Marked While We Slept

### Chapter 1: Chapter 1

SA referenced. Strong females who overcome abuse and neglect.

This is an idea for a full-length novel that I had. Wondering if I should complete it. Right now it's just a short story. Let me know if I should work to make it full-length: One morning, 23 women and girls wake up to find out they were marked in their sleep. Ages 12-30, none of them remember it happening. All the markings are from high ranking wolf shifters, but no one recognizes any of the scents. Who marked them and why? They need to find out soon because their sadistic alpha is making their lives miserable.

Complete Chapters 17 Rating 4.7 ( 20 reviews ) Age Rating 16+ {"language":"en","storyId":1601658,"genres":[{"name":"Fantasy","path":"/genres/fantasy"}],"authorName":"Delilah Bennett","authorPath":"/DelilahBennett","status":"complete","lastUpdatedAt":1764037428,"chaptersCount":17,"rating":4.666666666666667,"reviewsCount":20,"ageRating":"16+"} Chapter 1: The Shadow Man The dream always started the same way.

Riley Merritt lay in her narrow bed, the thin blanket pulled up to her chin against the mountain cold that seeped through the cracks in the cabin walls. In the dream, she was aware of being asleep, aware of the moonlight streaming through her small window, aware of the sound of her father’s snoring from the main room.

Then the shadows in the corner of her room began to move.

She tried to sit up, tried to scream, but her body wouldn’t obey. Sleep paralysis, some distant part of her mind whispered. Just a nightmare. But it felt so real . The shadow detached itself from the wall, taking the rough shape of a man—tall, broad-shouldered, moving with a predator’s grace.

The shadow man crossed her room in silence, and Riley’s heart hammered against her ribs. She could feel her wolf stirring somewhere deep inside her, still dormant, still months or maybe years away from emerging, but aware in a way it had never been before.

When the shadow reached her bedside, it paused. Riley still couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, but she could feel . The air around her grew thick with a scent she couldn’t quite identify—pine and winter storms and something wild and protective and utterly foreign to this pack.

The shadow man reached out, and she felt cool fingers brush against the curve where her neck met her shoulder. The touch sent electricity racing through her veins, equal parts terror and something else, something that made her dormant wolf keen with confusion.

White-hot and searing, like teeth sinking into her flesh, marking her, claiming her. Riley wanted to scream but couldn’t. She wanted to fight but was frozen. The pain blossomed across her shoulder and neck, spreading like wildfire, and beneath it came something else—a bond snapping into place, invisible threads connecting her to this stranger made of shadows and moonlight.

I’m sorry, a voice whispered in her mind, deep and rough and filled with genuine regret. I’m so sorry. But this is the only way to protect you.

Then the shadow was retreating, dissolving back into the darkness, and Riley felt herself sinking deeper into sleep, into dreams that felt less real than what had just happened, into a darkness that swallowed everything.

She bolted upright in bed, her heart racing, disoriented and confused. For a moment she thought the shadow man had been real, that he was still in her room, but no—her room was empty save for her rickety furniture and the pale dawn light creeping through her window.

The screaming was coming from outside.

Riley threw off her blanket and immediately gasped. Her shoulder burned . She pressed her hand against it and felt raised skin, tender and hot to the touch. With trembling fingers, she pulled down the collar of her nightshirt and twisted to see her reflection in the small, cracked mirror on her wall.

Fresh, red and angry-looking, but unmistakable. The pattern of teeth marks formed a crescent on the junction of her neck and shoulder, the universal sign that she belonged to someone, that she was claimed, that she was mated .

“No,” Riley whispered. “No, no, no.”

She was only fourteen. She didn’t even have her wolf yet. And she had been in her bed all night—she was sure of it. The shadow man had been a dream. He had to have been a dream.

But mate marks didn’t appear from dreams.

The screaming outside intensified, joined by more voices. Riley heard her father’s heavy footsteps, heard him cursing, heard the front door slam open. She forced herself to move, to pull on her worn jeans and a shirt with a high collar, to braid her dark hair with shaking hands.

When she emerged from her room, her father was gone. The cabin was empty. Riley wrapped her arms around herself and stepped outside into chaos.

