Reborn to Reject My Fated Alpha Mate

Isabelle POV:

The Soul Tether pulsed, it held me suspended in the air, a phantom forced to watch the bodies of my family, my pack, were scattered like broken dolls.

Jalon, the man I had loved with the foolish, all-consuming passion of a girl who knew nothing of the world,two of his men dragged a woman before him. Catherine Wells, his aunt by marriage.

"Why, Jalon?" she sobbed, her voice cracking. "We took you in. We loved you like a son. Why?"

Jalon let out a soft, almost musical laugh.

"My name was never a gift, Catherine," he murmured, his voice a low caress that sent a tremor of ice through my soul. "It was a curse. And the Blackwoods, the Wells... you were the source of it."

He didn't explain further. He didn't need to. The casual cruelty in his tone was explanation enough.

"I have a blood debt to settle," he said, his voice barely a whisper above the roar of the flames. "And both your families are on the ledger."

He looked at Catherine. "Did you really think adopting me was an act of charity? You were just keeping a closer watch on a relic of your vengeance."

Catherine's face went slack with horror. "No... we treated you as our own."

Jalon shook his head slowly. He raised a hand, and one of his men handed him a silver dagger.

"I'll make this quick," he promised her, his voice gentle. "You did, at least, give me access to Isabelle Spears."

Hearing my name from his lips now was like a physical blow. My soul contracted, a knot of pure agony.

He didn't hesitate. The silver blade slid into Catherine's heart with a sickening wet sound. Blood sprayed across his impassive face, crimson drops on pale, perfect skin.

I was forced to watch. The Soul Tether seared me with a white-hot pain, a punishment for trying to look away. It wanted me to see every detail of his betrayal.

Jalon rose to his feet, wiping the blood from his cheek with the back of his hand. His gaze lifted, cutting through the smoke and flames, and found me. He saw me. He knew.

"I know you're watching, my love," he said to the empty air where I hung.

The words plunged me into a cold deeper than any death.

"This is my grand finale. For you," he continued, a terrifying tenderness in his voice. "With no family to bind you, no pack to distract you... you will belong only to me."

His men moved with brutal efficiency, dragging bodies into the flames. One of them approached Jalon, bowing his head. "All resistance has been eliminated, sir."

Jalon nodded, a flicker of satisfaction in his eyes. He looked up at me again, his expression softening into something that was a twisted mockery of love.

He reached a hand up, as if he could brush his fingers against my spectral cheek.

"Soon," he whispered, the promise hanging in the burning air. "We'll be together. Forever."

Just then, a spiderweb of cracks appeared on the surface of the Soul Tether. Its dark energy was failing. I felt my consciousness begin to fray at the edges, a strange sense of release washing over me.

With the last of my strength, I hurled a silent curse at him, a wave of pure, undiluted hatred.

He seemed to feel it. The corner of his mouth lifted into a breathtaking smile.

As my soul dissolved into a million points of light, I saw his lips form two words.

I love you, Isabelle.

Then, the Soul Tether shattered, and I fell into an endless, welcoming darkness.

The world came apart in an instant--not with violence, but with a terrible, weightless

unraveling. My soul disintegrated into motes of starlight, each fragment carrying the

memory of blood, of betrayal, of a love that had been nothing but a blade dressed in

silk. The red moonlight swallowed me whole.

Andthen-

Darkness. Silence. The long, hollow drop between one life and the next.

When sensation returned, it came in pieces. The scratch of linen against skin. The faint

scent of lavender sachets in a wardrobe drawer. Sunlight pressing warm against closed

eyelids.

I woke up gasping, my lungs burning as if I'd just inhaled a lungful of water. My eyes flew open. Sunlight streamed through the familiar lace curtains of my bedroom. The scent of lavender and clean linen filled the air, not smoke and blood. My hand flew to my chest. A steady, frantic heartbeat thumped against my palm.