Chapter 24: Gifts and Curses

The anniversary of Emilia's birth coincided with the first-year celebration of the Emberfall Pack's founding. The territory, once a raw, contested land, now thrummed with prosperity and purpose. The air itself seemed to buzz with the harmonious energy of wolves and humans working side-by-side. To her people, she was not just an Alpha; she was the living symbol of a new dawn. It was on this day of celebration that the two rival Alphas arrived, not with challenges, but with tributes. Wesley came first. His gift was presented in a carved chest of ancient, fragrant cedarwood. Inside, nestled on black velvet, lay the legendary "Moon-Tear Diamond." It was a massive, perfectly cut white gem that seemed to hold a captured moonlight within its depths, a priceless heirloom of the Shadow Claw Alpha line, traditionally gifted only to a confirmed Luna. 「It belonged to my mother, and her mother before her,」 he thought, his heart a exposed wound as he watched he