The whole pack was in chaos. No matter which rank they belonged to, everyone was nervous about being perfect tonight. The small shops of the small town where our small pack was situated were packed with customers and the roads were blocked with traffic. Had it been any other normal day, all of these shops would have been empty and so would have been this road.

But today was no normal day. It was, without any doubt, going to be marked as the most important day in not only this town's history, but also for the whole werewolf community across the world.

Today is the day when the Alpha King is going to be visiting my pack, the Red Spade pack.

Quite contrary to its cold name, the Red Spade pack was among the most peaceful packs found here and our size was also extremely smaller, especially when compared to the packs which resided nearby. You may ask, ‘Well, then why is THE Alpha King even visiting a pack like this?’ Honestly speaking, it is a really long and complicated story, but a simplified version of it could be that, since his first mate—our Luna Queen—died, he has to find another mate for him to help him continue ruling over the largest and strongest pack in the world, King Pack. And yes,

No one knows the details of how the Luna Queen actually died and hence, rumours regarding her death spread.

The most famously discussed rumour is about how the Luna Queen was cheating on him and upon finding the truth about her betrayal, our poor King went into a fit of rage and killed her along with her lover.

Another one tells us about how the Luna Queen found out about the Alpha King cheating on her and she tried to kill him, but since the Alpha King is obviously way stronger than her, he ended up killing her in the fight. Oh and let's not forget about the one where the Alpha King is simply a mad man and randomly decides to kill her one day, out of the blue.

I don't know what had actually happened, but all of these stories have convinced all of the werewolf population that the person responsible for our Luna Queen's death was without a doubt, the Alpha King.

And now, he had apparently roamed all of the packs in the world over a span of 2 years in order to find his second chance mate. The Red Spade pack was one of the last ones on the list of the packs that he still had to visit, and since he had failed to find his mate anywhere else, everyone was sure that he would find the next Luna Queen soon.

Honestly, I could not even understand why he was taking this long to find a second chance mate. Only our first mates were fated. The second chance mates could be literally anyone. The only condition was that both the parties had to accept each other as mates. This was it. That stubborn man could have chosen any strong woman as the Queen, but nope. He just had to travel around the world, waste his (and everyone else’s) two god-damned years and still come up with zero progress.

All of the packs that had been visited at the start of his journey were the largest and the strongest ones (obviously). These packs had also set a sort of trend of hosting a ‘Welcoming Party’ upon the arrival of the Alpha King to their packs. The smaller packs soon followed their suit and had started to host their own parties to impress the Alpha King. Some packs, like mine, would host a party with the help of their neighbouring packs because their numbers were way too small to host a decent party.

Attending the Choosing Ceremony had automatically become an obligatory act for everyone living in that pack that was going to be hosting it, in order for the Alpha King to quickly meet all of the unmated pack members without wasting much of his time.

I guess that it is now time for me to introduce myself: Emma Jackson, 24 years old, and one of the mateless women who will be attending the party tonight.

My mother passed away when I was barely three years old, so I do not remember her much and as for my father…that man was nothing but trouble. For as long as I can remember, he had been addicted to gambling and drugs. Now, if I had been a romance novel’s character I am pretty sure that the story would have continued with my father being dead and leaving me in a pile of debt and then I will meet a smexy rich man who will be bewitched by my beauty and then we will get married and then he will pay off my debt and we will then face all other problems together to get our happy ever after.

How-so-ever, this is no mushy romantic tale. My father did not end up OD-ing or dying in any other way to save himself from the tremendous debt that had piled up due to his bad habits. He did end up leaving me though (ran away and left me alone when I was fifteen years old) and I did end up trying to pay back HIS debt, but life ain't no fairytale darling. It has been almost six years since my shitty life turned shittier, but so far, there is no prince charming that suddenly appeared in my life and made all my problems go away.

So, for any other person in my position, the Alpha King’s visit to my pack was probably a golden opportunity to turn my life around. However, I was not anticipating his visit. Like, just who in their right minds would want to be mates with a guy like the Alpha King? He was already famous for killing his fated mate, so who in their right minds would want to even try to get his attention? Not to mention the tales of his short temper had been famous even before the death of the Luna Queen.

I know that I am desperate to be debt free, but it is not to the extent where I am ready to even sell myself off to the worst person out there and make my life even worse. Like, yeah, hunger sucks, but so does being abused till death.

But apparently, Alice Liao, our Alpha’s daughter, had other plans. The preparations for his arrival had begun the moment he announced his plan to visit us, which was almost three months ago. Ever since then, there had not been a single peaceful day in the Red Spade pack. It was pretty obvious that the Alpha and his family were trying their best to get their daughter selected as the Luna Queen. Politically, this would be really beneficial for our small pack. Personally, this would be no less than a suicide mission. Oh well, all I can do is wish her luck.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Currently, I am standing in front of my vanity, applying finishing touches to my makeup. I lived alone in the small, run-down shack that my father had left me after he disappeared without a trace. My house consisted of only a room and a bathroom. Within my room was my old vanity that once belonged to my mother and a mattress for me to sleep on. In one of the corners I had placed a small stove and a cupboard to hold a few utensils and groceries. A small marble sink was installed right next to the stove and the sound of water dripping from the broken tap could be heard all the time.

