Reborn の短編小説 & Luna Awakening 小説

I was not a competent Luna. Despite being marked for years, I never managed to bear an heir for Raymond Miller. According to pack tradition, a Luna who could not continue the Alpha bloodline was expected to step down voluntarily, or at least permit other she-wolves to approach the Alpha. But I stubbornly refused. On his deathbed, he held my hand and let out a low, teasing laugh. "Your possessiveness is simply too fierce, Chloe. If there is a next life, I certainly won't choose you as my mate again." I thought he was merely joking, so I deliberately snapped back, "Fine by me. Then I won't bond with you either." Yet, when I opened my eyes again, I had actually returned to the exact day he was choosing a mate for our political alliance. Inside the magnificently decorated hall, eligible she-wolves from all the allied packs held their breath, desperately hoping to be chosen. The Pack Elder smiled warmly at Raymond. "Alpha heir, please take this moonstone necklace that belongs to the future Luna and place it around the neck of the she-wolf you have chosen." Raymond walked directly toward me. I couldn't help but curl my lips into a small smile, thinking that he was playing coy as usual. Even in another life, he would still choose me. But in the next split second, he brushed right past my shoulder. A sharp gasp echoed from behind me. He placed the necklace around the neck of another she-wolf.

My younger sister, Ivy, was engaged to Nathan, the heir to the Silver Moon Pack. After Nathan and I drank laurel wine laced with an aphrodisiac, we lost control and slept together. To preserve the alliance between our packs, Mother had me take Ivy's place. Nathan and I completed the mate bond, while Ivy was sent north to marry its elderly, gravely ill Alpha. On the day of her mating ceremony, however, Ivy's convoy was attacked by rogue wolves. She died at the border. Nathan hated me from that day forward. For more than twenty years, our bond brought me only neglect and humiliation. When I died after a long illness, he did not visit. He sent only one message. "Tessa, stay away from me in your next life." When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment the drugged wine was placed in my hand. Before I could react, Nathan snatched the glass away and smashed it against the floor. The moment I saw the way he looked at Ivy, I knew that he had been reborn too. Before the elders of both packs, he took Ivy's hand and announced, "Ivy and I will hold our mating ceremony this month." He led her away without looking at me. Once they were out of earshot, Mother drew me aside. "North Ridge has agreed to an alliance. You'll marry their Alpha." Memories of my final moments flashed through my mind. This time, I decided to give Nathan exactly what he wanted. "All right," I said. "I agree."

Declan, the Alpha heir of the Nighthowl Pack and my arranged mate, proposed to me right after donating his Alpha marrow to his childhood sweetheart. In my past life, I said yes out of love and for the sake of our pack alliance. But after we mated, the weight of two territories fell entirely on my shoulders. Losing that marrow broke Declan’s inner wolf. He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t shift. He couldn’t even give me a strong heir. I had to run the crystal mines while fighting off rogues for him. Before I even turned forty, I dropped dead. Utterly drained. Worked to death. And Declan? He comfortably took all the territory resources I had bled for and marked his little sweetheart. They lived happily ever after in my manor. So, reborn and facing his deep, affectionate proposal once again, I just looked at him calmly and said no. "You gave away your Alpha marrow. Your wolf is broken. What makes you think a defective piece of trash like you deserves me?"

The night I accidentally ended up in bed with my adoptive brother, Adrian, he had just broken his engagement to his childhood sweetheart, Ivy. Adrian was the Alpha of Blackwood Pack. Ivy was the late Beta's daughter, and the woman he had always intended to make his Luna. To protect my reputation and preserve his authority as Alpha, he was forced to complete a mate bond with me. Everyone said he treated me well. But every year on Ivy's birthday, he sat alone in his study until dawn. In the third year of our marriage, Ivy died of wolf-spirit failure. Only then did Adrian learn from the letter she left behind that she had seen us together that morning. The sight had haunted her for the rest of her life. He decided I had destroyed her. He severed our mate bond, drove me from the pack, and used his influence to close every road that might have kept me alive. Before I died, he sent me only four words. "You deserve to die." When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the night his wolf lost control. This time, I tore myself out of his arms, knocked on Ivy's door, and placed him in her hands myself. I smiled at the shock on his face. “Adrian, I won’t love you anymore.”

