The moon rode high—swollen, full, and cruel—as if even the heavens themselves had turned away from me. Its light cast the clearing in silver light, baring I stood, naked and cold, bound in the middle of the pack that once called me Luna.
The night reeked of betrayal. The scent clung to the air like decay—rich, metallic, sour. I inhaled it with every breath. And at the centre of that decay was the man who promised to protect me.
Kael. My mate. My executioner.
He looked like stone—face set in granite arrogance, but I knew him better than that not to see the flash beneath. A hesitation, perhaps. Or shame.
But if it was guilt, then it was not mercy.
"You are cursed, Selene," Kael stated, and the words floated on the wind—soft, but cold. "You have betrayed your pack. For this, you will be put to death."
By his hand.
My heart pounded frantically against my ribcage, not just with terror but incredulity. Despite everything—despite the whispers, the icy glares, the trial in silence—I had clung to the desperate hope that Kael would see through. That the man I loved was still within the Alpha.
Love doesn't cling when it's stuck in ego. And Kael's love had died long ago that night.
By his side was the woman who'd taken my place. My friend. My sister in every way but blood. Her smile, once my comfort, was now twisted with venom.
She rested her hand in Kael's, possessive and self-satisfied. And he let her.
He'd picked her over me. Over the truth.
Shame seared hotter than the cold. My arms shook beneath the weight of every accusatory look that surrounded me—those who had once called me Luna now regarded me as a traitor, not even a word to say.
But still, I did not kneel.
Not for them. Not for him.
I stood, though cruel cuffs of iron bit into my wrists. I would not give them tears. Not yet.
Kael's voice came back again, rougher this time. "You were my Luna once. Now you're a liability."
That single word—liability—hurt worse than the knives that came next.
Two enforcers arrived, hushed and hooded, and stole from me the very last thing I had: my pride. The wind bit at my skin, but I did not stir. Let them catch a glimpse. Let them see the woman they condemned. I would not hide myself in shame when it was they who should have lowered their faces.
The mob was silent. But the silence screamed louder than any cry. It was judgment. Cowardice.
And Kael… he could no longer meet my eyes.
Coward.
Then came the knives. Not to kill—merely to wound, to shame, to punish. I gritted my teeth as steel tore through muscle, fire burning down my legs in rivers of blood. Pain ripped through my body, but I would not scream.
I would not give them my pain.
I would not give them the pleasure of my tears
However, by the time the brand came—red-hot and steaming—I broke.
The howl that tore from my throat was not human. It was a wolf. It was soul.
Kael flinched.
Yes. I witnessed it. A step back. A tremble in the edge of his jaw. Guilt? No. Only the trepidation of a man too pitiful to deal with what he'd become.
"This is mercy," Kael growled.
Mercy?
No. Mercy would have been the truth. Mercy would have been listening. Mercy would have been preventing this before I was drained out before the moon that once blessed our union.
He stabbed me three times. Exactly. Brutally.
I fell, spewing blood, the world spinning in waves of black and red. I tried to speak, to tell them they were wrong. That I hadn't betrayed anyone.
But my words drowned in blood.
And yet, still, she laughed above me.
Her.
The one who replaced me. Who gave him falsehoods in his ear while embracing me like a sister. She laughed as if this were a drama. As if my death meant nothing.
I believed that would be the blow that killed me.
But Kael provided that, too.
"Cast her into the Evil Forest," he said she deserves no honour. "Let her die.
As I was dragged through the mire like an abomination, cold creeping into my marrow, my vision gave out.
And yet… in that final darkness… something stirred. A whisper. A spark.
This is not the end.
Between Worlds
There was no pain anymore. No cold. No sound.
Only silence.
I floated—formless, weightless—in the shadow of my dying breath. The last stench of betrayal clung to me like frost.
Then—light. Gentle at first. Then growing.
A voice like silver.
"Selene Blackwood," it said, and I recognized that it was not the voice of a human.
A presence emerged from the light. Towering. Radiant. Her presence bore down on me like the weight of centuries. The Moon Goddess.
"You died unjustly," she said to me, calm and vast. "Your fate was twisted by greed and fear. But fate. can be untangled."
My spirit shrank back, unsure, but aflame.
"Do you wish to return?" she inquired. "To redo what was done in blood? To recreate your destiny?"
I had no words—only a throbbing ache in my heart.
Yes.
"Then you will return," she instructed. "Five years back in time. But be warned—every choice will echo louder than ever. Your anguish has given you power. What do you do with it? Is up to you to choose."
The light exploded. Time collapsed. And I fell—
I woke gasping, not from the last breath of death, but the first of new life.
Soft linen beneath me. My room. Pine scent on the breeze from the open window. No chains. No hurt.
I shot upright, hands shooting to my stomach, my chest—no scars. No blood.
Five years ago.
Before the deceptions. Before Kael favoured her. Before my death.
I looked at my reflection in the mirror. Younger. Softer.
But my eyes were not the same.
The anger was there. The knowledge.
The woman I had become.
And now, I'd been given a second chance.
Not to plead. Not to love.
To burn.