All Chapters of REBORN BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE; I REJECTED MY ALPHA MATE: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

The last thing I saw before I died was my mate’s hand resting on the safe-zone gate.Ryan stood on the other side of the steel barrier, staring at me through the narrow opening as the guards struggled to force the massive doors shut. Behind him, hundreds of survivors were packed into the underground shelter, their faces pale beneath the emergency lights. Some were crying. Others were praying. A few were simply staring at me with the same helpless expression I had seen on everyone’s face during the final weeks of the collapse.I was the only one left outside.“Ryan!” My voice broke as I stumbled toward the gate. “Please. Don’t close it.”My boots slipped on the frozen ground, but I forced myself forward. Blood was running down my arm from the wound across my shoulder, and every breath felt like ice cutting through my lungs. I could hear the creatures behind me, their claws scraping against the concrete as they moved through the darkness. I knew what would happen if that gate closed.Ry

I read the letter three times before I accepted that the words were real.If you’re reading this, the Royal bloodline has awakened.Do not let the Alpha find you.My mother’s handwriting was unmistakable. I had spent enough of my childhood tracing those letters in the few notes she had left behind to know she had written them herself. But the meaning of the message was impossible to understand.Royal bloodline.Awakened.Alpha.None of it belonged together.Werewolf bloodlines were divided into ordinary packs, powerful Alpha families, and a handful of ancient lines whose names were rarely spoken anymore. I had heard stories about Royal Wolves when I was younger, but my father had always dismissed them as old pack mythology. According to him, there had never been a true Royal bloodline in generations.Yet my mother had written those exact words.And she had warned me about my own Alpha.I folded the letter carefully and slipped it into my pocket.“Raya,” I whispered, “do you know what

I spent the entire drive home pretending the messages didn’t frighten me.They did.I had survived an apocalypse in my first life. I had watched people turn against one another over food, watched families abandon the weak, watched entire neighborhoods disappear beneath floodwater. I had faced creatures in the dark and known what it meant to feel completely helpless.But this was different.In my first life, I knew what was coming.This time, someone else seemed to know that I knew.I kept checking the rearview mirror as I drove. The black SUV was gone, but that didn’t reassure me. Whoever had been following me had already learned where I trained, and I had no idea how much they knew about my plans.When I finally reached home, I didn’t drive directly into the garage. I circled the block once, then again, checking for unfamiliar vehicles before entering through the private gate. Only after the gate closed behind me did I allow myself to breathe.I was becoming paranoid.Or perhaps I wa