The Crystal Moon Curse: Book 1: CLAIMED

Chapter 1

GENESIS

"I've worked it out, Kiara. Loki has kidnapped the Moon Goddess, she's simmering in the bowels of Hades, and he's impersonating her."

"What the hell are you on about now Neo? Can we just have a drink without you going on about the Goddess for once?" My Beta, swigs her beer rolling her eyes at me in annoyance.

I squint up at the crescent moon in a clear star-filled sky. Around us, the woods are quiet, the pack safe and asleep in the pack house. It's not often I let myself indulge but when Kiara walked me out to a clearing where she had an esky of my favorite cider waiting, I knew my Beta was telling me I needed a break.

"Well, you tell me what other reason there is why the world's biggest practical joke is being played on us," I question as I gulp my drink.

"It's not a joke Neo. It's a curse." Kiara shivers despite the warmth of the night.

"You know I don't believe it's a fucking curse - there's an explanation, we just don't know what yet." I snap. Kiara knows better than to talk about that curse shit in front of me. She nods silently.

"Well whatever it is I wish it would just be over, I don't know how much longer we can go on like this," she mumbles.

"We can't go on, that's the point. Our pack has no males under forty. We've lost all our mated she-wolves to their mate's packs. Our unmated she-wolves are being rejected every year, and we have no pups left. We are about to cross a point of no return."

I toss my empty bottle and grab another.

Kiara nods silently. I'm not telling her anything she doesn't already know.

"This has been going on for years before you were born and before the pack accepted you as Alpha. It's not your fault," She knows me well. I'm the pack's Alpha Heir, I can't help but feel helpless. But deep down I know exactly whose fault it is.

"I know Kiara. It's that bitch in the moon's fucking fault."

"Dammit Neo, don't you curse at the Goddess, she'll put a hex on us for sure." Kiara shivers again.

"What, aside from the curse we already have? We're a male-barren pack Kiara, what could be worse than that?" I scoff swigging my beer.

Not that long ago our pack was riding high off the fact that four out of my six sisters were mated to Prime 10 Alphas. With each mating, the wolf world looked at Crystal Moon as a pack that was blessed by the Goddess and we thrived on that blessing despite the fact it had become apparent our she-wolves had for some reason stopped having male pups.

Then my twin sisters Eva and Freya were also mated to Prime 10 Alphas and that's when things began to go downhill.

Eva and Freya's mates rejected them on the basis that they could be male-barren like the rest of our sisters. And so began a spiral of rejections.

The Crystal Moon Curse. That's what wolves started calling it. Fucking catchy, and it caught on like wildfire.

Whatever it is, it's messing with my she-wolves and I won't have that. I'll take on the damn goddess herself if I have to.

The sweetness of my cider suddenly goes sour and I put the bottle down with a heavy sigh.

Kiara leans over opening up another beer for herself.

"Are you ready for the festival?" she switches topics like a good beta. Knowing when her Alpha needs to be redirected.

I nod in the darkness, the weight on my shoulders feeling heavier as each night brings us closer to the first new moon of the year and the annual mating festival, the festival which coincides with the annual presentation of Alpha Heirs to the Prime 10 Council.