"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

It glimmers turquoise under twin suns, its waves lapping gently at a shore littered with bleached coral and the ribcages of creatures no survivor can name. But at night, the water glows violet, and things move beneath the surface—shadows with too many fins, too many eyes. The survivors from the valley are gone, scattered like ash, leaving only Veyd and me to navigate this new coast. He’s quieter now, his tech scavenged from the warship reduced to a cracked tablet and a handful of frayed wires. The hunger walks beside me, no longer a whisper but a shape: a wolf of smoke and static, its eyes twin voids. 


*It’s learning*, I realize. *Learning to be real.* 


Under twin suns