"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 golden leaf isn’t a relic—it’s a *bridge*. 


It grows quietly at first, a fragile curl of light in the ashes of Nexa’s sapling. By dawn, it’s taller than I am, its stem a lattice of crystalline fibers humming with a sound like distant wind chimes. The survivors circle it, wary but hopeful. They name it **the Bastion**, a symbol of resilience. I don’t correct them. Let them have their myths. 


Ravel returns at twilight, her knives replaced by a rusted shovel slung over her shoulder. She eyes the Bastion with a sniper’s cold focus. “You know this ends with fire, right?” 


But the Bastion defies logic. Where its light falls, the wasteland softens—cracks in the earth seal, water pools in once-parched craters, and the air loses its metallic bite. Even the sky seems to heal, the green fractures fading to faint scars. 


The first pilgrim arrives the next morning. 
