001: The Bride who Woke from Death

Lyra’s POV

The last thing I remembered was blood on the floor, and the first thing I felt was air burning my lungs.

I died on my mating ceremony day… so why was I still breathing again?

Air rushed into my lungs like fire, sharp and painful, as if my body had forgotten how to breathe. My heart slammed violently against my ribs, each beat loud enough to drown out my thoughts. All I could feel was fear.

“Lyra! Lyra!!”

I heard a familiar voice call out my name.

It can’t be. The grim reaper must have copied my best friend’s voice.

There was no way I was alive.

I remembered the sound of fabric tearing. My dress, ripping as I fell. Then pain… blinding, crushing pain in my chest. I remembered Adrian’s claws, sharp and merciless, tearing through my flesh, the agony as he ripped my heart apart, his face twisted with cold satisfaction. I remembered falling, blood spreading beneath me, and my stepsister’s face hovering above mine, eyes cold, lips trembling not with regret, but relief.

I opened my eyes to see Mirabel, my best friend, looking all worried.

“Oh! Goodness, Lyra, you scared me,” Mirabel said, heaving a sigh of relief.

I looked around the room, confusion clouding every thought.

“Is this the afterlife?” I asked.

Mirabel looked at me like someone who had lost their mind. She placed her palm on my forehead to feel my temperature.

“Are you okay, Lyra?”

I rushed out of the bed. My hands flew to my chest, expecting to find torn flesh, expecting blood and an open wound. But there was nothing. My fingers trembled as they pressed against smooth skin, no wound, no pain. I looked at the grandfather clock on the wall. The time was 9:33 a.m. What shocked me was the date.

It was the same as my mating ceremony day.

That’s when my eyes caught the mirror in front of me.

I froze.

I stared at my reflection, touching my face with trembling fingers. I was dressed in a white ceremonial gown, pure white without a single stain. I was stunning. My eyes sparkled like stars, my bridal makeup flawless. My hair was simply styled and secured with a small jeweled crown, my veil fluttering in the breeze from the open window.

This can’t be happening.

Was the Moon Goddess giving me a second chance?

“It’s almost time. I don’t know why you’re acting this way, but I’ll be waiting at the hall. Adrian too,” Mirabel said, and left the room.

That’s when it dawned on me. I had been reborn, back to the day I was supposed to complete the mating bond with Adrian Massimo.

In my last life, I had believed Adrian’s sweet talk and poured everything I had, everything my family and pack had, into helping the Massimo pack rise to the top in Mexican City, using my network and connections. My father, Alpha of the Dominic pack, had trusted Adrian because I vouched for him. I convinced him that this alliance would strengthen both our packs.

And what did I get in return? Betrayal. I found out on the eve of our mating ceremony that Adrian was secretly engaged to my stepsister, and everything was planned by both of them… to use me as the legitimate heiress, and dump me. That man had used his claws to rip my heart apart, his face twisted in rage as he snarled that he had never loved me.

I wasn’t going to let it happen again.

Without hesitation, I carefully lifted my skirt and left the room, following the back door. Behind me, the mating ceremony was in full swing. Laughter and congratulations filled the air. I would never mate with Adrian, and I wouldn’t get killed for the second time.

I reached the garden, the walls covered with cascading flowers.

Without hesitation, I climbed the wall. Looking down at the height in my heels, my legs trembled slightly. I took a deep breath, and just as I glanced down, I froze.

Killian Castillo.

Alpha heir to the Northern Pack, the most powerful pack in Mexican City. Son of the Alpha King himself. Rumored to be more ruthless than his father… cruel, merciless, and absolutely untouchable. A man who commanded entire packs with a single glance and crushed rival alphas without hesitation. His reputation was built on fear and dominance, whispered about in pack meetings and territory borders alike. No one crossed Killian Castillo and lived to tell the tale.

He was leaning casually against the wall, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a burning cigarette. His brown eyes curved playfully, lips tugged into a teasing smile. Even from this distance, I could sense the raw power radiating from him, Alpha energy so potent it made my wolf stir uneasily inside me.

Startled, I locked eyes with those wickedly magnetic brown eyes.

And then it hit me.

A pull. Sharp, overwhelming, and impossible to ignore. It shot through my chest like lightning, stealing my breath. My wolf whimpered, pushing forward with a desperate urgency I’d never felt before.

Mate.

No. No, no, no.

A slow, deliberate wink from him made my breath hitch for an entirely different reason now. I shifted uneasily, adjusting my stance atop the narrow ledge, eyes flicking around for a safe spot to jump. But that pull… that damned mate bond… was making it hard to think straight.

My foot slipped.

A sharp gasp escaped my lips.

The world tilted.

I braced for safety, eyes squeezed shut, only to crash not into cold stone, but into warmth and solid muscle.

Killian had lunged forward on instinct, arms outstretched.

“Careful…!”

We hit the ground in a tumble, air knocked from both lungs. His back met the earth with a muffled thud, and I landed flush against him, the full length of my body sprawled across his.

For a breathless second, time suspended.

The bond flared to life the moment our skin touched. It was like fire and ice colliding, spreading through every nerve ending in my body. My wolf howled inside me, clawing to get closer, to claim, and… submit. The scent of him overwhelmed everything else, pine and smoke and something wild, something that called to the deepest part of me.

My face was inches from his, my lips brushing the edge of his jaw during the fall. The faintest trace of stubble grazed my skin. My hands, frantic and searching for balance, pressed against the solid contours of his chest, fingers splayed, feeling the quick rise and fall of his breath beneath my palms.

Killian groaned softly, blinking up at me. One arm slipped around my waist in a protective, possessive motion that sent shivers down my spine.

“Don’t move,” he murmured, voice husky with authority… and something else entirely.

I froze.

His breath was warm against my cheek, his hand firm at the small of my back. I could feel his heartbeat pounding beneath me, fast and deep, mirroring my own. My body tensed, but I didn’t pull away.

His eyes flickered gold for just a second… his wolf rising to the surface, and I knew he felt it too.

The mate bond.

Killian’s gaze darkened, flickering down to my parted lips. The space between us was nothing now, barely an inch. My skin tingled where we touched, my cheeks burning as his fingers curled slightly against my waist, possessive and claiming.

The air between us thickened, charged with something electric, something dangerous. Everything else fell away.

We stared at each other, breath mingling, neither daring to close the gap… nor daring to break it.

His scent wrapped around me like a drug, and I hated how much I wanted more.

Just then, chaos exploded on the other side of the wall, snapping us out of the moment.

Without missing a beat, Killian leaned in closer, his voice a teasing whisper by my ear… low, rough, utterly devastating: “Throwing yourself into my arms, huh?“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​