The pack grounds were in an uproar. Women and girls were stumbling out of cabins, some crying, some looking shell-shocked. Mothers were shouting. Fathers were arguing. And the pack leadership—Alpha Garrett and his Beta and enforcers—were storming through the compound with fury written across their faces.

Riley spotted Mara Chen, sixteen and one of the few people who had ever been kind to her, standing outside her family’s cabin with her hand pressed to her neck. Their eyes met across the compound, and Riley saw her own shock and fear reflected back at her.

“Riley!” Her father appeared beside her, his face pale. Omega wolves weren’t common in any pack, and her father had always been gentle, submissive, more comfortable following than leading. But now he looked terrified. “Let me see.”

Riley pulled down her collar. Her father’s face went even paler.

“Who?” he demanded. “Who was it? Did you see him?”

“I—I was asleep, Papa. I had a dream, but—”

“A dream?” Her father’s voice cracked. “Riley, mate marks don’t come from dreams!”

“I know that!” Riley’s eyes burned with tears. “But I was asleep! I swear I was asleep! There was no one—”

“ALL UNMATED FEMALES TO THE SQUARE. NOW!”

Alpha Garrett’s voice boomed across the compound, enhanced by his Alpha command. Riley felt it like a physical push, compelling her forward. Her father grabbed her arm, but she was already moving, unable to resist the command.

The square was the central gathering place of their pack—a cleared area of hard-packed dirt surrounded by the main cabins. Riley joined the growing crowd of women and girls, all of them looking terrified, many with fresh mate marks visible on their necks and shoulders.

Riley did a quick count. Twenty-three. Twenty-three marked females, ranging from girls as young as twelve to women in their thirties. The entire unmated female population of the pack.

Alpha Garrett stood on the raised platform usually reserved for pack meetings and executions. He was a massive man, his wolf a dominant Alpha that made the air around him feel heavy and oppressive. His face was mottled red with rage.

“Who was it?” he snarled, his eyes raking over them. “Which one of you brought males into this pack? Which one of you invited this?”

Silence. Terrified, trembling silence.

Riley flinched. Beside her, a girl named Sophie started crying. She was only twelve, small and fragile-looking, and she looked like she might faint.

“Alpha,” one of the women—Jessica, twenty-eight and usually defiant—spoke up with a shaking voice. “We don’t know. We were all asleep. We didn’t invite anyone. We didn’t—”

“LIES!” Beta Marcus stepped forward, his face twisted with fury. “Mate marks don’t appear from thin air! Someone had to apply them. Someone had to bite you.”

“We’re telling the truth,” Mara Chen said, her voice stronger than Jessica’s but still afraid. “We were all asleep. We all had dreams—”

“Dreams?” Alpha Garrett laughed, the sound cold and cruel. “You expect us to believe that phantom men marked all of you in your sleep?”

“I don’t know what happened,” Mara said, “but I know I didn’t invite anyone. I know I was in my bed all night. My parents were right outside my door—ask them.”

Several fathers in the crowd called out confirmation, but Alpha Garrett silenced them with a look.

“The scents,” Riley whispered to Mara. “Can they smell who marked us?”

Mara shook her head slightly. “I don’t recognize mine. It’s not anyone from the pack.”

Alpha Garrett was conferring with Beta Marcus and the enforcers. Riley strained to hear, catching fragments: “—outside wolves—” “—invasion—” “—can’t track the scents—” “—already gone—”

Finally, Alpha Garrett turned back to them, and the look on his face made Riley’s blood run cold.

“You are all contaminated,” he said flatly. “Marked by unknown males, possibly from rival packs, possibly as an act of war. Until we determine what happened and why, you are all considered security risks.”

“Security risks?” Jessica’s voice rose. “We’re the victims here! We were attacked in our sleep!”

“You are marked property that belongs to males outside this pack,” Alpha Garrett said. “That makes you compromised. You will be confined to the work camps. You will have no contact with the rest of the pack. You will be monitored at all times. And if we find evidence that any of you conspired in this—” His smile was vicious. “—there will be consequences.”

