I’m floating.

That’s the first thing I realize. Not in water. Not in air…Just…floating in nothing.

Dark. Quiet. Peaceful, almost.

Is this death?

I try to remember how I got here. There was the dress, Maya crying happy tears, the aisle, Damien’s eyes.

Damien.

The bond.

Oh God, the bond.

I try to reach it instinctively but it’s not there.

Panic surges through me. I reach again, desperate.

Nothing.

Just empty space where he used to be.

No. No no no -

Pain explodes through me. Not physical pain though. Worse. Like someone literally reached into my chest and ripped out half my soul. The mate bond isn’t just gone. It’s severed. Torn. Shredded.

I try to scream but I have no mouth.

I try to reach for him but I have no hands.

I’m nothing. No one. Just consciousness floating in darkness.

This is worse than dying.

Crack.

Something splits the darkness. A voice, deep and resonant. A female voice.

“Not yet, little wolf.”

Bright silver light floods in. Blinding. I want to close my eyes but I don’t have eyes to close.

“You were taken before your time.” The voice is everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

I try to speak. To ask who’s there, and ask for Damien.

“He cannot hear you,” the voice says. “He’s mourns you even now. The entire pack mourns you.”

The pack.

The pack bond. When an Alpha’s mate dies, they feel it. Every single wolf connected to our pack would have felt my death intensely.

Maya. Adrian. The kids.

Damien.

The pain must have been unbearable.

“It was.” The voice is sad now. Gentle. “Your Alpha screamed for seven minutes straight. He’s still screaming, in his own way. The sound may have stopped but the grief hasn’t.”

I want to go back. To hold him. To tell him I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened but I’m sorry -

“Hush, child.”

Warmth gradually surrounds me. The voice is closer now. Taking shape. I can almost see her - silver lighting forming something like a woman. Tall. Ancient and powerful.

“I am the Moon Goddess,” she says. “And you, Mia Ashwood, are mine.”

Holy shit!

The Moon Goddess.

Second holy shit!

Every wolf knows her. We’re born knowing. She blessed the first shifters, created the mate bonds, and watches over every pack under the sky.

She’s real.

“Very real.” She says reading my thoughts. “And very angry.”

I don’t understand.

“You were murdered.” She says simply.

Murdered?

The word doesn’t make any sense. Who would want to -

“That is not for me to tell you.” The Goddess’s light pulses. “But know this little wolf: your death was not an accident. It was well planned, executed and celebrated.”

No.

No, that can’t be right. Everyone loved me. I was going to be Luna. I was -

“You were in someone’s way.” She interrupts. “And now you’re dead. Your mate is broken. Your pack is grieving. And the one who killed you is preparing to take everything that was dear to you.”

Rage floods through me, hot and fierce.

Who?

WHO DID THIS TO ME?

“Return,” the Goddess says. “And find out.”

Wait - I can return?

“Yes. But not as you were.”