I glanced at the broken wall clock that was somehow still working and gave out a little yelp of surprise as I realised that the event was going to start in less than half an hour. The Alpha King would rarely stay for long at these parties. When he was sure that he had met with every one of the unmated women, he would leave for the next pack and, most of the time, his visit would barely last for a few minutes. Making him wait would be counted as disrespect and that was the last thing a person with no title or power (like me) would want to do.

I carefully observed my reflection for one last time. My tanned skin contrasted perfectly with the plain royal blue dress that I was wearing. My dark brown hair and eyes stood out more than usual due to the makeup that I was wearing. The only accessories that I was wearing were silver colored floral earrings. In the centre of the earrings was a dark blue gem which matched my dress. This was the only set of expensive jewellery that I had and despite being knee deep in debt, I never had the courage to sell it. It was the last reminder left of my mother. While I do not remember her, I liked to think of her as an affectionate person who cared for me, hence the reluctance to let go of her memoirs.

After making sure that my one and only window was locked, I quickly left for the party venue. Even though the place was barely a ten minute drive away, since I had no car AND I was wearing heels, I knew that I had to leave early in order to reach the place on time.

* * * * * * * * *

I was late. By ten minutes.

This was probably the worst thing that has happened to me in a while. I was practically running at this point and this weird feeling in my chest grew. Something bad was going to happen and I was sure of that. My feelings were confirmed when I received a phone call from my very panicked Luna, Amber.

“Emma! Where are you?” She whispered, panic visible in her barely audible voice.

“I am *huff* *huff* right *huff* *huff* outside the pack house.” I answered while trying to catch my breath.

She let out an irritated breath. “Well then come quickly! Do not make this more difficult for us than you already have! And make sure you look neat before you enter. I absolutely do NOT want you to embarrass us more than you already have.” She then cut off the call, leaving me standing confusedly outside the main entrance door of the pack house.

‘Huh? 'I know I'm a little late, but isn't her reaction a little too much? Maybe I should not have focused so much on the detailing and left a little earlier.'

And just what on earth did she even mean by not embarrassing her more? This was probably the first time I had ever done anything wrong.

Ignoring the anger I felt due to the unfairness of this whole situation, I tried to settle my hair that had gotten messed up due to me running all the way here. My face was all sweaty and flushed red, and I almost cried while looking at my reflection through the phone’s front camera. A long streak of mascara ran down from my left eye up to my chin and my under eyes were dark too, making me look like a raccoon. I patted my face with a tissue but I could not do much about those dark circles that I now had under my eyes.

‘Oh well’, I thought as I opened the door, ‘here goes nothing’.

The moment the door was pulled open, a shiver went down my spine and I tried to suppress the fear that suddenly arose in my wolf due to a strong aura that could be detected from within the room.

‘I see, the Alpha King has already arrived.’

The room had already been silent before I had arrived, but the moment I stepped in, it was as if people had even stopped breathing.

Over a hundred or so pairs of eyes followed me as I walked in the room. I ran my fingers through my dishevelled hair for what felt like the thousandth time as I grew conscious of my appearance.

Did they all have to stare at me so obviously?

My eyes slowly skimmed through the room until they landed on a sallow looking Alice. She was glaring at me with such anger that it was almost impossible to ignore her. She looked absolutely flawless. Her milky white skin practically glowed in the peachy long silk dress that she was wearing. A white belt-like ribbon was wrapped around her thin waist. Her dark black hair reached below her chest. The anger in her grey eyes scared me. I knew that I had somehow gotten myself in trouble. Was it because I was late? Or was it because the Alpha King had decided to reject everyone in this pack too, which meant that she had been rejected too?

Well fuck.

I quickly took my eyes off of hers, not able to bear the anger directed at me any longer. I allowed my eyes to subtly sweep over the rest of the guests. To my surprise, Alpha and Luna were not in the room. Finally, my eyes landed on the person who looked even more intimidating than Alice.

It was none other than the Alpha King himself. The strong aura of authority and dominance he was emitting made it really easy for me to recognise him. Even if there had not been any strong aura, I still would have ended up recognising him. How could I not?

Among the hundreds of werewolves who currently were in the room, he was the one who stood out the most. His bright golden eyes were already on me. They held amusement, as if he could believe what he was seeing.I was once again reminded of my horrible appearance and I cringed. Fuck.

His hair, on the other hand, was bright silver. His strange features automatically separated him from all of us. While us werewolves could have eyes of golden, red and even purple, our hair was the same as that of humans, which consisted of different shades of black, brown, red, or blonde.

Even though he was wearing a suit, it was perfectly clear that he had a well built body. A chiselled jaw and light stubble just added more to his beauty.

I am sure that I would have shamelessly continued checking out the Alpha King, had it not been for a blonde-haired man who suddenly stepped forward from behind the Alpha King. He too, had a strong aura coming off of him, but it was less than the Alpha King.

‘That must be his beta,’ I realised, just when he kneeled down on the floor, facing me.

My eyes opened wide in shock as I stared at him, unsure of what was happening. Alice stomped her feet on the ground, just like what you would expect a child would do when throwing a tantrum. She then left the room, as tears cascaded down her pretty face.

The royal beta ignored her as more people slowly kneeled on the ground just as he had. I stared at him blankly, not completely sure about what was happening.

“All hail our new Luna Queen!” He exclaimed as he slowly bowed his neck.