Luna's Redemption

Chapter One

Tessa's POV

Maybe I should have known it would end this way. My years of planning, my years of war. But I never imagined that this was all it would come to, that my dreams of becoming ruler over all the packs would be turned to dust by my ex-husband's claws through my chest.

Then again, he had always been the death of me.

He glared down at me with hatred in his eyes. But even at the point of death, I was not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me look weak. So I smirked at him, exposing bloodstained teeth.

"I expected more from you, Lucien," I said. "I even saved your pack for last, you know. But you were just as disappointing as ever."

"That's bold, coming from you," he replied, staring coldly at me. "It doesn't matter what you say to save face. You have lost, Tessa."

There wasn't anything I could say to that.

Truly, I had lost. But I hadn't become the terror of all packs by admitting defeat. If I was going to die anyway, I might as well do so with pride.

So I sneered.

"You couldn't beat me without wrecking your whole palace," I said. "Looks like some things never change, Lucien."

He ripped his claws out of me, and my body jerked as a low hiss of pain escaped me. I bit my lip against the pain, looking at him with all the hatred in my bones.

The gaping wound in my chest and the blood I had lost was enough to make me too weak to move a muscle. But Lucien had been married to me for years, and spent even more years hunting me.

He was not foolish enough to assume that an injury like this could kill me.

When he drew a dagger and aimed for my throat, I did not close my eyes. I watched my death approach without so much as a flinch.

……

I woke up with a jolt, my heart beating too fast. My hands clenched, fisting into silk sheets as I struggled to drag air into my lungs. My wide eyes took in the high ceiling, even as I squinted from a headache that threatened to tear my brain to shreds.

What's going on? I thought, panicking.

The last thing I remembered was the sharp sting of the blade as Lucien cut my throat.

I had died. So how come I was waking up?

And where was I?

It was a struggle to get up, and once I was in a sitting position, I looked around.

I was in a large, beautifully furnished room.

Actually, this place looked like a queen's chambers or something. I looked down at myself, only to see that I was dressed in red wedding clothes.

"What?" I blurted out.

I lifted my hands to my face, and my eyes widened. Because these weren't my hands. These hands were smaller than mine, and looked more fragile. They were hands that had never held a weapon or seen a day of training. As if that wasn't bad enough, I couldn't feel any power within this body. All the power I had gathered in my mission to conquer all the packs was gone.

"What the heck?" I muttered.

This felt like a fever dream. Or a sick joke being played on me by the moon goddess.

With a groan of frustration, I stood up. Gosh, even the body was damn small. So small and so delicate that it could be crushed in the blink of an eye.

Of all bodies to get stuck in, it had to be this one that seemed to belong to a baby bird rather than a werewolf.

Talk about rotten luck.

My… or rather, this body's legs were weak as I staggered over to the full-length mirror, clutching my aching head. For a moment, I could only stare into the mirror.

A lovely, unfamiliar face stared back at me.

Large eyes framed by long lashes and small pouty lips set in a heart-shaped face.

Long, curly golden blonde hair was pulled away from this face, and knotted at the nape with a red ribbon.

"What is going on?" I muttered, looking around the empty room. "What the hell is this? Who the hell is this?"

I was at a total loss here. When werewolves died, we went to meet the moon goddess. We certainly did not find ourselves trapped in the body of some stranger in some strange place.

So why was this happening to me?

And as if that was not bad enough, this body's aura told me that it belonged to an Omega. I was an Alpha level werewolf, and now I had to be stuck in the body of a damn Omega?

"If this is a joke, goddess," I murmured under my breath, "it is so not funny."

Desperate for anything that could help me out, I hurried back to the bed and looked around. My search uncovered a tiny, empty bottle hidden under one of the pillows. I opened it and sniffed it, discovering that it had contained wolfsbane, a poison that could kill werewolves instantly.

Suddenly, I was hit by a wave of memories. Memories that had belonged to the owner of this body I was now trapped in. She was an Omega named Selena Winters, and was the daughter of the Alpha of one of the weaker clans. After killing me, Lucien had come to be known as the most powerful Alpha, and all the others wanted to be on his good side.

So this Selena had been betrothed to him as a way for her father to gain Lucien's favour. Selena had been bullied her whole life for being an Omega, which turned her into a pushover. So even though she hadn't wanted to marry Lucien, she had played along and acted excited at the wedding ceremony, only to kill herself on the wedding night.

So, I was married to Lucien a second time. The irony of it made me want to laugh.

But even though this wasn't how I would have chosen to come back, I was glad to return. I would use this second chance to achieve my goals. And this time, I wasn't going to lose to Lucien.