Chapter 1

Aurevielle's POV

I woke up breathing heavily.

My hands flew to my chest, feeling for the wound, the blood, the hole where my heart should be. But there was nothing. Just smooth skin and my heart beating so fast it hurt.

I couldn't breathe. The last thing I remembered was the cold floor against my cheek. Veylissa standing over me, her smile sharp as broken glass. Her words were still echoing in my head like a curse.

"You were just a business deal, Aurevielle. A bridge between two packs. Kaelvyr never loved you. He never will."

Then the pain, burning and the darkness pulled me under but I wasn't dead.

My eyes snapped open and I scrambled backward so fast I almost fell off the bed. My hands grabbed soft cotton sheets.

"No," I whispered, my voice shaking. "No, no, no…"

It's even more threatening to realize that this is my old bedroom. I jumped off the bed and ran to the mirror by my closet and what I saw made me stood still.

The girl staring back at me was a stranger. Wide, scared green eyes. Smooth skin with no tired lines, dark hair falling messy over her shoulders, no heavy gold ring on my left hand, no dark circles under my eyes and no ache in my chest from loving a man who threw me away like garbage.

"I'm young," I breathed, touching the glass with shaking fingers. "I'm actually young again."

And just then, the door flew open…

"What the hell, Aurevielle?!"

I spun around, my heart jumping into my throat. Aevrion stood in the doorway. My little brother. His messy brown hair stuck up in every direction. His eyes were half closed with sleep. He wore that stupid old t-shirt with the faded pack logo—the one he refused to throw away for years.

He looked young. Healthy. Alive.

In my first life, I watched him fall apart. It wasn't quick. It was slow. A thousand bad choices. Bad deals with bad people. By the time I married Kaelvyr, my brother was a shadow of himself. Bitter. Paranoid. Drowning in regrets.

But thus standing in front of me, he wasn't that man yet , he was just my little brother.

"It's three in the morning," Aevrion grumbled, rubbing his face. "Do you know how early I have training tomorrow? Coach is going to kill me if I…"

I ran across the room and threw my arms around his neck. I hugged him so tight he stumbled backward into the doorframe with a surprised grunt.

"Whoa! Hey!" He flailed for a second, caught off guard. Then his arms came up around me—awkward, confused, but there. "Aurevielle, what the hell? Did you have a nightmare or something?"

"You're alive," I sobbed into his shoulder. The words came out ugly and raw. "Oh God, Aevrion, you're really here."

"Of course I'm here?" He pulled back and held me at arm's length. His brow was furrowed. "Where else would I be? Did you hit your head? Are you sick?"

He pressed the back of his hand to my forehead. The gesture was so familiar, so him, that I almost broke down again.

"You're burning up," he muttered. His voice shifted from annoyed to worried. "Rivi, seriously, you're scaring me. Should I get Mom and Dad?"

"No!" The word came out too sharp. Too desperate. I grabbed his wrist and squeezed. "No, don't wake them. I'm fine. I just—" I swallowed hard and forced a smile that felt like broken glass in my mouth. "Bad dream. That's all. Just a really, really bad dream."

Aevrion studied me for a long moment. His eyes searched my face. He'd always been able to read me better than anyone, even when I didn't want him to. But he was tired. And it was three in the morning. And he was seventeen years old with no idea that his sister had just come back from the dead.

"Okay," he said finally. His voice softened. He brushed a tear from my cheek with his thumb. "But if you scream again, I'm telling Dad. And you know he'll make you drink that gross herbal tea Mom keeps in the cabinet."

He shuffled back out into the hallway and paused at the door. "You sure you're okay?"

I nodded and the door clicked shut behind him.

I turned back to the mirror remembered everything.

The first time Kaelvyr Draven looked at me, he made me believe I was special. He chose me over Veylissa, his fated mate. I thought that meant our love was stronger than destiny itself.

Then the years that followed.

The long nights he spent at the office. The way his eyes drifted toward the door whenever Veylissa's name came up. The cold distance that grew between us like a wall I couldn't climb. The whispered conversations he had with his father behind closed doors—conversations that stopped the moment I walked in.

And the end Veylissa's return. The secrets she revealed. The truth about our marriage—that I was nothing more than a bargaining chip. A way to unite two packs and make the Draven empire stronger.

