An Urban Fantasy series written by Michele Notaro, currently ongoing.The series currently contains 10 books, with 4 in the "main series" and 6 others classified as side stories. The ten books in order are:
- 0.5 - Our Hearts That Tie Us - a prequel focusing on the original mage/shifter couple, Benton and Rylen.
- 1 - The Scars That Bind Us
- 1.5 - A Kiss to Revive Me
- 2 - The Shackles That Hold Us
- 2.5 - A Date to Impress Him
- 3 - A Purpose That Restores Us
- 3.25 - A Holiday to Sustain Us - focusing on the budding romance between Charlie and Ash
- 3.5 - An Embrace to Hearten Me - focusing on the romance between Jude, River, and Kulani
- 4 - A Ruse to Unchain Us
- 4.5 - A Heart to Revitalize Me - focusing on the budding romance between the two teens, Haiden and Logan
Tropes for the series:
- Abusive Parents: River stands out as the only member of the Ono-Nai pride who had abusive biological parents.
- The Ace: Madeo seems to be the most powerful mage in the entire country, being able to weave about 10 times more runes at once than most mages.
- Affectionate Nickname:
- Darius = Dare
- Elzanna = El
- Haiden = Hay
- Kulani = K
- Logan = Lo
- Madeo = Mads
- River = Riv
- Magi call younger mages they are close with "young kin" in English or "ce'oso" in their language.
- All of the Other Reindeer:
- River was deeply mistreated by their original, birth pride due to being considered a "runt".
- It is never shown, but it is deeply implied, that Elzanna was mistreated by at the very least her family's alpha due to being deaf and so unable to speak.
- Babies Ever After: The only straight couple out of the entire pride, Darius and Eva, have a biological son together in later books.
- Breakout Character: Out of the three "cubs" adopted into the pride, only Haiden has significant screentime after the second book, in which they join the pride. In book 4, Shoo Out the Clowns is in full effect, with the younger cubs leaving for the People's Union and Haiden, newly an adult, staying behind to help.
- Cast Full of Gay: All but one of the major couples in the series is same-sex, or otherwise queer.
- Cats Are Mean: Averted for the main Ono-Nai shifter pride, but other shifter prides can be a real mixed bag.
- Cheerful Child: The youngest "cubs," Elzanna and Teo, both spend most of their (limited) screentime as this.
- Child Soldiers: Magi are trained to use their magic to fight from very young ages, and the strongest magi are forced to fight against taragorians as young as 14-15 years old.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Magi have red tags in their ears, while shifters have green tags to mark themselves as non-human.
- Crapsack World: Primarily for non-humans, but no species is safe from the threat from taragorians.
- Cute Mute: As a result of being deaf, Elzanna, the middle "cub" and only female of the bunch, only communicates through sign language.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Just about every nonhuman character was heavily mistreated in the past and has dealt with the loss of their entire birth family.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Madeo spends most of the first book feeling anti-shifter, but eventually learns to let all the members of the Ono-Nai pride into his heart.
- Embarrassing First Name: Cosmo seems to think of his first name "Merrill" as this, given he exclusively goes by his middle name, "Cosmo".
- Fantastic Racism: Mostly from humans towards all other non-humans, but magi rarely trust shifters, and many shifters look down on magi, and even shifters outside their own species.
- Friend to All Living Things: As much as Madeo tries to deny it, he loves all cats, dogs, and magi, along with most shifters he comes across.
- Happily Adopted: Logan and the three "cubs" are all adopted into the Ono-Nai pride. Cosmo, Charlie, and Luce were all adopted into the original Ono-Na pride as children.
- I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Kulani spends most of "An Embrace to Hearten Me" trying to ignore his feelings for both River and Jude because he thinks they're dating, and only relents when he realizes how deeply he's hurting them both (to the point where Jude, The Stoic, has a panic attack in front of him).
- Manly Gay: Just about every shifter in a same-sex couple, except for Charlie.
- Multicolored Hair: Kulani, as a cheetah shifter, though due to the rarity of cheetah shifters, it's unclear if Kulani has natural Multicolored Hair specifically because he's a cheetah shifter or if the two traits are unrelated.
- Nice Girl and Nice Guy: Basically every member of the Ono-Nai pride.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Charlie only ever goes by "Charlie", and his full first name is only used when he is in trouble.
- Ash's full name, Ashton Poole, isn't revealed until "A Holiday to Sustain Us", and it's only said the one time.
- Luce is only ever called Luce.
- Our Mages Are Different:
- The magi, or mages, all use a tool called a focus to store their runes, and most can only weave 10 or fewer at a time, for a total of maybe 2 spells at a time.
- The human witches only have magical powers through the use of blood magic and are universally evil murderers.
- Papa Wolf: Heaven help you if you mistreat a mage, nonhuman child, or even animal anywhere near Cosmo or Madeo; it will not end well for you.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Madeo is the shortest adult member of the Ono-Nai pride but is also one of the most powerful.
- Purple Is Powerful: Many of the mages have at least some purple in their eyes, with more purple signifying greater magical abilities.
- The Quiet One: River and Kulani, outside of their pride.
- Rule of Three:
- In "A Date to Impress Him", Madeo and Cosmo try to go on three different dates, but only the third (and final) one is successful.
- In "A Holiday to Sustain Us", Ash and Charlie kiss on the mouth three times before realizing they feel the same way about each other and wind up sleeping together and later dating.
- Token Human: Harriet is the only sympathetic human character, and she is essentially adopted into the Ono-Nai shifter clan by the end of book 3.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Charlie seems to have no trouble identifying as male, but also frequently wears women's clothing when out of his work uniform.
