Reborn, Wicked, and Free: The Mad Alpha's Witch Mate

Fire. A soul-shredding agony.

I snapped my eyes open, chest heaving, cold sweat clinging to my slip dress. The familiar walls surrounded me, and the air was thick with the scent of pine and white sage.

No fangs tearing into my throat. No sight of Ivy's triumphant gleam hidden behind fake tears. No cold, retreating back of Cassian leaving me to die.

I looked down at my wrist. The subjugation brand of the Dark Moon Pack was gone. 

I had been reborn.

Thrust back three years in time, exactly to the day of my Mating Ceremony with Cassian, the Alpha of the Dark Moon Pack.

In my past life, I thought the mate bond was a blessing. I restrained my wild witch nature, chopped off my fiery red hair, and squeezed into gowns to be his perfect Luna.

And what did I get in return?

His endless, suffocating rules. His bottomless favoritism toward Ivy. And finally, when the pack was ambushed, he didn't hesitate to shield Ivy, leaving me to be torn apart by the rival wolves.

True love is about respect and freedom, not control and modification.

That was the lesson I paid for with my life.

The door swung open. My so-called father, High Warlock Marcus, walked in with Ivy trailing behind him.

Fragile in a white lace dress, she bit her red-rimmed lip. "Selene, I'm so sorry... I know today is your big day, but Cassian said he'd prefer it if I was by his side. I really didn't mean to steal his attention..."

"Selene," Marcus interrupted, his brow furrowed as he spoke in his usual dictatorial tone. "Ivy is weak, and Cassian's pack can offer her better protection. As her older sister, and as someone with formidable magic, you need to be the bigger person here. Let Ivy stand beside Cassian today as his special guest."

I stared at them, struck by the bitter irony.

Last time, I threw a massive fit over this exact request. Cassian had publicly shamed me for it, calling me "spiteful and unworthy of being a Luna," marking the beginning of my humiliating existence within his pack.

Instead of yelling, I stood up. My red curls tumbled down my shoulders like an inferno.

I walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a plunging, skin-tight black leather dress. It was Cassian's most hated outfit on me; he claimed it strictly "lacked a Luna's modesty."

"Selene?" Ivy watched me shift through my clothes, unease flickering in her eyes.

"You want him?" I turned to face her with a mockingly sweet smile. "Sure."

Marcus froze. "What did you just say?"

"I said, since Ivy is so desperate for protection, she can have the fated mate position. I'm giving him up." I strolled to my vanity and swiped on a vivid red lipstick.

"Selene! Stop this nonsense!" Marcus barked. "This is a political alliance between the Coven and the Dark Moon Pack! The mate bond isn't some child's game!"

"The bond? It's nothing but a tool for an Alpha to stabilize his own manic energy," I scoffed. "But don't get me wrong. I'm not handing him over for free."

I locked eyes with Ivy, relishing her dropped facade. "Growing up, our father dumped millions in magical scrolls and rare herbs on you—an adopted orphan with zero Coven blood—while his biological daughter got scraps. You want Cassian now? Fine."

I held out my hand. "Thirty million dollars. Plus the deed to the ancient ley line nexus in the West District. Give me that, and I will publicly reject the mate bond today."

"You're insane!" Marcus trembled with rage.

"I've never been more lucid." A lick of crimson fire danced at my fingertips, manifesting a floating parchment. "Sign a blood pact. It becomes irreversible. Either sign it now, or I tell the Council the Dark Moon Alpha is breaking a sacred treaty. What do you think those old fossils will do?"

Ivy turned ashen, looking to Marcus in panic.

Gritting his teeth, he pressed a bloody fingertip to the parchment. "Fine! But swear to never entangle yourself with Cassian again!"

The blood pact flared with a blinding crimson light before sinking into my palm. "Deal."

I didn't spare them another glance as I strode out the door.

"Where are you going?!" Marcus roared after me.

"To celebrate my rebirth."

I straddled the heavy motorcycle I had kept hidden in the garage during my past life. The engine's monstrous roar ripped through the quiet night.

I drove straight to The Crimson Moon—a chaotic, neutral-territory underground nightclub teeming with supernatural scum.

Deafening heavy metal drumbeats slammed against my eardrums as I walked in. The air was a thick cocktail of sweat and raw scents.

I slid up to the bar, ordered a glass of the strongest absinthe, and threw it back in one gulp.

The liquid fire ignited my blood. I shrugged off my bulky leather riding jacket, tossing it carelessly onto the bartop.

Left only in that skin-tight leather dress with the plunging neckline, every curve was highlighted.

Stepping into the center of the dance floor in my stilettos, I closed my eyes and let my body move wildly to the relentless bass.

My red hair whipped around me. Sweat beaded against my collarbones, trailing down into the deep v-neck of my dress.

There was no modesty here. No control. Just the primal instinct of a witch, repressed for three agonizing years, finally breaking free and tearing the night apart.

The temperature on the floor seemed to spike around me, the breathing of nearby patrons turning noticeably ragged. Greedy, wolfish stares locked onto my waist.

A towering nomad vampire, his eyes dark with undisguised lust and his throat bobbing, reached out to pull me against him by the small of my back.

I flashed him a wicked, crimson smile, just about to wrap my arms around his broad shoulders and go with the flow—

BOOM!

The speakers let out an ear-piercing screech as the music was brutally, abruptly killed.

A split second later, a terrifying Alpha aura crashed over the dance floor. The temperature plummeted. The air practically froze, crushing the lungs of every supernatural creature in the room.

The towering nomad vampire in front of me turned ashen. He yanked his hand back as if he had been burned, stumbling backward in absolute terror.

I froze in place.

A low, taut voice, dripping with suppressed, lethal fury, sliced through the dead silence.

"If you don't care to keep that hand, I'll happily rip it off for you."

My heart violently skipped a beat.

Slowly... I turned my head.