I'm writing today because I don't do anything properly, and I want to talk about that.
I think that any of the people who are interested and invested enough to be reading this will have figured it out by now, but my books are not typical werewolf romance novels.
That's why I started writing them - I didn't like what I was seeing, so I did something different - it's why I wrote and published my sewing book, it's why I sew to begin with, and it's why many of my friends are in bands, or create art in a myriad of forms.
That sounds obvious, but I have had comments about it since I started sharing my work, and I never really think about it most of the time, but there are reasons and I figured sharing them here was the most productive way of doing that.
I guess I'll cover the three things I hear the most, to keep this from getting too tedious.
You don't respect how special being Alpha is.
I don't think this is true. Within my main body of work the Alphas are a man who is the literal Emperor of the entire Roman empire (Caius), a man who is in charge of several hundred people and had the symbol of his dedication to them burned into his flesh (Ares), a man who is feared globally to the extent a young guy living in Germany is terrified of sending his lover to live in Canada because he is terrified she will be ruthlessly murdered for fun, and who is treated like a literal god because of his extreme talent and natural power (Tobias), and a man who could not possibly be any more psychologically damaged because he was raised to believe he is perfect and was revered until he fell in love with the wrong person (Sawyer).
Sawyer and Jonas do not want to be Alpha, even though they both have a natural drive pushing them to lead people which is reciprocated by the people around them who are desperate for a strong leader.
Robin pushed Selene away for years when he was madly in love with her because his Pack would not accept her as his mate, and the only reason he eventually left to be with her is that someone he considered more powerful than him gave him that chance.
Ares tried to deny the fact Morrigan was his destiny because he had committed himself to another mate, and wanted to do the right thing for his Pack.
Jonas and Francesca have a daughter who has powers that have not been seen for hundreds of years because they are both extremely powerful, but he hides exactly how powerful he is because he does not want the enormous responsibility that leading a Pack would bring.
Daniel gave up Marlene because he could not abandon his Pack, even though he was madly in love with her and it hurt him for the rest of his life.
Your wolves should mark each other and the fact that they don't is wrong.
They do mark each other.
Aside from the fact there is enough mature content in my work that they doubtlessly smell like each other constantly, they mark each other both physically and psychologically.
Caius had Juventas transform Talia into a werewolf. He allowed her to defeat him in the colloseum and bears a physical scar from that fight.
Morrigan became a white wolf after she had Ares' support, and he has been able to grow and become more confident in his role as Alpha with her at his side.
Rayden died for his mate and his powers are reflective of how that changed him physically.
Sawyer physically scarred Elizabeth when he first found her when she was with another man, and he is literally covered in the scars he has because of their bond.
I think in my world there is only one couple who might go down the 'traditional' route, and that is Robin and Selene. I also think that he would physically mark her as being his in some visible way, and that neither of them would admit that she had given him a physical mark claiming him as hers.
Daniel would potentially have allowed Marlene to mark him somehow, but not in a way anybody else could ever see or identify as 'that' sort of mark, and there is absolutely no doubt as far as I am concerned that the mark she left was on his heart.
Jonas and Francesca are their own special brand of fucked up and I do not think what their idea of 'marking' each other might be really bears thinking about. He fucked her with the knife she just killed his nephew with held to her throat while she was pregnant so she knew she could trust him, and to prove that she did trust him. She left everything behind to be with him, and has opened herself up to trusting another person to support her and keep her safe for the first time in her life. He has and (at the risk of minor spoilers) will continue to show a side of himself he had hidden for decades so that he can keep her safe because he loves and respects her.
So I think a magical bite that leaves a cool scar is a bit less symbolic and in no way reflects the way the character's relationships are unique to them all, and meaningful in my work.
Their wolves should be an entirely seperate personality.
When I was 14 (at the time of writing this I'm 31) I had a friend called Andy. I was a goth kid, and Andy used to wear leather trench coats and black lipstick.
Andy was autistic - so am I, and I don't have a issue with it and am not mocking him, but he was very socially awkward and very nerdy.
He used to insist people called him Fang sometimes.
He would growl at them and say 'his wolf' was angry or that people wouldn't want to see 'his dark side' because 'Fang' told him what to do and didn't like it when people 'disrespected' how powerful he was.
He used to have a crush on me, and he tried to impress me with his 'powerful dark wolf'.
One time he whipped out a fancy looking dagger in the middle of town and said Fang wanted to kill someone.
Another time he jizzed in his pants because my friend gave him a hug.
The last time I saw him was before his parents sent him to live with his grandparents in another city because they found him in bed with his sister.
There really are people who say things like 'my wolf Fang wants me to unleash him to destroy my enemies' and those people are mentally ill and incredibly socially awkward.
Sawyer is my sexy, tortured badass who loves Black Sabbath, b-movie horror films, and classic muscle cars, but bought Lily the pure white Maine Coon who he treats as a princess because he was so lonely. He's not my mentally ill autistic friend who fucked his sister and jizzed in his pants next to the Godiva Statue.
I hope you enjoyed reading this. I'm not trying to be defensive, I honestly hope it's interesting to someone.
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