Chapter1

In the world of Elaria, power was strictly divided among three dominant races: Humans, Lycans, and the Fae.

To maintain this delicate tripartite balance, intermarriage among the three species was the ultimate political tool .

Our grandmother traded the last of her political favors—and ultimately her life—to secure two prestigious marriage contracts for my younger sisterVivienne and me.

In our previous lives, we accepted these marriages blindly . We had no idea we were stepping straight into hell.

I married Duke Alistair, the Lycan Lord. His famous "loyalty" was simply absolute ownership. He locked me in his northern fortress, reducing me to a mere incubator for his lineage. I eventually bled to death in a prolonged labor when he explicitly ordered the clerics to save his wolf-blooded heir over my life.

Vivienne married Prince Lucien of the Fae. Gentle and traditional, she was systematically destroyed by her philandering husband. He brought home an endless parade of mistresses. Stripped of her dignity, she was eventually bullied to death by his vicious political harem.

Now, reborn and thrust back to the beginning, we found ourselves sitting at the mahogany table in our parlor, staring at the two heavy parchment scrolls.

Without breaking the heavy silence, we both sighed in unison and reached for each other's contracts.

Our hands brushed. We instantly froze, looking up at each other.

"You too?" My voice was barely a whisper.

"Reborn?" Vivienne choked out.

The initial shock quickly dissolved into a cold, shared resentment.

"Ugh!" I sneered, glaring at the wolf seal. "Alistair is a feudal fossil. He lectures endlessly about how women shouldn't show their faces. He doesn't want a wife; he wants a breeding mare locked in a cage."

Vivienne rubbed her temples. "And Lucien is a diplomatic whore. He is sweet and knows how to care for you, yes, but he cannot reject anyone... To him, everyone is just a political toy."

The solution became glaringly obvious. Vivienne wanted a traditional family and possessed a natural talent for navigating human high society.

And I? I abhorred the idea of being caged. I would gladly take a philandering husband who preferred to look elsewhere, provided I established the correct contractual boundaries to secure my own political leverage.

"Shall we swap?"

Vivienne’s eyes lit up with a survivor's resolve. She nodded firmly. "Swap!"

The transition from our parlor to the chaotic reality of my wedding day required a tremendous amount of backstage maneuvering.

Before stepping into the bridal suite at Glassdome Hall, I had paid a highly secretive visit to Lady Marian Quill, a sharp-toothed legal officer at the Marriage Registry.

I utilized the last of my dowry to file a unilateral addendum to the Fae Prince's contract.

The clause directly tied his public fidelity to his lucrative trade assets.

Lucien, arrogant and assuming he was merely marrying another politically powerless human, hadn’t even bothered to read the secondary clauses before sending his proxy to aggressively stamp his approval.

Now, sitting in the velvet-draped dressing room, I watched the elven seamstresses make the final adjustments to my gown.

The heavy oak door swung open without a knock.

Prince Lucien Vale-Mist stepped into the room. He wore a tailored velvet suit. Objectively, he was a devastatingly handsome piece of political architecture.

True to his nature, ignoring me completely, he moved directly toward my lead makeup artist. Lucien leaned down, murmuring something velvet-soft into her ear.

It was a calculated move to establish dominance and test my bottom line before the ceremony even began.

Vivienne had warned me about this exact moment. In the previous life, she had tried to gently remind him of basic decency. His response? "This is Mistmoon custom. You are my only wife and must adapt to it."

This time, I just smiled.

I reached for my scrying crystal on the vanity and openly projected a holographic blue screen into the air. I leisurely swiped through a highly curated list of the capital's finest eligible males. We landed on a remarkably wealthy, shirtless Elven duelist boasting about his magical stamina.

I made sure to audibly sigh in appreciation.

Lucien stopped. The easy smile on his lips faltered. His gaze locked onto the projection.

"What exactly are you looking at, Evelyn!" His voice dropped an octave. He reached over to snatch the crystal from my hand.

"You are about to become my wife, how can you—"

"It is simply my nature, Lucien," I cut him off smoothly, pulling the crystal out of his grasp. "As my husband, you should adapt."

His face flushed with a dangerous mix of disbelief and fury.

I leaned forward, my voice dropping to a cool, authoritative register. "Parity is the foundation of any surviving marriage. If you retain the right to public courtship, I retain the exact same right."

He stared at me, his eyes narrowing as his sharp Fae mind rapidly reviewed the paperwork his proxy had signed that morning.

"The addendum," he breathed, the realization dawning on him.

"Exactly," I continued. "I am not a conventional pawn, Your Highness. I do not care whose bed you grace in private. But if your public indiscretions damage my political capital, the addendum automatically triggers a ten percent penalty on your Moon-silk import rights. Let's see whose reputation bankrupts first. Now, kindly step away from my staff."

For a master of diplomacy, he didn't throw a tantrum.

Instead, his furious expression smoothed into a chilling, calculating mask.

Recognizing that he had been legally outmaneuvered, he offered a stiff, formal bow, acknowledging the opening move of our war, before turning on his heel and exiting the room.