MURDERED BY THE ALPHA (Now I'm His Nemesis And Obsession)

CHAPTER {2} To Kill An Alpha

The first thing I do is rip my nails to my chest, searching for the hole where Zane's knife went in, trying to find the wound that was racking my heart with so much pain just a few minutes ago.

But there's nothing there. My chest is smooth and my skin is whole.

There's no blood or any sort of scar.

"What the hell?" I gasp, my skin gathering cold chills.

I look down at my hands and I realize that they're not even my hands.

My own fingers were shorter and my palms were smaller, but these hands, they're softer, taller, more delicate. They look like the hands of a girl who gives orders and never has to work. Her nails are painted wine red, new and glossy.

I touch my face and it's not my face either. My cheeks suddenly feel higher and my jaw is tight.

My nose is no different, it doesn't feel like mine anymore.

I'm touching a stranger's face, but I can feel everything. Not just physically, but mentally. Like I know things I didn't know before.

I don't know what's happening to me.

I finally reach for the rearview mirror and my eyes meet the face of a stranger.

"What on earth!" I suck in a breath, my head spinning with the reflection in front of me.

A stranger is staring right back at me. She's beautiful, with dark long hair and sharp brown eyes.

Her skin looks like it's never seen the sun. I don't know her and I've never seen her before in my life, but I'm staring right at her in this mirror.

"No," I yell out loud, shaking my head.

"No, no, no. No, no, no."

I start hitting my cheeks with both hands, slapping and tapping aggressively.

"This has to be a dream," I say, but my voice sounds different now. It's slower and smoother, it's not even my voice at all.

"This has to be a weird, f*****g realistic, shitty dream."

I pinch my arm, but nothing happens. I slap my face again, but I'm still not waking up.

"This is insane! This is absolutely insane."

"Vivienne." A soft voice speaks from inside my head.

I shift away in my seat, my gaze snapping to the passenger seat, then to the back seat, looking for who called out to me, but I see no one.

"I am the Moon Goddess. I have watched over your kind since the first wolf drew breath."

"What the f**k is happening to me!" I scream, trying to shake off the voice, but it's still there in my head.

"You died, Vivienne," the voice says, and somehow the calmness of it causes my heart to settle.

The Moon Goddess? I used to imagine her like this graceful woman that glows, not a voice in my head. How do I know I'm not actually going crazy instead?

I feel a deep, calming presence wrap around me. It's strange yet so comforting.

"I was dead," I scream into the air. "I was in the water and I felt myself die. What is happening?" I ask.

"Yes. You died," she responds.

"Then how am I here? How am I breathing right now?"

The voice doesn't answer me right away. It stays silent for a few seconds and it's driving me crazy.

"Because I brought you back to life," she finally says.

I stare at the empty passenger seat, but there's no one there. Even so, I can feel her presence. She's real.

"You brought me back? What does that even mean?"

"Alpha Zane has done the unthinkable. He murdered his fated mate and broke the most sacred law of our kind. He must be taught a lesson and you're going to be my vessel."

"Your vessel? Who the heck are you?" I scream, but she doesn't answer. Actually, I think my question just pissed her off.

But she can't blame me. My chest hurts and I feel like I can't breathe properly. I take a deep breath, just to calm myself.

"So this is all about Zane? You brought me back because of him?"

"That's correct," she responds.

A stupid laugh blurts out of me because this can't be real.

"I don't want to be brought back for him. That man put a knife to my heart." My voice cracks and a tear slides down my cheeks. "The same heart that I gave him, the same heart that he vowed to protect."

My chest rises and falls with a massively crushing heaviness I've never felt before.

"I want him dead. I want him to feel what he made me pass through. Every single moment of it."

The voice goes quiet for a moment. "Then you will have your chance," she responds.

My whole body freezes. "What do you mean?"

"You have a mission, Vivienne. You need to end Zane's reign and destroy his hold over his pack. You need to take away everything he values, everything he's ever fought for. And when you've done that… you will get back to your original body and you'll live again."

My eyes snap wide at the words "original body" and "live again.” But still, it's not making a single bit of sense.

"My original body?" I ask.

"Your body is preserved at the bottom of the sacred river. The Goddess's Tears. The same water Zane threw your body."

