She stepped onto the high platform in the forest, almost cowering at the heavy dominance she could sense from the large crowd that had gathered around here tonight. Many important guests had attended this ceremony, mainly for Alpha Kodiak's sake, and it only added to the pressure she was feeling at the moment.
Her Luna smiled warmly at her as she took a blanket and a set of clothes from another woman, placing them on the platform. She said to her. “Don't be nervous, Anna. Just remember your Alpha's words. You should do your duty as a member of the Stark Pride pack, so don't let us down.”
“Yes, Luna.” Anna lowered her eyes at the same time she remembered her alpha's words listing the advantages of choosing Alpha Kodiak. Everyone wanted to use her situation to their advantage, but no one was worried about her heart.
Once the Luna had left the scene, she began to feel the churning feeling in her guts and the uncomfortable, slow heat that spread through her body. She was filled with so pain that she thought she was going to die as her limbs went out of shape.
A few minutes later, a weak howl was heard throughout the pack.
Alpha Kodiak's eyes furrowed as he unconsciously took a step towards that direction, but a hand stopped him in time. He growled at the person at his side, unhappy about not being able to help his mate. “She might need my help, Zayn. Let me go.”
“No, she has to do this to prove herself as a worthy Luna for your pack.” Zayn's icy blue eyes met his own as he confined him to that very spot with his hand on his shoulder. He was about to growl at him when he saw him look above his shoulder as he said. “Look, she is already here.”
Kodiak whipped his head to see her coming out of the forest with a blanket covering her naked body. Both and man were instantly divided upon the sight, the former reacting out of lust while the other was filled with concern. He wanted to take her in his arms and check on her condition, but he couldn't move.
Because this was the time he had been nervously waiting for. It was time for her to choose her mate.
Anna's eyes scanned the crowd, glazing over the Dark Edge alpha like he wasn't there until she found the person she had been looking for. Darius was standing in a corner with his friends, looking at her with expectant eyes.
Kodiak's eyes widened with fear and panic when he noticed the strange expression on her face. When their eyes met, he shook his head slowly with desperation.
He whispered under his breath. “Please, don't do this….”
“I choose Darius as my mate.” Anna's words were like a hot knife that had sliced through the silence in her surroundings. Several gasps of shock were heard when they heard her words, but she felt lightheaded from wasting all the courage she had gathered here to announce her decision.
“NOOO!!!” A loud growl was heard followed by her words as a large wave of dominance hit the pack by surprise. The submissive wolves in the area had already fainted from the heavy, overwhelming outburst that had repressed the whole place. Alpha Kodiak roared at her with the same eyes as the moon above her, dark red eyes with the color of blood. “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!”
“What are you still doing? Since she has chosen someone else, shouldn't she be entering the mating chambers already?” Zayn sneered coldly at the Stark Pride Alpha and his Luna. He seemed to have already expected this outcome, so he quickly subdued his twin before he could lunge at her.
Anna had not expected this situation at all, but she hardly had time to process it as her pack Luna grabbed her roughly by the arm towards the mating chamber. Unlike the gentle treatment she had received in the previous months, she could now sense the hostility from everyone around her.
But she didn't care. Because she had finally gathered the courage to choose her heart.
She was thrown into a dark room with only the moonlight coming through the windows enhancing her vision. She was feeling a bit cold from the night breeze, but she needed it to remain clear-headed since she was a bit dizzy. A few minutes later, she heard the door open, so she quickly went closer with excitement. “Darius, is that you?”
“Yes, Anna.” Darius stepped back as he stared at her with an unnatural expression.
“We don't have much time since the red moon is about to disappear. We should complete the ceremony as soon as possible. ” She couldn't hide the smile in her voice when she told him. “Acknowledge me as your mate. ”
“I cannot do that. I am sorry, Anna.” Darius's quiet words broke through her fairy tale imagination. She thought she had hallucinated the things she had heard, but her newly acquired vision told her otherwise.
He was wearing a guilty expression. Now that she was carefully accessing him, he looked disheveled and messy, like he had been beaten by someone.
“I-I don't understand.” Anna brought out a letter and waved it to his face. “You sent me a letter. You confessed your feelings for me, you said you loved me back!”
“It was all a lie.” Darius exhaled, trembling as he told her the truth. “It was all a stupid bet made by my friends. I just wanted to prove to them that I was no longer a boy, I wanted to show them that I was good enough to win a girl from that arrogant alpha.”
“You son of a b*tch!” Anna lunged at him with gold-colored eyes, allowing her wolf to take control as she brought her claws. She aimed it right at his face along with all the pain and madness she was feeling already, causing a blood-curdling scream in the room.
She was instantly flung to the other side of the room, hitting the wall with the back of her head. Blood trickled down her face, but the last thing she felt while Darius furiously swore at her in the background, was the wet drops of tears from her eyes.....
