Rejected, Then Reborn
Chapter 2

Lacy felt that sickening splat as her body collided with the cold hard ground. She felt her bones break into a million pieces, and then she felt her eyes close… right before she drew her last breath.

Only, it wasn’t her last breath.

For her lungs suddenly filled with air once more, and then she was falling all over again. The fall was unending and boring… she liked to think that was how Alice in Wonderland felt when she fell through that creepy well, but the only difference was that, Alice would have come out of this alive… She, was dead.

But not for long.

Perhaps it was a loop then. Lacy had read enough stories about the afterlife to know that sometimes one could relive how they died over and over and over again… fate’s own twisted version of hell.

She landed with a thud, and then her eyes opened and she saw it once more— where she had landed… the woods.

No, no, no… this couldn’t be happening.

It was the same woods she had met Lucius and his wolves in. The same one that was going to establish another vicious cycle that was going to lead to her untimely demise. She couldn’t remember the actual number of times she had led this life, but all she knew was that, despite her many different choices, she someway somehow always ended up as Lucius’s chosen mate, be it willingly, or against her will. He always cheated on her notwithstanding his many declarations of love, and then she was rejected and shamed, and then she died… only to have it repeat all over again. Never ending… never changing, but this time, she had managed to do something differently. This time, only one thing had really changed.

This time, she had voluntarily allowed the moon Goddess to lead her how she saw fit.

It was all rushing back now… yes, she remembered it all. Why it was all coming back in that moment, she had no idea… but she remembered it all. Too bad she was not going to be around to see the effect her arrangement with the Moon Goddess would have on her husband and his w***e.

You see, in all her other lives, Lacy had always been murdered in cold b***d… either by Alexia, or by her own mate, Lucius.

Heartbreaking, right?

It was really upsetting, and soul crushing when one thought about it… for the very person who had sworn to be with you till the end to cheat on you and then end your life… just so you don’t ruin his name and integrity… but some way somehow, Lacy had managed to replace some humor in the entire situation.

Till death do us part, right?

That was the promise. It didn’t actually say how that death was going to happen. Or who was going to cause said death. And so in the end, Lacy guessed that she couldn’t really fault him on that one… but that didn’t mean it still didn’t hurt though.

Oh, but Lacy was done crying over it now. The betrayal, the hurt, the pain… well, it didn’t hurt as much anymore. All she wanted, all she prayed for whenever she was brought back to life, was just to escape this part of her life, and perhaps, go back to her human family. Was that too much to ask?

It almost seemed as though the Moon Goddess was having fun enjoying the way she was suffering, because all her prayers seemed to be falling on deaf ears.

Lacy had hoped that doing the goddess’s bidding would result in her getting her wish and going back to her human family, but it seemed so far in coming.

Voices.

Rustling in the bushes.

They were here, and they were coming. For her.

She was human after all… and from what she knew of werewolves… they could sense her.

This was the first time that she had heard them though. In all her rebirths, she never did, they just seemed to pounce on her all of a sudden, but now that she had heard them, she had a new chance… she had a new card she could play.

She could run!

And run, Lacy did… away from them, her heart pounding in fear and horror, both at the thought of what lay ahead and what she was leaving behind. It was exhilarating… liberating, really… because, for the first time, Lacy actually felt that she was rewriting her destiny. It was dark, but she wouldn’t stop running, prickly thorns from the jagged, autumn-kissed trees tore at her flesh, branches latched onto her hair, tugging hard, but she continued on… refusing to stop for a little bit of respite.

By the time she realised that she had lost them, another fear-engulfing revelation dawned on her, cutting short her little moment of celebration. She had no idea where she was.

f**k!

She should have been patient.

If she had calmed down just a little bit… she could have backtracked her way back into human territory, but alas, she was truly and utterly lost.

It was dark… so dark that she couldn’t see a thing, and now that she was paying attention, it was quiet… too quiet for her liking. Her many camping expeditions as a girl guide had taught her that much. That a forest was supposed to be alive with sounds… many sounds. Owls hooting, crickets chirping… something… anything, but there was nothing. No sound at all, just darkness.

How was she going to get back to civilization?

As Lacy stood there trying to come up with an escape plan, she heard a sound that had her b***d chilling to ice, completely rooting her to the spot in dread.

A low growl.

It should have dawned on her that something was wrong when the wolves from Blue Valley suddenly stopped chasing her, but she hadn’t thought about that, wanting to put as much gap between them as possible.

She realised now what she should have then. Something was in these parts of the woods. Something dangerous.

Something so dangerous that even powerful werewolf warriors were cowering away in fear.

And now it had sensed her.

Lacy was so struck by fear that she remained rooted to her spot, even as the growl continued to draw closer, and closer, and closer.

She didn’t know when her legs began to carry her, but even she realised how foolish she had been when it dawned on her. She was running. Running when that should have been the last thing she did. It wasn’t so long before the chase began, the growl intensifying as whatever was out there closed in on her. The air changed, suddenly… filled with this intensely wondrous smell that Lacy felt like drowning in… but with the beast chasing her like that, there was no time to stop and savor it.

Lacy ran, blindly… not watching where she was going. How could she even watch where she was going? She couldn’t see a f*****g thing.

By the time she saw the huge tree in her path, it was already too late, she couldn’t stop, colliding into its trunk so hard that the air was sucked out of her as she fell to the ground, a painful gasp the only sound that escaped from her lips.

She couldn’t move.

She couldn’t run. But all her other senses were working in overdrive… and so she could hear the beast closing in on her, its steps slowed, torturous as it took its sweet time in reaching her. The wonderful smell intensified with each step the beast took towards her.

Lacy shut her eyes with a hard swallow, already preparing herself for the worst, so disappointed in herself for allowing herself to hope… to dream that perhaps, another outcome other than death were in the cards for her.

How wrong she had been.

A light snarl, and then another growl later, and the creature was circling her, checking her out like a predator did its prey… and what a helpless prey she made, lying down helplessly like that, unable to move… completely at the beast’s mercy. She could barely make it out, the most striking thing about it being its red, evil-looking eyes… but no one had to tell her that the beast was hideous… beautifully hideous. It looked like a wolf, from the little she could see, but it was weirdly different as well… bigger, beautifully frightening.

A shocking thought suddenly came to mind, even as her heartbeat began to pick up its pace. One word that made sense of everything.

Mate.

He was nearby. Her fated mate.

She may be human, but Lacy had seen the fated pairing go on for so long, had seen so many fated mates in Blue Valley, that she knew without a doubt that it was the same thing she was experiencing.

But where was he?

Her breath caught in her throat as the word tried to force itself out of her mouth. She tried to hold on, because saying it was going to mean that the beast before her was her mate… but that was most certainly impossible.

Right?

The creature couldn’t possibly be.

It wasn’t even a werewolf, for crying out loud… this one was even more beast than human.

“M—m—mate.”

There, she had said it. Against her will, might I add.

But nothing happened.

Lacy didn’t know what she expected… perhaps for him to acknowledge her as his, or at the very least try not to have her for dinner! But the beast only c****d its head to the side, snarling even harder than before.

Well, that didn’t go well.

Her ‘supposed’ mate was going to kill her. How fitting.

The last thing Lacy saw, before she drifted into the nothingness from whence she came, was the beast’s sharp teeth baring… its breath hot and surprisingly delicious against her skin as it prepared to sink its fangs into her.