I press my hand to my chest so I can feel my heart racing, so I can remind myself that this isn't a sick dream.

"So if I destroy him, I get to go back to being myself again?" I ask, just to make sure I heard right.

"That's correct."

Then I will do it. I will destroy him and I will burn his whole pack to the ground. I don't even have to think about my answer.

But then… How?

"How exactly am I gonna do that?"

The voice doesn't sound happy about my question. I can't see her face but I feel what she feels.

"There is more that you need to know."

"Then tell me," I plead desperately.

"You are not in your own body, Vivienne. You are in the body of a human woman named Iris. She died in this car a few minutes ago from an asthma attack. Her soul is already gone, but her body remains."

I suddenly feel a sick growl in my stomach. "I'm wearing a dead woman's skin?" I shriek.

"You are borrowing it for a short time."

I look in the rearview mirror again and the stranger is still there. She's beautiful, but she's not me. "I don't look like myself anymore."

"No. You do not."

"Will Zane be able to recognize that I was his wife?" I ask.

But she goes silent for a few seconds, like my questions are too heavy to process.

"The Lunar Shroud will hide your soul from him. So he won't know you're his wife… But the mate bond will still pull you together and his wolf will howl for you. That is how it will be."

"The Lunar Shroud? What does that mean?"

Everywhere is silent. She doesn't say anything this time, so I'm left with the scraps of information she leaves for me. It's infuriating but I don't feel like I have a choice.

"You said the bond is still there? So he'll feel attracted to me, but he won't know I'm Vivienne?"

"That's correct."

I shake my head. "That is not correct! That is sick!"

"The bond is your most powerful weapon, Vivienne. You need to use it."

"How can I still be fated to the man who murdered me? He killed me and he threw me into the river like I was nothing to him. How does this make any sense?"

Her voice goes soft and soothing, "The bond does not care about what he did to you. The mate bond establishes that he is yours and you are his. I made it that way."

"Then you need to unmake it!" I scream, as if she should be willing to take orders from me.

She goes silent again and this time it gets my blood boiling. I want to scream and I want to hit something.

"So you're telling me I'm trapped in a dead woman's body and I'm trapped in a bond with my own murderer?"

I close my eyes and my chest feels a little too tight.

I try to take a deep breath, but I can't do it. It feels like something is squeezing my lungs from the inside.

"What is wrong with my breathing?" I ask, panicking.

"Iris had asthma, so her lungs were weak and her body was weak. You will have to be very careful, Vivienne. The Lunar Shroud can weaken and reveal your identity if you're at the brink of death."

I open my eyes. "So I'm weak and I'm in a stranger's body with no power… but somehow… I'm supposed to destroy the most powerful Alpha in the whole region?”

Then I feel something small and warm inside my chest. It's quiet and it's scared, but it's there.

It's my wolf.

She didn't die in that water. She actually came with me.

I press my hand to my chest again, just to feel her.

"My wolf is still here?"

"Of course she is. She is you and you are her. No borrowed body can ever change that."

For the first time since I woke up in this car, I feel like myself. Not completely, but just a little bit. Enough to hold onto.

I take a deep breath. It feels too shallow to breathe in this body, but it's manageable.

"How am I supposed to kill him?" I ask. "He's an Alpha and he's powerful, but I'm just a weak omega in a weak human body."

"Your heart will guide you on what to do."

I frown because I don't understand that. "What does that even mean?"

"The bond will pull Zane toward you and he will not be able to stay away from you. You need to use that advantage to get close to him and learn his weaknesses. Then you can destroy him."

My head is still spinning but everything is beginning to make sense.

The bond will bring him to me and he will want me, and while he's close, I can figure out exactly how to destroy him.

If I can take away his power first, then he'll be easier to kill.

"If I dethrone him before I kill him," I say slowly, "then he becomes weaker. An Alpha without a pack is just a regular wolf, and a regular wolf can be killed."

"That's correct."

I nod because the plan is finally forming in my head. It's not complete and it's not perfect, but it's something I can work with.

The voice is quiet for a moment before she speaks.

"You will have to be very careful, Vivienne. The bond is not just his weakness. It is your weakness too. The human body is too weak to handle the wolf heat."

"Too weak to handle the wolf heat? I don't understand!”