Chapter 2
Selena's POV
Death was not supposed to hurt this much.
The first thing I felt was cold. Not the icy wind from Moon Cliff. Not the sharp rain against my skin as I fell toward death.
This cold was strangely deeper. It crept into my bones like something hollow had taken root inside me.
“She’s waking up!”
“Easy now, child.”
“Don’t force her to move.”
The strange voices pushed me to open my eyes. Pain exploded through my skull instantly.
I gasped and tried to sit up, but dizziness slammed into me so hard that the room spun heavily. A hand gently pressed against my shoulder, forcing me back down.
“Careful,” an elderly woman warned. “You nearly crossed into the Goddess’s veil.”
I blinked repeatedly as I noticed something strange.
The small ceiling above me was wooden and cracked. Not the silver marble ceilings of the Silver Night Pack house.
I looked around in confusion.
The room was tiny, with clay pots. Bundles of dried leaves hanging from the walls.
The air smelled of herbs, smoke, and medicine, indicating a healer’s home.
No, this was impossible. I remembered falling from the cliff. The darkness swallowed me whole, so I should be dead.
Panic surged through me as I shoved the blanket aside and stumbled out of bed. But my legs struggled beneath me.
“Hey!” the old healer exclaimed, catching me before I hit the floor.
“Where am I?” I demanded hoarsely.
My eyes widened as I heard my voice. It sounded very different from mine.
The healer frowned deeply. “You truly don’t remember?”
I stared at her, then my gaze dropped to my hands. I almost screamed at the hands I saw.
These weren’t my hands!
Mine were slender with silver crescent markings near the wrist, marks blessed by the Moon Goddess during my Luna ceremony.
But these hands were smaller and weaker.
Slowly, I lifted my trembling fingers to my face. Everything felt different.
My heart began pounding violently. “No…” I whispered.
The healer watched me carefully. “Seraphina?”
That name hit me like a blow. “Who?”
“You’re Seraphina Winters,” she said cautiously. “Do you not recognise your own name?”
My blood ran cold.
The healer’s expression softened with pity. “Poor thing,” she mouthed quietly to herself.
I backed away from her, shaking my head wildly. “No. My name is Selena. Selena Vale. I’m the Luna of the Silver Night Pack.”
Silence filled the room.
The healer stared at me for a while. “She hit her head too hard,” she muttered under her breath. “That it affected her brain.”
“I’m not affected anywhere!” I snapped.
My wolf stirred weakly inside me, but something wasn't right. My wolf was distant, like a fading echo buried beneath layers of fog.
The healer guided me carefully toward a cracked mirror hanging near the fireplace. The moment I saw my reflection, my knees nearly buckled.
A stranger stared back at me. A stranger with long dark hair, sharp cheekbones, and pale gray eyes.
She was beautiful in a haunting way. But it wasn't me.
My hands trembled against the mirror’s frame. “This…” My voice cracked. “This isn’t my body.”
The healer sighed heavily behind me. “For three days you’ve drifted in and out of consciousness,” she said gently. “I thought the fever damaged your memory.”
I turned toward her desperately. “What happened to me?”
The healer hesitated before speaking up. “You jumped from Blackwater Bridge.”
I stared blankly at her. “What?”
Sadness filled her eyes. “You were barely breathing when they found you below the river.”
I shook my head immediately. “No. That isn't true, I fell from Moon Cliff.”
The healer frowned. “I don’t know what Moon Cliff is, child.”
Fear crawled down my spine. “What city is this?”
“Greyhaven.”
My stomach dropped. Greyhaven was almost two territories away from Silver Night Pack lands.
How come? How was I here? Nothing made sense.
The healer pulled a chair closer. “Sit. You still need rest.”
I obeyed numbly.
“Tell me your name again,” she said.
“Selena Vale.”
Her expression tightened with sympathy. “Seraphina Winters,” she corrected with calmness. “You’ve lived in Greyhaven since childhood.”
“No,” I whispered stubbornly.
“Yes.”
I shook my head harder. “No, that's a lie.”
The healer crouched beside me slowly. “Seraphina was an orphan. She worked in the textile district. A quiet, unproblematic girl.” Her voice lowered. “People said she’d been struggling after losing her job.”
I barely heard her because my mind was spiralling. This was impossible. People can't just wake up in different bodies, right?
The Moon Goddess don’t grant miracles like this, unless…
A horrible realisation struck me as I remembered the surge of Lunar Essence during the ritual. The violent silver light burned through my chest as I fell.
Could the essence have saved me somehow? Or did it curse me?
The healer stood and poured water into a cup. “You should thank the Goddess you survived.”
Survived! Kael thought I was dead. Vanessa too.
The thought should have terrified me, but instead it stirred something dark inside me.
“How long?” I asked quietly.
The healer paused. “How long since what?”
“Since… since I fell into the river.”
“You were missing for some weeks before they found you unconscious.” She handed me the cup carefully. “It’s been nearly a week since you were brought here.”
“No.” My voice sharpened. “I mean…since Moon Cliff.”
She looked confused again before speaking. “If you mean how long you fell and went missing, it'll be three months.”
The cup slipped from my fingers and shattered against the floor.
Three months?
Three bad months since Kael betrayed and executed me? Three months were enough for them to erase me.
Tears burned my eyes unexpectedly, not from sadness but from rage.
Kael was probably sitting on the throne right now, with Vanessa wearing my title.
The healer gently touched my shoulder. “Seraphina…”
“Don’t call me that.”
The old woman withdrew immediately.
I closed my eyes tightly to think because panicking would solve nothing.
If I'm truly alive but in another body, that means I had another chance to right every wrong.
A strange feeling suddenly rippled beneath my skin. Faint silver light flickered briefly across my fingertips before disappearing.
The healer gasped, and I quickly hid my hands. Did she see that?
My heart raced when I realised that it was the Lunar Essence. It wasn’t fully gone!
“How come…that's impossible.” I mumbled to myself, ignoring the healers questioning look.
Kael stole it. I felt him take it. So why could I still feel traces of power inside me?
Questions piled endlessly inside my mind, but one truth became painfully clear.
Selena Vale was dead to the world, but Seraphina Winters wasn't.
***************
By sunset, I could no longer stay trapped inside the tiny healer’s house. I needed air.
The healer reluctantly allowed me outside after forcing me to wear one of Seraphina’s old cloaks.
Greyhaven bustled with evening life.
Street vendors shouted prices while lanterns glowed warmly above busy roads. Children ran through the market laughing with no worries.
Meanwhile, my entire world had been destroyed.
I walked slowly through the streets, feeling like a ghost wearing someone else’s skin.
People brushed past me without recognition. No one bowed. No one called me Luna. No one knew who I was.
A strange emptiness settled over me until I heard his name.
“The Silver Night Alpha is arriving next week,” a merchant said excitedly nearby.
My body froze instantly.
Another woman gasped. “Alpha Kael Draven? The one who defeated the eastern rogues?”
“Yes! They say he’s become the strongest alpha in the region.”
Kael!
The name alone sliced through me like a blade. Images of his hand on Vanessa, the ritual, the rejection and the cliff all flashed through my mind.
Hatred exploded inside my chest that I I almost staggered.
My wolf snarled awake for the first time since my death. And in that moment, it dawned on me that I just don't want justice.
I wanted revenge.