Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by the King
Chapter 1
The day Maddison Powell, the Luna of the Silver Pack, confronted me, Henrik Knight, the Alpha, delivered his ultimatum:
“If you refuse to apologize, you can die here!”
He left me alone on the battlefield, retreating to the pack’s headquarters with Maddison.
Half a month later, he questioned his Beta:
“It’s been two weeks. Surely she’s not still sulking? Does she even remember she’s a Gamma?”
“Alpha, Gamma Flora fought alone, but the Ramos warriors stayed by her side. Though none survived, the Blue Pack’s borders remain intact. Congratulations, Alpha!”
“Impossible! I may have told her to die at the border, but that was just anger talking! I left her with enough warriors! How could she die?”
“But Luna Maddison used your token to order all warriors to retreat. Wasn’t that your command?”
He rushed to my family’s territory like a madman.
Only to find the estate draped in white, the ceremonial officer Crue Bailey announcing:
“Open the casket! Send off our warrior!”
Henrik sneered:
“Flora Gilbert, holding the border alone? Ridiculous! How much did she pay you to fabricate this?”
The Beta, Westley Howard, trembled: “I swear it’s true! I wouldn’t dare lie to the Alpha!”
“Enough!”
Henrik hurled his alpha tone at the Beta, his voice thick with impatience:
“A petty Gamma who couldn’t handle being passed over as Luna, throwing tantrums and defying my orders! And you’re telling me she died defending the border? She only got her rank because of her family name! She learned a few fighting tricks from her father and brothers, and now she thinks she’s a real Gamma? If she hadn’t tried to harm Maddison, I’d be thanking the Moon Goddess!”
The Beta didn’t dare utter another word.
“Besides…” Henrik stood, his aura radiating authority. “Though I left her at the border, I ensured she had the best warriors. There’s no way she could have died.”
With that, he turned and left.
My spirit hovered above, a bitter smile forming—
He seemed to have forgotten that he’d granted Maddison authority equal to his own.
He’d once declared to the pack: “Maddison’s word is my word. Anyone who disobeys will face severe consequences!”
It was precisely this favor that emboldened Maddison to mock my father, Dane Gilbert, as a traitor to my face at the border. And Henrik loved her so deeply that he canceled the pack’s counterattack just because I scolded her.
He was always contradicting himself. Claiming he wanted me to die at the border, yet leaving me with the strongest warriors.
But Maddison’s word was the Alpha’s word. She used Henrik’s token to withdraw all the warriors. Only the Ramos warriors remained, standing their ground to the last. That day, the sunset was blood-red, and the rogues’ claws rained down. My brother fell from the watchtower, and I fought through the enemy horde to catch him in my arms. My family followed my father into the afterlife.
In my final moments, I knelt atop a mountain of enemy bodies, blood and tears streaming down my face: “Dad… we held the line…”
When my body was brought home, my mother, Lenora Gilbert, was the only one left. She gazed at my and my brothers’ lifeless forms, her lips trembling: “Take the children inside.”
The pack’s Healer asked when to hold the funeral. She stroked my cheek: “My girl hasn’t even had her 18th birthday yet.”
That night, the Healer, Soleil Ray, entered my room. By dawn, my wounds had been mended, my body dressed in fine clothes, my face carefully made up, as though I were asleep.
“Madame Lenora,” Soleil said, “I’ve preserved Gamma Flora’s body. It won’t decay for a month.”
My mother gently touched my face, carefully placing a necklace around my neck, her smile soft: “My girl, stay until after your 18th birthday. You wanted that embroidered dress, didn’t you? This one is sewn by your mother. Do you like it?”
I lay there, eyes closed, as if asleep. My mother held me in her arms, rocking me gently, just as she had when I was a child.
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