1. The Crowning Flame

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“Oh come on! Just die already!” 

“Shut up.” 

Gregory Radcliffe sat up straight on the couch, clearing his throat as he continued to play the video game on his phone. 

“Gwenny, big sis, we are late for LH. Can you make it fast? Or at least leave your work for later?” The sixteen-year-old asked his sister. 

Alpha Gwendolyn Radcliffe looked up from her laptop, lowered her huge glasses, and glared at her teen brother.

“Stop glaring at me through your fake-ass glasses.” He rolled his eyes. “I get it, it’s a bummer. It’s the anniversary of the worst day of your life, yada yada… But what did the Moon Goddess do?” 

“What did the Moon Goddess do?” Gwen glared at her brother. “What did she do?” 

She was off her chair and the kid was also up on his feet, realizing too late what he had just said.

“I will tell you what she did! She made the worst possible wolf the were-world has ever seen my mate. That’s what she did!” 

“That’s not what I meant-”

“Then what did you mean?”

The double door to the Alpha’s office flung open just then and Beta Cadence Park walked in. 

“Back at it again, Radcliffes?” The forty-three-year-old rolled her eyes as she sauntered over to the desk and set a black file down on the oak surface. “Final plan for the latest fortifications.” She told her Alpha, turning around to face the siblings. 

Gwen sighed as she ran her callused fingers through her brown hair, beautifully styled in a medium-length bob with choppy layers. “More work?” 

“Oh come on, it’s almost seven!” Greg spoke up. “The LH? Hello?” 

“For the hundredth time, Gregory, it’s Lunar Hunt! Not LH!” Caddie pointed a finger at the pup she had raised. “Don’t bring your stupid jargon into pack traditions!” 

“Lunar Hunt, LH. It’s one and the same, Cad. And please, for the hundredth time, call me Greg. Gregory is too… not cool!” He stuck his tongue out and pointed at it. 

“It’s the name your mother gave you, Gregory.” Caddie rolled her eyes and turned to face the Alpha who still had her eyes on the file. “You will be fine. We can deal with the less important stuff tomorrow. Let’s just go for the hunt now and come back and go through the plan.” 

Gwen took off the glasses and shrugged, “Do I have to come? It’s not like I can take part in the hunt.” 

Caddie and Greg looked at each other. 

“Your mere presence boosts everyone’s mood,” Greg said. 

“Yeah, except as each full moon passes, the pack’s apprehension for its position and safety just seems to hike.” Gwen sighed. 

“You are a splendid Alpha.” Caddie walked over to Gwen and grabbed her by her shoulders. “And you have done so well, so well, that nobody can ever question your dedication and your right to be the Alpha Naturale of Crescent Moon Pack. Our only apprehension is for your safety. And your happiness. Both of which seem to be jeopardized because of your position.”

Gwen opened her mouth to argue but Caddie shushed her. “No arguments, Gwenny. We must go.” She turned to Greg, “And you pup, leave your phone here.” 

“What? Why?” 

“Do as you are told, Gregory.” 

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“I reject you because you are not even worth the dirt on the bottom of my shoe, Alpha Gwendolyn Radcliffe.” 

Gwen gasped as she started awake from a restless doze on her work desk. 

“Fuck you, Lorde.” She muttered under her breath as she looked over at the grandfather clock at the far end of her office. 

It was almost three in the morning. 

In two hours, she would have to be off to the training grounds to train the un-shifted pups on hand-to-hand combat. 

There wasn’t enough time in a day for her to finish off all her work. 

If this was any other pack, she would have never become the Alpha. 

But this was Crescent Moon. Here the pack members still believed in the process of leadership through an ancient ritual - The Crowning of The Alpha Naturale. 

She was only ten when she was crowned. 

She wasn’t even supposed to be. 

She was just a pup. 

Every eligible he and she-wolf had dropped their blood into the crowning flame that fateful night, but the flame had refused to shine bright. 

But then one of the oldest pack members spoke up.

“The crowning flame knows no years,

The crowning flame knows no tears.

The crowned is one with a soul so bright,

Plunged in a curse to douse every speck of light.

For your wolves’ great fortune, you shall bear the bane,

Misfortune, misery, an eternal chain.”

The crowning flame knew no years. It had chosen a ten-year-old unshifted pup to be the Alpha Naturale. 

The crowning flame knew no tears. It forced the pup to grow up too fast and take over the pack completely at the age of sixteen. 

And the curse? As if her life wasn’t cursed enough! 

Misfortune and misery were her constant companions. 

But the crowning flame showed justice about one thing - Her pack prospered. Her misfortune was the price she paid to keep her pack afloat. Her wolves did have great fortune and for that, she was grateful. 

“Ugh!” Suddenly, out of nowhere, Gwen felt excruciating pain in her chest. 

She collapsed to the floor, in between her desk and her chair. 

She gritted her teeth as she clutched her chest, digging her nails into her skin. 

“Help!” She mind-linked the pack doctor, Oliver Morris. “Help!”

With the extraordinary speed of his werewolf form, the pack doctor arrived within seconds from the residential wing of the pack house. 

“Alpha!” He was at her side within moments. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” 

“My heart!” She gritted out. “It feels like it is being clawed. I think I am having an attack.” 

“That’s not-” Oliver didn’t complete the sentence. He didn’t know what and what not was possible with her. 

He pried her hand away from her chest and pressed his own hand in place. His eyes glowed yellow as he tried to find the pathology. “It’s not an attack. Your heart is physically fine.” 

“Then what is it?” She bit out. 

“We will have to take you to the oriental healers.” 

He lifted her up, mind-linking the Beta about the situation, and hurried to the oriental healers’ house. 

The couple, both in their seventies, had worked as pack doctors during Gwen’s grandfather, Marco’s leadership. 

Caddie was already waiting at their door with the couple waiting outside when Oliver arrived with Gwen. 

One look at the Alpha and Matilda, the wife, shook her head in disbelief, “We believed it was over, your bond with that vile wolf!” 

“It is,” Caddie said as she walked over to her daughter-like wolf who was now feeling better and able to stand on her own feet. 

“It is not.” Gerald said, “The rejection is incomplete.” 

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