My Killer Calls Me Mate

Chapter 3

Anatoria's POV:

"Why? What did I do?" I demanded but neither of the guards looked back as they left the dungeon and slammed the iron door at the end of the corridor shut, leaving me in pitch-black darkness.

I spent the entire day locked in that miserable hole, trying to remember if I had done anything crazy while I was drunk. But no matter how hard I clawed at my memories, trying to piece together the hours after I fell asleep, I came up completely empty.

Eventually, hours bled into one another until the iron doors were finally pushed open. Once again, I wasn't given answers; instead, I was bound in silver cuffs, dragged up the stairs, and pushed into the back of a heavily armored van.

When the doors of the van opened again, the blinding light of the Pack Square hit my eyes as I was roughly marched out, the heavy chains rattling around my ankles. The entire Redmoon Pack was gathered, a sea of hostile, whispering faces.

Standing on the elevated tribunal platform were the pack Elders, and right in the center stood my husband, Alpha Lucian, looking down at me with disgust.

"Anatoria Elowen Voss.” Lucian’s deep voice echoed across the square. "Last night, I informed you of my plan to marry Lauren, who was pregnant with my child. I did this in hopes of providing a future heir for this pack, a duty you failed to fulfill due to your infertility. Driven by jealousy and malice, you decided to s*******r my unborn child and his mother."

My breath hitched, my jaw dropping in horror as the whispers of the pack rose like a swarm of angry hornets. "Last night." Lucian continued, his eyes drilling into mine. "Lauren was stabbed several times in her quarters. She survived the attack, but she lost the baby and she is currently fighting for her life in a coma. You have committed the ultimate sin, Anatoria. You spilled the blood of an Alpha heir and my intended bride."

The ground seemed to give way beneath me and I collapsed to my knees as tears finally burst from my eyes. "No! No, please!" I sobbed. "I wasn't the one who stabbed Lauren! I swear by the Moon Goddess, I didn't do this!"

One of the high Elders stepped forward, his gaze stern. "Then explain the blood on your hands, Anatoria.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but the words died in my throat because I honestly, truly didn't know how the blood had gotten there.

"You have nothing to say." Lucian scoffed, stepping forward and holding up a transparent evidence bag. Inside was a weapon I recognized instantly. "The dagger used to butcher my child and stab Lauren was the silver-hilted dagger I gifted you on your twentieth birthday. Only your fingerprints were

found on the hilt, alongside Lauren’s blood."

My mind raced frantically, trying to rack my memory. ‘Did I walk across the Packhouse in a blackout state and plunge it into her over and over again?’ But I couldn't remember a single

second of it.

"Please, there is something wrong!" I begged, my voice cracking as I dragged myself forward on my knees. "You have to believe me! No matter how hard I try to remember what happened last night, I cannot remember waking up at all after I drank myself to sleep! I didn't leave that guest room!"

"You did it in a drunken, jealous rage.” An Elder shouted from the panel.

"No matter how drunk I could ever be, I would never think of killing anyone!” I cried.

“Her actions are a disgrace.” Lucian claimed, stomping his feet on the ground. “I insist that she be executed right here for attempted murder, a heinous crime that no Luna should ever conceive and for spilling the blood of an Alpha heir."

The Elders murmured amongst themselves, their expressions turning conflicted. Finally, Chief Elder Craig stood. "Alpha Lucian, while what Anatoria has done is an unforgivable crime, we must look back at the good things Anatoria has done for this Pack. We should pardon her life, take away her title, strip her of her status, and banish her permanently.”

"No!" Lucian roared, his Alpha aura exploding across the square, making weaker wolves drop to their knees. "She must die for the crime she committed!"

Hearing his words, the fight drained out of me and I closed my eyes, bracing myself for my impending death, but the Elders tried to protest again, shouting that my sins did not legally deserve an execution, but Lucian was entirely unmoved by the proceedings.

"I declare Anatoria guilty.” Lucian announced, turning to the Elders. "With or without your support, I am executing her right here, right now."

Through my tears, I watched as my husband reached down to his belt, pulled out a silver gun, lifted it up, and pointed the barrel directly at my forehead. As the gun lined up with my eyes, my vision zoomed in, and my breath hitched.

This... was actually what my dreams were about, it wasn't a warning about his betrayal with Lauren, it was a telling me that I was going to be murdered by my own husband.

Just as the realization solidified in my mind, Lucian’s finger tightened as he pulled the trigger. “Bang!” The shot rang out and I watched, paralyzed, as the silver bullet sliced through the air and connected with my skull.

Pain exploded through my head, and then I fell hard to the ground, losing all consciousness as the world turned pitch black.

“Hhaaaaa!” I violently dragged a breath into my lungs, my eyes flying open as my hands flew to my forehead, searching for the gaping wound, the blood, and the shattered bone but there was nothing.

Confused and trembling, I scanned the area and realized that I wasn't in the Pack Square, or in the dungeon. Instead, I was lying in a soft, sunlit bed inside a room that looked familiar.

My eyes darted to the floral wallpaper, the old oak desk, and the trophies on the shelf. This was my bedroom in my father’s house, the house I used to live in before my parents died a week after my eighteenth birthday.

"How..."

After my parents died, I had moved straight into the Redmoon Packhouse with Lucian, who I had discovered was my fated mate. From the age of eighteen, I had lived there alongside Lucian, Lauren, and her older brother, Kairo.

Just then, the door was pushed open and my parents stepped into the room, both of them smiling warmly, looking healthy and full of life. Just like I expected, they were here with me in the afterlife.

"Mom! Dad!" I screamed, rushing up to my feet then I threw my arms around them, clinging to them so tightly I thought my bones would snap. "I missed you so much! I missed you both so much!"

I tried my best to talk through the heavy sobbing, my voice stammering and trembling as I tried to tell them everything. I wanted to tell them how much I had suffered alone without them, and how Lucian had betrayed but my parents pulled back from the hug, laughing softly as they looked down at me.

"My goodness, Ana." My father chuckled, wiping a tear from my cheek. "Are you really this excited for your birthday?"

I froze, struggling to make sense of what he had just said. Before I could ask, the door was pushed open again. "Ana!” A cheerful voice rang out then Lauren stepped inside the bedroom and I stumbled back as my heart rate skyrocketed.

"You..." I gasped, my voice trembling with rage. "How are you here?!”

My mother smiled, exchanging an amused look with my father. "Oh, sweetie, you’re being a little too overly excited because you’re turning eighteen. You're practically jumping out of your skin."

I shook my head wildly, my chest heaving. "What... what are you talking about? I turned eighteen four years ago!”

Lauren laughed, walking over and. "Did you have a crazy dream? You turned eighteen today."

"But…” I whispered, shaking my head frantically. “Hold on, what is the date today?"

Lauren stepped forward, looking slightly concerned now. She grabbed my phone from the nightstand and tapped the screen, turning it toward me. "It’s June 19th. Your eighteenth birthday. Did you forget?"

I stared at the glowing screen. The year displayed made my breath completely catch in my throat. It was true. It was exactly four years ago. The exact morning of my eighteenth birthday.

Was it all a dream? Had the two years of marriage, the betrayal, and the execution all been a terrifying hallucination?

But, I had felt real pain those four years so it couldn't have been a nightmare.

Or else… Was I reborn and taken back four years into the past? To the very same day I was destined to find out Lucian was my fated mate, and a week before my parents' fatal accident.

That means that I had a second chance to rewrite my destiny, and to ensure that my treacherous best friend and my murderous husband never got the chance to destroy me again.