widened. "It's you." She shook her head. "No. I don't know who you think I am-" But he stepped closer. Slowly. As if approaching a vision. "You carry the mark," he said. "And the moon just sang your name." ---

Continue Reading

Other books by Jaja Lolia

More
whisper Beneath the silk

whisper Beneath the silk

Fantasy

5.0

--- Whispers Beneath the Silk A romantic thriller steeped in secrets, shadows, and seduction. --- When Evelyn Roth, a gifted textile restorer with a hidden past, receives a mysterious commission to restore an estate's vintage gowns, she sees it as the opportunity of a lifetime. The request arrives with no sender's name, only a location: Silkenmoor, a manor whispered about in London's underground arts circles like a myth cloaked in velvet and blood. The job promises wealth, seclusion, and a chance to escape the echoes of her own carefully buried secrets. But Silkenmoor is no ordinary estate. Tucked away in the mist-laden cliffs of the English coast, the mansion looms like a memory lost in time. Its architecture is breathtaking-gothic arches, crimson silk drapes, and candlelit halls-but the atmosphere is suffocating. Whispers float down the corridors like perfume, and Evelyn quickly learns that the house hasn't quite moved on from its most tragic occupant: Lady Isadora Thorne, the glamorous and scandalous mistress of the estate who died in unexplained circumstances nearly a decade ago. And then there's Lord Alaric Thorne-Isadora's widower, and the enigmatic master of the house. Cold, refined, and devastatingly handsome, Alaric is every bit the haunted figure the rumors suggested. Townsfolk believe he drove his wife to madness, or worse. Alaric insists Evelyn is here merely to preserve the gowns for archival purposes, but he watches her too closely. Their tension is instant. Electric. Dangerous. The gowns-dozens of them, preserved in a sealed dressing room-are exquisite. But as Evelyn begins to work, she discovers more than frayed threads and forgotten lace. Hidden in hems are tiny slips of paper: love letters, warnings, confessions. Bloodstains have been washed but not erased. One bodice holds a lock of auburn hair that doesn't belong to Isadora at all. Someone, Evelyn realizes, tried to sew their story into the seams. Each dress whispers something new-and Evelyn, despite herself, begins to listen. Drawn deeper into the tangled history of the house, she uncovers a love triangle gone wrong, a possible pregnancy covered up, and an affair that may have led to blackmail-or murder. She finds herself caught between two men: the alluring but dangerous Alaric, and Julian Mercer, the charming solicitor who claims to be investigating the estate's secrets. Julian warns her that Alaric is not to be trusted. Alaric insists Julian is the true manipulator. As Evelyn spirals into obsession, she can't tell which of them is lying-or if they both are. The closer she gets to the truth, the more the estate begins to shift around her. Mirrors show people who aren't there. The silk feels alive against her skin. And every time she wears one of Isadora's gowns, she feels less like herself and more like the woman whose ghost she may be embodying. Is she unraveling a mystery-or being rewritten by it? When a hidden vault is discovered beneath the estate-filled with a final, unfinished gown, and a stitched confession from Isadora herself-Evelyn must make a devastating choice: expose the truth and destroy what's left of the Thorne legacy, or bury it forever to protect a man she may be falling in love with... even if he's guilty. But some secrets refuse to stay dead. And some love stories are written not in ink-but in blood, silk, and silence. --- Whispers Beneath the Silk is a gothic romance for fans of Rebecca, Verity, and Crimson Peak-a story of forbidden love, psychological suspense, and the ways we stitch ourselves into history. Evelyn's journey from forgotten seamstress to the author of her own story will leave readers breathless until the final, shattering reveal. ---

You'll also like

The Truth About His Mistress

The Truth About His Mistress

Gavin
5.0

I was four months pregnant, a photographer excited for our future, attending a sophisticated baby brunch. Then I saw him, my husband Michael, with another woman, and a newborn introduced as "his son." My world shattered as a torrent of betrayal washed over me, magnified by Michael's dismissive claim I was "just being emotional." His mistress, Serena, taunted me, revealing Michael had discussed my pregnancy complications with her, then slapped me, causing a terrifying cramp. Michael sided with her, publicly shaming me, demanding I leave "their" party, as a society blog already paraded them as a "picture-perfect family." He fully expected me to return, to accept his double life, telling his friends I was "dramatic" but would "always come back." The audacity, the calculated cruelty of his deception, and Serena's chilling malice, fueled a cold, hard rage I barely recognized. How could I have been so blind, so trusting of the man who gaslighted me for months while building a second family? But on the plush carpet of that lawyer's office, as he turned his back on me, a new, unbreakable resolve solidified. They thought I was broken, disposable, easily manipulated – a "reasonable" wife who would accept a sham separation. They had no idea my calm acceptance was not surrender; it was strategy, a quiet promise to dismantle everything he held dear. I would not be handled; I would not understand; I would end this, and make sure their perfect family charade crumbled into dust.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book