The crowd erupted. Parents shouted protests. The marked women cried out in dismay. Riley felt like the ground was tilting beneath her feet.

“Papa!” she called out, searching the crowd for her father.

But the enforcers were already moving forward, separating the marked women from their families, herding them toward the eastern edge of the compound where the work camps were located—crude barracks used for punishment details and the pack’s most brutal labor.

Riley caught sight of her father, tears streaming down his face, being held back by two pack males. He was an Omega; he had no power here, no authority to protect her.

“It’s okay, Papa!” Riley called out, trying to sound brave even though she was terrified. “It’s okay!”

As the enforcers marched them toward the work camps, Riley looked back at the pack grounds one last time. She saw the other pack members watching with a mixture of pity and relief that it wasn’t them. She saw the Alpha’s cold satisfaction. She saw her father collapse to his knees.

And she thought of Cruz, her older brother who had left for Alpha college two years ago. Cruz, who had promised to come back and make things better. Cruz, who sent secret letters telling her to be strong, to survive, that he had a plan.

Is this your plan, Cruz? Riley thought, her hand pressed to the burning mark on her shoulder. Did you do this?

The shadow man’s voice echoed in her memory: I’m so sorry. But this is the only way to protect you.

Protection. This was supposed to be protection .

Riley looked around at the twenty-two other women and girls being marched toward imprisonment, toward punishment for something they didn’t do, toward a fate none of them had chosen.

If this was protection, she thought, what would destruction look like?

The work camp gates closed behind them with a sound like thunder, and Riley’s new life began.

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### Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Riley stood just inside the doorway, her arms wrapped around herself, taking in what would be her new home. The building was long and narrow, with a row of thin mattresses on crude wooden frames lining each wall. A single wood-burning stove sat in the center, unlit despite the morning chill. Two small windows, both cracked, let in weak light.

Twenty-three women and girls for forty-six beds. At least they’d have space.

“Inside! Move!” The enforcer—a brutal man named Kent—shoved Sophie, the twelve-year-old, and she stumbled forward with a cry. Riley caught her automatically, steadying the smaller girl.

“She’s moving,” Riley said, keeping her voice level even though her heart was pounding. Showing fear would only make things worse.

Kent’s eyes narrowed. “You got a mouth on you, girl?”

“Better not.” He looked around at all of them, his lip curling in disgust. “You’re all traitors as far as the Alpha’s concerned. Marked by unknown males, probably enemy wolves. You’ll work the quarry, the lumber detail, the tanning pits—whatever we need. You step out of line even once, and you’ll regret it. Understood?”

A murmured chorus of “Yes, sir” rippled through the group.

“You’ll get two meals a day. You’ll sleep here. No visitors. No contact with the rest of the pack. The Alpha will decide what to do with you once he figures out what the hell happened.” Kent spat on the floor. “Traitor bitches.”

He left, slamming the door behind him. They heard a bar drop into place on the outside. Locked in.

For a long moment, no one moved. No one spoke. Riley could hear Sophie’s quiet crying, could feel the fear radiating from every woman in the room.

Then Jessica—the oldest at twenty-eight—walked over to the stove and started examining it.

“Someone help me get this lit,” she said, her voice rough but steady. “It’s cold as hell in here.”

It was such a normal request, such a practical concern, that it broke the spell of shock. Several women moved to help. Riley guided Sophie to one of the beds near the stove and sat her down.

“What’s your name?” Riley asked gently, even though she knew. The pack was small enough that everyone knew everyone, at least by sight.

“S-Sophie. Sophie Anderson.” The girl’s eyes were red-rimmed, her whole body shaking. “I’m twelve. I don’t even have my wolf yet. I don’t understand why anyone would mark me. I don’t understand any of this.”

“I’m Riley Merritt. I’m fourteen, and I don’t have my wolf yet either.” Riley squeezed Sophie’s hand. “We’re going to figure this out, okay? We’re going to be okay.”

She had no idea if that was true, but Sophie needed to hear it.

