A Second Chance

I just wish I could get a second chance.”

The words echoed in a deep, dark void. Everything seemed still and calm for a while before a bright light started piercing through the darkness.

A gasp was heard as Odessa suddenly sat up in bed, looking around her as she touched herself frantically.

“Where am I?” she asked, looking around the room, which was oddly familiar.

She was lying in bed dressed in a blue fancy gown, and the last time she remembered wearing that was for her eighteenth birthday, which was the same day as the mating ceremony that year.

“What happened?” she asked, looking around her in a panicked manner. “Where am I?”

Rushing over to the mirror, she was stunned to see she was so much younger and was dressed in the fancy blue gown she wore on her eighteenth birthday.

“What happened?”

She looked down at her neck, and she didn't see any mark that should have been from a needle piercing her skin. She rushed over to the calendar on the table and was stunned to see she truly was back to her eighteenth birthday.

“The Moon Goddess has saved me.”

A gasp escaped her lips as tears started to roll down her cheeks, and she fell to the ground in a sobbing mess. She still couldn't believe the man she loved and who was given to her as her mate was nothing but a selfish and stuck-up man.

Who never really loved her and only wanted her stepsister. And he didn't want Emma for the right reasons. It was definitely a selfish reason. He wanted her also.

“It feels good to be rebirthed. I haven't heard of a wolf ever being reborn.” Her wolf, Aria, said with a stretching sound. “It's good, Odessa. We'll get through this.”

“This time around, I won't make whatever his plan is come near execution,” she said, standing up and looking at herself again in the mirror before wiping her tears and touching up her makeup.

“My lady, are you in there?” the maid outside knocked on her door, but she didn't reply. She remembered this day a few years ago. She had fainted right there on her bed due to nervousness.

And it was this maid who came up to save her.

“My lady?” As she called the third time, Odessa pulled the door open, looking down at her with a raised brow.

“Your father asked you to meet him downstairs,” she informed her, letting out a sigh of relief.

Of course, her father was still alive.

He only died a few weeks before the day she caught Emma in bed with Lucas, and then they were still in the middle of inheritance issues.

“I'll be down.”

She said calmly, looking through the hallway. It was the same as she remembered. It was the four-floored pack house where the Beta, Alpha, and Delta families lived, along with some other important people in the pack.

It was a very large house, and they lived freely on their floor since there weren't more than three in the Beta's family: Odessa, Emma, and their father.

Odessa walked down the stairs into the large garden where the mating ceremony was being held. The moon was full in the night sky, and everything looked bright and welcoming.

The whole garden was beautifully adorned with glowing crystals and candle lights. Odessa didn't understand why it was done in this way, but she knew it was to honor her birthday and the mating ceremony on the same day.

“There you are. Where have you been?”

Emma rushed over to her, looping her arms around Odessa's, but she slowly slipped out of her grip.

“What's wrong? Did something happen?”

“I should be asking you the same,” Odessa said with a raised brow and her arms folded across her chest.

“Is something wrong?”

Emma didn't understand what she was talking about, but she knew something about the girl had changed. She didn't seem all weak and timid like she used to.

She looked all feisty with just her expression. Even the feeling of her aura had changed, and it looked like she could hit anyone who dared to get in her way.

“Do you have a fever? Are you sick?”

Emma quickly placed her palm on Odessa's forehead.

“You seem normal. Did anyone do anything to you?”

“Get off me, Emma,” Odessa groaned, smacking her hands off before walking away.

And Emma just glared at her as she walked away.

“You little piece—”

She cut herself short as she just watched Odessa walk over to their father and start to greet him, along with some other officials with him.

“What has gotten into her?”

“So, Odessa, have you found your mate yet?”

One of them asked, looking around the garden, and so did Odessa, trying to spot Lucas wherever he might be in the crowd.

“Not yet, Uncle,” Odessa said with a sweet smile.

“Your daughters are so sweet.”

They complimented her father, but she wasn't paying any attention to them and was just looking around the room for Lucas.

“Do you have anyone you're looking for, Odessa?”

Emma chipped in, walking over to her with a glass of juice, extending it over to her.

“Here, I got you a glass.”

Odessa took it from her with a bright smile but didn't drink it. Her gaze was still going around looking for her target.

“Lucas, have you found your mate?”

“Emma, I'd appreciate it if you don't disturb me right now,” Odessa said to her with a frown before walking over to Lucas.

Who she had already spotted in the midst of his friends, laughing and chatting.

Immediately he spotted her, they both felt the mate bond, which disgusted Odessa instead of exciting her like it should.

Lucas left where he was and headed straight towards her, his gaze not leaving hers, and a smirk was on his face as he stood right in front of her.

“Guess I finally found you.”

He repeated the same words she could remember he said back then.

His hands extended to touch her, but she swiftly avoided him, making him look shocked.

“What's wrong? Did I do something wrong?”

“No. You do not have to do anything wrong before I start avoiding you. Why would you want to touch me without my permission?”

She raised her brow.

“You seem to have grown a feisty personality overnight. I like that.”

The grin on his face irritated her, and for the first time she felt like she wanted to hit him. Normally, the sight of that grin or his smile would make her blush like an idiot, but not anymore.

Lucas had always been living in the same building as her since he was the Alpha's son.

Although they weren't close, from afar she admired him and wished to be his woman, not because of his power or anything, but she was just drawn to him.

Then he turned out to be nothing but a backstabbing and shameless man.

“You disgust me,” Odessa said, and he looked at her with a raised brow, not understanding the attitude she had started giving him.

The Odessa he knew was calm and easy to exploit.

“No matter what, did anyone make you angry? I can deal with them for you,” he said, taking her hands.

“Besides, you're my mate after all.”

“And about that, I'm not interested in being your mate. I don't want to be, and I'll never be in this life or the next life. So, Lucas…”

“I reject you.”

He looked at her, stunned as she stood in front of him, seriousness in her tone as she said those words.

Did she just reject him?

In front of everyone.