The hall reeked of power and blood.
Celina kept her head bowed, eyes locked on the polished marble floor as Darius circled her like a predator inspecting his prey. Every muscle in her borrowed body screamed to retreat, but she held her ground.
He mustn't see her rage. Not yet.
"You disobeyed a direct command last night," he said, voice low and laced with disappointment. "You were told to remain in your quarters. Instead, you were found at the western border bleeding and unconscious. Care to explain?"
Celina remained silent.
Lyra, the omega whose body she now wore, was mute. That much she'd already learned. A blessing, in a twisted way. Silence gave her power time to study him. To remember every lie he told before he sentenced her to death.
"You always look at me like that." Darius stepped closer, voice now a breath from her ear. "Like you want to scream but can't. Like you want to bite, but you've already been declawed."
She didn't flinch.
Good.
She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
Suddenly, his fingers gripped her jaw, tilting her face upward.
Celina met his gaze.
His eyes searched hers, narrowing.
Something shifted in the air.
"…You look different today," he murmured, brows furrowed. "Less… broken."
She smiled inside.
That's because I'm not Lyra anymore. I'm the ghost you buried. The curse you created.
Later, back in her chamber a cold, cramped stone room meant for servants Celina collapsed onto the cot, her body trembling from the tension she'd bottled up.
Every moment near him pulled on her wolf her soul bond screaming to recognize him. That unbearable connection still existed, even in this body. The mate link hadn't died with her.
The goddess is cruel.
She clutched her chest, feeling the tightness there like hands trying to tear her soul apart from the inside out.
She remembered it all.
The trial.
The lies.
Seraphina's sobbing confession that Celina had helped the rogues break the Blood Pact treaty.
The dagger Darius drove through the bond when he chose her sister's word over hers.
The fire.
The heat.
His silence.
That silence had screamed louder than any accusation.
It haunted her.
Until now.
Because now she was alive again.
And she would burn him from the inside out the way he had done to her.
But first she needed to know why.
Why did Seraphina betray her?
Why did the Blood Pact fail that night?
And why did the goddess give her another chance?
The next morning, the pack buzzed with tension.
Thunderclouds rolled across the sky, and the scent of storm clung to the air. The younger wolves whispered about strange howling beyond the borders creatures that didn't belong to any known pack.
"The veil is thinning," she heard one elder say. "The cursed blood is stirring."
It had begun.
The apocalypse she'd foreseen in her visions the one they all mocked her for was creeping closer.
And no one was ready.
Not even Darius.
Especially not Darius.
Celina volunteered for kitchen duty Lyra's usual task and it gave her the perfect chance to listen.
Wolves gossiped louder in kitchens than in war councils.
"She's still alive?" one she-wolf muttered, peeling potatoes. "After what the Alpha did to her? She must have a death wish."
"Or a cursed soul," another added. "The moon's been red every night since."
"She's strange now. Her eyes… they don't look like Lyra's anymore."
Celina remained quiet in the corner, scrubbing pans with her back turned. But her wolf stirred.
They could sense her change.
She wasn't hiding well enough.
She'd have to move faster.
That evening, a message came.
"The Alpha has summoned you."
Again.
Celina was led to the eastern cliffs the highest point overlooking the ravine.
And there he stood.
Darius Vexthorn.
The man who kissed her, then killed her.
Moonlight carved his body in silver and shadow. His shirt hung open, revealing scars on his chest scars she didn't remember. His eyes flicked to her as she approached.
"You don't speak, but you listen well," he said. "I respect that."
She remained still.
"I don't know what's happening to me," he continued, voice almost too low for the wind to carry. "But every time I look at you… I feel like I'm being haunted."
She blinked.
He didn't know.
But he felt it.
He stepped closer, and something wild flashed in his eyes. "What are you?"
Celina tilted her head slightly, expression blank.
Darius cursed under his breath. "Forget it. I shouldn't have brought you here."
He turned away but she stepped forward. For a moment, just a moment, her fingers reached out… hovered near his back.
Not to hurt.
But to feel.
One touch, and she could tell if the bond still remembered her.
But no.
Not yet.
She dropped her hand.
Walked away.
Left him there, alone with his confusion and guilt.
Let the ghosts whisper first.
Then she would make him bleed.