The Alpha Heir’s Candle Game Chapter 03
The Grand Luna
I finally understood: between me and Ethan, there had always been rank.
I softened. Went back that night to apologize for talking back to him during the day.
Outside his door, I heard Clara’s voice. “Thank you for giving me the pass-out spot again, Alpha heir. But… when Jade finds out I didn’t ask you first, that she came to you first this moon, won’t she be angry?”
Ethan’s voice, easy and cool. “Don’t worry about her. Her temper needs to be tamed. Otherwise, when she’s Luna of the pack, she’ll act like this whole pack answers to her whims. Wanting to leave whenever she wants. Thinking the heir’s wing is hers to run.”
So, the first time I came to him, it was not my fault at all.
He’d already decided to give the slot to Clara.
The story he told me was the shield.
He’d been changing without a sound.
The tear in my heart pulled wider. I hurt too much to face Ethan again.
I couldn’t figure out how the wolf who had been my whole sky since I was a pup had somehow become someone else’s.
Then a new letter came from home. I had to go to Ethan again.
He was lighting a candle by his window when I came in.
He said it casually.
“Then we make it a game. Stay silent while I fuck you. Hold out till the candle dies. Whoever does, wins. That way you can’t say I’m being unfair.”
I froze.
I couldn’t name why my whole body pulled back from the idea.
I could only agree.
Every time, Clara went first. I waited outside.
The room was too quiet. It seemed like she did it quickly.
However, when it was my turn, I learned how long a single breath could stretch.
And every time, every single time, my candle would be a hair from burning out when I lost.
Ethan would laugh softly into my ear.
“You’re just too… sensitive.”
I tried everything. Held on. Forced my thoughts anywhere else. Pinched myself until I bruised.
I even hated my own body, told myself it was cheaper than a common whore’s.
But I never knew.
Our two candles weren’t the same at all.
Mine had to burn for a full turn. Hers burned out in minutes.
Twice the time between us. More.
How was I supposed to win?
How was I supposed to pull back a heart that had already leaned so far I couldn’t see it?
From the first flame, this game was rigged.
Then I wouldn’t play anymore.
I didn’t want Ethan either.
My eyes burned. I couldn’t stop it. The tear in my heart split all the way open.
I turned to close his door, hiding the wetness on my face behind the motion.
I didn’t go back to my room.
I went straight to the former Luna’s quarters.
I sank to my knees the moment I entered her wing. “Forgive me for disturbing you at this hour, Grand Luna. My mother has been gravely ill for weeks. I fear that I won’t have the opportunity to see her again. So I am asking to end my five years as a pack attendant early and leave the pack house tonight.”
The Grand Luna’s hand paused on her tea cup. The porcelain rang.
“You no longer wish to mate my grandson.”
When I first came to the pack house, she had told me that when my five years were done, she herself would bless the mating between Ethan and me.
To leave now was to refuse the promise.
I kept my head down.
“Yes, Grand Luna. The Alpha heir is a perfect wolf, the future Alpha. But his heart is already with someone else. I know I cannot compete. And I no longer wish to compete. I only want to go home and care for my mother.”
She frowned. “You have lived four years in his wing. Your reputation belongs to him already. If you don’t mate him, what path is left for you?”
I lifted my head. “I have heard the Grand Luna intends to retire to the mountain sanctuary within pack lands. To live out her days in prayer for the pack. After I have settled my family’s affairs, I wish to come to serve you. From that day forward. Beside the sacred fire. For the rest of my life.”
Contract mates. Divided attention. A heart that was never all mine.
I chose never to mate at all. I chose to serve the Grand Luna.
Seeing my mind was set, she let out a long sigh. “I get it. I have no wish to bind two wolves who hate each other. You leave with tomorrow night’s escort. Seven days from now, you come with me to the sanctuary.”
She lifted a small carved token from the table beside her. Gold. Marked with the old moon-runes of her seat.
She held it out to me. “No wolf in this pack, my grandson included, will stop you at any border with my mark in your hand.”
My hands were shaking when I took it. “Thank you, Grand Luna.”
She looked down at me a long moment. Then her mouth curved.
Not quite a smile. Something more complicated.
“You remind me of myself at your age, Jade.”