ONE

‘Run!’

‘Run!!’

‘RUUNNN!’

My knees buckle, tossing me head first down a slope I hadn’t noticed in the darkness. I feel my skin tear and bruise as I roughly brush past sticks, thorns and jagged rocks in the forest. A tree abruptly breaks my fall knocking what breath I had left out of me and tossing me into a small clearing with nowhere to hide.

I lay under the moonlight, discarded and alone. The full moon looks down on me, cold and bitter as if telling me to hurry up and die.

My ears catch footsteps and wicked laughter from the top of the none existent trail I fell down.

‘I can’t let them catch me.’ I will myself to run… to get up… to move… but I can’t. My stamina ran out a long time ago. I make the mistake of breathing in too deeply, pain erupts at my left side where a broken arrow is lodged in my rib cage.

‘What went wrong?’ A tear slips across the bridge of my nose into my other eye.

‘I don’t want to die… I’m scared… please.’

“FOUND HER!” Becca’s shrill voice rang through the forest, as my heart sank further into my chest.

‘There is no hope for me.’

“Aww, Eldora, you thought you could run from us? Even without us shifting, a weakling like you is no match for our speed.” She poked at my shoulder with the knife in her hand, making sure to draw blood before she retracted the knife. Her voice was light and happy. The opposite of what situation I was in right now. “You thought you could steal my mate and get away with it?”

‘I- I didn’t.’ I scream but no words come out.

Becca must have seen my throat move because a sickening smile split her face in two. Under the moonlight, everything that made her beautiful during the day, made her look insidious. Bright wavy blonde hair, sparking grey eyes, pearly white teeth.

There was no reasoning with this devil. She knew I wasn’t at fault. They all knew. They played me and now that they’re done, they are tossing me out.

Fredrick’s scent fills the space as he walks up to Becca. My eyes follow them, unwilling tears spilling out as he holds her tight and kisses her. If my heart was broken before, now it had turned to ash and crumbled away. I once was the recipient of that affection, pressed against his sculpted body gazing up at bright blue eyes while running my hands through that silky brown hair of his.

“I-” I force myself to speak, ignoring the hole in my chest, the blood on my tongue and the ache in my dying body. “Hate…”

I drew in a haggard breath. “You.”

One of Fredrick’s friends, Remus, grabs me by the collar of my tattered blue dress, flinging me into a tree trunk like I weighed nothing. To him I probably did, he was one of the strongest men I had ever met. I landed in an awkward position but I had a full view of the five of them, drunk on that special booze and laughing like this was a get together.

“Did the help say something?!” Someone snickered.

After a long make out session, my husband finally approached me. “I would like to thank you for building up my pack.” Fredrick smirked.

“Mine…” I think of a million words to argue with but this is all that would come out.

“We will blame rogues for your death or something. The pack will mourn your death with another Festival and then you will be forgotten when I make Becca the new Luna.” Becca giggles and claps her hands excitedly behind us.

“Fred, can you hurry it up? It’s getting cold here.” Cyrus puffs up smoke in the air. I got that cigar for him yesterday as a gift to celebrate the New Moon Festival. I got them all something.

How long have they been planning this?! From the beginning?!

Fredrick is muttering something to his friends in a drunken spur, Becca is leaning against her brother Asher and all I can think about is how I ended up here.

Fredrick turned to me.

I don’t hear what he says but he raises his foot…

‘If I had another chance…’

He brings his foot down on my head with the full force of an adult Alpha.

‘I will make sure I kill you all!’

My vision fades to black.

-

GASP!

I wake with a burning desire to breathe.

At first my gulps of air were irregular and desperate. I choke on air a few times before I get the hang of it and repeat the process long enough to calm myself.

When I do, I look around me. The sun is pouring in from the sliding door leading to the balcony. “My old room?”

“Is my life flashing before my eyes?” I run my hands through the bedsheets. It feels so real.

“So I’m really dead. Wow.” I fall back into my bed, it is as cozy as I remember. Sleep is eager to take me but I spring up. “What now? If I’m dead, shouldn't I be seeing some bright light like in the movies?” I walk around the room, “Umm Moon Goddess? Are you there?”

I call out and I’m about to do so again when I pause. “What?!” Three steps backwards and to my surprise, I didn't see wrong.

The reflection in my body length mirror was inexplicably me but… I approach the mirror. Younger?!

Huh?! Goosebumps rise on my arms and chills run through my entire body as a thought flies through my mind.

I slap myself. “Ouch!” “Ouch? Dead people don’t feel pain… do they?”

I run to my bedside table where my phone is and sure enough… My speculation is becoming true.

I regressed.

The time is dated to six years ago.

Before anything happened.

Before my death…

Before my pack gets stolen from me…

And best of all,

Before I get married to Fredrick!

“Oh… isn’t this wonderful?” A sinister smile spreads across my face, I catch a look of my reflection and if I was anyone else I’d think I was crazy.

A messy mass of long silver hair, light green eyes that spelt deranged and that smile that looked like it belonged to a serial killer. “I'm going to enjoy this.” I walk to the mirror again but my smile falters when reality hits. “I’m still weak. If I want to stand any chance at stopping Fredrick from coming into my life, I have to get stronger.” I flex my fingers, open and close.

When I was seven, an accident rid me of most connections to my werewolf side. Regeneration, shifting, pack telepathy and strength but for everything I lost, I trained my mind even further. However, with this opportunity…

My eyes fall on my small frame in the mirror.

I can grow the pack into something that no one would expect with my knowledge from six years in the future!

Nothing can stop me from becoming the Alpha of this pack and taking my rightful place at the top!