Chapter 2

My eyes snapped open.

The same salt spray. The same churning waves.

Jessica was beside me, her face alight with the same initial wonder.

"Isn't this amazing, Sarah? So wild!"

My heart hammered against my ribs. It wasn't a dream. It was real. I was back. At the beginning.

The figures emerged again. Ethan from the sea, Marcus from the trees.

This time, Jessica' s eyes, holding the phantom memory of being an Alpha' s Luna, a position of perceived power and glamour, flickered towards Marcus. She remembered the status, not the suffering.

"He looks… powerful," she murmured, a new kind of hunger in her voice.

When Marcus made his claim, "You're mine," Jessica didn't look away. She took a step towards him, a small, eager smile on her face.

"Okay," she said.

My turn. Ethan looked at me, his expression unreadable, ancient.

The memory of his Selkies ending my life, the cold water, the pain… it was still so vivid. But the memory of Marcus, his suffocating control, the brutality of his world, was a fresh, gaping wound.

Jessica had chosen Marcus. Good. Let her have him.

I looked at Ethan, the leader of the Selkies. His world was unknown, perhaps harsh in its own way, but it wasn't Marcus. It wasn't the Ironwood pack.

I remembered his eyes from my death. Stormy, yes, but was there something else? A flicker of regret? Or was that just wishful thinking?

"I choose him," I said, my voice surprisingly steady, pointing at Ethan.

Peace and loyalty. That' s what I hoped for. Anything but what I' d endured.

Ethan' s gaze held mine. A silent acknowledgment. He gestured towards the sea.

Jessica was already walking towards Marcus, laughing at something he said. She didn' t even look back.

I walked towards Ethan and the ocean.

He didn't speak until we were at the water's edge.

"This will bind us," he said, his voice low and resonant, like the tide. "The Tide-Bound Vow. It will allow you to share my world, my essence."

He held out his hand. In it, a single, perfect pearl shimmered with an inner light.

"It will not be easy," he warned. "But you will be safe with my people. With me."

Safe. The word echoed in the empty spaces of my soul.

I took the pearl.

He led me into the waves. The water was cold, shockingly so. It rose around me, and for a terrifying moment, I couldn't breathe. He held me steady, his grip like iron, yet not crushing.

Then, a strange warmth spread from the pearl in my hand, through my veins. The water no longer felt like a threat, but an embrace.

He began to chant in a language I didn' t understand, words that felt older than time. The pearl pulsed in my hand, brighter and brighter, until it dissolved, merging with my skin, leaving a faint, silvery mark.

The Tide-Bound Vow. My key to survival in his world.

And a bond for life.