Chapter Two
1136 Words
“Jessica,” the goddess said, her voice gentle and kind. “You died with pain in your heart and injustice in your soul.”
Jessica trembled, arms wrapped around herself. “I didn’t deserve that,” she whispered. “I only wanted to belong.”
“And for that,” the Moon Goddess said, “I grant you a second life.”
Jessica’s eyes widened.
“You What?!”
“You will return. New in form, but old in spirit. This time… you will not be powerless. You will not be ignored. You will rise, far above the rest. Find your killer and avenge your death.”
Her name… would be Luana.
---
The wind that blew through Valen Academy one year later carried something new and unexpected. A storm yet to be unfold.
Luana stepped out of the academy transport carriage, head held high, her black hair cascading down her shoulders in soft waves. Her eyes sharp as they held so much determination and strength.
She looked nothing like her previous self who had once walked these halls with her head down and heart breaking. She wasn’t Jessica anymore. Jessica had been innocent.
Luana was not.
Gone were the days of submission and silence. This time, she would not let herself be crushed. She hadn’t come back to be invisible.
She had come back for them and she would destroy them.
---
The first few days passed quietly. She kept her distance, observed from the shadows, smiled politely when spoken to. Most students saw her as a new transfer with strange eyes and a quiet confidence they didn’t understand. Whispers began to form again, but this time, they were laced with curiosity instead of mockery.
Then she met Alex.
He was seated alone beneath the shade of a tree, nose buried in a sketchbook. His clothes were too big, his sleeves too long. His presence almost faded into the background, but Luana saw him.
And more importantly, she recognized him.
Alex was like her. An outsider. A wolfless. A victim.
She hadn't had the chance to befriend him in her past self but now she would. He was just like how she used to be and that made her want nothing more than to be his friend.
When she sat beside him on the first day of Combat Theory, he flinched.
“I don’t bite,” she said calmly.
He blinked at her, then looked away. “That’s what everyone says before they do.”
Luana offered him a soft smile. “I don’t lie.”
They were quiet after that. But from that moment on, they sat together at every class. Ate lunch beneath the same tree. Walked back from the library at night, rambling away about their favourite past time activities.
She never told him who she really was.
He never asked but he knew something was odd about her. She held so much air filled with strength around her but yet she chose to associate herself with him.
It didn't seem right.
---
Meanwhile, word finally reached the triplets about the new girl that captures the heart and minds of people with just one glance.
Damien noticed her first.
She walked past the training field, hips swaying, eyes fixed ahead. He caught her scent before he even saw her. He had football practice and just as his head turned in her direction to drink up her presence, a ball flew in his direction knocking him in the head and making him fall to his knees.
He fell for her, literally.
His wolf lunged in his chest, howling and making Damien want to go to her immediately but he didn't understand why.
David was next. During an assembly, he spotted her seated two rows away. The moment her laughter drifted toward him, he felt a sharp pain in his ribs and heard the voice of his wolf growl, Mate.
Dominick felt it in the library. She passed him by, her fingers grazing the edge of a shelf. Their eyes met for half a second, and his heart skipped so violently he lost his breath.
They met up after school and as they talked about their day, her name came up from all their tongues and David spoke.
“my wolf called her his mate. Is she really or is she our?” he asked his brothers in confusion. They were three but they had one mate?
What was the moon goddess thinking?
It had been a year since Jessica’s death, and none of the brothers had truly recovered. Guilt sat like a stone on each of their chests. They never touched her, but they knew they had broken her. Their cruelty had opened the door. Someone else might have ended it, but they had handed that someone the key.
Damien stopped picking fights.
David stopped sleeping around.
Dominick stopped speaking entirely for a while.
So when this girl appeared, Luana, glowing with power and poise, and their wolves claimed her?
It was a curse.
Or worse… it was fate.
---
Luana noticed the change too.
She saw how Damien would linger in the halls longer than needed just to catch her scent. How David would stumble over his words when she spoke to someone else. How Dominick, ever the silent one, stared like he was trying to hold himself back from throwing himself at her.
She didn’t give them the satisfaction of acknowledgment.
But she smiled when she saw Damien clutch his chest in pain after she brushed past him without a glance. She noticed something similar happen to the two other brothers and being as smart as she was, she figured it out.
She was mated to not just one but all three of the kings of Valen Academy.
The mate bond worked both ways.
If they were too far from her, their wolves ached and minds grew restless. They couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. And when they were near? They would feel some sort of relief.
Now Luana was going to use this to her advantage to torture them.
---
One afternoon, Alex found her sitting alone by the fountain, eyes closed with her turned to the sky.
“You’re not like them,” he said, standing a few feet away. “But you’re not like me either.”
Luana cracked one eye open and smiled softly. “No. I’m something else entirely.”
Alex sat beside her. “You’re planning something, aren’t you?”
She looked at him now, her expression unreadable. “I’m fixing something.”
He didn’t press further. He didn’t need to. He’d seen the fire in her eyes when the triplets passed by. He knew the look of vengeance when it lived inside someone.
So he simply nodded. “When you’re ready… I’ll be there.”
- Writer
