Chapter 2

Ava.

It took a moment to remember the nightmare really had ended five years ago. I was not in a hospital, a rehabilitation centre, on the side of the road, or even in the monster's bedroom. I was in my old apartment—The one that Viktor got for me.

I looked around and finally spotted my phone. I moved my arm to grab it, almost waiting for the pain like all those years ago.

I looked at the time—2:20 p.m.

I couldn't help but pull the blankets up and checked my body over and over again. No blood. No open wounds. Nothing.

As the nightmare swirled around and around in my head, I lay there staring at the ceiling. And then I closed my eyes waiting to see if this was also a dream.

I opened my eyes again. The world was still there and I was still in my old apartment. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves so I don’t freak out. Finally, the ding of my phone made me stop.

It was a text message from Elizabeth.

"Ava, we need you to come home tonight. Dad's health is not good, and he wants to see all of his family."

I couldn't help but smile and shake my head.

Two years. It had been two years since I'd woken up back in my bed, confused about how I was alive and back in my own bedroom in the old apartment that Viktor had gotten for me. two years since I had spoken to Elizabeth. Two years had passed since my own family had enjoyed deceiving me and making me believe I was nothing but an omega—and my beloved sister had arranged for me to be abandoned by the side of the road.

Two years of a fake identity. Two years since I was left for dead.

But little did my dear, loving stepsister know... that I had been given a second chance.

Somehow, I had woken up two years before that fateful day. It gave me time to prepare. To stop taking the drugged food and drinks. To not be sold basically as a blood sacrifice, to the lycan king.

With the knowledge of what was to come, I did everything I could to still be the sweet, naïve me on the outside—while plotting my revenge on the inside. I still shyly said yes to so many things while secretly saving up to get the hell out of here.

Since I was supposedly already a drug addict when I woke up, I had to prove to my grandfather that I was now trying to curve my ways. Still don’t know how the hell all those tests came back positive.

Even when they sent me twice to a rehabilitation centre, I wondered why they didn’t believe me. In the end—thankfully—I was able to stay clean from the drugs they still tried to hide in everything that came near me. I would have almost become a skeleton if it wasn’t for the food I’d hide in my room from late-night runs to the kitchen.

Finally, after my second stint in rehab, Grandpa's doctors had given me the clean bill of health. I convinced him to give me some money so I could travel overseas to “help with my recovery.”

It worked perfectly—and I was gone, with nothing but a smile on my face, before the anniversary hit.

I reread the message on my phone. Maybe it was time.

After everything she did to me in my previous life... I think it might finally be time to kick off my little plan of revenge.

Long gone was the Ava she knew. She has no idea what I have planned for her.

My mind went overboard with all the different replies I would love to send, but I went for simple nonchalance:

"Sorry, I'm afraid I'm rather busy tonight getting my nails fixed."

I hadn't even had a chance to put the phone down when our father—my supposedly beloved biological father, the great Malakai Athena—called.

Yeah. His name is as over-the-top and ostentatious as his personality.

I rolled my eyes and answered simply, in a cold tone, “Dad.”

“Dad?” Malakai shouted. “So you do remember that you have a damn father! You’ve been back in the country for a month and you knew that I was very sick, yet not one visit. Not once have you come home to check to see how I was doing and If I was okay. You even had the nerve to get married without telling your family! Is that any way to treat your father?!?!!?”

He was right. I got married almost immediately after arriving back in the country.

Although, I hadn’t told anyone in my family about it—for a reason. It was a fun little waiting game to see when they'd find out.

I couldn’t stop my smile.

"I didn’t think you’d want anyone to find out you had a daughter who was a drug addict, and a wolf-less omega. Knowing a man like you, I thought you would have been ashamed or even wanted to associate yourself with such a wedding."

I put on my best innocent voice, trying to hide my smile.

I wasn’t actually married.

But I did everything I could to make sure they thought I was. I made damn sure they knew nothing about what I had been up to and believed in the fake marriage that I’ve paid bloggers to publish.

There was a moment of silence before I heard him sigh.

“Okay. I am just going to let all of that slide. You’ve been gone for a long time. The past is in the past and nobody remembers or even cares about yesterday’s news. Bring Kaiser to dinner with you tonight.”

Yeah. Nobody knew the pain I had suffered in my previous life. And the ones who enjoyed my torture—even before my death—wouldn't remember. Or care.

They certainly didn’t care at the time.

How all of my bones had been broken before I was ruthlessly left close to a dump site to die.

They did technically kill me that day.

They killed the old Ava.

They killed the young girl that believed there was goodness in the world—and that I just had to hope and wait for the day when it would come.

As for Kaiser Warren—my heart always hurts just thinking about him.

My saviour.

He was the man who had found me by the road side in my previous life.

He was the hope the old Ava was looking for—but he came when it was too late.

I know now I can only rely on myself. Otherwise, it would happen again.

I would be left for dead, looking for hope... when it was too late again.

Kaiser and I have been married for almost two months now. Though you wouldn’t guess by watching how he treated me. Two months ago, I bluntly rejected Viktor as my mate at the annual mating ball. Shortly after, I found Kaiser and convinced him to agree to a contract marriage with me-one that would help me carry out my revenge smoothly-and he accepted. 

Our marriage was hinged on a technicality, thanks to all the contacts and the name I had made for myself while in los vegas.

But even though he wasn’t the man of my dreams, I knew he was the tool that I needed to get my revenge.