Chapter 1

I was reborn. Reborn to the day my whole pack got slaughtered.

Same night. Same spot in the woods. I'm hiding behind the same rock.

Killian finds me again.

He's standing over me, breathing hard, blood on his chest. Not his.

"Anyone else from your pack make it out?"

Last time, I said no. I didn't know Vanessa was alive. I didn't know she was three miles away, hiding in a hollow tree, waiting.

The rogues found her before he did.

They kept her three months. She came back pregnant.

He blamed me for it. Took me as my mate anyway, because he owed my father. And then he punished me for ten years.

His last words to me were, "Next time, I won't pick you."

Funny. Here we are.

I look up at him. "My sister. Vanessa. She's in the old hollow tree by the creek."

The second the words leave my mouth, a figure comes running out of the dark.

She grabs my hands, tears all over her face. "Cara — Cara, are you hurt — I thought I'd never see you again —"

Her hands are warm.

"I'm okay," I say.

Killian steps closer. His shadow falls over both of us. He takes off his cloak and puts it around Vanessa.

"It's cold. You're shaking."

His voice is soft.

His eyes never touch me. Not once.

So that's why he was fifteen minutes late this time.

Vanessa wipes her face. "Cara, this is Alpha Killian. He visited our pack once when we were pups, do you remember?"

She tries to say more. Her face crumbles. She can't.

Killian's hand on her arm goes white.

"Not here," he says. "I'm taking you both home."

Killian walks with Vanessa. I follow behind.

His eyes never come back to me.

He's keeping his promise. The one he made on his deathbed. Next time, I won't pick you.

Good. This life, I can finally breathe.

Three days through the forest. We reach Killian's territory.

Vanessa and I get placed in the same wing of the pack house. Misty Pear House.

The wing he banned me from, last life.

It's hers. White pear blossoms in the courtyard, just like our family home. Her incense burning. Her tea on the table.

Except the painting is gone.

Last life, I walked in here once. By accident.

Killian was standing in front of a painting of a she-wolf. His eyes were soft — the kind of soft I never saw, would never see. Before I could see her face, he turned and caught me.

"Who let you in?"

"I told you. You don't step foot in here. Not in this life."

I didn't understand the regret in his eyes then.

He punished me anyway. Three nights, no fire, dead of winter. My knees ached so bad I couldn't sleep. I begged him to stay in his bed a little longer, just for the warmth.

He laughed. "The Whitepine pack was supposed to raise respectable she-wolves. How did they end up with a slut like you?"

That night he ripped me apart. I almost died.

"Anything else you need? I'll have it sent over."

His voice. Right behind me. Soft. Sweet. Talking to her.

Vanessa laughs. "Alpha, you spoil me. I have everything."

She turns. "Cara? What about you?"

His eyes land on me for the first time since the woods.

Like a hand around my throat.