Chapter 2

2.

There was someone else on the lawn.

A woman with a killer body and long golden waves.

Deep-set eyes. Striking features. Unlike Sebastian's cold severity, her manner was warm. Patient.

She was teaching Leo how to pull his aura back in.

Every time Leo stumbled, she was the first to reach out and steady him.

Elena.

I don't know how to define her.

She had nothing to do with me. But Sebastian and Leo were close to her. Utterly at ease. The three of them carried that enviable werewolf presence.

It was already noon. Smoke curled from the chimney in the distance.

The scene outside looked like a happy family of three. Peaceful. Perfect.

I couldn't help thinking.

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

Did they live like this there too?

I stood still too long. Stared too hard.

Sebastian noticed. A werewolf's senses are razor-sharp.

He caught the new scent in the air. Looked up toward the wooden fence.

His eyes held that irritation of being interrupted. Layers of cold gathering in the amber.

Then he recognized me. His expression shifted.

"Faye?"

Truth is, after I came back, I'd almost forgotten what Sebastian looked like.

Decades passed in my first life. If I remember right, we saw each other for the last time around now.

Now, looking at him again, it hit me.

Oh. Right. This is what he looks like.

When I didn't answer, Sebastian's brow creased.

He strode over. Pressed his hand to my forehead.

"What's wrong? Your heartbeat's too slow."

I flinched away on instinct.

Sebastian's hand paused midair. Something dangerous flickered through his eyes. Possessive. His gaze darkened.

By then, Leo had retracted his claws.

Four years old. Already able to control an Alpha's emotional flux.

When he saw me, the smile dropped off his face. Replaced by something stiff. Proper.

"Mom."

He said it with a distance that didn't belong to a child his age.

Polite. But cold. Like we were strangers.

I used to think Leo just took after Sebastian. That his temperament came from blood.

But after living through my first life, I understood. That wasn't it.

He could be warm. He could be playful like any kid.

Just never with me. With me, he always put on that little adult act. Distant. Remote.

Even in our last moments in that other life. Same thing.

Cold as an iceberg.

He stopped calling me Mom. Called me "that human" instead.

"Father and I awakened our bloodlines long ago. We won't be swayed by the attachments of weak blood like yours."

"You're too fragile. This bond only drags you down. Let go. It's better for everyone."

I waited for them for decades in that first life.

From my early twenties until my hair turned gray.

Until I was too sick to get out of bed. Still holding on. Refusing to let that last breath go.

The door to that rotting house finally swung open.

I thought it was Sebastian. Called his name.

A cold voice cut me off.

"Father is suppressing a territorial rebellion in the far north. No one disturbs him."

That was when I realized. It wasn't Sebastian. It was Leo.

Pureblood werewolves don't age.

The grown Leo looked exactly like Sebastian in his twenties.

Same cold, distant features. Looking down at me. Nothing but bones wrapped in skin.

Like he was glancing at a stray dog on the side of the road.

Leo said he came back to settle the debt of me giving birth to him.

He had to return to the territory. Handle the battles waiting. Told me not to waste his time.

Maybe his words finally did it. Maybe I'd just reached the end.

Not long after he finished speaking, I closed my eyes.

Then I woke up in my young body. Sun blazing overhead. Outside the window, the roar of the convoy engines from the day Sebastian announced their arrival.

That seven hundred dollars. I'd originally planned to buy Sebastian a tie. A goodbye gift.

But since I came back with memories of a whole other life.

I'm not making the same mistakes.