Chapter 1

Seraphina Thorne POV:

The cold of the stone floor was the last thing I felt. It seeped through the thin fabric of my shift, a final, chilling embrace that promised an end to the pain. The air in the Blackwood dungeons was thick with the coppery tang of my own blood and the metallic bite of rust from the chains that bound my wrists.

My vision was blurring, but through the grated door, I could see them. Ryker Blackwood, my fated mate, my Alpha, was holding her. Lilith. His hands, the same hands that had once held me, were tangled in her honey-blonde hair. And on his neck, where my mark should have been, was a fresh, puckered bite mark. Hers. The final, irrevocable sign that our bond had been shattered and replaced.

Leo's terrified scream echoed in my skull, followed by Nia's. The sounds of our children, moments before the Rogues had torn through their room. The sound of tearing flesh.

A guard, Clara Mills, kicked my side, her boot connecting with my ribs with a dull thud. "Stop faking it," she sneered. "Your Alpha is no longer yours."

Deep within me, the last embers of my wolf, my silent companion I had barely ever felt, gave a final, mournful whimper and then... nothing. A part of my soul was extinguished. I was hollowed out.

With the last of my breath, I stared past the bars, past Ryker and his new Luna, and up at the sliver of moon visible through a high window. *Moon Goddess,* I prayed, a curse forming on my dying lips. *If I had just one more chance...*

Darkness swallowed me whole.

Then, a violent, suffocating pressure crushed my chest.

My eyes flew open. Icy water flooded my mouth and nose, burning a path down to my lungs. I was drowning. Panic seized me, raw and primal. Thrashing, my hand broke the surface before a strong grip clamped around my arm, hauling me from the water.

I landed on the muddy bank, coughing and retching, spitting out mouthfuls of freezing lake water. My whole body shuddered uncontrollably.

"Sera, are you okay? You nearly scared us to death."

That voice. That sickly sweet, deceptively concerned voice. I knew it better than my own heartbeat.

I lifted my head, my soaked hair plastering to my face. Standing over me, her doe-like brown eyes wide with feigned worry, was Lilith Vane. But she was younger. So much younger, without the hard lines of cruelty that would later etch themselves around her mouth.

My gaze darted around. There was Ryker, his jet-black hair perfect, his ice-blue eyes filled not with concern, but with a familiar, biting impatience. He looked seventeen again, lean and powerful, the future Alpha in all his arrogant glory. He was annoyed that my "accident" was interrupting the monthly Pack Run.

I looked down at my own hands. They were slender, pale, and free of the scars and calluses of a life of servitude. My arms were unmarred. I was seventeen. The Moon Goddess had heard me. I was back.

*This is your second chance, my child.* The voice was like silver bells in my mind, ancient and powerful.

The shock gave way to a tidal wave of pure, unadulterated hatred. It was a living thing, a fire that licked through my veins, burning away the last vestiges of the weak, lovesick girl I had been. My eyes, when I lifted them to meet Lilith's, must have held the chilling promise of that fire.

She flinched, an involuntary recoil, her hand pulling back as if she'd touched a hot coal.

Ryker's brow furrowed. "Since you're fine, get up," he said, his voice laced with that commanding Alpha tone he so loved to use on me. "Don't hold up the Pack Run."

The old Seraphina would have scrambled to her feet, apologizing profusely for being a burden.

I did not.

Slowly, deliberately, I rose to my feet. I didn't avert my gaze. I didn't cower. I looked directly into his eyes, and I said nothing.

A murmur went through the crowd of young wolves gathered by the lake. They were used to my quiet, timid presence, my desperate attempts to please their future Alpha. This was new. This was... wrong.

A tall, silent figure detached himself from the crowd. Damien Blackwood, Ryker's cousin. His amber eyes were steady, unreadable, as he stepped forward and draped a dry, woolen blanket over my trembling shoulders.

I met his gaze and gave a small, sharp nod. It was the first act of kindness I had received in this new life, and I wouldn't forget it.

My eyes then swept back to Ryker and Lilith. I saw them not as they were now, but as what they would become: the murderers of my children, the architects of my demise. A blood oath formed in the silent chambers of my heart. *This time, you are the ones who will go to hell.*

Lilith, ever the performer, tried again. She stepped forward, her hand outstretched. "Sera, let us walk you back to the Packhouse. You look so pale."

I flinched away from her touch, my voice low but carrying in the sudden silence. "Don't touch me."

Her face crumpled perfectly. Her lower lip trembled, and her eyes instantly welled with tears as she turned her wounded gaze to Ryker. The puppet master pulling her strings.

Ryker's protective instincts flared, just as she knew they would. He stepped in front of her, a shield of muscle and fury. "Seraphina, that's enough!" he barked.

I looked at the familiar tableau, the two of them united against me, and a bitter, cold smile touched my lips. It was a caricature of my past life, and the irony was suffocating.

I didn't argue. I didn't defend myself. I simply pulled the blanket tighter around my shoulders, turned my back on them, and began the long, solitary walk toward the Thorne Pack's designated camp area.

His baffled, frustrated anger was a palpable force at my back. I could feel his confusion. Something was off. Something had broken from his control.

And deep in my soul, a low, guttural growl rumbled. It was a sound I had never heard before, a promise of power that had long been dormant. My wolf was not dead. She was waking up.

"Mine," a voice growled deep in her soul. Not Ryker's. Hers. "Our vengeance will be absolute."