Chapter 1: The Alliance

Mary Ann

I stood outside my father’s office door, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat. The heavy oak felt like a barrier between the life I knew and whatever storm was waiting on the other side. My hands trembled as I smoothed them down the front of my favorite lavender sundress. the dress hugged my full hips and soft belly without apology. I have spent years learning to love the body that stared back at me in the mirror, but right now, all I felt was dread.

“Come in, Mary Ann,” my father’s voice called before I even knocked. Alpha Sterling never needed to raise his voice. His authority carried through walls.

I pushed the door open and stepped inside. The room smelled of aged leather, polished wood, and the faint hint of his pipe tobacco. He sat behind his massive desk, shoulders slumped in a way I rarely saw. Beta Marcus stood by the window, staring out at the pack lands like he couldn’t bear to look at me.

“Sit down, sweetheart,” Dad said quietly.

I sank into the chair opposite him, my thighs pressing together, the fabric of my dress stretching familiarly over my curves. “What’s going on? You sounded serious through the link.”

He didn’t waste time. “The Moon Council has approved the peace alliance with Ironclaw Pack. It’s done. Signed and sealed this morning.”

My breath caught. Peace. After months of border clashes, near-misses, and wolves coming home with gashes and broken bones, peace sounded like a blessing. Until he kept talking.

“To seal it and prevent another full-scale war… you’re to marry Alpha Modric Volkov.”

The world tilted. I gripped the arms of the chair, my nails digging into the leather. “Me? Marry… Modric?”

Dad’s eyes were filled with regret, but his jaw was set, the look of an Alpha who carried the weight of hundreds of lives. “Ironclaw is stronger. Their numbers, their warriors, their resources. Another war would destroy us, Mary Ann. The Council made it clear: this union or bloodshed. I fought for another way. I swear I did.”

I couldn’t speak for a long moment. My chest felt too tight, like someone had wrapped iron bands around my ribs. Modric Volkov. The name alone sent ice through my veins and heat to my cheeks at the same time. I knew him. Goddess, did I know him.

I was eighteen when I attended the Elite Alpha Academy, a prestigious school where future leaders from packs across the region trained together. I had been one of the few plus-size wolves there, and I had felt every extra pound like a spotlight. But Modric… he was impossible not to notice. Tall, broad-shouldered even then, with piercing gray eyes and dark hair that always looked like he’d just run his fingers through it after a fight.

He was the most popular boy in school, captain of the combat team, son of a powerful Alpha, the kind of guy who walked into a room and owned it.

I had the biggest crush on him. Pathetic, really. I used to watch him from across the cafeteria, my heart fluttering every time he laughed. I wrote his name in the margins of my notebooks like some lovesick pup. There was something about his confidence, his raw power, that pulled me in even when I knew better.

And he knew I existed, alright. He and his friends made sure of it.

“Fat Luna,” he’d call out whenever I walked by, his voice loud enough for everyone to hear. His pack mates would howl with laughter, slapping him on the back like it was the funniest thing in the world. I’d keep my head down, cheeks burning, willing my body to shrink as I hurried past.

One time, after a particularly brutal mock battle in training, he’d looked me up and down in front of the entire class and said, “Careful, boys. Don’t want the Fat Luna sitting on you, she might crush the whole damn pack.”

I cried myself to sleep for years after that. Night after night, I’d bury my face in my pillow so no one would hear the sobs, wondering why the Moon Goddess would give me a body that made me a target and a heart that still ached for the boy who broke it. I’d built walls after graduation. I have worked on my confidence, found comfort in my curves, poured myself into helping with pack logistics and the nursery programs. But some scars never fully fade.

Now fate was laughing in my face, forcing me to marry the man who’d destroyed my confidence.

Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of my father. “Dad… I can’t. He hates me. Or at least he used to. He made my life hell.”

Alpha Sterling reached across the desk and took my hand. His grip was warm, steady, but I could see the pain in his eyes. “I know what they say about him. The rumors. He’s ruthless, driven. Ironclaw has changed since the old Alpha passed. But the Council believes this match will bind our packs. Your strength, your kindness… they see value in it. And you’ve always put the pack first.”

I pulled my hand back, standing up so fast the chair scraped loudly against the floor. “Put the pack first? By selling me off to the guy who called me Fat Luna for sport? What about what I want? What about my life?”

Beta Marcus shifted uncomfortably but stayed silent. My father looked older than his fifty-two years. “If you refuse, it could mean war. Families torn apart. Pups without fathers. I won’t force you, but I’m asking you to think about what’s at stake. The ceremony is set for two weeks from now. Modric will arrive in three days to… meet you officially.”

Two weeks. Three days.

I turned away, staring out the window at the rolling hills of Moonstone territory. The sun was dipping low, painting everything in soft oranges and pinks. It should’ve been beautiful. Instead, it felt like the end of everything.

Memories flooded me again. The way Modric’s laugh had echoed in the academy halls. The cruel twist of his lips when he looked at me. But there were other moments too, ones I had buried deep. Like the time I’d caught him watching me during a full moon run, his gray eyes intense, almost hungry, before he turned away with a sneer. Or how my wolf had always perked up whenever he was near, traitorous thing that she was.

I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling the softness of my body, the weight I’d learned to carry with pride. Would he still look at me with disgust? Or had time changed him the way it changed me?

“I need air,” I whispered, heading for the door.

“Mary Ann…” my father started, but I was already gone.

I fled down the hallway and out into the gardens behind the pack house, the evening breeze cool against my flushed skin. My mind spun. Marry Modric Volkov. Share his bed. Bear his pups. Stand beside him as Luna of a pack that once laughed at me.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. The Moon Goddess had a twisted sense of humor.

I sank onto a stone bench, the cool marble pressing through my dress. Tears finally slipped free, hot and angry. I hated how much it still hurt. I hated that a part of me, the stupid, hopeful part that had crushed on him so hard still whispered what if.

What if he saw me differently now?

What if this obsession of his, whatever it was, turned into something that could break me all over again?

I wiped my face and stared out at the darkening forest. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled—a long, haunting sound that sent shivers down my spine. It wasn’t from our pack.

Three days.

The thought hit me like a punch: he was already close. Maybe watching. Maybe remembering the girl he used to torment.

And I was about to walk straight into his world.

Hook: As the howl faded, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Unknown number. I opened the message with shaking fingers.

See you soon, Fat Luna. Try not to disappoint me again.

— Modric