Chapter 1

Amelia's POV

“Lady Amelia, the Luna coronation ceremony is about to begin," the servant walked into my chambers and reported.

I raised my head and stared at her, shocked and surprised for a moment, my fingers tightening unconsciously around the fabric of my dress.

My eyes darted towards the cake and confetti on the table. Today wasn't the coronation ceremony.

My mate had just won the championships today and that was what was supposed to be celebrated.

Johnson, my mate and the alpha of the pack, had told me about it, and according to the date chosen by the pack elders, it was meant to be days from now.

Today was our third mating anniversary and he had promised to spend it with me.

Hearing that today was the coronation sure then came as a shock to me as I hadn't expected it.

“I'll be there soon," I whispered to her as I turned towards my wardrobe, my voice softer than I intended, almost fragile.

It was unplanned but I still had to pretend as if I had been aware of it, even as unease coiled tightly in my chest.

I arrived at the pack's square to find the people gathered there. Everyone seemed present which left me more confused. How all of them seemed to know the day of the coronation, whereas I, the alpha's Luna to be, wasn't.

"Johnson….” I called as I began to walk towards him.

He stood on the podium, with a microphone in hand, looking every bit the powerful alpha the pack adored. He had been asked to call his Luna up to the stage.

I paused as I anticipated my name. It was of no use rushing towards Johnson now that he was about to name me. My heart pounded loudly against my ribs, drowning out the murmurs of the crowd.

"Jennifer Nelson!” His voice finally boomed as everyone almost got tired of waiting for him.

“Jennifer Nelson?" A voice whispered from the crowd and immediately, everyone started whispering too.

" I thought Lady Amelia was his mate and that he was going to mark her as his Luna today?” Another voice chirped in, laced with confusion and curiosity.

A tear almost fell from my eyes but I held it back. No matter what happens, neither Johnson nor his mistress whom he has named as his Luna would see me shed a tear.

I told myself, clenching my fists tightly by my sides, nails digging into my palms as if pain could keep me from breaking.

" Come on, Amelia is just a stray who walked into the pack years ago. Whether she is really an orphan, we do not know. Were you all really expecting our newly coronated alpha with such a background to choose a wolfless mutt like her?” A voice added.

I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat. I had always been Moonstone Pack's favorite because of how resourceful I was.

When I came here, which was five years ago, I had been sixteen. I grew up as a nomad not knowing who my parents were, surviving on instinct and resilience alone. And when I got tired of the rogue life and the dangers of being one, I had looked for a pack to accept me.

Moonstone pack had been looking for omega servants then and I was lucky to be selected.

Two years later, I found out that I was the alpha's son's fated mate.

It had caused chaos,resistance and judgment from every corner of the pack. But in the end, Johnson took me in as he didn't want to disobey the will of the moon godess.

“Come on, don't act as if you're a fool to the news! Amelia has helped this pack a lot. If not for her plans and contributions in combating the flood that always disturbed Moonstone pack, we wouldn't be here today! Our pack would have been washed away by the floods that always happened! But ever since she became Alpha Johnson's mate, she solved that problem!” an elderly lady said, her voice trembling yet firm, carrying over the murmurs of the crowd.

"That was easy! Anyone could have been able to solve that! Stop acting as if she did anything special!” another girl snapped at the old woman, rolling her eyes with disdain.

“I've been a member of this pack for more than ten decades, child," the old lady began, her voice steadier.

"Each time it was season for the rains, I always lost my grandchildren. I had also lost all my pups too! But none of the previous alphas or their Lunas ever cared. None ever solved the flooding until her…." She paused, her voice breaking slightly as memories seemed to claw their way back.

"When she became the alpha's fated mate three years ago and I lost one of my grandchildren in those floods, she promised me that she would solve the problem. And she did. My old hut doesn't get hit by floods anymore! That's not the only thing she did! She improved agriculture in the pack! Now an old woman like me doesn't have to worry about how I will feed my remaining grandchildren! There's water and basic amenities for people like me! Even my health is considered in the pack hospital and no one asks me to pay money whenever me or my grandchildren are sick,” she added.

A smile lit up my face as she went on, defending me even though I wasn't there. I didn't know that there was at least someone in the pack who liked me. Others didn't because I was wolfless and thus worthless to them.

“Shut up, old hag! If you want to say anything about Amelia, no one cares! Everyone knows she's barren and infertile! This isn't betrayal from the alpha! If she had given him an heir, then he perhaps might have forgotten her cursed roots and marked her as his Luna!" a girl snapped at the old lady, her words sharp and venomous.

A lot of girls began to back her up as if they supported her, their voices rising and echoing the same judgment.

Seeing so many of the crowd divide into sects just to discuss how unfit and cursed I was to be seen as the Luna, my heart couldn't help but break. It shattered slowly.

For the past three years, Johnson and I have been mates, he hasn't marked me. He had only told me that I needed to earn my place beside him. Either by having a child or proving that I was worthy of being his Luna.

And since then, I have been trying my best. I gave everything.

He had promised me that he would wait, that all my contributions towards his ailing pack were going to help me. That it would be enough.

He had told me that once his pack won the interpack biking championships being organized by the alpha council, that he would mark me before everyone.

For three times now that happened, he never kept his promise.

Each time, it was something new.

He would bring up another excuse of the pack lacking things he needed to fix before he could mark me.

And I always solved those issues for him because I believed him.

Because he was an incompetent crowned alpha prince who hid his weaknesses behind my sacrifices.

Who knew that after three years of giving everything, just to be enough for him, this was what I would get?