Chapter 2
350words
The scent of silver and blood vanished.
The cold stone beneath my dying body vanished.
I gasped, my hand flying to my throat—whole, unmarked, alive.
Warm candlelight, the soft murmur of celebration, familiar scents of my Moonlight Pack surrounding me.
My twenty-second birthday celebration. The sacred eve before my Spirit Wolf Recognition Ceremony.
The Moon Goddess had answered my prayers. I closed my eyes and opened them again—I'd been given a second chance.
This was five years ago, the night before everything would go catastrophically wrong.
"She does get nightmares," came a mocking voice from behind. "Especially since yesterday, when Alpha Ethan publicly declared that omega Cassandra as his 'fated mate.'"
My friend Maya was about to leap to my defense, but I caught her wrist.
It hadn't just been a declaration of 'fated mate.'
Three months ago, Ethan went hunting rogues near the borderlands and was cornered by a pack of ferals. Cassandra appeared at just the right moment to "save" him, sharing her life force through an emergency blood bond.
Ethan woke up convinced he'd found his fated mate, desperate to honor the life debt and claim her properly.
Since then, Pack gossips had spotted them in intimate positions three times.
"Sienna, ignore those jealous bitches. You and Ethan have been promised since childhood. Tomorrow's ceremony will prove..."
I met Maya's eyes and slowly shook my head, offering her a smile that didn't reach my eyes.
She didn't understand. How could she? In her world, love still conquered all, promises were kept, and childhood sweethearts lived happily ever after.
She had never died screaming on execution stones while her mate watched with satisfaction.
I'd been back for a week now, living with the weight of five years of memories—five years of betrayal, manipulation, torture, and execution. All of it as real as my current heartbeat.
A week of watching everyone around me with new eyes, seeing the signs I had missed before.
A week was more than enough time to understand what needed to be done.
"Sienna," Maya whispered urgently, "Ethan's here."
