Chapter 1

The healing room was dead silent.

The wolf inside me was a dying ember, faint and trembling.

The fated bond with Julian reconnected.

I caught his shock through it.

Then — a flicker of something else. A pulse that almost felt like longing.

In my previous life, I missed it. I thought he was just overwhelmed that I'd woken up.

Now I knew better. My waking up was inconvenient. My broken body, broken for him, didn't matter to him anymore.

I turned my head toward the window. The last of the snow was melting on the branches.

Memories from my previous life came rushing back.

After Lyra killed herself, Julian poured all his hatred onto me.

Day after day, he whispered into my ear: "You wanted to be Luna so badly. Then keep that empty title and rot in this castle."

Even in our most intimate moments, he kept the lights off and was rough with me. No tenderness. No mercy.

I endured it for three years.

Then one full moon, he gave me a beautiful pink silk dress.

I thought it was a peace offering.

That night I wore it to meet him. He was gentle with me — for once. I held him tight and whispered his name.

"Julian. You came back to me, didn't you?"

But at the moment he shuddered, he couldn't help himself. He cried out: "Lyra..."

That was when I understood. I was just a body. A stand-in for Lyra.

But I was the one fated to be Luna.

After that, Julian and I might as well have been strangers.

Four years after Lyra's death, he used his Alpha authority to pass an unjust judgment on me.

Every year on Lyra's death anniversary, he forced me to kneel at her grave and beg forgiveness.

"She's your sister. She died because of you."

"If you have any heart left, you'll repent for her until the day you die."

He was Alpha. I couldn't fight his command.

But the wounds he reopened, day after day, year after year — I never forgot them.

The door pushed open.

Julian walked in. Lyra was right behind him, eyes wide and frightened.

Their hands were locked together. Even when they saw me, they didn't let go. They stared straight at me, defiant.

I noticed the matching mate rings on their fingers.

In my previous life, I sat there frozen. I asked them what they meant. When they finally said it out loud, I cried, asked over and over: why? Why?

This time my heart was still.

I just looked at them. Cold.

Julian's smile was stiff and forced. He came up to my bedside.

"Rafaela. Thank the Moon Goddess. You're awake."

His tone shifted, heavier now, full of reluctant pain.

"But you were gone for three years. You don't know how lost I was. How alone."

"These three years — I owe Lyra everything. She got me through. We... a lot has happened... what we have now..."

He paused, as if searching for the right words.

Lyra stepped forward, taking her place at his side. "Rafaela, please don't blame the Alpha. He was just so lonely."

"Blame me, if you have to blame anyone."

I watched them, blank. She was right. I should blame her.

In my previous life, the first year I was unconscious, Julian searched everywhere for a cure for my wolf. He sat by my bed every day and night, dripping medicine between my lips one drop at a time.

He'd tell me about the wildflowers blooming somewhere — the bright red ones I loved — and promise to take me when I woke up.

Then Eleanor sent Lyra to take care of me. After that, Julian was never alone with me again. He was always with Lyra.

Their conversations excluded me. I lay there like a corpse no one acknowledged.

By the time I woke, no one came to my room anymore.

But the cure must have worked, because I woke up anyway, even though no one was watching.

Three years, though. That's a long time.

By then, the story had spread through every pack — Alpha Julian and the Vance sisters, the great love that passed from one to the other.

The Luna who had taken an arrow for him? Forgotten.

The harder I fought, the more impatient he got.

"I've given you everything I can. The position, the title — they're yours. Lyra has nothing. Do you have any idea how unfair this is to her? What more do you want?"

I begged Eleanor to talk to him. She wouldn't even let me through her door.

"You can't force love. Your title as Luna is built on Lyra's grave."

The memories wouldn't stop. Now, looking at the two of them again, I felt nothing. Just a deep, tired emptiness.

This time I'm not staying in this cage.

Julian can have Lyra.

I have someone too.

I closed my eyes. I had nothing to say to them.

Julian and Lyra exchanged a glance. He came over and pulled the blanket up over me. "Rafaela, get some rest. We'll talk when you're feeling better."

I gave a tired nod.

After they left, I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I hadn't called in years.

It rang once, and he picked up.

A familiar voice. I hadn't heard it in so long.

"...Hello? Rafaela?!"

I stared out at the dark sky.

"That promise you made me. Does it still stand?"

On the other end, Ethan's breath caught.

"A promise is a promise. Of course it stands."

"I told you I'd wait. As long as it takes."

I smiled. "Have you waited long enough? How much longer do you want to wait?"

A pause. Then: "Give me a week. I'll come for you myself."