Chapter 2: The Woman I Refused to Become

There was one other person on the lawn.

A woman with a stunning figure and a cascade of golden hair.

Her features were striking, but where Sebastian was stern and cold, she was all warmth and patience, coaching Leo on how to rein in his aura.

Whenever Leo stumbled, she was always the first to reach out and steady him.

That was Elena.

I didn’t know what to call her.

She had nothing to do with me.

But Sebastian and Leo were close to her, and all three of them radiated that same, enviable werewolf aura.

It was already noon.

Not far off, smoke curled from a neighbor’s chimney.

The scene on the lawn was a perfect picture: a happy family of three, peaceful and complete.

I couldn’t help but wonder.

In my last life, Sebastian took Leo and Elena back to Shadowmoon Estate.

Did they live like this there, too?

I must have stood there a little too long, my gaze too fixed.

Sebastian noticed.

A werewolf’s senses are unnaturally sharp.

He caught a new scent on the air and his head snapped up, his gaze finding me standing just outside the wooden fence.

Displeasure at the interruption flashed in his amber eyes, followed by a distinct chill.

Only when he saw it was me did his expression soften fractionally.

“Faye?”

The truth was, after my rebirth, I’d almost forgotten what he looked like.

Decades had passed in my previous life.

Seeing him again now, it finally registered.

Oh. Right. This is what he looked like.

When I didn’t answer, Sebastian’s brow furrowed.

He strode over to me and lifted a hand to my forehead.

“What’s wrong? Your heartbeat is slow.”

I instinctively flinched away from his touch.

Sebastian froze. A dangerous, predatory gleam lit his eyes, and his gaze deepened.

By then, Leo had managed to retract his claws.

He was only four, but he could already mask his emotions like a true Alpha.

When he saw me, the smile vanished from his face, replaced by a formal, well-behaved mask.

“Mom.”

His tone held a distance that felt wrong for his age—polite, but chillingly unfamiliar.

I used to think Leo had simply inherited Sebastian’s reserved nature.

That was why he was the way he was.

But after living my last life, I knew better.

He could be warm with others. He could be a mischievous little boy.

It was only with me that he put on that little-adult act, so distant and formal.

Even the last time I saw him, he’d been the same.

Cold as an iceberg.

He hadn’t called me Mom then. He’d called me “that human.”

“Father and I awakened our bloodlines long ago. ”

“We aren’t swayed by the emotions of someone with such weak blood.”

“You’re too weak.”

“This bond only drags you down.”

“Let go. It’s better for everyone.”

In my last life, I waited decades for my husband and son.

From my early twenties until my hair was streaked with gray.

Even when illness left me bedridden, I clung to my last breath, refusing to let go.

Only then did that worn-out door finally creak open.

I thought it was Sebastian, and I whispered his name.

But the voice that cut me off was cold and indifferent.

“Father is putting down a rebellion in the northern territories.”

“No one can disturb him.”

Only then did I realize it wasn’t Sebastian.

It was Leo.

Pureblood werewolves kept their youth.

The man Leo had become looked just like Sebastian in his twenties.

He had the same cold, distant eyes, and they swept over my skeletal form as if I were nothing more than a stray dog on the side of the road.

Leo said this trip was his way of repaying the “debt” he owed me for giving birth to him.

He still had to get back to the territory to deal with the war, and he told me not to waste his time.

Maybe it was his words that did it, or maybe my time had just run out.

Not long after he finished speaking, I closed my eyes for the last time.

And then, I woke up in my own younger body.

The sun was blazing, and outside the window I could hear the roar of engines from the day the pack’s convoy arrived.

That seven hundred dollars… I’d originally planned to spend it on a new tie for Sebastian, a farewell gift.

But now, with the memories of that life burned into me, I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.