Seliene

They say when you die, your life flashes before your eyes. Mine didn’t.

All I saw was his face. Kael, my mate. He stood with cold detachment as they dragged me to the altar. His eyes, once warm with promises, were now void of the love I had clung to like a lifeline. No tears. No mercy. Just silence.

The blade was silver, laced with wolfsbane, etched with glowing moon-runes as the priestess chanted. “For crimes against the pack, your soul will be severed.”

They called it justice. I called it betrayal.

When the blade pierced my chest, I didn’t scream. I looked at Kael one last time and whispered the only word I had left. “Why?”

He didn’t answer.

The pain was blinding, a cold fire burning through my veins as my heart gave its final beat. Darkness swallowed me whole.

“You will remember this…” The voice echoed faintly, just as Kael stepped into view.

Then pain. Then silence. Then her laughter.

A pulse. A breath. A scream, not mine.

I gasped.

The ceiling above me was cracked, mold webbing the corners, shadows crawling unnaturally long across the walls. My lungs burned. My limbs twitched. And beneath the noise in my skull, was a sob. “Please... I don’t want to go..”

The voice wasn’t mine. But it was inside me.

I stumbled upright, heart racing. Pain bloomed in unfamiliar joints. These bones weren’t mine. These hands.. too pale, too scarred, its trembled as I stared at the bruises along my arms. One wrist bore a faded brand, old and barely legible.

This wasn’t my body.

A broken mirror hung on the wall. I staggered toward it. The reflection was wrong; dark hair tangled, a bruise blooming along her jaw, lips split. But behind the unfamiliar eyes, I saw me, Seliene.

“What the hell…” I whispered.

A knock shattered the silence. I froze. A second knock. Harder. Still dizzy, I scrambled to my feet, heart thundering. Whoever this girl had been, she was gone now. I was what remained. Seliene. Reborn. Or cursed.

The door creaked open.

He stood there.

Tall. Broad-shouldered. His dark hair was slicked back, jaw shadowed with stubble, and those cold eyes, storm gray pierced through me like a blade. He filled the doorway with raw, undeniable power. The scent of his aura hit me like a blow.

Alpha.

My breath caught.

Ronan.

He had served under Kael once. He was younger then, fierce and reckless in his loyalty. I remembered how he defended me before the council. How Kael had him beaten for it. I remembered the bruises on his face as I was dragged to the altar.

He had vanished after my execution.

But now, he was different. Hardened. Scarred in places I couldn’t see.

And he didn’t recognize me.

Of course not. I wasn’t in my body.

“You’re late,” he said flatly. “Let’s go.”

I blinked. “Go… where?”

His eyes narrowed. “Don’t play dumb, Mira. You know your task.”

Mira. That must’ve been her name, the girl whose body I now wore.

“I…” I hesitated. “I’m not ready.”

Ronan stepped into the room, his presence coiling like heat. “None of us were ready. We clawed our way through ash and blood to survive. There’s no room for softness. Move.”

He turned, revealing a silver crescent mark twined with thorns on his neck , the crest of his new pack.

Ronan was Alpha now.

A rogue Alpha, I realized. That was the only way he could carry such power. And me, or Mira, I was one of them now.

My hands clenched at my sides. The memory of Kael’s betrayal pulsed behind my eyes like a wound that wouldn’t close.

Ronan didn’t know who I was. But I remembered everything.

“Ronan,” I said before I could stop myself.

He froze. His name tasted strange on my lips.

He turned back slowly, eyes scanning me like a threat. “What did you say?”

“I…” I swallowed. “Nothing. Sorry, Alpha.”

Ronan studied me for a long, tense moment, then shook his head and stepped into the hallway. “You’re lucky,” he muttered. “If it were anyone else, I’d leave you behind. But I owe you, Mira. You saved one of my men last month. Consider this a favor repaid.”

A bitter laugh rose in my throat. I died for loyalty. Now I was collecting debts with a borrowed face.

I followed him outside.

The rogue camp was hidden deep in the forest, crude cabins, watchtowers, training pits carved into the earth. A world built by outcasts, savages, survivors.

They stared as we passed

Sharp-eyed, sharp-fanged, sizing me up like meat.

“What’s the task?” I asked, matching his pace.

Ronan tossed a dagger toward me. I caught it without thinking.

“You’re bait.”

I stopped. “Excuse me?”

“We need to draw out the Iron Claw patrol. They’ve been creeping too close to our border. You lure them in, we strike.”

I stared at the chipped, dull blade. “And if they catch me before you do?”

Ronan didn’t blink. “Then you’d better run fast.”

My heart pounded. Bait. Again.

But this time, I wasn’t a girl begging for mercy. I wasn’t Kael’s pathetic mate, waiting to be saved.

I was reborn.

And I would not die again.

We reached the treeline. The wind howled low through the pines, and Ronan turned to me one last time.

“Don’t get caught.”

I clutched the dagger tightly in my palm

Bait.

I was nothing more than a rabbit tossed into a den of wolves, hoping my own pack would arrive before I was torn apart.

Except I wasn’t just bait.

I was Seliene.

I crept through the underbrush, every step silent, practiced. Mira’s body responded to my commands, but I could feel the raw edges where we hadn’t quite fused. Her memories a faint hum beneath my own, like static at the edge of a dream.

Branches cracked in the distance. A rustle. A shift in the wind.

I dropped low behind a fallen log, heart hammering. Three wolves emerged from the fog-draped forest, silver and black, their movements precise.

Iron Claw patrol.

One of them paused, sniffing the air. “Something’s wrong.”

Shit.

I broke from cover, crashing through the undergrowth in the opposite direction.

Run fast, Ronan had said.

So I did.

I ducked through the trees, dodging thorns and branches that clawed at my arms. The forest blurred around me, but the wolves were gaining ground. I could feel them.

A root caught my ankle. I hit the ground hard, the dagger flying from my grasp.

“Found her!”

I rolled onto my back, chest heaving, and stared up at the wolf lunging toward me.

A shadow moved faster than thought.

A snarl. A flash of teeth.

The patrol wolf yelped, crashing into the trees.

Ronan stood over me, eyes blazing.