The Crystal Moon Curse: Book 1: CLAIMED

Chapter 10

SEBASTIAN

It's hard to have a family dinner at Council House in the middle of the Mating Festival but somehow Crystal Moon manages - and with flair.

The dining hall in the Council house is large with ten tables for each of the Prime 10 ranked entourage, and one head table that seats twenty for the Prime 10 Alphas and their Lunas.

Tonight the head table is decidedly empty with only Alphas Dante, Gage, and Hans sitting alone with Hans's Luna.

Everyone else is at the Crystal Moon table which has additional tables and chairs added to it to accommodate the growing number joining them for dinner.

It started with just Genesis and me with her parents and her friend Kiara, who I find out is actually her chosen Beta and daughter of Quills Beta and the pack doctor. Trent soon descended and invited himself over, and not long after Eva and Freya joined too.

It was Alphas Connor and Blaze who decided to pull up an additional table and join us with Arabella and Belinda, Genesis's older sisters who spent the first twenty minutes questioning me endlessly about my family and ancestors like I was a pedigree dog. I looked to Genesis for help at one point but she left me hanging out to dry with a shrug.

"I assure you it does not get any easier."

Alpha Drake says to me with a sympathetic smile. He passes by with his mate Cordelia who is sporting a large pregnancy bump.

They join the table just as Alpha Eric and Delilah come in, seeing the growing spectacle and smiling as they complete the party taking the last two seats.

"Well, I have to say this was not how I expected to spend this Mating Festival but now that we are all here I would like to make a toast."

Alpha Quill stands and a hush descends over the dining room.

This impromptu dinner is an unexpected display of power that cannot be denied as the Prime 10 head table is left significantly bereft. The very notion that Crystal Moon is cursed seems ridiculous in the face of the power the mate bonds with five other Prime10 packs give it.

"I would like to make a toast to the Moon Goddess. She has blessed me with seven of the most beautiful daughters in the world, gifted to me by my even more beautiful mate and Luna, Helga." he looks at his mate with love and devotion as intense as any newly mated pair.

I grasp Genesis's hand under the table, gratified she does not pull away. Around the table I see the other Alphas leaning into their mates and finding contact points of intimacy just as I have done.

When one male wolf publicly showers his mate in affection the effect on other males to ensure their own mates are secure in their bond is instinctual. The table simmers with undertones of love and lust, an intoxicating combination.

Alpha Quinn seems to almost smirk at us as he continues his toast.

"I look around this table at you Alphas who have accepted my daughters, claimed them as yours, and I am proud to call you all my sons - for you all have honored the blessing given to you by the Goddess and I know she will continue to bless you and your packs as well as Crystal Moon. To the Goddess!" he raises his glass and we all do likewise.

"To the Goddess!" we toast in unison. Genesis pointedly does not join in the toast.

The noise level picks up immediately with clattering cutlery, and intense conversations across and up and down the table. I take a second to glance at the quiet Prime 10 table and catch Dante and Gage glancing across at us, both expressionless. It's not lost to me the points scored by Quill. Those fuckers rejected his daughters and his toast made it perfectly clear they were the losers in the equation.