The summer heat in Snow Moon Pack was a beast of its own, clinging to skin, seeping into bones, choking the air with every breath.
I lay motionless on a splintered wooden cot shoved into the farthest corner of the yard. The boards groaned beneath me, but it was my bones that felt louder. Paint flaked off the wall beside me, doing little to muffle the voices drifting in from outside.
Two omegas lounged by the back door, their voices sharp and cruel.
“She stinks. You think whatever’s inside her is already rotting?”
“If maggots crawl out, I’m not cleaning it. Seriously, why hasn’t she just dropped dead yet?”
“Still acting like she’s some princess,” the second one sneered. “Clinging to the six heirs and the Alpha and Luna like they owe her something. Bet she thinks playing pathetic will get her a slice of the throne.”
I almost laughed—but my lips were too cracked to move. What they smelled wasn’t filth. It was betrayal.
They thought I was after money?! If that was all I wanted, I could’ve made it ten times over with the skills I had. But no, I was stupid enough to chase the illusion of family.
And what did it get me? Shattered legs. Crushed hands. One missing kidney. And a spinal injury that ripped away my healing—my one gift from the Moon Goddess.
The door creaked open.
I turned my head, slowly and stiff, like my neck was made of rusted metal.
Avery Smith stood there.
My brother. The future Alpha of Snow Moon Pack. My blood.
His face twisted the moment he saw me—disgust etched into every line.
“Lilith, let’s go. This place reeks.”
She was right behind him, wrapped around his arm like some overgrown doll playing house. Lilith. The fraud. The girl who’d stolen my life the second she was born, parading around as Snow Moon Pack’s beloved daughter.
She gave Avery a syrupy smile, fake concern dripping from her voice.
“Avery~ Mia gave up her kidney to save Julian yesterday. I just want to thank her… Can I?”
Avery rolled his eyes. “Why thank her? She’s the one who messed with his meds. He wouldn’t have crashed if she hadn’t played God. Letting her donate was mercy. She should’ve been in prison.”
I let out a dry, rasping laugh. “You didn’t jail me because I’m still useful, right? What’s next—my heart? Maybe my eyes?”
He flinched like I’d spit venom. “As if anyone wants anything from your half-dead body.”
He slammed a bowl of steaming ginseng soup onto the table beside me.
“Mom and Dad found someone who’ll marry you. The Alpha of Golden Claw Pack’s on his way. Drink up. Try not to look like you’ve been dragged through a graveyard—we don’t need another scandal.”
Marry?
I looked down at myself—skin stretched over bones, scars crisscrossing everything. This wasn’t a marriage. It was a transaction.
Lilith’s smile slipped for just a second—enough for me to see the jealousy underneath—before she painted her sweetness back on.
“She’s too weak to lift a spoon. Let me help,” she cooed.
She brought the spoon to my mouth.
I spat in her face.
She screamed like I’d thrown acid instead of spit.
“Ungrateful bitch!” Avery bellowed.
Lilith sniffled, dabbing at her face with a trembling hand. “It’s okay… I shouldn’t have pushed her. She hates me. Maybe… you should feed her, Avery.”
And of course, he obeyed. Like always.
He grabbed my jaw and forced the spoon between my lips.
The liquid burned—hot, metallic, wrong. It ripped through me like fire. My stomach clenched. My vision swam.
Poison.
Blood bubbled up in my throat. I choked—but I kept my eyes on him, glaring through the blur.
They were never going to let me go.
The last thing I saw was Lilith.
Smiling.
Victorious.
My soul floated above my corpse, tinged gray-blue and frayed at the edges. The Hunting Grounds—our afterlife—rejected me. I was trapped. Not even death wanted me.
“Do you think she did it on purpose?” Lilith’s voice trembled. Her eyes? Sparkling with delight.
“Maybe she didn’t want to marry the Alpha of Golden Claw. She knows herbs—what if she poisoned herself?”
“I believe you,” Avery murmured, drawing her close like she was made of spun sugar.
