CHAPTER 2 - DEATH'S COLD EMBRACE

"Aria, wake up. Please, wake up."

The voice sounded distant, muffled, as if coming from underwater. I tried to open my eyes, but my body refused to obey. Every muscle felt like lead, and breathing required more effort than I could manage.

"Her heartbeat is too slow." That was Elder Thomas, his weathered voice tight with concern. "This is not just bond-sickness. Someone has poisoned her."

"Poisoned?" A female voice I did not recognize gasped. "But who would—"

"Get out." Zack's command cracked through the room like a whip. "Everyone leave. Now."

I heard shuffling feet and closing doors. Then silence, heavy and suffocating. Strong hands gripped my shoulders, and Zack's scent—pine and rain and pure male dominance—washed over me. Even dying, my traitorous body responded to my mate.

Former mate, I reminded myself bitterly.

"What have I done?" His voice broke, and I felt wetness drop onto my cheek. Was he crying? "Aria, I do not understand what happened. One moment you were mine, and the next... something took control. Marcus said... but I cannot remember clearly."

My eyes finally cracked open, finding his face inches from mine. His golden eyes were wild with anguish, the cold indifference from earlier completely gone. Confusion flooded through me alongside the pain.

"You... rejected me," I whispered, each word scraping my throat raw. "Called me weak."

"I know. God, I know." His grip tightened possessively, as if he could keep death away through sheer force of will. "But something is wrong. My wolf is screaming that I was manipulated, that you are mine and I destroyed everything. Help me understand, Aria. Please."

I wanted to believe him. Every fiber of my being wanted to accept that this was the real Zack, not the cold stranger who had shattered our bond. But the damage was done.

"Selene," I managed, fighting to stay conscious. "She gave me... wine. Said..."

"Said what?" Zack demanded, his Alpha aura pulsing with barely restrained violence. "What did that bitch say to you?"

"That I was... a stepping stone." My vision blurred, darkness creeping in from the edges. "She wanted you to... see her."

Zack's roar shook the entire room. "MARCUS! SELENE! GET IN HERE NOW!"

The door burst open. Marcus appeared first, his expression carefully concerned. "Alpha, what—"

"Where is Selene?" Zack's voice dropped to a lethal growl that made even me shiver despite my dying state.

"I believe she is in the training grounds," Marcus replied smoothly. "Alpha, perhaps you should calm down. Aria clearly is not thinking straight due to the bond-sickness—"

"Fetch her. Immediately." Zack's eyes never left Marcus's face. "And summon the pack healer. If Aria dies, I will paint this packhouse with the blood of whoever is responsible."

Marcus hesitated for a fraction of a second before bowing. "Of course, Alpha."

As the Beta left, Zack turned back to me, his hand cupping my face with devastating gentleness. "Stay with me. Do you hear me? That is an Alpha command, Aria. You do not have permission to die."

I might have laughed if I had the strength. "Does not work... that way."

"It does if I say it does." His thumb brushed my cheekbone, and the possessive intensity in his gaze made my dying heart flutter. "You are mine, Aria. Rejected or not, the moon chose us. I will not let you go."

"You already... did," I breathed.

Pain flashed across his features, raw and genuine. "Then I will spend eternity earning you back. But first, you survive. Understood?"

The door opened again, and the pack healer rushed in, a elderly woman named Magda. She took one look at me and paled. "Alpha, her vitals are critical. This is advanced wolfsbane poisoning mixed with something else. Something dark."

"Dark?" Zack's entire body went rigid. "You mean dark magic?"

"I cannot be certain without more time, but yes. The poison was designed specifically to work in conjunction with bond-sickness. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing." Magda began pulling vials from her medicine bag, her hands moving with practiced efficiency. "I can try to slow the poison, but Alpha... you need to prepare yourself. The combination of broken mate bond and this level of toxin... most wolves do not survive."

"She will." Zack's voice held absolute conviction. "She is stronger than she knows."

I almost pitied him for believing that. I was not strong. I had never been strong. I was just an orphan who had gotten lucky enough to be noticed by an Alpha, and now that luck had run out.

"Zack," I whispered, feeling the darkness pulling me under. "I forgive you."

"No." He gripped my hand desperately. "Do not say goodbye. Do not you dare—"

"There is something... you should know." Each word required monumental effort. "My grandmother... Iris Moonstone. She is not dead. She is in... the Northern Territories. If I die... tell her..."

"You will tell her yourself." Zack pressed his forehead against mine, and I felt his whole body trembling. "Fight, Aria. For me. For us. For the future we were meant to have."

But fighting required strength I no longer possessed. The poison had won, the bond-sickness too advanced. As my eyes drifted closed for what I knew was the final time, I heard Magda's sharp intake of breath.

"Alpha, her heart is stopping. I cannot—"

Zack's anguished howl was the last thing I heard before the world went dark.

Then, impossibly, there was light.

Blinding, silver-white light that burned through the darkness like a falling star. I felt myself being pulled backward, not forward. Time seemed to fracture and fold, and suddenly I was falling through memories—my death, the rejection, meeting Zack, my parents' death, being born.

And then I slammed back into consciousness with a gasp, lying not in my deathbed, but in my old room in the orphanage wing of the packhouse.

My eighteen-year-old room.

Six years before I met Zack.

"What in the moon's name—" I whispered, staring at my young, unmarked hands.

A voice echoed through my mind, ancient and powerful: *You have been given a second chance, Luna. Use it wisely.*