Chapter 3
“Alpha Sam’s gift today has truly pleased me.”
My father had just come over when he heard the Alpha King say this.
“Thank you, Alpha King, for your kindness. Those apples are the fruit of hard work from the pack throughout the seasons. If you like them, I’m sure the pack members will be happy,” my father replied, bowing his head.
“I’m not talking about those apples.” The Alpha King glanced at me with a faint smile. “I mean-
the apple of your eye.”
My father trembled at those words, looked up at me for a brief moment, then quickly lowered his head again. “My daughter is different from others. She has no wolf and is reckless. If she has offended you, Alpha King, please forgive her and punish me instead.”
The Alpha King kept his smile and looked at me intently.
“I think you’re being modest, Sam. Your daughter is quite intelligent.”
He was the first person to call me smart – he must be a good man.
I decided that once I cleared the bitterness from his scent, I would surely smell sweetness instead.
With that thought, I smiled back at him.
He looked down at me and softly said, “Lyra also said she’d let her father to be my father too.”
I nodded, smiling. But when I glanced back at my father, I saw his face had gone pale as he knelt on the ground.
“I deserve death for failing to raise my daughter properly, allowing her to speak recklessly before you. Alpha King, please punish me!”
“Daddy.” I ran over quickly, tears in my eyes. “Did I mess up again?”
He took my hand and made me kneel with him, then continued pleading to the Alpha King, “My daughter rarely interacts with others and speaks without tact. It’s all my fault. Please don’t blame
her.”
The Alpha King walked over, and helped me to my feet.
“Alpha Sam, you’re being too harsh.” His smile was warm. “I find Lyra innocent and adorable. What she said touched me deeply. I won’t punish her-if anything, she deserves a reward.”
My father collapsed to the floor like he’d heard terrible news.
I felt like I’d done something wrong again.
3.19%
After returning to the pack from the werewolf castle, my father didn’t sleep all night. The next morning, my mother came to my room and sat beside me, tears in her eyes as she held me close.
“Mom, I didn’t tell the Alpha King my secret,” I said, tears welling up in my own eyes.
Though the Alpha King said he would reward me and my father, my mother just hugged me tighter and whispered, “I know. It’s all our fault.”
I didn’t understand why they thought it was their fault.
Until early the next morning, when the Alpha King’s beta came to the pack and said I was to be
taken to the castle.
True to his word, the Alpha King had sent warriors to carry in several boxes of gold, silver, and
jewels.
Callum smiled at me, “Luna Lyra, three days from now is an auspicious day – the perfect time to
enter the castle.”
I looked up, blinking.
“I’m not Luna Lyra. I’m just Lyra.”
He smiled still. “You are the future Luna of the Alpha King. He has chosen you.”
“What?”
After that, he crossed past me, spoke quietly with my father, then led a large group away.
That night, my mother, who had been holding in her tears, finally broke down when she saw the gifts Alpha King had sent.
I quietly asked our servant Savanna, “Am I really going to be Alpha King’s Luna?”
Savanna pouted, her voice cracking. “Yes.”
“Just because of what I said at the castle? I don’t even have a wolf.” I looked at her, and for a
moment, I imagined she was the Alpha King and questioned her.
But I knew it was pointless.
IN
= E
Π
I resigned myself and asked, “Is being his Luna like how my mom and dad are with each other?”
Savanna paused, thinking for a moment. “More or less.”
I glanced at my parents and wiped the tears off my mother’s face. “Mom, don’t cry. I’m willing to be
the Alpha King’s Luna.”
My mother cried even harder.
Chapter
3.193
In the next three days, several elder she-wolves from other packs came to our pack house, mostly to teach me the etiquette for life in the castle.
The rituals were complicated and hard to learn, and I stumbled my way through them until I got the
basics down.
The last elder she-wolf stood in front of me for a long time, looking deep into my eyes. Her cheeks flushed red, then pale, then red again.
“What is Claiming Night?” I blinked up at her innocently.
She bit her lip and finally said, “Lyra, just remember-when you’re in bed, you must obey the Alpha King.”
Chander 3
