Reborn As The Cursed Alpha's Bride

Elara POV

"Wake up, you wolfless trash!" My half-sister slapped me hard across the face, snatching the glowing moonstone token from my neck. "I'm going to the Royal Court to be the Queen! Enjoy your cursed, monstrous Alpha!"

Watching her arrogant sneer, I had to bite my lip so hard it bled just to stop myself from laughing out loud.

She had been reborn, just like me. She thought stealing my token meant stealing my glorious destiny as the Alpha King's Luna.

What she didn't know was that the golden palace was a slaughterhouse. In my past life, the King ruthlessly pinned me to the freezing floor and forced poisoned wine down my throat, watching me die in agony just to use me as a disposable meat shield for his true love.

If my sister wanted to rush to her death, I would gladly hold the door for her.

I faked terrified sobs as my family tossed me like garbage into the Blackwood Pack's carriage. I was forced to marry Alpha Kaelen-a man rumored to be a violent, cursed lunatic raising three feral, adopted pups. Everyone waited for his beast to tear me apart on our wedding night.

Instead, the towering, icy Alpha stood miles away from my side of the bed. "I don't need a mate, and I will never touch you," he warned coldly. "You are only here to be a nanny to my boys. Do not harbor any foolish romantic fantasies."

I bowed my head submissively. "I understand, Alpha."

I didn't need his love. I only planned to use my past-life knowledge to cure his deadly curse, tame his three future-apex-predator sons, and ruthlessly crush his toxic, arrogant relatives to turn his pack into my own untouchable empire.

But things didn't go exactly according to my plan.

When I effortlessly turned his "feral" pups into fiercely loyal sons, and publicly stripped his vicious stepmother of her power... the icy tyrant completely lost his mind.

The man who swore he would never touch me suddenly cornered me in the dead of night. His eyes burned with a feral, unhinged obsession as his massive, trembling frame trapped me against the wall.

Like a desperate believer, he buried his face in my neck, his voice impossibly hoarse: "Elara... I'll give you my life. Just don't look at anyone else, please?"

--

SLAP!

My head snapped to the side, the sharp sting of a hand across my cheek jolting me out of the suffocating darkness.

I gasped, my lungs burning as if the Alpha King's poison still coated my throat. I blinked, my vision coming into focus.

"Wake up, you wolfless trash!"

My half-sister, Alyssa, stood over me, her face twisted with a mix of greed and arrogance. Before I could even process that I had been reborn-back to my eighteenth year-she lunged at me.

Her manicured fingers clawed at my chest, grabbing the glowing Moon-Kissed Charm that hung around my neck. It was a simple token I had owned since childhood, but Alyssa yanked it so hard the silver chain bit into my skin before snapping with a sharp crack.

"Ah!" I cried out as the broken metal scraped my neck.

Alyssa clutched the moonstone to her chest, her eyes gleaming with a manic, delusional triumph.

"What is going on here?" a cold, aristocratic voice interrupted.

Luna Maeve, my stepmother, stepped into the room.

The moment Alyssa saw her mother, her vicious sneer vanished, replaced instantly by the whining, spoiled pout of an entitled child. She ran to Maeve, throwing her arms around her.

"Mother! I won't do it!" Alyssa stomped her foot, pointing an accusing finger at the two marriage pacts resting on the table. "I refuse to marry Alpha Kaelen Hale! They say his curse makes his temper completely volatile! He is an insane, violent monster! And worse, he's raising three dirty bastard pups! I am a noble she-wolf; I am not going to be an unpaid nanny to some stray mutts!"

Maeve stroked Alyssa's hair with sickening devotion. "Hush, my beautiful girl. You don't have to."

Alyssa held up my moonstone charm, her eyes burning with vanity and ambition. "I'm going to the Royal Selection, Mother. I'm going to be the Luna Queen!"

Looking at Alyssa's brainless, arrogant face, a chilling realization hit me. She had been reborn, too.

In our past life, I had taken this very charm to the Royal Court. It had caught the Alpha King's eye, and I was miraculously crowned his Luna. Alyssa must have heard of my glory before she died in her own miserable marriage, so in this life, she couldn't wait to steal the charm and my 'destiny'.

But her naive, selfish mind had no idea what that crown truly cost.

My memories dragged me back to the royal palace-a gilded slaughterhouse. The Alpha King never loved me. He only chose me to be a flashy meat shield for his true mate, Ivy Kent. I endured pure hell. I was slashed by the claws of jealous, high-ranking she-wolves; I was forced to kneel in the freezing snow until my knees bled. I endured it all, foolishly believing the King would protect me.

But the ultimate betrayal came three days after my coronation. The King himself pinned me to the floor, his eyes dead and cold, and forced my jaw open. He poured the poisoned wine down my throat. I writhed in agony, coughing up black blood, while he wiped his hands and whispered, "Your duty is done. Ivy is safe now."

Alyssa thought she was stealing my glorious future. She had no idea she had just stolen my agonizing death sentence.

Maeve turned her cold, dead eyes to me. She picked up the Blackwood Pack pact and threw it at my face. "You heard your sister. You will take the Blackwood alliance. Pack your things."

I knew exactly what I had to do.

"No... please!" I wailed, letting huge, terrified tears spill down my cheeks. I scrambled on the floor, throwing myself at Maeve's feet, clutching the hem of her dress. "Mother, I beg you! Don't send me to the monster! I'll be beaten to death! Please, let me keep my charm! Let me go to the Royal Court!"

"Get your filthy hands off me!" Maeve snarled. She raised her foot and kicked me squarely in the chest, sending me sprawling backward onto the hard stone floor.

"Lock this pathetic stray in her room," Maeve commanded the guards. "Throw her into the Blackwood carriage in an hour."

Alyssa let out a shrill, victorious laugh as she linked arms with her mother, strutting out of the room like a newly crowned queen.

The heavy door slammed shut. The lock clicked.

Lying on the cold floor, my hysterical sobbing instantly stopped.

The pathetic, terrified mask melted off my face, replaced by a pool of dead, icy calm. I slowly sat up, wiping the blood from my mouth.

Go, Alyssa, I thought, a dark, genuinely amused smile curving my bruised lips. Go throw your tantrums at the Alpha King. Take the poison meant for me.

She thought she was throwing me into a pit with an insane monster and three bastards. She didn't know that Alpha Kaelen Hale was the most honorable, powerful man in existence. And those three pups would grow up to be the most terrifying, loyal apex predators of our generation.

This time, I wasn't going to be anyone's meat shield. I was going to cure his curse, claim his heirs, and turn the Blackwood Pack into my own untouchable empire.