Chapter 1

The silver dagger pierced my heart. Through the blinding pain, I could see my sister, Serena Silverstream, grinning down at me like a woman unhinged.

Serena twisted the blade and whispered, "Don't blame me, Elena. You stole my title, then had the nerve to go after my Alpha."

Blood seeped across the polished marble floor. I collapsed right there at my own wedding, the lavish ceremony Kieran had thrown on his private island. Somewhere above, helicopters still circled with their cameras rolling.

The irony was sickening. Her precious "Alpha," Kieran, was the heir to the Bloodmoon Syndicate, one of the most powerful organizations in the world.

He was also the monster who had kept me caged for five years, draining my blood day after day under the guise of treatment.

If I could do it all over again, I never would have signed that goddamn mating contract.

*****

When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting at my vanity. The girl staring back at me in the mirror was eighteen years old.

My phone buzzed on the table, and the screen lit up with today's schedule. [First Shift Ceremony and Clan Debut Ball. Location: Silverstream Manor. Dress code: White gown.]

Outside the window, the Silverstream Clan's private helicopter was descending onto the estate's landing pad.

Today was the fork in the road where everything changed.

My mother, Vivian Silverstream's, shrill voice cut through the door, followed by the sharp crack of her heel kicking it. "Elena! You disgrace! What are you still doing in there? The guests are about to arrive!"

She kicked the door again. "Don't think your Shift Day changes anything. You were a mistake, and you always will be."

I pressed my hand against my chest to steady my racing heart.

I had been reborn. Truly reborn. And I was back in this cold, gilded prison of the Silverstream Manor in Hudson Valley.

This time, I was going to tear up every script they had written for me.

And most of all, I was going to find him. My true fated mate, the one I never got the chance to meet.

Serena and I were identical twins.

In modern wolf clans, identical twins were considered a "genetic mirror phenomenon." In rare cases, the twins could develop completely opposite dominant gene expressions.

Serena was the perfect Moonblessed type. Her genetic profile at birth had revealed the rare Alpha-Plus sequence, which meant she could suppress an entire pack with her howl under the moonlight. She was a born Luna.

And me?

My birth report had read: [Alpha-Minus type. Extremely weak wolf constitution. Suspected carrier of recessive defects. Recommendation: Marginalize.]

Vivian's eyes swept over the report like she was looking at a bag of trash.

She said, "My genetic sequence is top-tier. How the hell did I produce a defective child who can't even shift?"

She refused to nurse me. My father, Dominic Silverstream, the man who controlled Silverstream Biotech, finally spoke in a flat, cold voice. He said, "Name her Elena. Keep her. She might be useful as a bargaining chip in a marriage alliance someday."

So I was handed off to Rose, an elderly Omega woman the family had hired to clean the estate. She lived in the staff quarters behind the main house, where there was no heating.

For eighteen years, Serena lived in a luxury suite on the third floor of the estate. She received an elite education and was trained to become the perfect Luna.

But I was the ghost of the family. Everyone in the Silverstream Clan knew the golden daughter, Serena Silverstream. Almost no one remembered that another girl existed in the shadows.

I slipped into the white satin gown I would wear to the ceremony. Rose had sewn it for me from old curtains before she passed away.

According to werewolf tradition, all unmarried members attending their first Shift Ceremony had to wear white as a symbol of purity and reverence for the Moon Goddess.

Serena's gown was almost certainly a custom Vera Wang piece, covered in Swarovski crystals, with an entire styling team to make sure every detail was flawless.

In my previous life, I had stood in the corner of the banquet hall on this exact night, shivering in this same old dress, and watched as celebrities and socialites lined up to congratulate Serena.

But things were different now.

I had seen a deeper hell than this. I had been locked in a VIP cage inside the Bloodmoon Syndicate's medical tower, where they drained my blood day after day.

I had endured Kieran Bloodmoon's twisted obsession and his cruelty. And in the end, I had watched my own sister drive a dagger into my heart.

That suffering had forged my soul into something else entirely.

In this life, I would no longer be the disposable Omega substitute.

I was going to take back everything that belonged to me.