LUNA REBORN ; HOW I MET MY MATE

FIVE YEARS EARLIER

The first thing I noticed was the smell of rain.

It was faint, carried through an open window by a cool morning breeze, but it was familiar enough to make my heart ache before I even opened my eyes. For a few seconds, I remained still beneath the blankets, afraid that moving would bring back the memories I had spent my final moments trying to understand. I could still remember the cold marble beneath me, the silver blade, Kael's voice breaking as he called my name. I could still see the woman standing over me, and beneath all of those memories was the question that had followed me into darkness.

Why had Kael looked afraid?

I opened my eyes.

A pale wooden ceiling greeted me.

I stared at it without moving, trying to understand where I was. This wasn't my bedroom in Blackwood Castle. The ceiling above me had no carved beams, no dark stone decorations, and no silver crest mounted above the bed. The curtains were different too, light blue instead of the heavy black fabric I had chosen after becoming Luna.

Then I heard a familiar voice.

"Luna?"

My breath caught.

The bedroom door opened, and my mother walked inside.

For several seconds, neither of us spoke.

She looked exactly as I remembered her before illness and years of stress changed her appearance. Her dark hair fell loosely around her shoulders, and there were no silver strands at her temples. She was wearing the simple blue dress she used to favor at home, and the worried expression on her face was one I had not seen in years.

My mother was alive.

I sat upright so quickly that the room spun.

"Mother?"

She hurried to the bed and placed a hand against my forehead. "You frightened me. You were burning with fever last night, and when you finally fell asleep, you wouldn't wake up properly."

I stared at her hand.

Warm.

Real.

I reached up and touched her wrist.

She looked at me strangely. "What are you doing?"

I didn't answer.

My eyes filled with tears.

She was alive.

Not the woman I had buried years ago.

Not the mother whose final days I remembered watching helplessly from a distance while Kael's duties kept me occupied with the kingdom.

She was young again.

Healthy.

Alive.

I threw my arms around her.

My mother stiffened in surprise before wrapping them around me.

"Luna, what happened?"

I buried my face against her shoulder and cried.

I cried for the years I had lost, for the mother I had mourned, for the marriage I had believed in, and for the life that had ended before I understood what had truly been happening around me. She kept asking what was wrong, but I couldn't explain it. How could I tell her that I had just watched her die years in the future? How could I explain that I had been murdered on my fifth wedding anniversary and somehow awakened in the body of the girl I had been before any of it happened?

Eventually, my mother pulled away and studied my face.

"You're shaking."

I wiped my tears quickly. "I had a bad dream."

She frowned. "About what?"

I looked toward the window.

Rainwater ran down the glass, and beyond it I could see the familiar gardens of the Ashford estate. I knew those gardens. I knew the old oak tree near the western wall, the small pond where my father used to take me when I was younger, and the path that led toward the training grounds.

I had not seen any of them in five years.

"What year is it?" I whispered.

My mother blinked.

"Why are you asking me that?"

"What year?"

Her concern deepened. "The year you turn sixteen, Luna."

My heart stopped.

Sixteen.

I slowly looked down at my hands.

They were smaller than I remembered.

There was no wedding ring.

No silver bracelet Kael had given me.

No faint mark on my skin from the life I had lost.

I climbed out of bed and hurried toward the mirror.

A young girl stared back at me.

My sixteen-year-old face.

The face I had almost forgotten.

I touched the glass.

"This can't be real."

My mother came to stand behind me. "What can't be real?"

I couldn't answer.

Five years.

I had been sent five years into the past.

The realization should have terrified me.

Instead, beneath the confusion, something else began to grow.

Hope.

I turned toward my mother.

"Where's Father?"

"In his office. Why?"

"I need to see him."

She looked as though she wanted to question me further, but something in my expression must have stopped her. She nodded and followed me downstairs.

I found my father exactly where I remembered him, sitting behind the large wooden desk in his study with several reports spread before him. He looked up when I entered, and his stern expression immediately softened.

"There she is," he said. "How are you feeling?"

I stood in the doorway.

For a moment, I couldn't speak.

In my previous life, I had watched my father become weaker after years of political pressure. I remembered the day he died. I remembered standing beside his bed while he apologized for failing to protect our family from the growing influence of the Blackwood council.

Now he was sitting in front of me, strong and healthy, with years still ahead of him.

I crossed the room and hugged him.

He froze.

My mother, who had followed me inside, looked equally confused.

"Something is definitely wrong with our daughter," my father said.

Despite everything, a small laugh escaped me.

I held him tighter.

"I just missed you."

He gently pulled me back and examined my face. "You saw me yesterday."

"I know."

"Then why are you looking at me as though you haven't seen me in years?"

I looked away.

Because I hadn't.

Not really.

Not the version of him standing before me.

After breakfast, I returned to my bedroom and locked the door.

I sat beside the window, staring at the rain while I tried to organize the memories racing through my mind.

I knew what would happen over the next five years.

I knew which packs would form alliances.

I knew which border dispute would nearly become a war.

I knew that my father would sign an agreement with the Blackwood Pack.

And I knew that, eventually, I would meet Kael.

The thought of his name made my chest tighten.

I remembered the man who had stood over me on the night I died.

The man whose silence had convinced me that I meant nothing to him.

The man whose voice had sounded broken when he called my name.

I didn't know whether he had betrayed me willingly.

I didn't know why the woman had killed me.

And I didn't know what he had meant when he said he was trying to protect me.

But I knew one thing.

I would not marry him again.

Whatever happened in this life, I would not allow myself to become the woman lying helplessly on that marble floor.

I would not trust him.

I would not become Luna of the Shadowfang Pack.

And I would certainly never give Kael Blackwood another chance to break my heart.

For the first time since waking up, I felt certain about something.

I had been given a second life.

This time, I would use it differently.

A knock sounded at my door.

I quickly wiped the tears from my face.

"Come in."

My mother entered carrying a letter.

"Your father asked me to give you this."

I recognized the black wax seal immediately.

My heart began pounding.

The Blackwood crest was stamped into the wax.

My mother smiled. "The Alpha is inviting us to the Blackwood estate next week. He wants to discuss the alliance between our packs."

I stared at the letter.

Next week.

I knew exactly what that meant.

In my previous life, that meeting had been the first time I met Kael Blackwood.

It had been the beginning of everything.

The beginning of my love.

The beginning of my marriage.

And eventually, the beginning of my death.

I took the letter from my mother's hand and held it for a long moment before placing it on the table.

"I won't go."

My mother stared at me.

"What?"

"I won't go to Blackwood."

"But your father—"

"I'll speak to him."

She frowned. "Luna, this alliance is important."

"I know."

That was precisely why I couldn't ignore it.

If the events of my first life were already beginning to repeat themselves, then avoiding Kael alone might not be enough. There had to be a reason our families had been pushed together in the first place.

I needed answers.

And if I wanted them, I couldn't simply run away.

I would have to understand the game before deciding how to change it.

That evening, I went to my father's study and told him I would attend the meeting.

But I made one condition.

I wanted access to the old Ashford records concerning the alliance.

My father looked surprised by the request.

"Why?"

I forced myself to remain calm.

"Because if I'm going to be part of this family's future, I want to understand what we're agreeing to."

He studied me for several seconds before nodding.

"Very well."

I smiled.

He didn't notice the fear hidden behind it.

Because there was something I hadn't told him.

The alliance wasn't the only thing I remembered.

I remembered what happened five years later.

And this time, I intended to find out why.