Lahat ng Kabanata ng Reborn on my Mating Night: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

The rain was the first thing I noticed. The second was that I couldn’t feel my legs.I lay on my side in the mud, cheek pressed to wet leaves, trying to remember how I got here. Thinking felt like wading through cold water.The phone call. That was it.Your mother’s condition has worsened. You should come now.I’d run out of the Silver Lake packhouse without a coat, without telling anyone. Not that anyone would have cared. Not after the fight with my husband. Not after Jessi.Then the road. Headlights. A van door sliding open. Too many hands, and a cloth over my face that burned like fire.Now this.Something sharp was buried in my side. I didn’t need to look. Silver burned differently from anything else. It spread slowly, patiently, like ink soaking through paper.A wolf could have fought it. A wolf could have healed.But I’d never had one. Twenty-one years old, and the Moon Goddess had never sent her. Wolfless Kira. Useless Kira. The Dark Moon Pack had found so many names for me.Fo

Last time, I signed this without reading a word.I’d been crying too hard to see the page. Zion pressed a pen into my hand, told me where to sign, and I did it, because I thought if I gave him what he wanted, maybe one day he’d look at me the way he looked at her.I picked up the agreement and unfolded it.Zion’s brow lifted. “You’re reading it?”“Isn’t that what people do before they sign things?”He didn’t answer.It was short. Two pages of cold, clean language, like something drafted by a lawyer who’d never been in love.“Party A, Alpha Zion of Silver Lake, will cover all medical expenses for Selene, mother of Party B, for the duration of the agreement.” I glanced up. “Generous.”“I’m not a monster.”You’d be surprised, I thought, and kept reading.“Party B will perform the role of devoted wife and Luna in all public settings. Party B will make no claims on Party A’s private life, affections, or bed.” My mouth twisted. “Very clear.”His jaw tightened, but he said nothing.Then I re

Jessi leaned against the doorframe like she’d been posed there.Even at one in the morning, she was flawless. Honey-blond waves spilled over the shoulders of a cream silk robe, and her lips were glossed pink, as if she’d taken the time to put on makeup before rushing to the infirmary. Her eyes were wide and soft with concern.She’d always been beautiful. That was the first thing everyone noticed about Jessi.It took me a whole lifetime to notice the second.“Kira, sweetheart.” She swept into the room on a cloud of vanilla perfume and wrapped her arms around me before I could step back. “I came as soon as I heard. You must be exhausted.”Her hug was warm. Her body was soft.Every nerve I had turned to ice.I never touched her. No one believed me.I didn’t hug her back. After a moment, she drew away, still holding my arms, studying my face with those big, worried eyes.“Is everything all right?” she murmured. “You left the packhouse in the middle of your mating night. Zion didn’t...” Sh

Nobody spoke.The monitor beeped. Somewhere down the hall, a cart rattled past. My mother lay between us, gray and still, and I stared at the numbers on the healer’s tablet until they blurred.Fresh silver. Small doses. For months.In my last life, Mom never left Dark Moon. She stayed in that cold room at the end of the hall, getting weaker and weaker, and I sat beside her every day thinking her body was just slow to heal.Someone had been walking into that room the whole time. Smiling at me in the hall, maybe. Then slipping poison into my mother’s veins.My hands started to shake.Zion moved first.“Seal this floor.” His voice had gone low and flat, the voice of an Alpha giving orders that would not be questioned. “No one in or out of this room without my approval. Every healer who touches her reports to you directly.” He turned to the older woman. “Your name?”“Marta, Alpha.”“Marta. You’ll handle her care personally. No one else draws her blood or touches her medication.”“Yes, Alp

Agnes didn’t waste any time.That evening, I was coming up the main staircase after visiting Mom when I heard her voice drifting out of the Alpha’s study. Clipped and indignant, every word perfectly polite.“...without consulting anyone, Alpha. She threw the flowers off the balcony. In front of the staff. I only thought you should know what kind of woman you’ve brought into this house.”I stopped on the landing.In my last life, I’d have turned around and fled to my closet in the servants’ wing. I’d have spent the whole night waiting for Zion to knock on my door and tell me to give the key back.He never would have had to. I’d have given it back myself.The study door opened. Agnes stepped out, and Zion followed her into the hall. He saw me on the landing, and his gaze moved from my face to the brass key hanging on a ribbon at my wrist.Agnes saw me too. Her mouth curved in the faintest smile, waiting.Zion looked at me for a long moment.Then he said, “It’s the Luna’s suite.”Agnes b