Chapter 23: claim me

"Let me…." I heard Asher struggling to move, frozen in place by Dickson's hold.

The whole pack stood still. 

Calm. 

No one dared utter a word.

He sat down on a chair and laid me carefully across his lap, feeding me the herb with steady hands. 

The moment it dropped into my stomach, my chest jolted upward.

My eyes sparked ... shining gold-brown ... and I stretched, and kept stretching, as the herb moved through my body like fire finding its way through my veins. 

My mouth parted, gasping for air I hadn't known I needed.

Then a wave of wind swept through the room, powerful enough to force every knee to bend. 

It moved like a tornado, golden light flashing across the hall as my body lifted away from him, floating upward, suspended in the air as though I controlled the wind and gravity itself.

The entire pack gasped in shock. Jaws dropped. 

My hair flew loose around me, wild, exactly like the stories I used to hear as a child ... the ones about goddesses and magic and things too powerful to explain.

Then she came.

My wolf tore free, bigger than anything the hall had ever seen ... white fur threaded with gold, eyes burning amber. 

The moment she rose to full height, power rolled off her in waves, crashing through the room like something physical.

One by one, knees buckled. 

The king went down first. Then the warriors, the elders, even Asher ... all of them driven to the floor by something instinctual, something older than any of them.

A low growl rattled through the hall like thunder.

This was what I truly was. 

Not the broken girl who'd begged for love in her past life ... power made flesh, standing tall while an entire pack bowed at my feet.

A small smile touched my lips as I slowly opened my eyes. 

My whole body glowed, beauty reflecting off my skin like polished glass, and I drifted gently back down to the ground.

I walked straight toward Asher, every eye in the hall following my every step.

I wasn't going to waste another second ... not this time. 

Not before he rejected him first.

"Oh my God. 

She's the reincarnated Lycan of the Goddess of Succession," someone murmured from the crowd.

"Legend says whoever marries her inherits the throne. Becomes the most powerful king alive."

I ignored the murmurs entirely.

"Dear Ophelia, I suppose we were wrong about you. Please, forgive us," the king said, his voice dripping with false humility.

I'd given Asher countless chances already, and still he'd gone ahead and plotted with my own sister to kill me.

"I'll forgive you," I said. "But first, my sister must touch the moonbane. Let's see whether she and her mother truly weren't behind poisoning me."

Silence dropped over the hall like a blade.

I watched Lilian's eyes dart across the room, searching for an exit that didn't exist.

"Ophelia, how can you accuse us of such a thing? We're your family. Why would we ever poison you?"

"You ungrateful child," my father snapped. 

"Susan raised you for years, and this is how you repay her ... accusing her of poisoning you?"

"She raised me for a purpose. To manipulate me. To use me so her daughter could become Luna."

Gasps rippled through the crowd.

Wait ... what?

"Your highness, don't mind her. She's not being serious," my father continued quickly.

"I have never been more serious in my life."

I couldn't believe he was still taking their side, this desperately, even now.

"Place her on the moonbane," someone called from the crowd, breaking the tension.

"Yes," the crowd agreed, voices rising together.

"Just because you're apparently a Lycan goddess now doesn't give you the right to go around accusing people without a shred of proof," Asher cut in.

"Stop all this noise. Stop acting so proud of yourself ... and maybe, just maybe, I'll take you back. The wedding can still go through."

I laughed at the sheer stupidity of that.

He genuinely believed I was going to have anything to do with him ever again? What a joke.

Though I couldn't entirely blame him. 

I'd been foolish and desperate enough in my past life that of course he thought I couldn't survive without him.

I stood there, silent, saying nothing. 

He took that as an invitation, walking toward me with all the confidence in the world.

I nearly gagged. 

My stomach twisted at the scent rolling off his skin.

I used to hear people say when your mate cheats on you he smells bad, now I'm experiencing and I'm certain he's not my mate, not anymore.

"God. Stay back," I said, stepping away from him. 

"You smell disgusting. I can't stand being near you."

"How dare you insult me. You know what ... I'm done with you," he snapped.

"At first, I thought you were simply naive. Now I understand ... you're just foolish."

I watched his face twist into knots. 

He'd never once expected an insult from me ... not in either lifetime.

His fists clenched. 

He turned and walked to Lilian instead, pulling her close against him. 

I caught the small, triumphant smile curling her lips.

"I..." he started.

"Asher," his father called out, sharp with warning. "Don't you dare."

No need for the warning. I'd already made my choice.

"I, Ophelia, reject you, Asher, as my fated mate," I declared. 

It was painful ... a pain that tore straight through my veins ... but I welcomed that small agony over anything he could offer me now.

I coughed up blood, same as Asher did, in the same instant.

Someone rushed forward and quickly collected the blood from both of us. 

I didn't fully understand what was happening ... not until he began murmuring an incantation, and my whole body shuddered, dark clouds of fume lifting off my skin like smoke clearing from a fire. 

I felt lighter than I had in years. Lighter than I had in either life.

Then I turned toward the man who had saved me.

"Claim me."