REBORN?

CHAPTER 2

Ashlyn’s POV

My lungs seized violently as icy water forced its way in.

What—

I jerked immediately, my chest burning as I opened my mouth to scream.

Water flooded inside instead.

Was this death or my personal punishment? To die again, over and over?

Then suddenly my head was yanked back.

I gasped. Coughing, choking, and gulping greedily as air hit my lungs.

“Have you learned your lesson?!” A man’s voice growled.

What the– what was happening?

I coughed even more violently, dragging in breath after breath as I tried to adjust my eyes to the scene before me.

“So what do you say, Princess?” The man sneered, his grip tightening on my hair. “Will you be running away again?”

“W- what ar– “ I tried to speak, but I coughed again, my chest heaving as I struggled to breathe.

Who was this man? Where the hell was I?

This place, the people, nothing matched what I knew!

Injila burned me. I died! How was I here? In this grassy border? With all these people?

My fear and confusion increased as my vision cleared to reveal what looked like members of a guard?

They were dressed strangely. But their broad frames and polished weapons gave them away.

I took a step back, fear and confusion rippling through me, when suddenly the meadow descended in total silence.

No sound from the men or their breathing; not even the wind, made a single sound.

My heart kicked up again. The afterlife was really strange.

Then one by one, a shift rippled through the men, and they bowed at something behind me. 

I took another fearful step back and hit a hard chest.

Not something. Someone.

My head turned weakly, and my heart stopped.

No.

No, that wasn't possible.

The world seemed to tilt at the sight of the man standing behind me, the sun casting shadows on his face.

Tall, massive frame that was the opposite of my short, curvy one.

Shoulder-length dark hair. Sculpted cheekbones, sharp jawline, a ruggedly handsome face, and amber eyes I knew better than I knew my own.

His wild scent of musk and pinecones hit me so hard, shaky tears rolled down my cheeks. 

Hunt?

My knees nearly gave out.

He was alive?

Violent relief hit me.

My husband was alive! How–

Shock, hope—everything flooded me at once as I gasped in disbelief.

“H- How?” My lips formed the words hoarsely.

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

His voice was like cool water after being trapped in a hot desert for too long.

But then his eyes were not fixed on me. 

They were on the bowing men he addressed. “How does a merely five-foot girl manage to escape my pack’s best warriors?!!”

That was when I noticed his clothes. Strange like the warrior men bowing. 

Then his eyes clicked to me. Dark and broiling beneath the sun, they held nothing of the affection we had for each other. 

“What— “

“Forget running away, witch.” He growled, his voice darker than I’d ever heard it as his fangs extended. “You belong to me.”

Faster than I could blink, his hand closed around my arm and he pulled me closer. In the same moment, his other hand tilted my head to the side.

"Wait--- "

A sharp cry tore from me as his fangs sank into the side of my neck. My system seized with shock.

Like wildfire, burning heat spread from the bite through my veins.

I barely had time to gasp before darkness claimed me again.

—------------

Everything hurt.

My head, my legs, my arms, and even the side of my neck.

Why was my body hurting so much? 

“Hunt— “ I started to moan, then froze.

My hand flew to touch my neck immediately as my eyes popped open.

Bandage?

My heart hammered in fear, my fingers touching the bandage on my neck lightly as my memory flooded in.

What the hell was happening?! 

“Hunt died,” I whispered, saying the words out loud so I wouldn’t go crazy.

Yes, I was sure. 

My husband had died, and my baby— Fresh pain racked through my body, and I doubled over. Prepared to grieve when I paused. My pulse racing again.

If Hunt was dead, then who marked me? 

Worse, why was I not dead? Injila burned me.

I could still smell that horrid mix of cooking flesh and sizzling blood. My chest still felt sore from the smoke—or was that the water?

Nothing made any sense! I dropped my head into my palms roughly.

“Careful, Miss.” A girl’s voice came from beside me.

My heart skipped a bit as I reared back in fear.

 “Wha–" I lifted my head again, staring wide-eyed at the maid beside the bed. “Who are you?”

She gave me a look I knew only too well. 

Disdain mixed with compliance as she replied. “Jessica? I introduced myself yesterday. I’m your maid.”

Like hell she was.

But I said nothing out loud. My mind still jumbled as I came to terms with everything.

Was this death? But I didn’t feel like a ghost. I could hurt quite well, proven by the bite still healing in my neck.

The wound throbbed slightly, and I winced. “Where’s my husband?”

The girl looked even more affronted. But she managed to school her expression politely as she bowed. “I don’t know, Princess. The King— “

“Queen.” The correction slipped out subconciously as she froze.

“I’m married to your King.”

Her face turned red. But I was done with disrespect. 

In the palace, several times, I’d let maids and even the lowest omegas get away with disrespecting me because I was a hybrid Luna. 

Not anymore. Afterlife or not, I wouldn’t tolerate one more snobbish person.

“Yes, I—" She trailed off, her cheeks blazing. “Apologies, Queen. The Lycan will return to the room when he wants to.”

I nodded and, without one more word, waved a hand for her to leave.

She looked affronted again.

Her eyes widening as a strained look crossed her face. Then she turned red, pursed her lips, and strolled out of the room.

But I couldn’t be bothered to deal with her.

Right now, I had bigger things to worry about. Like, why my bedroom had completely different decorations.

“What the— “ I gasped softly, standing from the bed and looking around.

Was I reborn in an alternate world or something?

“... behave crazy.”

Jessica’s voice drifted to me from the room door, and I pursed my lips. She was gossiping with some other maid in my waiting room, and my wolf picked up snippets of the conversation.

“Really?” The other girl asked.

“I’m telling you. She ran away from marrying him yesterday, and today she’s asking for Lycan Hunter and proclaiming herself Queen… “

Ran away?

Memories of the conversation between those warriors came back to me as I began to fit the pieces together.

SO I had appeared? In another world, but the same body?

Same name too. The maids addressed Hunt as Lycan Hunter. And here too, I was married to my husband, except I ran away?

Why would I run away from my mate?

After everything he did for me. 

My chest tigthened.

Hunt saved my life.

Growing up as my father’s bastard was hell in my pack.

I had no one. Not my stepmother, who was convinced I cheated her daughter out of a good life, or Janet, who’d been trained by her mother to hate me.

The only reason I’d ever survived there was Parker. Janet’s brother. 

And even then, I’d faced constant bullying, mockery, and abuse my whole life. 

I would have died.

Then I met Hunt.

My lips pulled in a soft smile as I remembered how he took me from that place. Protected me, loved me, and made me the highest woman in the kingdom.

Until I fell pregnant.

My heart stuttered as flashes of my pregnancy announcement dinner came to me.

Hunt in my arms, foaming at the mouth.

My fear and panic as I tried everything.

As I screamed my husband’s name again and again.

Then Injila screamed. “She killed him! The half-breed killed my brother!”

And just like that, I’d been condemned. Except the one person who had always protected me from the world was gone.

My chest cracked with a sob.

They took him from me. 

Burned up the life we created together. And now I was here.

The room door opened, and I jolted back to reality as my heart beat picked up.

Slowly, I lifted up my head, the night air kissing the tears on my cheeks.

My voice cracked. “H-hunt?”