Chapter 2 Rebirth
Seraphina's POV
The last thing I remembered was fire.
Darius's cruel smile as the flames licked at my wedding gown. The searing pain as my skin blistered and blackened. The way my wolf howled in agony as our mate - our destined partner - watched us burn alive.
Now my soul floated in darkness, weightless and untethered. The pain had faded, replaced by an eerie calm. Was this the afterlife? Some cruel purgatory for betrayed mates?
Then I heard his voice.
"I couldn't resist Vesper's pull." Darius's familiar timbre wrapped around me like smoke. "My wolf always craved her."
My spirit jerked violently. Light exploded behind my eyelids. When I opened them, I was standing in the Blue Ridge Pack conference room - but not the present.
Five years ago.
The engagement meeting.
My stomach twisted as I took in the scene before me: Darius's large hand engulfing Vesper's delicate fingers, his thumb stroking her knuckles with intimate familiarity. The way his emerald eyes softened when he looked at her - a look that had never been meant for me.
A wave of nausea crashed over me. I could still smell the gasoline from my execution. Still feel the way my skin had crackled and peeled...
Then realization struck like lightning.
The Moon Goddess had given me a second chance.
My fingers curled into fists, nails biting into my palms. This time, I wouldn't be the naive Luna who trusted blindly. This time, I'd make Darius regret ever crossing me.
Across the room, Darius was spinning his carefully crafted tale of Vesper's tragic past. "Her parents died when she was just a child," he murmured, voice thick with fake sympathy. "She's suffered so much, fought so hard..."
I nearly laughed. In my first life, I'd fallen for this performance. Had pitied the omega who'd slithered her way into my mate's bed. Now I saw the truth shining in Vesper's cunning eyes - she was no victim.
She was the architect of my destruction.
The memory surfaced like a knife between ribs: Luna Soraya stealing into my chambers three months before the bonding ceremony, her perfume cloying with desperation.
"You must do something, Seraphina!" Her nails bit into my wrist. "Will you truly let some omega whore share your mate's bed?"
"But his wolf needs her—"
"He's a boy playing at being Alpha!" Her laugh was bitter. "Two mates? And one is a lowborn omega? The pack will laugh behind his back."
When I hesitated, she pressed a velvet pouch into my palm—heavy with gold. "Send her somewhere he'll never find her."
That night, I lay awake in my chambers, the moon casting silver streaks across my fur-lined blankets. Luna Soraya's words echoed in my mind—"You're doing this for your pack, for your future"—but the weight in my chest refused to lift.
'Is this what a Luna does?' My wolf, Lily, paced restlessly within me. 'Schemes in the dark like some jealous omega?'
I clenched the sheets, the truth bitter on my tongue. Luna Soraya meant well, but this... this felt like surrender. Like admitting Vesper had won without a fight. That mere proximity to my mate had been threat enough to send me scrambling for gold rather than facing her head-on.
Pathetic. An Alpha's daughter, heir to the Moonwhisper legacy, reduced to bribing her rival away.
I barely had time to drown in my shame before Luna Soraya took matters into her own hands.
"It's done," she announced one morning, sweeping into my solar with the satisfied smile of a hunter who'd cornered prey. "The omega took the money. She's leaving at dawn."
My tea cup froze halfway to my lips. "Just like that?"
"Just like that." Soraya's jeweled fingers brushed my cheek, cold as winter. "Some wolves love gold more than mates, little Luna. Be grateful yours has standards."
Yet neither of us had expected that flight would crash. No one survived.
Darius's howl of anguish shattered every window in the north wing. I stayed by his side through every moment, my hands steadying his trembling ones, my voice whispering comforts against his fevered skin.
"She's with the Moon Goddess now," one evening he murmured as he collapsed against me, his body wracked with sobs. "And I only have you now. Please never leave me, Seraphina."
I believed him. Believed it was our bond that healed him. Believed it right up until our wedding night, when he turned out to be the monster who'd held me down as the flames consumed me.
Darius's voice pulled me back to the present. "Seraphina will be my Luna," he declared, fingers entwined with Vesper's, "but Vesper is my second-chance mate. The Moon Goddess's will. To reject her would kill her wolf."
The audacity.
A ripple of disgust moved through the gathered Alphas. My father's jaw hardened. Luna Soraya looked ready to faint.
"The choice belongs to Seraphina alone."
The council chamber fell deathly silent as my father's alpha voice rang out. All eyes turned to me.
Darius stood at the head table, that arrogant smirk playing across his perfect lips. That same smirk he'd worn while pouring gasoline over my wedding gown in another life. My stomach churned.
"I'm afraid I can't accept a third party in my mating bond." My voice cut through the silence. "I demand to call off the engagement."
The gasps were immediate. Luna Soraya's jeweled hands flew to her mouth. Alpha Julian's chair screeched as he shot to his feet. But Darius—oh, his face was priceless. That cocky assurance shattered like thin ice beneath my boots.
"Seraphina!" Luna Soraya rushed forward, her silk gown whispering across stone. "You can't mean this! The alliance—"
"Is worth less than my self-respect." I met Darius's widening eyes. "I won't share my mate like some common omega."
Darius's scent turned acrid—burnt cedar and rotting leaves. "Sera," he growled, that pet name like poison now, "we've been friends since we were pups. You'd really humiliate me like this?"
I rose slowly, my ceremonial robes pooling around me. Let him see the steel in my spine. "I, Seraphina Luminara of the Moonwhisper Pack, reject you, Darius Harlow, as my mate."
The bond snapped.
White-hot agony ripped through my chest—like claws tearing my soul in two. Blood filled my mouth where I bit through my cheek. Across from me, Darius collapsed against the table, his golden skin going ashen.
Good.
Let it hurt.
Let him bleed.
Just like he'd made me burn.
I turned to leave—only for a wall of muscle to block my path. Darius's eyes glowed wolf-gold, his canines lengthening. The air around us crackled with barely restrained violence. His wolf was emerging.
"You. Don't. Get. To. Leave." Each word was a snarl.
"You're MINE! FOREVER MINE!"