They Forgot My Rank, So the Lycan King Claimed Me novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Card Nobody Read
On her eighteenth birthday the family plans her twin's internship and tells Nessa to pick a random pack; she seals a pledge to the Royal Military Academy, and the courier says a silver seal is never sent back.
On our eighteenth birthday, my whole family sat at the kitchen table and picked a pack for my twin sister.
Every wolf in the world turns eighteen and goes through the awakening ceremony.
Your rank and the color of your fur decide your life.
A high rank earns a two-year internship with an elite pack, and that morning the table was covered in their brochures.
My twin sat in the middle of it, glowing, while the rest of them fought over her.
"Silvermoon," my brother said, and jabbed the top brochure. "I'll be in the capital on enforcer duty. I can keep an eye on you."
Jasper, my childhood friend, slid a different folder under her nose.
"Ironfang," he said. "Come with me. Two more years together, Pops."
Mom and Dad, the Luna and Alpha of our pack, beamed at each other.
"Both packs are in the capital," Dad said. "There will always be someone to look after you."
"We can finally stop worrying," Mom said.
Nobody had asked me anything yet.
I sat at the end of the table with my own folder closed in front of me.
It was almost noon when Mom finally looked down the table and remembered I was there.
"Nessa, honey, your rank is probably awful. Just pick any pack in the capital. Anything."
My brother, Jared, did not even look up. "Yeah. All four of us in one city. Weekends together. Easy."
Jasper tapped his watch. "Courier leaves in thirty minutes. Try not to mess up your form this time."
My hands had gone white around the registry.
When we were little, we played a game in the yard.
My twin, Poppy, was always the Luna everyone had to rescue.
Jared was the loyal warrior.
Jasper was the Alpha who cut down the rogue wolves to save her.
I was the rogue, the one everybody chased out.
Nothing about that had changed.
So I made a decision.
If nobody wanted me nearby, I would take the internship that was farthest from home.
Somewhere too far to come back from, so I would never have to miss any of them.
Jasper nudged my elbow with a pen. "Poppy and I both put Silvermoon. Pick something in the capital already."
The card from the ceremony sat folded in my back pocket.
Mythical Silver Wolf.
It was the highest rank anyone had ever been given.
The elder had read it aloud in the trial hall, fast, between two other names, because the crowd was already shouting for my sister.
Poppy had walked out of the trial chamber in tears. She hadn't turned the pale White Wolf she wanted, and she said so to the whole hall.
Mom and Dad forgot about every other child in the building.
"The fur color doesn't matter," Dad told her. "We'll use our connections."
"I'll fix it," Jared said. "Don't cry."
Jasper had put his arm around her. "Even on your worst day you outrank Nessa."
That was how the ceremony went for me.
Nobody asked what my wolf did.
Nobody asked how I felt.
Both of the elite packs on that table would have taken me without a single question.
I knew it, and I did not feel proud.
I felt like the shadow that made my sister bright.
She was beautiful, and she had been given every good gene our parents had.
I was plain, and the pack was kind about it.
"She looks so well-behaved," people would say when I walked in.
When I was little, I thought that was a compliment.
So when Mom bought Poppy dresses and none for me, I stayed quiet.
When Jared brought home snacks for her and nothing for me, I did not ask for a bite.
When Poppy got the warm seat by the hearth every winter and I shivered by the drafty door, I said nothing.
Because that was the only time Mom and Dad ever noticed me.
"Nessa is such a good girl. She loves her little sister."
For years, Poppy and Jasper traded first place on the training sheets.
My wolf came slowly and stayed near the bottom of the list.
That morning, for the first time in my life, I was above them both.
And nobody could see it.
The question came out before I could stop it.
"Jasper, you said Ironfang was your dream. You're really not going?"
He blinked at me, then scoffed.
"What's the difference between Ironfang and Silvermoon? The only thing that matters is where Poppy wants to go."
He had told me about Ironfang a hundred times.
He was the boy the elders had matched me with when we were twelve.
Poppy said a single word, and all of it was gone.
Something quiet in my chest cracked all the way through.
I left the capital registries where they lay.
I took a sheet of royal parchment from the bottom of my folder instead.
The Royal Military Academy, in the Southern Territory, seven hundred and fifty miles away.
It was the best school for wolves in the world, and the Lycan King himself was its sovereign.
Only White Wolves were supposed to be able to submit a pledge to it.
But a Silver Wolf was something the King's Guard would come looking for.
I wrote my name, rolled the parchment tight, and dripped the wax.
I pressed my palm to it and let my aura sink in.
The wax went from red to a clear, shining silver, and it stayed warm under my hand.
The courier took it from me at the door, and he turned it over in the light.
He looked at the seal for a long moment.
"Miss," he said slowly, "you should know a silver seal is never sent back."
"Good," I said.
He put it in his satchel and left.
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