Chapter 1 | Red Crescent Pack

Six Weeks Earlier

~Nyla~

I was the happiest person in the world. Life was treating me really well, and I got everything I wanted.

At least that's what I thought. I was too naive at that point to know that life didn't give a hoot about our wants and dreams. What life offered to us was more like fish bait, only to entangle us into a deeper abyss of sorrow and pain.

Was I in the mood for such deep thoughts and realizations? Hell no! I was in the la-la land.

I was standing on the west balcony of the palace, overlooking the fiery skies and the lush, landscaped gardens. In less than a year, this place had become more home to me than where I spent most of my life. This was Wyatt's home, and now mine and our upcoming pup's. 

Until I met Wyatt, I thought soulmates were a hoax made up by the elders to push young people into forced marriages. I wasn't a wolf or a human, but I still felt an intense connection to him because of the mate bond we shared. It was surely a thing. 

"Daydreaming again? Did you name your unborn child the dozenth time already?" Wyatt's sister, Skylar, teased me as usual.

"Oh, shut up, Sky!" I giggled as we went back into the castle.

"Your dear husband has turned the kitchen into shambles. He needs you for moral support because rest are all pouncing on him with jibes."

"Gee! Hope he doesn't ask me for help."

She chuckled, "Gosh, I hope not! We all know what a terrible cook you are."

"Ouch!"

There was a sparkle in Skylar's eyes. Her porcelain skin was glowing with health and her clear blue eyes were oozing happiness, just like mine. She was pregnant too, but unlike me, she was not due anytime soon. 

I was still wrapping my head around how werewolf pregnancies were different from human ones. Wyatt kept my identity a secret because he believed his pack would not accept me as their Luna. Some of them already resented me for not being one of them. Wyatt told them I was a human, and so they all thought I was weak and didn't belong.

"It does smell funky. How can he make a dessert smell so bad?" I asked Skylar as we neared the kitchen.

"He will get there by tomorrow morning."

Wyatt's folks, which were the Red Crescent Pack, followed a lot of customs and traditions that the rest of the werewolf world forgot about. When we get coronated tomorrow, we will all be wearing traditional clothes, and the new Luna Queen is supposed to make a dessert to offer a spoonful each to the crowds who attend the event.

Knowing my excellent cooking skills, everyone voted for the dessert part to be excluded from the event. But the Luna Queen believed that offering dessert to those who bless us would make their blessings come true.

Wyatt took up the task of making the dessert on my behalf, but he only found out today that cooking was rocket science indeed.

"That makes two of us," I said, pinching his nose.

"Don't even get me started." He pretended to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

Skylar tasted a tiny piece of the fancy pudding he failed to make. Her face scrunched immediately in disgust. "Not sure about blessings, but they will surely curse you if this is going to be the end result."

I tasted some to see if it was really that bad. Wyatt looked at me with a cute face, as if it didn't matter what everyone else thought as long as I liked it.

"It's not that bad," I said, trying to suppress my laughter. The custard in it was burnt and undercooked at the same time.

Everyone protested at once while Wyatt flashed one of his sexy smiles at me and picked me up to place me on the kitchen counter. I looked at the door to escape, hoping that he didn't offer more to eat. It was so bad that I felt nauseous.

I melted into his arms as we both ignored the rest of the folks and kissed. 

"My Nyla likes everything about me, even a horrid pudding I make." He laughed as he realized I was trying to ignore the dessert's aftertaste in my mouth. 

He dropped the kitchen towel next to me in resignation. "Well, I give up! There will be no dessert from us." 

Skylar and others sighed in relief.

"Alpha, we got the news that the New Moon Pack will be arriving in another thirty minutes." One of the Omegas informed Wyatt.

"We should get ready to receive them," he told me and turned to the Omega. "Get rid of this smell before the others show up for dinner."

"Vance!" Wyatt called out as his Beta walked into the Great Hall while I was going upstairs. "Is everything fine with the guests?"

"So far, so good. The Storm Moon Pack won't be here until tomorrow," Vance replied.

"Oh good, fewer folks to worry about."

We have been receiving guests all day today. There were over three hundred people on our grounds already, with another five hundred or so to show up early tomorrow.

Wyatt passed more orders to Vance and asked him to let his Gamma know he wanted to meet him as well. Nothing turned me on more than watching him talk to his pack members about warriors and defense strategies. The commanding voice and confidence he exuded were so sexy.

I stared at his straight blond hair and blue eyes as he relayed instructions. Such a perfect man! How did I get so lucky? He did not reject me despite the odds, and sharing my secret with him lifted a huge burden off my chest just before our mating ceremony.

All that happened many months ago, and yet it felt like it was only yesterday when I was his shy, scared bride. I had imagined many scenarios with him as his weird mate, some good and some bad, but reality turned out far better than any of those imaginations. 

I loved him and his family, pack, everything my new life gave me—everything which was going to be destroyed by one man the very next day—by the ruthless Alpha Kian of the Storm Moon Pack.