Chapter 2

AURORA'S POV 

“Mummy!!”

 I had died, watching my husband and son, smiling with her.

"Wake up, Mommy! Daddy says we have a special guest coming today!" I heard Asher persistent voice scream.

Was this what happens in the afterlife? Or perhaps had Asher…

I felt his little hands shake me softly causing me to jerk upright, gasping for air. 

"Mommy?" I turned and was met with those familiar amber eyes—Asher's—staring back at me, wide with concern.

Confusion swamped me as I looked around what was my matrimonial bedroom.

What was going on?

Perhaps I was living my past?

"No," my wolf, Amber, answered.

I was instantly startled.

Hadn't Seraphina taken my essence along with my wolf in the surgery room?

Right, the surgery room!

My hands swiftly flew to my chest searching for the surgical incision, the very wound that had ended my life, for proof.

But there was nothing, my fingers going over smooth skin beneath my gown.

"Are you alright, Mommy?" Asher was asking in a worried voice.

No Asher, mummy isn't okay!

I forced myself to breathe, to think while reaching for the calendar sitting on my nightstand.

It showed today's date, which was exactly six weeks before my death. 

Six weeks before Seraphina would have my essence drained and steal my family.

That would mean today was the day he would ask me to let her stay with us.

"Mommy!" Asher cried desperately, his little hands enveloping my legs. I could hear the tears in his voice before I turned to my six-year-old son, who looked healthy and whole with no trace of the mysterious illness that I knew would come later.

My heart hammered in my chest with one thought.

This couldn't be real.

"Aurora?"

My head whipped sideways to see Alaric, who had appeared in the doorway.

I noticed that his dark hair was still damp from his morning shower. 

Fear gripped me as I recalled how he had treated me a few days before I had passed… his affair with his ex had ruined our family.

He crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching for my face and instinctively I flinched big he didn’t seem to notice.

"You look pale. Bad dream?"

He leaned in to kiss me, and I took a step back before I could stop myself.

Alaric froze.

I saw the hurt that flashed across his features, but I didn't care. 

He was the devil himself! It was no wonder I hadn’t suspected anything… who would when his eyes had once shone with love.

It couldn't have been a nightmare, everything that I had had to go through at the hands of him and Seraphina when it felt so real.

This was the universe' second chance for me.

"Aurora?"

I looked at him to see he was waiting for an answer.

"I'm fine," I managed to say, noting that my voice sounded strange to my ears.

"I am just tired and frustrated that I have early rounds at the clinic today."

Alaric nodded at Asher, climbed onto the bed, and nestled against me. 

His warmth felt real, and his small hand clinging to mine felt too solid but I remembered him calling another woman, Mother while I had died, sparing me no glance.

"Aurora, can we talk perhaps at breakfast?" Alaric asked. "There's something important we need to discuss as a family."

I knew what he wanted to discuss. 

I had cried and argued for hours in my previous life before finally agreeing to let his first love move into our home. 

Seraphina.

I had convinced myself that I was being a generous, understanding Luna, and it would make Alaric love me more.

What a fool I had been.

"Of course," I said, keeping my voice light. "Give me ten minutes."

Alaric smiled in relief and left with Asher chattering about the special guest. 

I waited until their footsteps faded down the hallway before I walked to my closet and pulled out my clothes.

These were the tailored pieces I used to wear before I had become nothing more than a wife and a mother. 

I dressed carefully in them, pinned my long hair into a neat bun, and stared at myself in the adorned looking glass.

The woman who stared back at me had warm, reassuring eyes but now I saw something else there. 

Knowledge, pain, and rage… from my rebirth, and I wouldn't repeat my past mistakes.

This time, I would save myself.

I headed out of the room to find Alaric already making breakfast, his back turned to Asher talking behind him.

I slid into a chair as Asher chatted away about his playmates at kindergarten.

"You'll choke if you keep talking while eating," Alaric told him as he placed Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes on his plate.

"Oh—" Asher gasped as I reached for the syrup and added a generous amount.

He smiled up at me.

"Thank you, Mommy."

"You're welcome, sweetie," I grinned, ruffling his head as he started to eat.

When I looked up, Alaric was staring at me, and I knew exactly why.

It had been so long since he had seen me in these dresses, which I hid away.

"Aurora, you look beautiful," he breathed the compliment when he could speak.

"I know," I answered with a nonchalant shrug. 

One of his brows lifted, but I ignored it.

He started to put pancakes on my plate while I added syrup for myself.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked, though I knew what it was.

His hands stopped midair, and his gaze met mine, unsure whether to speak.

"Alaric?" I pressed.

He hesitated.

"You know, Seraphina?" He began in a timid voice as he resumed dishing pancakes.

I nodded.

"She came to the pack office yesterday because she needs—"

"That's enough," I said coldly.

He froze, his eyes flying to my face.

He looked as if he had been caught committing something atrocious.

It was funny.

But I didn't laugh.

I gestured towards my plate with my nose.

He looked down and realized that he had added so many pancakes to it.

"Oh, sorry."

I waved it off.

"So, you were saying?"

He swallowed then, he turned away with the pretense of placing the pan back on the stove.

"Seraphina needs what?" I pressed, taking a bite out of my pancake dipped in syrup.

I saw his shoulders tense… he was finding it difficult to ask me how to bring his girlfriend into our home.

I nearly scoffed.

"She has accommodation problems. She needs shelter. And I wondered if she could stay with us for a while?"

I was certain the speed he had used to blurt out everything would be rather challenging for anyone to calculate.

Silence reigned in the dining room, the only sound being that of Asher eating and my fork cutting pancakes on the ceramic.

He didn't turn, maybe too ashamed to face me.

I wonder how I had missed this in my past life, his feelings for Seraphina.

Had the affair with her started before she moved in or after she did?

I couldn't tell but he was definitely guilty of something.

I cleared my throat.

"Yes, she can stay with us," I agreed calmly without protest.

Alaric turned to me with wide eyes.

He looked so surprised that it almost startled me.

"You agree?"

I nodded and watched as hegaped for a while.

Then, "Thank you, Aurora," he began to say with a mirthful laugh.

He looked like he just won the jackpot, I couldn’t stop my face from wrinkling in a frown, disgusted that he was already on her side.

"I love you, Aurora," he called out as he hurried out of the kitchen, phone in hand, to tell Seraphina, I supposed.

In my past life, I had screamed and argued with him in front of my son.

I see now that it was a mistake on my part, and I wouldn't repeat them.

That was one of the testimonies Asher had given before I had been locked away from the pack as mentally unstable.

I, the Luna of Shadowpine Pack and a respected doctor who spent three years putting family first and neglecting my abilities, was used and dumped.

But I wouldn't let it happen again. 

In this life, I wouldn't give them that satisfaction, either of them.