All Chapters of Reborn to Defy Fate: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

LyraThe clinic looked almost peaceful from where we sat. Its narrow brick facade bathed in the last wash of daylight, the warm glow of the windows spilling onto the sidewalk. But I knew better. I knew this was the calm before everything burned.Luca sat beside me, silent, his eyes never resting in one place for long. I could feel his focus in the air, like a taut wire stretched between us.We had been here for twenty minutes already. Twenty minutes of me trying not to gnaw my lip bloody while pretending I was fine. Twenty minutes that seemed like eternity.“Time?” I murmured, though I already knew it was close.“Five past eight,” Luca said without looking away from the street. “She’s still got a couple of patients inside. Let's wait.”I glanced toward the clinic door, just in time to see an older man step out, clutching a small paper bag. My mother appeared behind him, offering a polite smile before locking the door halfway and turning back inside.She looked the same as she had in m

LyraThe forest was quiet, too quiet for my liking. Luca hadn’t told me where we were going, only that I needed to follow him and trust him. That was already asking a lot, considering I barely trusted myself these days. The deeper we went, the more the air thickened with the scent of pine, camphor and damp earth. Every now and then, a ray of sunlight would pierce through the leafy canopy, scattering gold on the mossy ground.“You are walking like you are headed to your execution,” Luca said over his shoulder, his voice light but laced with that unshakable Beta authority.“Maybe I am,” I muttered, stepping over a fallen branch. My boots squelched against wet soil, and the sound was too loud in the stillness.He didn’t answer, just kept walking until the trees began to thin and we stepped into a clearing. It wasn’t much, just a patch of open space carpeted with soft grass, the forest encircling it like a watchful wall. But there was something… still about it. Almost sacred. The air was f

LyraI used to believe the worst pain a person could feel was the ache of unrequited love.I was wrong.The worst pain is knowing that the people you trusted, the ones you fought for, bled for… were the same ones sharpening the knife to stab you behind your back, smiling as they handed you the rope to hang yourself.When Selene first returned to the pack after years of absence, I didn’t know what to think. She came draped in silk and dripping with sweetness, her arms open, her voice full of nostalgia. “Lyra,” she had said, tears pooling in her lashes, “I missed you so much.” And I had believed her. Gods help me, I had believed her and I had even neglected my best friend, Ayana, because of her. I believed everything Selene said not knowing that Ayana was as much a victim as I was.We grew close again, just like when we were children. She told me she wanted to fix the rift between her and Killian, to be part of the pack again, to help me. We shared meals. We shared secrets. I told her

LyraI sat across from Luca, my hands trembling slightly, though I tried to keep my voice steady. The birds that danced in the clearing offered the only sound besides ours and then sun above shone as if they were giving me a new life. The flowers were beautiful, their glow fragile, fleeting, almost mocking the rawness of what I was about to share.I had already told him of Damon and Selene’s betrayal. The pain of reliving it still clawed at me, but there was more to say, more he needed to hear. I drew a shaky breath.“You asked me how I knew what was going to happen,” I began softly, my eyes lowering to my hands. “The truth is…it’s because I have lived it all before. I died, Luca. I died screaming, broken, betrayed. And then, I was given a second chance, Luca. That's the whole truth.”Luca didn’t interrupt, but I could feel his gaze sharpen on me. I pressed on.“When they killed me, I remember the agony. It was unlike anything imaginable. My body was burning from the acid they forced

Killian I left her in the guest wing yesterday, a decision that had felt necessary at the time, though it cut deeper than I cared to admit. Lyra wasn’t ready. She had to understand that trust was not something I could hand back to her so easily, not after all the betrayal, the chaos, the lies. Yet, as I walked away from her, there was a small, selfish hope burning in my chest, that she would come looking for me.I waited.Every creak of the floorboards in the night made me glance toward the door, expecting to see her silver hair, or what used to be silver, slipping through the crack, her hesitant voice calling my name. Every gust of wind outside made me imagine she had gathered enough courage to stand before me, ready to ask for forgiveness. But the night passed in silence.My wolf paced inside me, restless, snarling at my pride. He wanted her close. He wanted to breathe her in, to curl around her as if the years of pain between us had never existed. I denied him, again and again, an