Chapter 1

"Get out!" The air was saturated with the heavy scent of black panther pheromones.

Kyle let out a low growl, and a brutal force slammed hard into my chest.

I crashed onto the carpet. A sharp pain shot through my shoulder, and blood began to seep from the skin his claws had torn open.

I lifted my head and met Kyle's bloodshot eyes, wild with rut.

"Don't look at me like some pathetic little victim, Aria." Kyle gritted his teeth. "You think climbing into my bed while I'm in rut is enough to make you my mate? An empty-headed idiot like you, living off nothing but your bloodline, doesn't deserve to bear my children. Get the hell out."

Pain and humiliation twisted together, but this time, there were no tears in my eyes.

I had been reborn.

On this exact day in my previous life, Kyle entered the most dangerous rut of his adulthood. If he failed to make it through, the beast core inside him would be consumed by backlash and he would lose the ability to have heirs. His half-brother Leon, who had been eyeing his Beast King position, was more than ready to use that as an excuse to strip it from him.

As the most high-born princess of the lion clan, and the childhood fiancée promised to him since we were young, I stayed no matter the cost. That night, the black panther—stripped of all reason—ravaged me until I was barely more than a broken shell.

And just as I had hoped, I conceived his child.

But on the day I found out I was pregnant, overflowing with joy, Vera—the frail wolf priestess, the woman Kyle treasured above everyone else—quietly packed her things and left the tribe. She left behind a letter saying that now that Kyle had an heir, he no longer needed her by his side.

A few days later, word came from the border: Vera had been bitten by a venomous snake and died before she could be saved.

That was the moment Kyle went mad. He stormed straight into my room and shifted into a massive black panther. I still remembered the despair I felt when his fangs pierced my throat. Blood sprayed everywhere. I didn't even have time to beg before he threw me to the tribe's low-ranking beasts.

The sound of my bones being chewed apart was the last thing I heard in my previous life.

And Vera, that so-called dead woman, had actually been hiding somewhere safe all along, enjoying my misery.

The memory cut off sharply. A sickening taste of blood rose in my throat.

I lowered my head and looked at my trembling hands, then let out a soft laugh that sounded more like a sneer.

I lifted the back of my hand, wiped the blood from my mouth, and rose to my feet. Without sparing Kyle—still panting in agony—a single glance, I called on the wild power sleeping inside me.

"Roar—!"

A lion's roar burst from my throat and tore into the night sky beyond the tent. It was the royal summons unique to the lion clan.

And it was my command to Vera.

I turned and flung open the tent flap. The night wind rushed toward me, blowing away the nauseating black panther scent.

I hadn't gone far before I ran into Vera, hurrying over from the shadows cast by the campfire.

She wore a white dress, her silver hair glinting under the moonlight. The second she noticed the blood on my shoulder and the disarray of my clothes, a smile curved at the corner of her lips.

She glanced around to make sure no guards were nearby, then lowered her voice and mocked, "Well, if it isn't our noble Princess Aria. What happened? You threw yourself at him and still got tossed out by Chief Kyle? I told you a long time ago—your precious lion blood means nothing to him."

She stepped closer. "The truth is, to him, you're just disgusting. Something to despise. A useless piece of trash. Kyle loves me. You've always been nothing more than an extra joke."

Looking at her unbearably fake face, the agony of being torn apart and devoured in my last life swept through my nerves all over again.

I didn't hesitate for even a second. My pupils narrowed instantly into the golden vertical slits of a beast.

Bang!

Vera didn't even have time to scream before I slammed her to the ground. I dropped to one knee on her chest, clamped my right hand around her throat, and my sharp nails broke her skin in an instant.

"L-let go of me..." Vera's eyes went wide, real fear finally flooding them. She struggled desperately.

I leaned down, my golden eyes fixed coldly on her. If I pressed just a half inch harder, I could crush her windpipe with ease. Killing her would be simple.

But I stopped.

If I ended the hatred of my last life in such a quick, easy way, it would be letting her off too lightly. More than that, I had no intention of dirtying the first day of my new life over trash like her.

Slowly, I let go and stood.

"Listen carefully, Vera."

"As for that rutting piece of garbage in there, if you want him, you're welcome to pick him up anytime. But keep that mouth of yours under control."

I gave her a contemptuous glance. "Because right now, you're not even worth speaking to."

With that, I ignored the stunned, venomous look in her eyes, turned without a trace of hesitation, and strode into the heart of the night.