All Chapters of Reborn to Rewrite My Fate : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

She called me at two in the morning, and her voice was shaking so badly I almost didn't recognize it."Luna." Just my name, breathless, frightened in a way that had nothing to do with the composed, calculating woman I'd met outside the tea house. "I need to talk to you. Now. Tonight, if you can."I sat up in bed, heart already pounding, Adrian's warning from days earlier still echoing loud in my head. *Someone's watching.* "Selene, what's wrong?""Not on the phone." Her breath caught, ragged. "There's a diner off Route Nine, the one near the old mill. Can you meet me there? Please. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."I glanced at the window, at the dark tree line beyond my garden wall where I'd half convinced myself something had been watching for days now. Every instinct I'd carried from my first life screamed caution. But underneath the fear in Selene's voice was something else, something raw and desperate that I recognized because I'd felt it myself, once, standing in a hallway

Elias arrived before the council did, which was the only reason I didn't fall apart completely.He took one look at the shattered porch railing, the body cooling in my mother's rosebushes, and my blood spattered shovel still clutched in my hand, and his face went through an entire war of emotions in under three seconds, fear, fury, and finally, a kind of grim, focused calm that I recognized as the exact moment my brother decided panicking wasn't going to help anyone."Inside," he said, prying the shovel gently from my fingers. "Now. Both of you.""Elias, we need to call the council, we need to explain—""We will. After I know you're not about to collapse." His eyes flicked to Adrian, taking in the blood soaking through his torn sleeve, and something sharpened behind his gaze, assessing, wary, though he didn't waste time on questions yet. "You're hurt.""It's not serious," Adrian said."Sit down anyway." Elias's tone left no room for argument, and I realized, with a strange, distant cl

"My father kept records," Adrian said, already moving toward a locked cabinet in the corner of the cabin, key produced from somewhere inside his jacket. "Territory history, old pack lore, things most people stopped believing mattered generations ago. If that mark means anything, it'll be in here."I watched him work the lock, my pulse still unsteady from everything we'd just confessed to each other, the bargain he refused to elaborate on further hanging heavy and unresolved in the air between us. "You said you don't know what you promised. How is that possible? Don't bargains usually come with terms?""Not the kind I made." His jaw tightened as the cabinet finally clicked open, revealing shelves of worn leather journals and yellowed, brittle papers. "Whatever I dealt with that night didn't speak in terms. It spoke in feelings. Certainty, mostly. I remember feeling absolutely certain my territory would survive if I accepted the help being offered. I don't remember agreeing to specific

Kael found me within the first ten minutes, which meant either he'd been waiting by the door or he'd had someone watching for my arrival, and neither option settled well in my stomach."Luna." He said my name like silk over a blade, that same practiced charm sliding easily into place despite the tension I knew was simmering underneath it. "I wasn't certain you'd have the nerve to show your face here. Given the circumstances.""What circumstances would those be?" I kept my voice light, though every muscle in my body had gone tense the moment he approached."A guard of mine died on your property four nights ago." His smile stayed perfectly pleasant, though something colder flickered behind his eyes. "The council's been remarkably quiet about the details. I'd love to hear your version of events.""He attacked me and Alpha Blackthorn without provocation. Then he died before anyone could ask him why." I met his gaze steadily, refusing to flinch under the weight of his scrutiny. "Perhaps yo

The mountain road ran out twenty minutes before the shrine did, and after that we ran on foot, breath tearing ragged through the cold night air, moonlight slicing thin and silver through a canopy of ancient, twisted pines."How much further?" I gasped, branches whipping past my face, my legs burning with an effort that no amount of adrenaline could fully cushion."Not far." Adrian's voice came low and controlled beside me, barely winded despite the brutal pace he'd set since we abandoned the cars at the trailhead. "The journal marked it just past a ridge line, near an old stream bed. We should be close."Behind us, Elias and Damon moved with the same silent, focused urgency, all of us stripped down to the essentials, weapons secured, every ounce of attention fixed on the darkness ahead. My heart hammered with something far sharper than exertion, memories of my first death circling relentless and unwelcome through my mind with every labored breath.*Not this time. Whatever's waiting up