Sera's POV
My fingers won't stop trembling around the teacup.
I stare at the pale liquid swirling inside. Steam rises in delicate spirals, carrying the scent of chamomile and honey. It smells perfect. Normal. Safe.
So why does my stomach twist with warning?
"Drink it, Luna Sera," the maid whispers from the doorway. Her voice sounds strange. Too eager. "Alpha Killian ordered it specially for you. He said it will help you sleep."
My husband has never cared if I sleep well before.
I lift the cup to my lips anyway. What choice do I have? Killian doesn't like when I disobey. The bruise on my ribs from last week still aches when I breathe too deeply.
The tea touches my tongue. Bitter. Wrong.
I swallow before I can stop myself.
Fire explodes down my throat.
The cup slips from my hands and shatters against the marble floor. The crash echoes through my bedroom, but I barely hear it over the roaring in my ears. My lungs seize. I can't breathe. Can't think. Can't...
My knees slam into the ground. Shards of broken porcelain slice through my skin, but the pain is nothing compared to the burning spreading through my chest.
Poison.
Someone poisoned me.
No, no, no! My mind screams the words my voice can't form. This can't be happening!
I claw at my throat, desperate to force air into my closing windpipe. My nails dig into my own flesh. Blood wells under my fingertips, hot and sticky.
Luna! I shriek through our mental bond. I need you! Shift! We have to shift NOW!
Silence answers me.
My wolf has been locked away for ten years, trapped behind some invisible wall I've never understood. She's been quiet since the night my parents died. Since the night everything changed.
Without her, I can't heal. Without her, I'm helpless.
Dying.
My vision blurs. The room tilts sideways. I throw out my hand to catch myself, but my arm buckles. I crash onto my side, my cheek pressing against the cold floor.
Move. I have to move. Have to get help.
I dig my fingers into the floor and drag myself forward. Every inch feels impossible. My muscles scream. My heart hammers against my ribs so hard I think it might shatter them.
The door. If I can reach the door, I can scream for help. Someone will hear me. Someone will—
Footsteps echo in the hallway.
I freeze, my breath rattling in my chest.
The footsteps stop right outside my bedroom door.
Someone stands there. Waiting. Listening.
Making sure I die.
Terror floods my body, colder than the poison burning through my veins. My fingers curl against the marble. I want to scream. I want to cry out. But if I make a sound, whoever is out there will come inside and finish what the poison started.
I press my hand over my mouth, trapping the sob building in my throat.
The footsteps move again. Slow. Deliberate. Walking away.
They're satisfied. They think I'm already dead.
Maybe I am.
I wait until the sound fades completely. Then I start crawling again, using my elbows to pull myself across the floor. Blood smears behind me in a dark trail. My body feels heavy. So heavy. Like I'm made of stone instead of flesh.
The window. I can see moonlight streaming through the glass. If I can just reach it—
My hand closes around the windowsill. I haul myself up, my arms shaking so badly I almost fall. The moon hangs full and fat in the sky, bathing everything in silver light.
I used to love the moon when I was little. Mama taught me that the Moon Goddess watches over all wolves. She protects us. Guides us. Loves us.
But if that's true, why is she letting me die?
Tears blur my vision. I press my forehead against the cold glass, my breath fogging the window.
Please, I beg silently. Please, I don't want to die. I'm only twenty-five. I haven't done anything yet. I haven't lived.
My reflection stares back at me, and I barely recognize the ghost in the glass. My skin has turned gray. My lips are blue. Blood drips from my nose, painting my chin red.
This is how I'll be found. Alone. Broken. Dead before I ever discovered who I really am.
My chest tightens with something worse than poison. Regret.
I never got to heal patients at the pack clinic like I dreamed. Never saw the ocean. Never felt real love—the kind Mama and Papa had before someone murdered them.
I never even got to say goodbye to Grandmother.
My legs give out. I slide down the wall, leaving a smear of red on the expensive wallpaper Killian chose. Everything is fading. The room. The moonlight. The pain.
My heart stutters. Stops. Beats once. Stops again.
Memories flash through my mind like lightning. Mama's warm hugs. Papa's deep laugh. Grandmother teaching me to braid herbs together for healing teas. A dark-haired boy with amber eyes who made me laugh before he vanished.
Rowan.
I haven't thought about him in years. Why now? Why, when I'm dying, does my mind drag up the memory of my childhood friend?
My heart beats one last time.
Then nothing.
The pain vanishes. My body feels weightless, like I'm floating. I can see myself below—small and broken on the floor, surrounded by blood and shattered porcelain.
Is this death? This strange, peaceful quiet?
The moon suddenly blazes brighter. Light floods the room, so brilliant it should blind me. But I'm not afraid. Warmth wraps around me like Mama's arms used to.
A voice echoes through my mind. Ancient. Powerful. Kind.
You were meant for more than this, daughter. You deserve truth, not poison. I'm giving you another chance.
"I don't understand," I try to say, but I have no voice here.
You will. Go back, Sera Moonwhisper. Find who betrayed you. Change your story. But remember—the past is dangerous, and every choice births new consequences.
Heat surrounds me. Burning. Pulling. I'm falling through light and darkness, through time itself—
I gasp.
My eyes fly open.
I'm staring at a mirror. My mirror. But not the one in Killian's mansion.
This is my old bedroom. The one in Grandmother's house. The one I left six months ago.
I stumble backward, my heart slamming against my ribs. My hands fly to my throat. No blood. No cuts. No pain.
The poison is gone.
I spin in a wild circle, taking in my childhood room. The faded curtains. The wooden dresser covered in dried flowers. The bed with its patchwork quilt.
None of this makes sense.
My gaze lands on the calendar hanging on the wall.
No. That's impossible.
I lunge forward and rip it off the wall. The date screams at me in red ink.
Six months ago. Today. Right now.
The day of the Grand Moon Dance. The day Alpha Killian asked me to be his mate. The day I said yes.
The day that led to my death.
"Sera!" Grandmother's voice drifts up from downstairs. "Hurry, sweetie! We need to leave for the Moon Dance soon! You don't want to keep Alpha Killian waiting!"
The words slam into me like a fist.
I died. I actually died. And somehow, impossibly, the Moon Goddess sent me back.
I'm getting a second chance.
My legs shake so badly I have to sit on the bed before I fall. My mind races. If I'm really back, I can change everything. I don't have to accept Killian's proposal. I don't have to marry him. I don't have to end up poisoned and alone.
But who killed me? Was it Killian? Someone else? And why?
"Sera! Come on!"
I press my hands against my face, trying to think. Tonight, at the Moon Dance, Killian will ask me to be his mate in front of everyone. In my first life, I said yes because I thought I was lucky. Because everyone told me I should be honored.
I had no idea I was choosing my own death.
This time will be different.
This time, I'll find out who wanted me dead. And I'll make them pay.
I stand up, my whole body trembling with fear and fury and desperate hope.
I walk toward the door, each step feeling heavier than the last.
But just as my fingers close around the doorknob, a voice speaks from right behind me.
"Hello, Sera."
I whirl around.
The room is empty.
But I know that voice. I know it like I know my own heartbeat. It's impossible, but I know it.
"Luna?" I whisper into the silence.
My wolf. The one who's been locked away and silent for ten years.
She's awake.
And she's talking to me.