I had three years before my parents introduced me to Kaelvyr Draven. Three years before I let him charm me, manipulate me, destroy me and three years before I walked into a marriage that would end with my blood on a marble floor.

"No," I whispered. My voice didn't shake anymore. It was steady. Cold. Certain. "Never again."

I would never let him trap me, never wear his ring and I would never let Kaelvyr Draven touch my heart.

But even as I made that promise to myself in the dark of my childhood bedroom, something stirred in my chest. Something that wasn't just anger.

My wolf.

She was awake now. She'd been awake since I opened my eyes. She pressed against my skin, confused and restless and hungry. She didn't understand what happened. She didn't understand why our bond felt cut when our mate was still out there somewhere. Alive. Breathing. Not ours.

Wait.

Not ours?

I frowned and pressed a hand to my chest. In my first life, Kaelvyr and I weren't fated mates. He had already rejected Veylissa by the time we met. The Moon Goddess never gave us a bond of our own. We were just two people who chose each other. Or so I thought.

But my wolf—she was reacting like she'd lost something. Like there was a thread stretching out from my chest. Reaching toward someone I couldn't see.

A mate bond.

But that was impossible.

Isn't it?

I was still staring at my reflection, trying to make sense of it, when my phone buzzed on the nightstand. In my first life, I didn't have a phone at nineteen. My parents said I was too young. Too irresponsible. Too distractable. They only gave me one after I turned twenty-one, when Kaelvyr insisted we needed a way to talk during our courtship.

But this phone was already in my hand. Sleek and new. The screen lit up with a message from a number I didn't recognize.

My fingers trembled as I unlocked it.

Unknown: You're awake. Good. We need to talk before they find you.

My blood turned to ice.

I stared at the screen. My heart hammered so loud I could hear it in my ears. Who the hell was this? How did they know I was awake? How did they know anything?

Another message popped up before I could respond.

Unknown: Don't tell your brother. Don't tell your parents. And whatever you do, don't let the Dravens into your home. They're already on their way.

The phone slipped from my fingers and clattered to the floor.

They're already on their way.

No. No, that wasn't possible. I had three years. I was supposed to have three years to prepare. To plan. To make sure I never crossed paths with Kaelvyr Draven again.

But the Dravens were coming, A sharp knock on my bedroom door made me jump.

"Aurevielle?" Aevrion's voice came through the wood. Muffled but urgent. "Hey, I know you said you were fine, but I just got a weird text from Dad. He wants us both in his study. Now."

I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. My eyes were glued to the phone on the floor. To the words still glowing on the screen.

Don't let the Dravens into your home.

"Did he say why?" I managed. My voice was barely a whisper.

Aevrion paused. When he spoke again, his voice was strange. Hesitant. Almost nervous.

"He said the Draven Pack reached out. They want to discuss a potential alliance." Another pause. "Rivi... there's something else. Dad said Kaelvyr Draven is already here. In our building. He's waiting in the lobby."

I bent down and picked up my phone. My fingers closed around it like a lifeline. The unknown number was still there. Still watching. Still waiting.

Unknown: If you want to survive this time, you need to trust me. Meet me at the old pack library. Midnight. Come alone.

I stared at the message. My mind raced. Someone knew about my death. Someone knew about my rebirth. Someone knew the Dravens were coming before I did.

And that someone was the only person who might be able to help me.

But trusting a stranger was dangerous. Trusting anyone was dangerous.

And Kaelvyr Draven was already downstairs. Waiting for me. Probably already charming my father with that cold, calculated smile of his.

I had a choice to make.

Go downstairs and face the man who killed me.

Or sneak out and meet a stranger who claimed to know the future.

My wolf stirred again. She pressed against my skin. And this time I felt something else. A pull. A thread. A connection that shouldn't exist. Reaching toward someone I couldn't see.

It wasn't coming from Kaelvyr but from somewhere else entirely.

I grabbed my jacket and shoved my feet into the first pair of shoes I could find.

"Rivi?" Aevrion called through the door. His voice was worried now. "Did you hear me? Dad's waiting. And Mom's already downstairs with the Drav

ens. You need to come out."

"I'll be right there," I said. My voice was steady even though everything inside me was chaos.

I climbed out the window.