* Eleanors POV*

"Luke!" I scream at the top of my lungs, my voice echoing through the stone corridors.

"LUKE, PLEASE! I NEED TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH!"

My throat burns from the effort, but I don't stop. I pound my fists against the silver bars, ignoring the way they sear my skin.

"I'M PREGNANT! LUKE, I'M CARRYING YOUR CHILD!"

The words tear from my soul, desperate and raw. Somewhere in this packhouse, he has to hear me. He has to.

Vivienne's face goes white with fury. "Guards!" she shrieks. "The prisoner is becoming violent! She's trying to escape!"

Heavy footsteps thunder down the corridor. Three guards appear, their faces grim.

"She's having a breakdown," Vivienne says smoothly, her voice dripping false concern. "The guilt is making her hysterical. She's been screaming lies and threats."

"LUKE!" I scream again, fighting as they unlock my cell. "PLEASE! VIVIENNE IS LYING! I'M INNOCENT!"

"Shut her up," Vivienne orders coldly. "Whatever it takes."

The first blow catches me across the jaw, snapping my head back. Pain explodes through my skull, but I keep screaming.

"I'M PREGNANT! YOUR HEIR! LUKE, YOUR HEIR!"

A fist drives into my stomach. Agony tears through me, and I double over, gasping. The baby. Oh god, the baby.

"Stop," I wheeze. "Please, I'm"

Another blow, this one to my ribs. I hear something crack. My vision blurs, but I force myself to keep talking.

"The child... Luke's child..."

They don't listen. Fists and boots rain down on me until I can't tell where one pain ends and another begins. My world narrows to agony and the desperate need to protect the tiny life inside me.

'Just hold on,' I beg my baby silently. 'Please, just hold on.'

But I can feel myself breaking. My body shutting down. Blood pools beneath me, warm and sticky.

"That's enough," Vivienne says finally, her voice bored. "Any more and it won't look like suicide."

Suicide. The word cuts through my fading consciousness. They're going to make this look like I killed myself.

I try to speak, to move, but my body won't obey. Every breath is agony. Darkness creeps at the edges of my vision.

Footsteps. Familiar footsteps.

"Luke." His name comes out as barely a whisper.

He appears in my cell doorway like a vision. For one desperate moment, hope flares in my chest. He'll see what they've done. He'll know.

"Luke," I gasp, reaching for him with a trembling hand. "Please... the baby... your baby..."

But his green eyes are cold as winter stone. He looks at me like I'm something disgusting he's stepped in.

Vivienne slides up beside him, her arm wrapping around his waist possessively. "I found her like this," she lies smoothly. "She was screaming about babies and conspiracies. When I tried to calm her down, she started hitting herself against the walls."

"Suicide from guilt," Luke says quietly.

"No," I whisper, but the word has no strength behind it. "Luke... please..."

I stretch my hand toward him, my fingers stained with blood. So close. If I could just touch him, make him see...

But Luke steps back, disgust flickering across his face.

"Pathetic," he murmurs. "Even at the end, she can't face the truth of what she's done."

He turns away, his arm tightening around Vivienne. They walk out together, her satisfied laughter echoing in the corridor.

"Luke..." I mouth his name one last time, but no sound comes out.

The darkness swallows me whole.

*****

In the void between life and death, memories flood through me like a broken dam.

*Our wedding day. Luke's smile when he first saw me in my dress. The way he held my hand during the ceremony, his fingers warm and strong around mine.*

*But then...*

*Months of trying to conceive. The pitying looks from pack members. Luke growing colder. More distant. Coming to bed later and later until he stopped coming at all.*

*My family's disappointment. My father's stern lectures about duty and failure. My mother's tears.*

*"You're embarrassing us, Eleanor. The Blake name means something."*

*Luke's affairs. The first one I pretended not to notice. The second one I confronted him about.*

*The way he looked at me in those final monthsnot with love, not even with hate, but with nothing. Like I was already dead.*

'I loved him,' I think as the memories tear through me. 'I loved him so much, and he threw me away like garbage.'

'And now I'm dying. Our baby is dying. And he doesn't even care.'

The darkness deepens, pulling me down into nothingness. This is it. This is how it ends.

But then...

Light. Soft, silver light that pushes back the void.

A figure emerges from the brightnessbeautiful beyond description, with flowing hair that seems to be made of starlight and eyes like the moon itself.

"Eleanor Blake," the goddess says, her voice like music and power combined. "You cannot die like this."

"Selene," I whisper, somehow knowing her instantly.

"You have been wronged, my child. Betrayed by those who should have protected you. Your mate, your pack, your familyall have failed you."

Tears that I didn't know I could still shed track down my cheeks. "Why? Why did you let this happen?"

"Free will is a gift I cannot take back, even when it causes such pain," Selene says gently. "But I can offer you something else. A chance to change your fate."

"I'm dying."

"Not yet." The goddess moves closer, her presence filling me with warmth. "I offer you rebirth, Eleanor. A chance to return to a time when you still had power to change the course of events."

"What's the cost?" I ask, because I've learned that everything has a price.

"You will remember everything. The pain, the betrayal, the truth of what they are. You must choose wisely how to use that knowledge."

I think of Vivienne's triumphant smile. Of Luke's cold eyes. Of my baby, dying inside me because of their lies.

"I accept."

"Then live, my child. Live and fight for the justice you deserve."

The silver light explodes around me, brighter than the sun. It fills every part of my being, rewriting my very existence.

I feel myself being pulled backward, through time, through space, through the fabric of reality itself.

*****

I gasp, my eyes flying open.

A weight presses down on me, warm and solid. Sweat drips onto my face. The scent of arousal and male musk fills my nostrils.

Luke's face hovers inches from mine, his green eyes dark with lust. His body moves against me, inside me, his breathing harsh and desperate.

"God, Eleanor," he groans. "You feel so good."

I stare up at him in shock. This is impossible. I was dying. I was

"Are you close?" he pants, his hips driving harder. "Come for me, baby."