More women were beginning to talk now, quiet conversations filling the barracks. Riley heard fragments:

“—my mate mark doesn’t smell like anyone I know—”

“—my parents couldn’t even look at me—”

“—the quarry? I’ve heard people die in the quarry—”

“—can’t be a coincidence, all of us in one night—”

A woman approached Riley and Sophie. She was tall, muscular, with dark skin and intelligent eyes. Riley recognized her as Imani Brooks, eighteen, one of the few females in the pack who had been allowed any education beyond basic reading.

“You’re Cruz Merritt’s little sister,” Imani said. It wasn’t a question.

Riley nodded warily. “Do you know my brother?”

“I know of him. He left for Alpha college two years ago with the leadership’s kids. Only non-legacy student they’ve ever sent.” Imani’s eyes were sharp, assessing. “Seems like quite a coincidence, doesn’t it? Cruz leaves, and two years later, something impossible happens that targets every unmated female in the pack.”

Riley’s mouth went dry. She’d had the same thought, but hearing someone else say it out loud made it real. “What are you suggesting?”

“I’m not suggesting anything. I’m just... thinking out loud.” Imani looked around at the other women. “Twenty-three of us. All marked in our sleep by males whose scents none of us recognize. All marked the same night. And according to Alpha Garrett, whoever did this is long gone—they can’t track them.”

“That’s impossible,” Sophie whispered. “How could anyone get into the pack, mark all of us, and get out without being detected?”

“Exactly,” Imani said softly. “So either they’re lying about not being able to track the males... or whoever did this is very, very good.”

Before Riley could respond, a sharp voice cut through the barracks.

Mara Chen stood near the stove, which was now crackling with a small fire. She was sixteen, with long black hair and a scar on her cheek from a pack “discipline session” a year ago. She’d been caught teaching some of the younger girls to read.

“We need to organize,” Mara said, her voice carrying authority despite her fear. “We need to figure out who we are, what skills we have, and how we’re going to survive this. Because it’s pretty clear no one else is going to help us.”

“Survive?” A woman named Cara laughed bitterly. She was twenty-two, with a baby face and hard eyes. “We’re marked by unknown males and locked in a work camp. The Alpha thinks we’re traitors. Our own families won’t protect us. What exactly is there to survive for ?”

“For the chance that this gets better,” Mara said firmly. “For the chance that whoever marked us had a reason. For the chance that we can find a way out of this.”

“There is no way out,” another woman said—Riley thought her name was Leah. “We’re marked. We’re bonded. Even if we wanted to leave the pack, our supposed mates could track us anywhere.”

“Could they?” Imani interjected. “Has anyone felt their mate through the bond?”

Silence. Then, slowly, women began shaking their heads.

“I can feel something ,” Jessica said slowly. “Like... a presence, far away. But it’s not clear. It’s not like the mate bonds I’ve heard about.”

“Same,” Mara confirmed. “It’s there, but distant. Muted.”

Riley pressed her hand to her mark. She could feel it too—something on the edge of her awareness, like a candle flame in the far distance. Present but not close.

“So whoever marked us isn’t nearby,” Imani said. “And if they’re not nearby, they can’t have been from the pack. Which means they came from outside, marked all of us in a coordinated attack, and left. The question is: why?”

“Does it matter?” Cara demanded. “Why doesn’t change what happened. Why doesn’t change that we’re locked in here and probably going to be worked to death in the quarry.”

“Why matters because it tells us if we have allies or enemies,” Mara said. “If this was an attack meant to hurt us, we’re in trouble. But if this was meant to protect us somehow—”

“Protect us?” Cara’s laugh was sharp and painful. “By marking us against our will? By turning the whole pack against us? By getting us locked up? Some protection!”

“She has a point,” Jessica said quietly. “If this was meant to help, it’s a pretty twisted way of doing it.”

Riley thought of the shadow man’s voice: I’m sorry. But this is the only way to protect you.

“Maybe,” she said softly, and everyone turned to look at her, “maybe it wasn’t supposed to go like this. Maybe whoever did it thought the marks would protect us from... something else. Something worse.”

“What could be worse than this?” Sophie asked.

Riley didn’t have an answer. But she thought about the way Alpha Garrett looked at young women. She thought about what had happened to her mother—taken by the Alpha when Cruz was seventeen, used and killed. She thought about the casual cruelty of the pack leadership, the way females were treated as property, as breeding stock, as disposable.

