"Hi, yes you aren't dreaming, it's the chubby Kelly," I say inwardly as I see the unhappy face expression of Jason who is disheartened. 

The guests laugh at us. They call our couple all sort of names. "The prince charming and the pancakes' eater Kelly" is one I can sadly remember."

"I, Jason Bentley of the South pack, reject you Kelly Thompson as my mate and the Luna Queen," he declared fiercely.

***
Kelly Thompson, an eighteen-year-old curvaceous and wolfless she-wolf, has been quietly admiring Jason Bentley, the heir apparent to the throne of the dominant South pack, for a number of years.

Unfortunately for Kelly, she doesn't get the same attention in return from Alpha heir Jason, as the handsome daughter of his old father's Gammas, Betty Nord, is already the love of the pack's future Alpha. But, the plump Kelly has an advantage over the skinny Betty because of a strong vow made by Jason's father, the Alpha King Don Bentley, that his son will marry the daughter of his Betas who gave their lives two years ago in a fight against the North pack's fiercest adversaries in order to preserve the life of the Alpha heir.

But clearly, nothing goes as smoothly as Kelly imagines.

The Rejected Curvy Luna Queen

Where the green stars once hung, the sky now yawns—a living abscess, its edges oozing strands of iridescent mucus that cling to the horizon like cobwebs. The air tastes metallic, as if the atmosphere itself is rusting. Eden walks ahead, his void-scarred hands trailing over the skeletal remains of pine trees, their bark peeled away to reveal marrow glowing faintly with the hollow’s residue. He hasn’t spoken since the marsh. His silence is a blade. 


The storm inside me festers, bloated on the Rotmother’s rot. It whispers in two voices now: one thunderous and familiar, the other slick and fungal. *“The boy doubts you,”* they chorus. *“He’ll leave. He’ll break.”* 


I clench my jaw, static sparking in my molars. “He’s stronger than you.” 


The hollow