CHAPTER 2 : FOUR YEARS EARLIER

I woke up choking on air.

My eyes flew open.

For several seconds, I couldn't move.

I stared at the ceiling above me, waiting for the darkness to return.

The stone room.

The silver restraints.

The Council.

Darian.

Seraphine.

My father's death.

The voice.

The wolves.

My own death.

Everything came rushing back at once.

I sat upright with a gasp.

My hand flew to my chest.

My heart was beating.

Fast.

Hard.

Alive.

I looked around.

I wasn't in the Council's underground chamber.

I was in a bedroom.

My bedroom.

The curtains were the same dark blue I remembered. The old bookshelf stood against the wall. My mother's painting hung beside the window, exactly where it had been years ago.

I stared at it.

Impossible.

I pushed the blankets away and stumbled toward the mirror.

A girl stared back at me.

Long dark-brown hair.

Silver-gray eyes.

Smooth skin.

A face I hadn't seen in years.

A younger face.

My fingers slowly touched my cheek.

“No…”

I looked at my reflection again.

I looked eighteen.

Not twenty-two.

Not the broken woman who had died on a cold stone floor.

Eighteen.

My breathing became uneven.

I searched the room for a clock.

It was just after six in the morning.

Then I noticed the calendar on my desk.

I walked toward it slowly.

My fingers trembled as I turned the page.

The date stopped me cold.

Four years earlier.

Six months before I was supposed to enter Silvercrest Academy.

I sank into the chair.

“No.”

I checked the date again.

Then the clock.

Then the calendar.

Everything remained the same.

I wasn't dreaming.

I was alive.

And I was eighteen.

A knock sounded on the door.

I froze.

The handle turned.

“Aurelia?”

My breath caught.

That voice.

I hadn't heard it in four years.

The door opened.

My father stepped inside.

Alpha Adrian Vale.

Alive.

Healthy.

His dark hair was only beginning to show traces of silver at the temples. His shoulders were straight, his eyes alert.

The same man I had buried.

The same man whose death had destroyed my family.

He looked at me with concern.

“You're awake early.”

I couldn't answer.

He walked closer.

“Aurelia?”

My eyes filled with tears.

Before I could stop myself, I stood and rushed toward him.

I wrapped my arms around him.

He stiffened.

For a moment, neither of us moved.

Then his arms came around me.

“What happened?” he asked softly.

I pressed my face against his shoulder.

He smelled exactly the same.

Cedar.

Smoke.

Home.

I had forgotten how much I missed that smell.

“You're alive,” I whispered.

My father pulled back.

“Of course I'm alive.”

I looked at him.

He frowned.

“You're shaking.”

I wiped my eyes quickly.

“I had a nightmare.”

“A bad one?”

I stared at him.

“You died.”

His expression changed.

For a second, something unreadable crossed his face.

Then he gave me a small smile.

“I'm not going anywhere.”

I almost laughed.

He had said those exact words to me in my first life.

And he had been wrong.

My father reached up and brushed a strand of hair away from my face.

“Get some rest. We have a busy day.”

“What day is it?”

He looked confused.

“Saturday.”

“What year?”

He stared at me.

“Aurelia…”

“Please.”

He slowly answered.

I already knew.

But hearing it from him made it real.

I closed my eyes.

Four years.

I had been given four years.

Four years before Darian betrayed me.

Four years before my father's death.

Four years before my family fell.

Four years before I stood before the Council.

Four years before I died.

This time, I wasn't going to let any of it happen.

My father left after making me promise to eat breakfast.

The moment the door closed, my smile disappeared.

I walked back to the mirror.

My reflection looked innocent.

Young.

Unaware.

That was how everyone remembered me.

The girl who trusted too easily.

The girl who believed her mate would always protect her.

The girl who never questioned why powerful people were interested in her family.

That girl was gone.

I touched my collarbone.

My fingers stopped.

There it was.

The silver crescent birthmark.

The same mark the old Council member had stared at before my death.

It looked normal.

For a moment.

Then it warmed beneath my fingertips.

I stepped back.

“What are you?”

A voice answered inside my head.

“Find the door beneath the moon.”

I froze.

My wolf.

I had heard of her before, but never like this.

In my first life, my wolf had always been quiet.

Weak.

Ordinary.

But this voice didn't sound ordinary.

“Who are you?”

Silence.

I closed my eyes.

“Tell me what happened.”

Nothing.

“Why do you remember?”

Still nothing.

I pressed my hand against my forehead.

Maybe I was losing my mind.

Maybe dying had broken something inside me.

Then the silver mark pulsed again.

A sharp image flashed through my mind.

A stone corridor.

A silver door.

Three claw marks carved into its surface.

Then darkness.

I opened my eyes.

My breathing was heavy.

The vision was gone.

But the words remained.

Find the door beneath the moon.

I didn't know what they meant.

Not yet.

But I knew one thing.

They were connected to Silvercrest Academy.

My father's investigation had led there.

The Council had feared the academy.

And someone had killed me to keep its secrets hidden.

I had six months before I entered Silvercrest.

Six months to prepare.

Six months to find out who killed my father.

Six months to stop my own death.

I walked toward my wardrobe and opened it.

I stared at the clothes hanging inside.

Everything felt strangely familiar.

I remembered this morning.

I remembered what happened next.

In my first life, Darian had come to the estate that afternoon.

He had brought flowers.

He had apologized for an argument we'd had the previous night.

I had forgiven him.

That single decision had started a chain of events I could no longer afford to repeat.

This time, I wouldn't see him.

I wouldn't accept his apology.

I wouldn't trust him.

And I definitely wouldn't fall in love with him.

I closed the wardrobe.

A sudden knock sounded at my door.

I turned.

“Aurelia?”

My brother.

Elias.

My throat tightened.

I opened the door.

He stood outside with a confused expression.

“Why were you awake so early?”

I stared at him.

In my first life, Elias had died trying to defend our family after Father's death.

I had watched him disappear from my life one loss at a time.

Now he was standing in front of me.

Alive.

I pulled him into a hug.

He laughed awkwardly.

“Okay…”

I held him tighter.

“What happened to you?”

“Nothing.”

“You're acting strange.”

“I just missed you.”

“You saw me yesterday.”

“I know.”

He studied me.

“You really did have a bad dream, didn't you?”

I nodded.

He smiled.

“Well, whatever it was, it's over now.”

I looked at him.

I wanted to believe that.

But I knew better.

The future was still waiting.

And this time, I knew exactly where it began.

After breakfast, I returned to my room and locked the door.

I pulled a notebook from my desk.

On the first page, I wrote three names.

Darian Voss.

Seraphine Voss.

Elder Magnus.

Then I added another.

Silvercrest Academy.

I stared at the list.

These were the people and places connected to my first death.

But there was something missing.

The person behind them.

The person who had ordered my death.

I didn't know who that was.

Yet.

I began writing everything I remembered.

Every conversation.

Every suspicious event.

Every detail from my first life that I had once ignored.

Then I stopped.

A cold sensation moved across my skin.

I slowly looked up.

The mirror was directly across from me.

Something was written on it.

My breath caught.

I hadn't written it.

The words were faint at first.

Then they became clearer.

Five words.

Five impossible words.

YOU CAME BACK TOO SOON.

I stood slowly.

My heart began pounding.

Someone else knew.

Someone knew I had returned.

The silver mark on my collarbone suddenly burned.

And inside my head, my wolf whispered:

“They remember too.”