“Mia just… gave up.”
He turned to my lifeless body.
“Don’t blame me,” he whispered. “Lilith’s the one I raised. I have to protect her.”
I screamed in rage, lunging at him with what was left of me—but my hands passed through his chest like smoke. I couldn’t hurt him. Not even now.
I was powerless.
Until he arrived.
The door slammed open. A man stood there in a groom’s suit, breathing hard.
Alpha Kane.
He was the once-fallen Alpha from across the territory. Disowned. Crippled. Forgotten. I used to watch him from afar, thinking we were the same—discarded, broken, worthless.
But he’d fought back. Rebuilt.
And I? I’d just waited to die.
He dropped to his knees beside my body, gathering it into his arms. Blood smeared across his sleeves as he gently wiped my mouth.
“Mia?” His voice cracked.
“She’s dead,” Avery said smoothly, face now a mask of fake solemnity. “Maybe it’s best we cancel the engagement.”
Kane looked up. His eyes were pitch-black—pure Alpha fury.
“How did she die?”
They fed him lies like poison wine. I watched, soul burning.
But Kane didn’t argue. He simply stood, lifting my body like it weighed nothing.
Lilith stepped in front of him, her eyes gleaming.
“I like you,” she purred. “I’m the only princess now. I’m better than Mia ever was.”
He didn’t even pause.
“Get. Out. Of. My. Way.”
She went flying sideways, crumpling like trash.
At his manor, he bathed me himself, hands trembling. Dressed me in clean linen. Sat me by the window in a chair I could no longer use.
“You stay here, Mia,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“Watch me burn them to ash. I’ll destroy everyone who ever hurt you.”
And so I stayed.
Maybe it was the mate bond. Maybe guilt. But my soul refused to leave him.
I thought that was it—forever stuck in limbo. Watching. Waiting.
Then came the Blood Moon.
Its crimson light wrapped around me like silk, igniting something ancient. Something sacred. My soul began to stitch itself back together.
And then—I opened my eyes.
My hands weren’t ghostly. My skin touched the sheets. I scrambled for my phone.
The date.
I had been reborn.
Back to the same day Avery came to drag me “home.”
The door creaked.
“Mia?” Lilith’s voice dripped honey, already cracked with fake sobs. “Please don’t make me leave. I love Mom, Dad—the boys. I don’t mind being a maid, really. Just let me stay…”
Her performance? Oscar-worthy.
Too perfect.
I smiled.
“Sorry. I was just deciding which foot to kick you with for maximum satisfaction.”
She blinked, confused. Just before I rammed my foot straight into her stomach.
She shrieked as she tumbled down the porch steps. Her head cracked against the bottom step with a satisfying thud, blood trailing down her temple.
“Lilith!” Avery’s voice cracked with panic. He rushed to scoop her up like some fragile dove.
“It… hurts,” she whimpered, voice trembling. “She… kicked me…”
Avery turned to me, eyes wide with disbelief.
“Why the hell would you do that?!”
“Oh, I didn’t push her,” I said coolly. “I kicked her. On purpose.”
Lilith sobbed like her world had ended. “If you hate me that much… I’ll just leave Snow Moon Pack…”
“Excellent,” I said, sweetly. “Then go. And don’t ever speak to anyone from the Pack again.”
“Enough!” Avery snapped. “You don’t get to call the shots! You’re just a bastard—”
“I’m the true daughter. She’s the fraud. And you?” I tilted my head. “You’re too pathetic to see the truth.”
Lilith went limp in his arms—fake fainting like she practiced it in a mirror.
Then—his phone rang.
That ringtone. The Werewolf Council.
His face turned ashen.
“Mia…” he gritted. “Please… come home.”
I raised a brow. “I didn’t quite catch that.”
“…I said, please.”
Lilith’s lashes fluttered. Not so unconscious after all.
I smiled.
The kind of smile that comes before the fire.
This time?
I wouldn’t crawl.
This time, they’d kneel.
*********