"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

The bloom isn’t a flower—it’s a *door*. 


The lone root that survived the inferno has unfurled into an archway of thorns and starlight, its center a swirling vortex of liquid time. Veyra and I stand before it, the static in my veins silent for the first time in years. The air around the archway hums with a melody I don’t recognize, a song older than the Seed, older than the Silence. 


“We should burn it,” Veyra says, her new stinger glowing faintly. 


But the vortex pulses, and for a heartbeat, I see *him*—Eden, whole and unharmed, running through a sunlit field. Not a mimic. Not a memory. *Alive.* 


I step through before she can stop me. 


The world on the other side is a paradox. 
