Chapter 2

AVA

The light in my eyes got dim.

So this was how it all ended? Again, like our fate was twisted.

Smoke went down my throat thick and hard to breathe. My chest got tight with every breath. The flames came closer, eating up the walls, the ceiling, everything.

I shut my eyes, maybe… This was for the best.

At least this time I wouldn’t waste seven years begging for love that wasn’t mine.

And then suddenly, a  hand grabbed my wrist. Before I could move my body got yanked forward the world spinning as I crashed into a chest.

“Hold on to me!” The voice was low, commanding.

My wolf surged unexpectedly, stronger than she had in years, responding to him before I even understood why. His scent was unfamiliar… yet my wolf leaned toward him instead of away.

An arm wrapped around my waist. Lifted me like I weighed nothing. Not carefully, more like I was something that needed to be moved fast.

BOOM!

An explosion happened ahead. The man’s grip got tighter, his hand spreading over the back of my head, forcing my face into his chest. Heat hit us from behind, the wave intense it felt like my skin might burn off.

The air smelled of burning chemicals, smoke, and something metallic.

My wolf, weak as she was, stirred faintly inside me, confused. I forced my eyes open despite the sting, trying to see him.

A mask covered most of his face and all I could see were his eyes, which were bright and then an unusual scar on his chin.

Through the smoke, I saw another figure outside the burning room, it was Lucas. He had already made it out and Vera was still in his arms. From this distance, even through the smoke, I could sense it, the way his aura wrapped around her protectively, like a true Alpha shielding his chosen Luna.

He held her tightly like she was something he had almost lost forever.

His face, I had never seen him like that before.

I shut my eyes, a  single tear slipped down my temple disappearing into the soot on my skin.

I understood now, Lucas had come back too and reborn just like me.

In our previous life… he couldn't save Vera. That regret had followed him for seven years.

I had seen it every day but never made sense of it but now I do,  in the way he feared fire, in the distance in his eyes, in the way he never truly let me in. In the way… he never let me have his child.

This time he chose differently, his wolf had chosen her without hesitation. He saved her and corrected his supposed mistake by ending his regret and leaving me to burn.

Before everything faded I thought I heard an urgent voice in the distance, “Where is she?! Where’s Ava?!”

Lucas, I almost laughed because he didn’t mean me. If he did, he would have tried to save me too. I turned around and the strange man was gone.

***

“Ava! You’re safe!” My chest tightened instantly.

“Mom…” My voice broke before I could stop it.

She was here, alive and real. I sat up fast and threw myself into her arms holding onto her as if I let go she might disappear again.

“I missed you so much…” God I had missed her.

In my previous life,  less than six months after I married Lucas my parents had died in a plane crash and their bodies were not found.

After that, the world had turned cold. Although Lucas had been there, not really, while everyone else had only cared about one thing, ”why hadn’t the Luna conceived yet?”

Every whisper, every look and every forced smile.

I had carried it all alone.

Many nights I had woken up crying, wishing just once that my mom would hold me again and tell me everything would be okay.

Now she is here, her body warm and she's alive. Maybe fate hadn’t completely given up on me.

“Were you scared last night?" she asked softly brushing my hair back. "Thank goodness Lucas reacted quickly. Rushed in to save you. I was terrified…”

My expression stilled. Save me? Lucas? That was… funny because he hadn’t even looked back.

Before I could speak she continued, her voice trembling slightly:

“My baby is about to get married… If anything had happened to you what would I have done?”

Married?

The word landed heavily. I pulled back slowly meeting her eyes.

This time… everything was different. In the previous life Lucas had made his choice but now, I  would make mine.

I tightened my grip on her hand, my voice steady despite the storm inside me.

“Mom…”

“I’m not marrying Lucas, never!”

”You have no choice my sweetheart, everything is already finalized..” She replied.

No choice? In my previous life I had none but not this time!