Chapter 1: Death's Memory
Nora's Point of View
The taste of poison still burned on my tongue.
I gasped, clawing at my throat as memories crashed over me like a tidal wave. The silver goblet. Elena's smile. Marcus watching me die. The agony of wolfsbane eating through my veins while my own sister and mate stood over me, calling me weak, useless, a burden they were finally free of.
But it couldn't be. I was dead. I'd remembered to die.
My hands flashed up to my face, and I froze. These were not my hands. The fingers were longer, more dainty. The skin pale instead of my usual warm brown. I sprang to my feet, stumbling as my body moved in ways I wasn't accustomed. Taller. Stronger.
A stream churned in the distance. I crept towards it on shaking legs, my heart thumping so hard it ached. The mirror staring back at me took my breath away.
Silver hair cascaded down my shoulders like moonlight. Violet eyes gazed back at me instead of my normal brown ones. High cheekbones. A stranger's face that was beautiful but not my own. This wasn't Nora Silverback, the weak Luna who perished asphyxiating on her own blood when she was ten years old.
This was another person.
"No, no, no." I pressed my palms into the cold earth, panting. The visions came rushing back. Elena chopping wolfsbane into my meals every day since childhood. Marcus's hands at my throat when we'd exchanged our last battle. The pack party when they'd completed what they'd started.
You're too weak to be Luna, Elena had spat as the poison worked its way through me. You always were.
I touched my throat. No bruising. No pain. Only unmarred, untouched skin.
But whose body was this?
Images flashed in my head that were not my own. A young woman running through these same woods. Hunters carrying silver bullets. Pain. Fear. Death.
Aria. Her name was said in my head like an echo. She had died here, frightened and alone, like me. But while I died from betrayal, she'd died from hate. Humans who were unable to accept her for herself.
My wolf stirred inside me, and I was on the brink of crying with thankfulness. She was there, stronger than she had ever been when I lived as Nora. The constant weakness that had plagued me my entire first life was not there. In its place, strength surged through me that made my flesh tingle.
Elena was poisoning me. For years. Maybe my whole life.
Rage burned in me, hotter than wolfsbane had ever tasted. They'd branded me as weak when they were the ones making me so. They'd murdered me for not being adequate when they were responsible for me not being able to reach my full capacity.
I got up slowly, adjusting to this new body. Every movement felt natural now, as if I'd been wearing pants that were too small and now wore ones that fit. The Moon Goddess had granted me a second chance, but why? And why in Aria's body?
The answer came on a breeze. Justice.
Was justice what I sought, or revenge?
I closed my eyes and let the memories of Aria surface. She'd been looking for something when she was killed. Her pack. Her family. She'd been born Moon-blessed like me, but brought up by humans who were afraid of her power. They'd sold her to the hunters when her abilities developed.
She'd been running towards the Silverback territory when they killed her. Running towards my former pack, though she didn't know why. Something had been calling her home.
The same pull I'd felt now.
Marcus was dead. I knew it somehow, the way you know when something that's meant to be there isn't. But Elena lived. Elena, who'd smiled while she'd observed me die. Elena, who'd killed my life, my mate, my pack.
Elena, who hadn't even known her dead sister was coming back.
I set off towards Silverback land, my feet bare and silent on the ground. This new body strode like a predator where the previous body stumbled like prey. Every step took me nearer to the pack that had rejected me like garbage.
They thought Nora Silverback was weak and pathetic. They were in for a meeting with Aria.
The moon was full overhead, and I felt its blessing coursing through my blood. Power that Elena's venom had restrained for a quarter century now burned untrammeled and hot. They'd made their worst mistake when they thought killing me would keep me silent.
I was stronger now. Faster. Deadlier.
And I remembered everything.
The pack house stood before me, just as I'd left it. Yellow light streamed from the windows. Laughter greeted my ears and homey smells made my nostrils twitch. My wolf whined, caught between hate and love for this place that'd made me and broken me.
Elena's scent drifted on the wind, and my fists clenched. She still lived in my old bedroom. Still performed the grieving sister with my Luna's necklace around her neck.
I entered the clearing around the pack house, violet eyes fixed on the house where my murderers slept peacefully. They had no idea death herself had returned to collect what they did not pay.
But as I drew nearer, I was smacked with another scent. Male. Strong. Alpha.
My heart went into overdrive as a form emerged from the shadows of the pack house. Tall and broad-shouldered, dark hair, and gold eyes that saw through me to the soul. He strode forward with the confident step of a man bred to lead.
This was not Marcus.
This was a fresh one. A person who got my wolf's sit up and pay attention in a way that had nothing whatsoever to do with revenge, and everything to do with something far more evil.
"Well," he said, his voice a low rumble that sent shivers down my spine. "What do we have here?"
I popped my mouth open to respond, but nothing would come out. Because I had just realized that I wasn't alone hunting tonight.