Maybe there were worse things than mate marks.

“It doesn’t matter right now,” Mara said. “What matters is that we’re in this together, whether we like it or not. We’re all marked. We’re all in this barracks. We’re all going to be forced into hard labor. So we need to work together.”

“Work together how?” Leah asked.

“Share skills. Share information. Watch each other’s backs.” Mara looked around at all of them. “Some of us are strong. Some of us are smart. Some of us are healers or hunters or builders. We pool what we have, and we survive.”

“And then what?” Cara challenged. “We survive for what? To spend the rest of our lives in this camp?”

“To survive until things change,” Mara said. “Until we find out why this happened. Until we find our mates or break these bonds. Until something—anything—gives us a chance to get out of here.”

It was a thin hope, Riley thought. But it was something.

“I’ll start,” Jessica said, stepping forward. “I’m Jessica Moore, twenty-eight. I worked in the kitchens before this. I know how to make food stretch, how to preserve it, how to cook pretty much anything. And I know some basic healing—herbs and poultices, stuff my grandmother taught me.”

There was a pause, then Imani stepped forward. “Imani Brooks, eighteen. I can read and write. I know some mathematics. And I’m strong—I’ve been working lumber details since I was thirteen.”

Slowly, others began to speak up.

“Mara Chen, sixteen. I can track and hunt. I know the mountains around the pack territory.”

“Cara Davis, twenty-two. I worked the tannery. I know leather work, how to make it last.”

“Leah Martinez, nineteen. I’m fast. I can run for hours without getting tired.”

One by one, they introduced themselves, sharing their ages, their skills, their strengths. Riley learned their names, their faces, tried to commit it all to memory. These were her people now, whether she’d chosen them or not.

When it was her turn, Riley stood. “Riley Merritt, fourteen. I don’t have my wolf yet, but I’m learning fast. My brother taught me some self-defense before he left. And I’m good at... at seeing patterns, at figuring things out.”

Sophie went last, her voice small. “Sophie Anderson, twelve. I... I don’t know what I’m good at. I’m small. I’m scared. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Mara said gently. “We were all twelve once. You’ll find your strength.”

The introductions complete, they began to organize. Jessica and several others sorted through the supplies in the barracks—thin blankets, a few cooking pots, some basic tools. Imani and Mara started making lists of who could do what. The younger girls, including Riley and Sophie, were tasked with checking the bunks for problems.

Riley was examining a bed frame when the door burst open.

Kent stood there with two other enforcers. “Quarry detail! Everyone who’s older than fifteen, out now! The rest of you, firewood detail. Move!”

The women scrambled to comply. Riley joined the group heading out for firewood—her, Sophie, and six others, all young, all without their wolves yet.

As she filed past Kent, he grabbed her arm hard enough to bruise.

“Your brother’s a traitor,” he hissed in her ear. “We all know he had something to do with this. When the Alpha figures out how to prove it, your whole family’s dead.”

Riley’s blood ran cold, but she kept her face neutral. “Yes, sir.”

He shoved her forward, and she stumbled out into the cold mountain morning.

The work camp was located on the eastern edge of pack territory, far from the main compound. Around them were the quarry, the lumber staging area, the tanning pits—all the brutal, dangerous work that kept the pack functioning. And now, twenty-three marked women to do it all.

An enforcer led Riley’s group toward the forest, a heavy axe over his shoulder. Riley fell into step beside Sophie, who looked like she might collapse.

“Stay close to me,” Riley whispered. “We’ll get through this.”

But as they walked into the shadows of the trees, Riley couldn’t shake the feeling that this was only the beginning. That whatever Cruz had done—and she was certain now that he had done something—had set events in motion that none of them could stop.

The shadow man had said the marks were meant to protect them.

Riley touched her burning mate mark and prayed he was right.

Because if this was protection, they were going to need all the strength they could find just to survive it.

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Readers can read all books for free, without any ads and give the authors feedback.

Books that perform well based on their reader engagement are published on our Galatea app.

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