Reborn To Kill The Alpha That Killed Me

I died with my husband's name on my lips, and his lie was still warm in my heart. One moment, I was standing in my wedding dress, the moon full above the Wolfe pack compound, my new husband's hand slipping out of mine like he had already let go of me weeks ago. The next moment, my fingers closed around my throat. Not his. Hers. The woman he swore he never loved, squeezing until the world went black and silent and cold. I remember thinking, even as I died, that I still loved him. That was the part that hurt the most. Then I opened my eyes and I was seventeen again. I shot up in bed so fast my head spun. The room around me was wrong. Soft pink curtains instead of the pale grey ones I chose after the wedding. A stuffed wolf toy on the shelf that I gave away when I turned sixteen. My hands, when I lifted them to my face, were smaller. Smoother. No wedding ring. I ran to the mirror on shaking legs and stared at a girl I had not seen in seven years. Round cheeks. Wide eyes. A face that had not yet learned to hide anything. I was Selene Ashworth again, before the marriage, before the betrayal, before Isolde Marsh wrapped her hands around my neck and whispered that I was no longer useful. I pressed a hand over my heart and felt it beating, wild and fast, and real. I was alive. I was young. And I remembered everything. Every lie Kade Wolfe told me during our marriage. Every cold silence at breakfast. Every time he looked past me like I was furniture in a house he already owned. I remembered the alliance papers, the pack merger, the way my father's face had gone gray with relief the day the Wolfe pack agreed to the match, like he had been holding his breath for months and could finally let it go. I remembered thinking I was lucky. I remembered being wrong. A knock hit my door, and I flinched so hard I nearly fell off the bed. "Selene? You awake, sweetheart? You have training at the lake this morning, then we leave for the academy send-off dinner." My mother's voice. Warm. Alive. She had been gone three years by the time I died in my first life, taken by a fever no healer could stop. Hearing her voice now felt like a blade sliding straight through my chest. "I'm awake," I managed. My voice cracked in the middle. "You sound strange. Are you well?" No. I am seventeen years old, and I have already lived through my own death. "I'm fine," I said instead. "Just a bad dream." Her footsteps faded down the hall, and I sat on the edge of the bed, gripping the blanket until my knuckles turned white. My mind raced through dates, through memories, sorting them like cards. If I was seventeen, and training at the lake was this morning, and the academy send-off dinner was tonight, then I was exactly three months before the day I first met Kade Wolfe. Three months before the day, I fell for a man who let his true mate strangle me for being in the way. I looked at my reflection one more time. The girl staring back at me looked soft, unguarded, easy to fool. She would not stay that way for long. I stood up, walked to my closet, and pulled out the plainest dress I owned. Whatever life had given me, whatever the moon goddess had decided to gift me with a second chance, I was not going to waste it crying in front of a mirror. I had three months to learn everything I never knew the first time. Three months to find out exactly what Kade Wolfe was hiding, exactly what his father wanted from my pack, and exactly who Isolde Marsh really was before she ever raised a hand against me. Because this time, I refused to walk into that wedding blind. This time, I intended to see it coming. My bedroom door creaked open before I could pull my hair back. My cousin Rowan leaned against the frame, arms crossed, grinning the same easy grin he always wore, like the world had not yet taught him to be afraid of anything. "You look like you saw a ghost," he said. If only he knew how close that was to the truth. "Didn't sleep well," I said. Rowan pushed off the doorframe and studied me with more attention than a seventeen year old boy usually gave anyone. "You've got that look on your face. The one you get when you're planning something." I forced my expression flat. "I don't know what you mean." "Uh huh." He did not believe me for a second. "Well, plan fast because Dad just got a letter from the Wolfe pack. They're moving up the alliance talks." My stomach dropped. "Moving up how much?" Rowan's grin faded into something more serious. "The send-off dinner tonight isn't just for the academy students anymore. Alpha Damon Wolfe is coming himself. And he's bringing his son." I stared at my cousin, my heart hammering against my ribs. Three months. I thought I had three months. I had three hours.