The flames were the last thing she remembered.
They weren't just fire they were betrayal made flesh, licking her skin with hungry tongues while the crowd watched with unblinking eyes. Her screams had shattered the silence of the Sacred Courtyard, yet no one moved. No one begged for her life.
Especially not him.
Alpha Darius Vexthorn stood at the foot of the pyre, his obsidian armor gleaming beneath the moonlight. His face was a perfect sculpture unmoved, unreadable, and terrifyingly calm as his mate was burned alive. The same lips that once kissed her forehead now whispered her death sentence.
"Celina Blackthorne, by decree of the Council and the evidence brought forth by your sister, you are sentenced to death for treason against the Blood Pact."
His voice echoed even as her vision blurred. Her body failed, her spirit cracked, and the last thing she saw was her sister Seraphina smiling through her tears.
The flames claimed her soul.
And then nothing.
Darkness.
Pain.
Sharp. Cold. Terrifying.
Celina gasped, jerking upright as her lungs begged for air. She clawed at the coarse sheet beneath her, her fingers trembling. The scent of mold, sweat, and iron filled her nose. Her vision spun as if the world itself had been twisted backward.
She was lying on straw.
Straw?
She blinked. The room around her was dim, stone-walled, with cracks in the ceiling. A single lantern flickered in the corner, casting shadows that danced like ghosts.
And her hands…
Her hands were not hers.
Too small. Too pale. Too thin.
She stumbled to the cracked mirror mounted against the wall and stared.
The girl in the reflection was not Celina Blackthorne the Moon Oracle gifted with silver hair and stormy eyes. No, this girl had matted brown curls, sunken cheeks, and bruises around her neck.
She was a ghost in flesh.
A soft knock came from the wooden door. Before she could answer, it creaked open and a middle-aged woman entered, her face lined with worry and weariness.
"Lyra, you're awake…" The woman stopped mid-step, studying her with confusion. "You... you shouldn't be awake yet. Not after what the Alpha did to you last night."
Celina froze.
Lyra? Alpha? Last night?
Her heart thundered. She had been reborn. But not as herself.
Her soul now lived inside the body of a broken omega girl named Lyra.
A new chance.
A second life.
And Darius… he was still alive.
Still the Alpha.
Still the man who watched her die.
But this time, she wouldn't love him. She wouldn't beg. She wouldn't break.
She would destroy him.
One secret at a time.
Hours passed before Celina now Lyra was allowed to leave the healer's hut. She stepped into the open yard of Raventhorn Pack, and it hit her like a storm: the layout, the gates, the scent of iron and pine. Everything was exactly as she remembered.
This was two years before her death.
Two years before her betrayal.
She had time.
Time to find out why her sister lied.
Time to uncover who really committed the treason.
Time to turn the curse into power.
But most of all time to make Darius Vexthorn suffer.
Her body trembled not with weakness but with awakening.
"Lyra," a guard snapped as he passed, not even sparing her a glance. "Report to the Alpha. Now."
Her fists clenched.
So it begins.
The Alpha's Hall had not changed. Black marble floors. Towering obsidian pillars. Shadows stretching long across the throne room.
And then him.
Alpha Darius Vexthorn stood at the end of the hall, shirtless and half-shifted. His back was turned, muscles tense, steam rising from his skin as if he'd just returned from a run. His voice was quiet when he spoke.
"You dared lie to me, Lyra. That will cost you."
Celina's breath caught. Even after all this time, her soul recognized his voice.
Dark. Cold. Sinfully deep.
He turned.
And those eyes amber gold like a wolf under blood moon met hers.
But he didn't know.
He didn't know the soul in front of him wasn't Lyra anymore.
She lowered her head in submission, the omega role she now had to play.
"No words today? Still mute?" Darius walked toward her, slow, predatory. "You're lucky I didn't snap your neck last night."
She flinched on instinct, then caught herself.
He thinks she's afraid.
Good.
Let him believe that.
Until the day she took everything from him.
Including his crown.
And maybe, just maybe…
his heart.