King's possession

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 not like any other 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.

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 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 have 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.

I was the omega of my pack, which also meant that I was the most mistreated person in the whole pack. I was the person who had to run most of the errands, was underpaid and was the whole pack’s punching bag.

For any other person in my position, the Alpha King’s visit to my pack was probably a golden opportunity to turn their life around. However, I was not anticipating his visit.

Like, just who in their right minds would want to be mates with someone 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, which had been famous even before the death of the Luna Queen.

I know that I am desperate to live a good life, 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, I was also being abused here, but I am sure that it will never be as bad as the Alpha King.

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 has not been a single peaceful day in the Red Spade pack. Alice had been going around telling everyone about the things she would do when she became the Luna Queen. Alpha Liao did not even try to stop her, so it was pretty obvious that Alpha and Luna 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.

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 metallic 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 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 from my mother.

After making sure that my one and only window was locked, I quickly sat in my worn-out mini-truck and left for the party venue.