On a night of a full moon...Anna quietly watched the pack priestess performing a ritual in front of the entire pack. It was an important occasion that had drawn people from all four directions of the Great Landmark to witness. Her eyes followed her mate's every move as he assisted the priestess in her incantations but her iron-clad concentration was finally broken when she heard her friend arrive by her side. “Luna," Catherine placed a tray of fruits by her side and tipped her head towards the direction of the ritual taking place. “Is this really necessary? I thought Ryan had already welcomed your child to the pack already. Why did your mate suddenly summon everyone out of their houses for this impromptu ritual?”Anna shrugged innocently, laughing at the hint of complaint in her friend's voice when she replied, “You know how Kodiak is, Catherine. He wasn't happy about it when I told him last night and decided that he would hold another one.”“This is ridiculous!” Catherine mumbled q
Anna had taken countless fighting lessons from her husband when she had been kidnapped by a savage wolf and she had been honing her skills with Ryan and the other guards in the pack. But she had real-life battles neither had she expected it to be this fast and intense. She could barely keep her life with each punch and kick directed at her so she had been forced into a disadvantage from the start. Giselle swiped a claw near her face, her eyes reflecting the sharp edge which caused the crowd to gasp in fear and anticipation. Anna could sense the vicious determination in Giselle's lightning-fast attacks to end her there but she was not going to let herself be pushed around like that. Anna ducked under another attack and instantly struck out her leg to clear her opponent's own to gain the upper hand. When she succeeded in making Giselle lose her balance, she jumped and planted a punch in her jaw. The dominant female wolf immediately crashed to the ground with a wave of dizziness. When
The news of the duel quickly spread across the Dark Edge pack and beyond, but the mere news was more unbelievable when they heard that a submissive female wolf was going to fight with a dominant wolf. Many bets were already placed on the fight and everyone thought they could foresee the results. After all, Giselle's prowess and strength were well known across the Great Landmark but not many people knew about Anna Knightley. When Catherine and Vivian heard about the news, they immediately demanded to see their friend and came to see her. “Anna, you are not serious about going to fight with Giselle, right?” Vivian gave her a concerned look before adding, “Every woman in the pack knows her character very well, she is the type of person who will do anything to win. What if she tries to kill you there?”Anna shrugged helplessly, “Then I guess I will have to perish there.” She rolled her eyes seeing her friends' appalled looks and spoke, “Oh, don't give me that look, Vivian. Now that me a
The atmosphere in the pack was solemn and tense after the guests had departed, leaving behind only the pack residents in a state of anxiety and trepidation. The hostile takeover had left some people unconcerned since they believed that whoever would replace Kodiak wouldn't harm them, but others couldn't help but worry about the alpha's well-being and whereabouts, having witnessed his triumph in the duel arena.“How dare he do this to me? That bloody bastard!” Mrs. Hoyles, who had been locked up in her house like a caged animal, snarled in rage as she paced back and forth furiously. Conan LeWren, who had been sparing no efforts in suppressing his opponents and searching for the alpha, still couldn't locate him.Mrs. Hoyles felt relieved that she had contacted her grandson in time, urging him not to return to the pack in the meantime. She knew Knox's temper very well, and the last thing she wanted was to hold his dead body at the moment he discovered that something bad had happened to h
Anna lay on the crisp white sheets, her body contorting in pain as she released guttural sounds of pain that echoed throughout the brightly lit room. Sweat glistened on her forehead, the intensity of her pain etched on her face as she gripped the sheets tightly. The pack physician stood in front of her, whispering encouraging words to her with a calm expression that he had learned to master, “Please push, Anna. You're almost there.”“I can't.” Anna cried out in pain, tears blurring her vision. Her breath came out in ragged bursts as she asked him. “Where is Kodiak? Why isn't he here yet?”“He will come soon,” The nurse beside the physician reassured her but her eyes widened when she noticed that the lady was slowly slipping into an unconscious state. “Hey, ma'am! Please don't fall asleep, we need your strength to deliver this baby!”“I-I...need my mate...”Anna mumbled under her breath as her eyes dripped low. The only thing that had been stopping her from falling unconscious all this
After staying in the Frost Fang pack for two days, Alpha Kodiak stood in the room watching the Frost Fang pack physician examine his brother once more after he had transferred some of his wolf's energy to Zayn who weakly laid on the bed. The doctor checked him once more before he put away his stethoscope and informed them, "His condition has been stabilized now, but he will need lots of bed rest for his fractured bones to heal, and he shouldn't overexert himself working from home." "What about his scars?" Kodiak pointed at the long, jagged slash across his twin's face, frowning at the blemish that had now ruined his brother's handsome face. He couldn't help but blame himself for not being there when his brother needed him the most. Maybe it was because he had witnessed Zayn beating people up rather than getting beat up so he thought he would naturally pull through. The pack physician cast one more glance at the unconscious alpha on the bed and sighed. "I'm afraid it's going to take