I was pregnant with Alpha Jaxon's heir. His childhood friend, Hattie, volunteered to drive me to the Pack Medical Center for a checkup. On the bridge over Wolf’s Hollow River, she didn't hesitate. She yanked the steering wheel right into the rusty guardrail. I didn't fight her for the wheel like I did in my past life. Because in my last life, I stopped the crash, but she was thrown from the car into the rapids. They never found her body. My Alpha claimed he didn't blame me. He even ground evening primrose by hand every day to soothe the pup, his eyes full of tender anticipation for our baby. But on the day I gave birth to his heir, he forced me and our newborn pup into his car, slammed his foot on the gas, and drove us straight into the raging sea. "She wouldn't have died if you hadn't gone insane with jealousy and grabbed the wheel! Did you think playing the victim would fool me? " "You like staging 'accidents', don't you? Then let's see how you like the freezing depths of the river!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back in Hattie's out-of-control sports car.

In the eighth year of our relationship, I took a silver blade meant for my Alpha, Adrian Blackwood. After confirming that I would survive, he promised me anything I wanted. Everyone expected me to demand the marking ceremony he had postponed for eight years. Instead, I looked at him calmly. “Release me from your claim.” Then I turned and walked away. Adrian only laughed. “She’s desperate for attention. Give her three days. She’ll come crying and beg me to take her back.” But Adrian was wrong. Because I had been reborn. In my previous life, I used the life debt he owed me to force him into the marking ceremony. That night, his first love, Ivy, jumped from a rooftop. Blaming me for Ivy’s suicide attempt, Adrian mutilated the ceremonial mark he had just placed on my body, scarred my face with silver, and imprisoned me underground. I bled to death in that underground cell. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day I took the silver blade for him. This time, I would give Adrian exactly what he had always wanted.

My mate's first love was in the maternity ward with me. We gave birth to two baby boys on the very same day. My son inherited my pure-blood Alpha lineage—the heir everyone expected to one day inherit everything I had. I spent decades loving him, protecting him, and giving him everything a mother could. But as he grew older, something never seemed right. He was painfully ordinary. No powerful wolf. No signs of an Alpha awakening. Not even the strength expected of a pure-blood heir. I blamed myself for years, wondering if something had gone wrong with his bloodline. It wasn't until the day I was dying that I learned the truth. The son I had loved and raised for decades wasn't my biological child at all. On the very day the babies were born, my mate, Ryan, had conspired with Isabella to switch them. They wanted Isabella's ordinary kid to take the place of my pure-blood Alpha heir. Meanwhile, my real son was abused by Isabella for years. She was even planning to stage an "accident" and kill him before his wolf awakening. After I died, my soul refused to move on. I watched with my own eyes as the fake son ran into Isabella's arms and called her Mom. I watched Ryan marry her. I watched the three of them live a life of luxury and privilege. Meanwhile, my real son had already been killed by them. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day the two babies were born. When I saw the two newborns the nurse brought in, I didn't hesitate for even a second. The first thing I did was take my real son back.

On the night of our engagement party, my fiancé, Alpha Caleb, and my own brother, Finn, gave me a gift. A rare blood monarch chrysalis. They said it was a sacred artifact. That it would nourish the Luna’s inner wolf. But I had it sealed away immediately. Because I’ve been reborn. In my last life, they told me the butterfly would nourish my wolf. So I kept it in my room. I guarded it with the purest moonlight. I even built it a miniature garden, caring for it until it hatched. Its tendrils pierced my skin. Deep. I endured the pain. I naively thought it was just bonding with my inner wolf. But after it hatched, it just grew. Bigger and bigger. It wouldn’t eat anything. It only wanted to drain me. At first, it was a faint sting in my fingertips. Then, deep marks on my wrist, my collarbone, my neck. Every night, I’d wake up with new wounds. My wolf grew weaker. And with every drop of my blood it drank, the patterns on its wings grew more beautiful. I couldn’t take the torture anymore. I tried to throw the greedy thing out of our territory. But Caleb used his Alpha Command. He forced me to my knees. “It’s a gift from me and Finn. It will make you a stronger Luna, Cora. Can't you handle a little pain?” It drained my blood dry. It shattered my inner wolf. I died three months after our engagement. My soul lingered after death. I watched it rise from my cold corpse. A naked woman landed on the carpet. She fell right into my fiancé’s arms. And my dear brother, Finn, hugged her with joy. “Lilith, you're finally back! You are the one true Luna of our Pack!” Seeing that familiar face, I finally understood. The butterfly wasn't a sacred artifact. It was a parasite. It was my sister. My older sister, Lilith, who supposedly died. The hypocritical sister Finn had always favored.