Chapter 1

The world was burning. Global temperatures soared, and the oceans began to shrink at an alarming rate.

At the Shifter Academy, Jessie Montgomery led the rich kids to snatch up all the land-based shifters.

That left us poor students with the dying, gasping aquatic shifters.

Later, the great floods came, and the entire continent was submerged. Jessie and her fancy shifters were swallowed by the tides.

Meanwhile, my Tiger Shark shifter became the undisputed king of the apocalypse.

I have been reborn. This time, Jessie rushes to steal the powerful Tiger Shark shifter first.

She sneers at me, waiting for me to drown. Seeing her smug face, I can’t help but smile too.

She has no idea. Tiger Shark shifters are cold-blooded killers, and as the storm progresses, the water becomes terrifyingly corrosive.

This time, I am the one writing the script.

01

“I’m taking the Tiger Shark!” Jessie’s shrill voice echoed through the hall.

Everyone turned to look at her in disbelief.

The world was currently in the grip of a record-breaking heatwave. Droughts were everywhere.

Jessie had always looked down on the ugly aquatic shifters, yet here she was, making a total U-turn.

She ignored the whispers. Instead, she shot me a look of pure, condescending triumph.

“I’ve got inside information,” she whispered loud enough for the room to hear. “Soon, the land will be flooded. Only the water shifters will survive.”

Her behavior confirmed my suspicions. She had been reborn too.

I let a tiny smile play on my lips.

What a fool. Even with a second chance at life, she was still an idiot.

The Shifter Academy was a unique place where every student had to bond with a shifter during their coming-of-age ceremony.

The wealthy students in Class A, led by Jessie, had always despised us scholarship kids in Class B.

As the class president of Class B, I was naturally her favorite target.

In my past life, she had used her family’s influence to block us from bonding with anyone.

By the time her clique finished picking the elite land shifters, only the unwanted aquatic shifters remained for us.

But shortly after the ceremony, the heat vanished. An unprecedented deluge hit the planet.

The dry riverbeds and oceans surged, drowning everything.

Even the mightiest land shifters were helpless against the rolling waves.

Jessie, who had chosen a majestic lion shifter back then, died screaming in that flood.

In my final moments before the world went dark for a different reason, I was riding on the back of my Tiger Shark, watching her struggle.

Even as she sank, her eyes were filled with deep, poisonous envy.

Jessie’s family was top-tier among the elite, so it wasn't impossible for her to hear rumors of the coming disaster.

Hearing her words, the other rich kids started panicking and shouting their choices.

“I want the Seahorse shifter!”

“Give me the Pufferfish!”

“The Sea Otter is mine!”

As the aquatic shifters were claimed one by one, a few students from Class B got anxious and tried to step forward.

Jessie shoved one of them to the ground. “What’s the rush? Once we’re done, you trash can pick through the scraps.”

The Class B students glared but didn't dare speak up. They all looked at me.

I simply shook my head. Let Jessie and her arrogant friends take their pick.

They didn't realize they weren't choosing guardians. They were signing their own death warrants.

Autumn Sterling, another wealthy student who never quite fit in with Jessie’s crowd, frowned.

“Jessie, you’re crossing the line,” Autumn said. “Bonding is supposed to be fair. You have no right to stop them.”

Most of the rich kids backed Jessie, believing we were beneath them.

Jessie sneered at her. “Since you’re so big-hearted, why don't you wait and pick with these losers?”

Autumn’s face turned red with anger, but she actually stood her ground and didn't move.

I looked at her, surprised.

Soon, the once-scorned aquatic shifters were all gone.

Jessie deliberately dragged her Tiger Shark shifter past me.

“Summer Hayes, this time, I’ll be the one watching you drown from the back of my shark.”

I glanced at the Tiger Shark. He kept his head down, looking quite submissive, and I felt a chill of amusement.

Jessie thought she had the upper hand.

She didn't know that in my past life, I also died in that storm. I was murdered by the very shifter I had chosen.

My soul didn't vanish immediately back then.

I had seen how the rain changed in the later stages of the apocalypse, becoming intensely corrosive.

Every shifter living in that water was doomed.